Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat After Forty (20 page)

Most people don’t know this, but the majority of body fat consists of triglycerides that are stored in our fat cells. A reason that weight loss and triglyceride reduction go hand in hand is that triglycerides make up the bulk of our fat storage. We get triglycerides directly from the fat we eat, and also from the conversion of excess glucose in our blood to triglycerides stored in our fat cells. In the latter instance, glucose is converted to triglycerides by an enzyme called glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Irvingia inhibits glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, reducing the amount of ingested sugars that are converted to body fat.

We all know about the great benefits of green tea. Aging robs us of the ability to efficiently burn fat as energy. Instead we store fat in our adipocytes (fat cells). The components responsible for green tea’s weight loss benefits are polyphenol compounds that increase metabolic energy expenditure and hence calorie burning. The problem is getting enough of green tea’s polyphenols absorbed into the blood. But a group of Italian researchers created a proprietary green tea phytosome that increased the polyphenols’ ability to be absorbed into the bloodstream. In a human
clinical trial using this green tea phytosome, the weight loss effects were substantial. This study involved one hundred overweight subjects, half of whom received the green tea phytosome. Both groups were placed on reduced-calorie diets (approximately 1,850 calories/day for men and 1,350 calories/day for women).

After ninety days on the reduced-calorie diet, the control group lost 9.9 pounds. The group taking the green tea phytosome, on the other hand, lost a whopping 30.1 pounds—more than triple the weight loss of the control group! There was a 10 percent reduction in the green tea phytosome group’s belly size compared with a 5 percent reduction in the control group. Male participants did even better in this category, showing a 14 percent reduction in waist circumference compared with a 7 percent reduction in the control group.

What’s so interesting about this study is that it shows that people can lose considerable weight (9.9 pounds) by eating fewer calories. Yet when this green tea phytosome was added, the total amount of weight lost tripled (to 30.1 pounds) while twice as much belly fat disappeared. Scientists attribute these remarkable benefits to the ability of green tea to boost resting metabolic rates and reduce the absorption of dietary fats, which makes this green tea phytosome an ideal nutrient to take before heavy meals.

If you are going to turn your life around by eliminating toxic foods, as discussed in this book, adding these four supplements can boost your ability to lose weight more quickly and safely, with no drugs or stimulants.

Each one of these weight loss tools was developed in a different part of the world, subjected to controlled scientific study, and some were even awarded patent status by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

I have manufactured all four of these supplements into just one formula. The Sexy Forever Weight Loss Formula is available at
SuzanneSomers.com
. Click on Sexy Forever for a list of all of my products.

Minerals are essential to life, but today it is very difficult to get them through food alone. There are just less of them in our natural food supply. Not only that—because people are eating processed food in quantities never before experienced, these vital minerals are absent from that food, too. This deficiency is a big contributor to the problems of obesity, fatigue, and heart disease.

The minerals that are most missing in today’s food supply are selenium, zinc, manganese, potassium, iron, magnesium, copper, boron, and chromium. Here’s what you need to know about them—and how to get more of them each day:

• Selenium is an antioxidant that slows the aging process and helps maintain a youthful elasticity in your tissues. It helps hot flashes and menopausal stress. It strengthens the immune system, pancreas, and liver.
  
• Zinc is vital to maintaining enzyme systems (crucial for cancer protection) and is essential for protein synthesis. Zinc helps in the formulation of insulin, normalizes the prostate, and is important for brain function. Signs of zinc deficiency include amnesia, apathy, brittle nails, depression, diarrhea, fatigue, hair loss, a weak immune system, irritability, lethargy, loss of appetite, loss of sense of taste, memory impairment, difficulty seeing at night, impaired wound healing, and more.
  
• Manganese helps activate the enzymes necessary for your body to properly utilize vitamin B
  ₁
  and vitamin C. It is used in the formation of thyroxine, which is the principal hormone of the thyroid gland, and it plays an important role in the digestive and
  nervous systems. The proper balance of manganese eliminates fatigue, improves memory, and reduces irritability.
  
• Potassium works with sodium to regulate your body’s water balance and normalize heart rhythms. Nerve and muscle function suffer if the sodium-potassium balance is off. Insufficient potassium can lead to mental and physical distress. Potassium aids in clearer thinking by sending oxygen to your brain, and it also helps dispose of body waste. It is an important factor in helping to reduce high blood pressure and in fighting allergies.
  
• Iron is not for everyone. But for those who require iron, it is critical to the oxygenation of the blood and is used in producing hormones and prostaglandins that affect blood, muscles, and enzymes in your body. Symptoms of iron deficiency are anemia, brittle nails, confusion, constipation, depression, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, oral lesions, and many more. Iron supplements should be taken only if your blood tests show a deficiency. Too much iron is not good, especially in men.
  
