Eat to Save Your Life 19 Jan 2008

By Fitness Expert Nash Jocic

On 16 January, 2008, Channel 4 presented a program in the UK entitled “Eat to Save Your Life”. Being professionally involved in nutrition, life coaching, fitness consultancy and personal training for over 20 years, I had welcomed this program with great expectations.

The fact is that we have a big health problem in our society and that problem is just getting bigger and bigger each year and the speed at which general health has deteriorated in last 20 years is astonishing! People these days are over weight more than ever before, we have more obese people than ever, diabetes rates are consistently going up, cardiovascular diseases are killing more and more people, cancer is more wide spread than ever, while allergies and tooth decay are almost normal occurrences. All the while it seems that we are powerless to change that situation towards the better.

There’s no question that we need more programs that help people to understand the current health situation, fitness level, seriousness of the problem and necessity of active engagement in healthy eating and adequate daily exercise. And these programs need to be educational and offer, apart from greater understanding, a solution. They need to offer advice and programs that can be implemented in real life and bring about real change.

The Channel 4 program started with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver introducing our grim health realty to the British public. With a transparent intent to scare the millions of viewers watching, the program continued by exposing the health situation of 18 human guinea pigs and the body composition of a dead person who weighed 25 stone (160kg/350lb).

I’m sure the program managed to scare its viewers; however, did they manage to identify the true nature of the problem? No! They managed to identify the cause of the problem, but by failing to offer a solution they just succeeded in spreading fear and sensationalism. What happens after identifying the problem wasn’t their concern.

Now, let’s take a closer look at this program and try to identify the positive and negative points. Being an optimist by nature, I would start with the positive points. These would be:

1) The program identified the problem. Over eating and improper food choice were highlighted in the program.  

2) They explicitly showed the consequences of poor diet through a health check of 18 volunteers and by slicing open the dead body of a massively obese 25 stone dead men - a powerful wake up call.  

3) They demonstrated good intent in terms of changing the current health situation through raising public awareness.

But is this enough to really make a change and improve the health situation in the UK? I don’t think so. The whole approach was just not professional enough. Participants were not competent enough, despite their qualifications, regarding the subjects that they have been involved in. A solution wasn’t offered and the whole program had more of a circus character than educational nature. While fear and sensationalism may increase ratings, in the 21st century we have information available instantly at the touch of a mouse, so these scare tactics from the past will never brings us solution.  

Now let’s look at the negatives.

1) The nutritionist who was involved in the program displayed poor knowledge about food, food combination, and the main group of food directly responsible for fat loss. Lack of knowledge in this field can lead (as it has in the last 20 years) to serious health consequences. For example, I was amazed to see that a nutritionist would advise people to eat so much tinned (canned) food! Tins of chopped tomatoes, baked beans, sweet corn and other denaturalised food were everywhere. The message was clear; eat it because it’s good and it’s cheap. The truth is, tinned food should be avoided by all means. It is not good for you because it is dead, striped of the most important component of fresh food - enzymes. They didn’t mention enzymes once! Food that has a shelf life up to 3 to 4 years is the last thing that nature ever intended for us to eat. Just have a look at fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. They can only last for few days before they start rotting, fermenting or putrefying. The reason for this is the life energy that they carry within them in the form of enzymes. Enzymes in food help our digestion, absorption, strengthen immunity, and fight many deadly diseases, including cancers. You will never find them in tinned food.

2) Protein is the most important component of food, the one that we use for the repair of all of our tissues, including skin, muscles, blood and this was neglected in the presentation and food suggestions. I wouldn’t blame Jamie Oliver for that; he is a chef, not a nutrition consultant.  But for a nutritionist to not mention protein, the most important macronutrient (whose name originates from the Greek word proteus, which means essential, or most important), this is a major oversight. The suggested choices of food were overwhelmingly grains, starches and tinned food, while protein was simply denied any space (the only good thing in the whole confusion was that she mentioned lot of vegetables and fruit though). To make matters even worst, red meat was branded as not being very good for you!  Just for the sake of an argument, cultures which were and still are exposed to meat only or predominantly in their diet, show no cardiovascular diseases, colon cancers and other conditions that are unjustifiably linked to the consumption of red meat.      

