Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

Debrah — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 02:48:45 GMT

it is so frustrating to try to educate people about healthy eating. I went to a women's retreat last weekend at a state park--we had buffet food. You should have seen the plates that were provided--they had to have been around 14 inches across! And people were filling them up! Most of the food was atrocious--I picked off the salad bar what I could eat. Not only are people eating crap but way too much quantitiy--I saw an interesting graph in Mother Earth News that shows that in 1970 the average person ate 2250 calories a day and in 2000 almost 3000, in 1950 it was 140 pounds of meat and 2000 it was 195, 1950--155 pounds of refined grain and in 2000 almost 200 pounds, in 1950, 110 pounds of sweeteners and in 2000 150 pounds, same for fats and oils. And of course the quality of those foods has gone down--of course people are over weight and under nourished! When people ask how I stay so thin and in shape at my age I tell them and their eyes glaze over--or they say " Everything will kill you (or I am going to die of something)so why not eat what I want" I saw a quote once of a 100 year old woman who said "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself!" You can live to be old in our culture because of medical life saving methods, but it will probably not be a pleasant life. Sorry, needed to vent! Debrah

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

Phantom O Banjo — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:46:25 GMT

I often see film clips of public scenes in black and white you seldom see over weight people. Then when you compare to today it is amazing how many are over weight.

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

Josh Rubin — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:05:47 GMT

I did a seminar on this once called Overweight and Undernourished. If you look at America, I would say that is the common theme of today. Besides the emotional aspects of it, I feel most are overweight but undernourished secondary to eating what I call "nonfoods."

If you think of your body as a bank account, the goal is to use, but replenish energy from your account. When you eat nonfoods, such as fast foods, conventional foods, poptarts, etc, they take more energy for you to break down and eliminat than they provide you with. So in the end, you bank account is in the negative and you are left with excess weight, fatigue and loss of vitality.

If you eat foods with life (it takes life to give life), you essentially fill your energy bank account and you become what you eat = LIFE!

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

minnie-me — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:57:06 GMT

I witnessed this first hand with my young grandson. Prior to his autism dx  (following his flu vaccine), he craved milk, cheese, chicken nuggets, fries and goldfish crackers. He would not eat anything else. His mom made an honest effort to withhold these foods, replacing them with nutritionally healthy choices, to no avail. This proved to us that this was NOT a battle of the wills.
  Not yet understanding what was happening with her child, my daughter took comfort in the fact that he was at least getting vitamins and calcium from the milk. Of course, this was not the case. He gained weight ok, but he developed dark circles under his eyes, & his tummy became distended. He developed a huge swollen lymph node on his neck. Lab tests showed that he was  anemic, his iron and calcium levels were dangerously low, and his immune system was under attack! He had leaky gut due in part, to an intolerance to gluten & casein. This little guy was malnourished and we didn't even know it.
As part of the DAN! protocol, we removed gluten & casein, started probiotics, put him on supplemental vits & mins. We are still removing the heavy metals caused by his shots and other environmental toxins.
He is now a very healthy 6 year old who is recovering nicely from autism. With digestive enzymes, we are allowing small amounts of the "forbidden foods", and he is now eating a healthier variety of foods.
   Pre dx, he was a toddler who, although he was gaining weight, was suffering from malabsorption and severe gastroenteritis. The neurological damage that was done, is slowly being

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

Steve_Brettell — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:20:33 GMT

Please take a look at Consumer Reports listing of the five top diets: it includes Weight Watchers, and as the most effective, Nutrisystem. All of the diets listed are based on eating the standard American diet, and include an overdose of highly processed and packaged foods. None of them include natural or unprocessed foods.

Of course, I don't take Consumer Reports as a moderator of what's right, but millions do.

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

Dr. David Spitz — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:55:16 GMT

If you fill up on sugar, lard, high fructose corn syrup, nutritional void grains and you pile up the pounds....once again...doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out...

Just recently I was at a hotel lobby watching the convention goers eat breakfast. Here's a rundown...at least 75% overweight and half of those obese. Here's what they ate:

sausage...at least 6 each
bacon...several strips
scrambled eggs...piled on
biscuits/butter
pancakes with fake syrup (HFCS)
diet coke/coke

I actually saw a mother give her 2 year old a pancake and sausage..pour on the syrup and give her a coke....WAKE UP and stop killing your kids!!!

Dr Dave

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

JeanS — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:56:05 GMT

This makes complete sense if you understand the intestinal tract. A very common cause of malnourishment today is food intolerances that destroy the gut. A destroyed gut, or leaky gut cannot absorb nutrients AND lets toxins leak into the bloodstream. The toxins end up in the liver and clog it up. A clogged up liver causes or contributes to obesity in some people. See research of Dr. Sandra Cabot at Liverdoctor.com.

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

mmc88121 — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:37:37 GMT

I would say the majority of "obese" people are malnourished, just because you consume more calories than your body can use does not mean that you are getting all the nutrients your body needs. And then you will start craving foods because you are deficient in certain nutrients.

Mary

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

chirocheer — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:25:25 GMT

It's quality, not quantity, that nourishes. If you're eating garbage, it doesn't matter how much you eat -- you'll never get enough nourishment. The only negative about the above article is that it demonizes fat, and fat is not the enemy (at least the healthy fats aren't). Fat doesn't make you fat; insulin producing foods do.

Check out
www.westonaprice.org

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

PepperR23 — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:59:40 GMT

A great many over-weight people are malnourished and one of the reasons may be that they are not digesting the food that they consume properly. Their intestines may no longer function properly due to being damaged by chlorinated water, pesticide-residue in their food, toxic medications, anti-bacterial soaps, low stomach acid, over ingestion of acid-reducers., etc. High quality probiotics and digestive enzymes can help to restore digestive function and assist in permanent weight-loss when combined with eating foods that do no harm.

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

Russ Bianchi — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:21:02 GMT

Garbage/Junk In, Garbage/Junk Stored, If Not Out.

The entire food, drug and beverage chains in the the USA and UK, are highly dumb downed nutritionally (bioavailable vitamins, minerals, etc.) and why health outcomes are very much degraded in both population, despite massively increased per capita per annum (stripped and processed) calories

re: Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished?

pinkskittles — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:10:20 GMT

Malnourishment is often attributed to people who are skinny and assumed to not be getting enough food. just because someone is overweight doesn't mean they're well fed. they're fed lots, perhaps, but not well.

then again this might be one of those questions that are like 'duh', since obviously people who are overweight need to change their diet. often big people think they're eating healthy and that malnourishment is only a case if you're skinny. i think it's an important thing to bring up only if it isn't too obvious already.