• Magnesium is necessary for calcium and vitamin C metabolism. It is essential for effective nerve and muscle functioning and converting blood sugar into energy. It fights stress and depression, promotes heart health, keeps teeth whiter, and prevents calcium deposits, kidney stones, and gallstones. When taken with calcium it acts as a natural tranquilizer. Symptoms of deficiency include anxiety, confusion, heart problems, hyperactivity, insomnia, nervousness, muscular irritability, restlessness, and weakness. As many as 75 to 85 percent of Americans are magnesium deficient.
  
• Copper plays an essential role in converting your body’s iron into hemoglobin. It activates certain amino acids (essential to life) and is important in the body’s utilization of vitamin C. Symptoms of copper deficiency include anemia, arterial damage, depression, fatigue, fragile bones, hair loss, and others. American diets are estimated to be deficient in copper by as much as 75 percent.
  
• Boron is a helper mineral that works in conjunction with, and increases the effectiveness of, several other minerals.
  
• Chromium works with insulin in the metabolism of sugar and, as such, works as a nutritional deterrent to type 2 diabetes.
  

All of the above minerals are available in one-packet form. Go to
SuzanneSomers.com
and click on Sexy Forever for information on how to order them.

Our toxic diets set the stage for a chronic inflammatory condition that not only damages the body’s tissues, but also precludes successful weight loss. When we have too many fat cells, the result is an excess release of inflammatory factors that interfere with our ability to shed fat pounds. Fat cells (especially in the abdominal region) secrete pro-inflammatory chemicals that are carried to the liver, where C-reactive protein is formed. As you accumulate more body fat, C-reactive protein blood levels rise. You may have heard that elevated levels of C-reactive protein are associated with heart attack and stroke risk. What you may not have read about is the impact that C-reactive protein has in promoting excess fat storage. Leptin and insulin are two fat regulators in the body. Elevated C-reactive protein interferes with the ability of insulin to utilize glucose. Excess C-reactive protein also interferes with the ability of leptin to control appetite and burn fat. As we gain more fat pounds, the ability of leptin and insulin to regulate our body weight is impaired because fat cells secrete chemical messengers that stimulate the formation of C-reactive protein.

By following the steps you have learned about so far in this book, your C-reactive protein levels should start to decline as you slowly shed extra fat and pounds. Also, as discussed, restoring a youthful hormone balance can lower pro-inflammatory chemicals in the blood. Unfortunately, the
aging process itself increases C-reactive protein levels, making it necessary to take steps to prevent chronic inflammation from sabotaging our health.

Food cooked at high temperatures promotes inflammation in the body—something we don’t want to happen when trying to lose weight. Just changing how your foods are prepared can help you shed body fat.

One of the most important nutrients to obtain in your diet are omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce C-reactive protein but also activate our mitochondria (the energy centers of our cells) to burn dietary fats. If you increase your intake of omega-3s from cold-water fish (especially wild salmon), walnuts, and flaxseed, and at the same time reduce omega-6 fats from corn, sunflower, safflower, and other vegetable oils, you will have taken an important step in getting healthy and thin again.

It’s difficult to get enough omega-3s from your diet. I take a purified fish oil supplement that provides the following minimum in each daily dose: 1,400 mg of EPA, 1,000 mg of DHA, and 20 mg of sesame lignan extract. Research suggests that sesame lignans, in combination with fish oil, synergistically support the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver—this means the effect is more than additive! The failure of the liver to properly metabolize fatty acids can result in excess accumulation of triglycerides. And triglycerides that are not metabolized accumulate and contribute to weight gain.

When rats were fed sesame lignans and fish oil together, their liver fatty acid oxidation rates rose much higher than when fed fish oil alone. This study pointed out that the combination of sesame and fish oil worked synergistically by increasing the fatty acid oxidation enzymes in the liver. The combination of fish oil and sesame can improve mitochondrial fatty acid energy utilization, which facilitates triglyceride reduction—an important step in shedding fat pounds.

In conventional medicine the big concern is cholesterol. Yet in the alternative world, inflammation is the larger issue. Chronic inflammation is an indicator of a present problem or the makings of one. Chronic inflammation can be determined by taking a blood test called highly sensitive C-reactive protein (for information on how to get this blood test see Resources). C-reactive protein interferes with the ability of leptin to regulate
fat storage in the body. Consuming more omega-3s, cutting back on omega-6 fats and foods cooked at high temperatures, and eliminating sugary (high-glycemic) foods will help suppress the inflammatory fires that rage in the bodies of overweight people.

GET HEALTHY, STAY SEXY