3) A deliberate favouring of carbohydrates was obvious throughout the show. Only ignorance can create an approach like that. Overeating of carbohydrates is the biggest factor that has contributed to appalling health records throughout the world, western countries being hit the hardest. Once the body is put into overproduction of insulin through the overeating of carbs, numerous cardiovascular diseases are likely to appear. Overeating of carbs is usually associated with lower protein consumption, making the whole situation even worst. Less protein in the diet means less muscle tissue, therefore a slower metabolism and increased chances for fat tissue deposition. Increased fat stores in the body create misbalances when it comes to body composition, which is the subject of my next point.

4) The influence and power of religion doesn’t only spread through the churches and mosques. It is still very strong within the scientific community, and especially within the medical establishment. Dogma and ignorance are still prevalent among our general practitioners and beyond. Using body mass index in the 21st century as an indisputable measurement for people’s general physical assessment is simply unacceptable. Considering that only 2 measurements are enough to diagnose someone’s health situation with the power of authority is simply comic. Simply calculating the ratio from someone’s height and weight is even insulting. I was once a participant in such a comedy myself. Weighing 16 stone with some 5% body fat in top competitive shape, I was labelled obese by my GP and warned to lose some good 4 stone! “4 Stone of what?” I have asked him! My leanness, blood pressure, cholesterol level, overall fitness state and other relevant factors were never taken into consideration. Why? because of the blind belief in the body mass index chart in front of him. And guess what, the doctor in the TV show has done just that! In front of the entire nation she demonstrated that height and weight are the only 2 factors relevant in your health assessment; very misleading and dangerous. I have never considered weight as a relevant factor. The phrase “losing weight”, as the most common phrase in our time, thanks among others to the medical establishment, should changed to losing FAT! And this is how I start assessing the problem, by finding out what someone’s body composition is, the proportion between the muscle mass and fat mass in their body! Did I discover America with that? Of course not! I’m only spelling out what nature always had in mind, favouring metabolically more active tissue over the dead, fat bulk that causes all the problems for us on this world. Was that all mentioned by our experts? No! And there is more…

5) Experts are there to tell the nation that it is not sugars but calories that cause diabetes. By their belief (I don’t want to say knowledge), sugars are not responsible for diabetes, so people should continue to eat them. Calories are the problem, so eat fewer calories! Is this true? Never! First of all, eating less slows the metabolism, which is the best way to become fat over time and therefore develop type 2 diabetes. Eating less also creates cravings, which are the most powerful factor in binge eating, which further leads to getting fat and developing glucose intolerance. And what about the cultures who eat high calorie food, predominantly meat and fat, and don’t even know what the word calorie means? Interestingly enough, these cultures have no history of diabetes throughout many generations. So if you still believe that 2 mars bars and 3 bags of crisps are not a problem because they don’t add too many calories in a day, be ready for a big surprise when you check your insulin levels! 

6) And what about showing how lifestyle, exercise, type and frequency of exercise, and other healthy options can be implemented to  improve a deteriorated state of health? We didn’t hear a word about it. Why, you may ask yourself?  Simply because Jamie and his crew have no clue about that. The whole panel of “experts” has only shown me that they never preach what they teach. Those guys have never themselves attempted anything like a proper diet and proper exercise. This is the major reason why they appeared the way that they did: shallow, incompetent, partial and irresponsible. I would be the happiest person in the world if they would just continue to prescribe Paracetamol, experiment with cooking exotic dishes and advertise grain manufacturers. The health of the nation is a bit more of a serious issue, and unless we engage real experts, armed not only with diplomas and degrees, but also with personal experience and real knowledge rather that outdated beliefs, we will need more help from god than brains in the future!

For more real information about health and fitness please visit my web site at www.ultimateshape.com. And don’t forget, proper information and strong motivation for change will allow everyone who cares about the quality of their life to improve it. Every body can!