Yes, Your Fat is Toxic

By Michael Colgan, Ph.D.

Before we get started, I wanted to interject that Dr. Colgan has been a nutritionist to Olympians for over 50 years. He is also one of our health and wellness team members! Now, back to Dr. Colgan’s informative post:

From the annual reports of the American Lung Association, the North American urban environment is now the most toxic it’s been in history, puffing clouds of toxins more deadly than even during the Industrial Revolution (1). Most of the industrial chemicals and pesticides that have created this disaster are lipophilic, meaning they mix easily with fat—your fat (2).

Worst are dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated biphenyls (PBDs) and organochlorine pesticides. They also include plastic exudates like phthalates and bisphenol-A and aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. Because most were deemed harmless when first introduced, they are everywhere (2,3).

PBDs and related flame-retardants and stain-proofers, for example, are used on carpets, furniture, mattresses, curtains, waterproof coats, shoes, gloves, even infant jammies. After a decade of effort, the environmentally responsible company, WL Gore, that makes Goretex, finally got the last of these chemicals out of its products in January 2014.  Many other companies seemingly couldn’t care less.

To avoid acute poisoning, your body removes the toxins from your bloodstream and stores them in your body fat. As the burden of toxins increases, it causes the body’s defence systems to makes more and more fat cells to store them (2-4). Without any change in food intake, you grow fat as a goose.

In 2006, Bruce Blumberg of the University of California, Irvine, first coined the term “obesogens” to describe man-made chemicals still widely used today in PVC products. Obesogens increase body fat regardless of diet. Blomberg showed that these chemicals caused a large increase in the body fat of mice independent of what they ate (3).

Ok…let’s pause right here to reflect…OBESOGENS INCREASE BODY FAT REGARDLESS OF DIET…👀…proceed:

By 2011, hush-hush scientific conferences convened by the National Institutes of Health identified numerous industrial chemicals in current use as obesogens. Regardless of even the most nutritious diet, they will increase your number of fat cells, and increase the size of your fat cells.

Wha?!?!?! 🤯

If you eat clean and exercise regularly, yet suffer from cottage cheese cellulite, Bispheno-A may be a culprit. Bisphenol-A reprograms your surface fat cells to hold more fat, until they finally burst (herniate) to make the unsightly bumps under the skin (5).

🙋🏻‍♀️ This was me! Since I started nutritional cleansing, I’ve had a DRASTIC reduction in the appearance of cellulite! Despite still needing to release quite a few more pounds to reach my goal health zone, the chunking is disappearing a little more with each cleanse day!

Fat cells require a ton of energy for the body to grow them. So obesogens also increase your appetite and food cravings (6). If you find all this hard to believe, look up my references or Kristina Thayer, Ph.D, Director of the Office of Health Assessment of the National Toxicology Program (6).

The high levels of obesogens in human breast milk of the majority of mothers provides ample evidence that you are carrying a lot of obesogens in your fat, right now, this minute, as you read (7). Because we don’t know how to care for our environment, human body fat in the US and Canada has become a potent store of industrial toxins that slowly leach out of the fat to cause continuous low-grade poisoning of blood, muscles organs, and brain.

By absorbing more unavoidable toxins daily, you also make more fat cells and bigger fat cells in the process, regardless of your diet. Now you know one big reason why many people who eat very clean all the time and work out regularly still carry an inch or more of fat all over their bodies.

You can fix this problem. As a constantly renewing organism, the miraculous human body is eminently cleanable. Regular cleansing routines stimulate the body’s superb cleansing systems in the lymph system, liver, kidneys, bile duct, and elimination organs to flush toxins from the body.

I favor the 30-Day Nutritional Cleansing System which emphasizes a high intake of clean water, intermittent food reduction, complete protein and micronutrient nutrition, and an alkaline regimen with effective botanicals. In independent peer-reviewed research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, this system, used for 12 weeks, resulted in a remarkable average loss of 3.6 kg (7.9 lbs) of body fat, while maintaining lean mass (9). These results are superior to most dietary systems tested.

Lead researcher Krista Varady, Ph.D., concluded, “The subjects showed better weight loss and better visceral fat loss.” Getting visceral fat and its stored toxins out of your abdomen in this way is far better for your health than merely losing weight. I know of no better way to stay nicely lean and keep toxins at bay, than this 30-Day Nutritional Cleansing System.

References

American Lung Association, State of the Air Report, 2013, http://www.stateoftheair.org/Accessed 9 April 2014.

Schug TT, Janesick A, Blumberg B, Heindel JJ. Endocrine disrupting chemicals and disease susceptibility. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2011;127:204–215.

Grun F, Blumberg B. Perturbed nuclear receptor signaling by environmental obesogens as emerging factors in the obesity crisis. Rev Endocr Metab Disord.2007;8:161–171.

Kim MJ, Marchand P, Henegar C, Antignac JP, Alili R, Poitou C, et al. Fate and complex pathogenic effects of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls in obese subjects before and after drastic weight loss. Environ Health Perspect. 2011;119:377–383.

Janesick A, Blumberg B. Endocrine disrupting chemicals and the developmental programming of adipogenesis and obesity. Birth Defects Res Part C Embryo Today Rev. 2011;93(1):34–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bdrc.20197.

Thayer, Kristina. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Tang-Péronard JL1, Heitmann BL, Andersen HR, Steuerwald U, Grandjean P, Weihe P, Jensen TK.  Association between prenatal polychlorinated biphenyl exposure and obesity development at ages 5 and 7 y: a prospective cohort study of 656 children from the Faroe Islands. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Jan;99(1):5-13. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113.066720.

Tang-Péronard JL1, Heitmann BL, Andersen HR, Steuerwald U, Grandjean P, Weihe P, Jensen TK. Association between prenatal polychlorinated biphenyl exposure and obesity development at ages 5 and 7 y: a prospective cohort study of 656 children from the Faroe Islands. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Jan;99(1):5-13. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113.066720.

Klempel MC, Kroeger CM, Bhutani S, Trepanowski JF, Varady KA. Intermittent fasting combined with calorie restriction is effective for weight loss and cardio protection. Nutr J. 2012, 11:98. Doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-11-98