The Chemistry Circle: Why Fat Feeds Itself
By Patricia Wall Published Vitality Magazine, October 2007
If you consider fat a symptom of poor discipline or unhealthy food habits, you may be wrong! Certainly when you see an overweight person loading their plate, it’s easy to assume that behavior is the source of their weight issues. The truth is more complicated, and provides hope for people who have dreaded their scales for years.
It starts with cytokines, the agent of the immune system. If you bump your knee or cut your finger, the damaged cells release cytokines to activate your immune system. Local repairs are engaged, involving inflammation, white blood cells, and healing processes mostly summarized as an edema. The edema is the actual bump that forms from bumping your knee. It’s the construction site of the repair program. Likewise, for systemic problems like bacteria or viruses, cytokines activate the whole body’s immune functions.
Cytokines mean inflammation, and inflammation is involved in just about any physical ailment you can name, even ones where inflammation isn’t visible. Fat produces cytokines. Most people don’t consider fat an inflammation symptom, or an inflammation cause – and yet, in reality, it is both. A doctor will recommend weight loss in conjunction with most physical conditions, from knee problems to heart disease, because fat is a factor in any inflammation situation, and therefore any health problem.
The complex chemistry of the immune system includes effects on blood sugar, and triggers the body to supply necessary resources, creating a biological imperative to eat certain foods. The requirements include high glycemic foods because fast sugars are needed to complete the chemical programs.
And then the vicious cycle begins: the urge for high glycemic foods is created by the chemistry of the immune system, triggering eating. Eating creates fat, which produces cytokines, that in turn creates a stronger demand for food. No wonder weight problems include overwhelming food cravings – it’s an immune system function.
This cycle can’t be broken with discipline – most people can’t discipline their bodies not to sweat, and this body chemistry is just as fundamental a program as sweating. The key to breaking the fat cycle is to quiet the immune system, stopping the food-demanding floods of chemicals emitted by existing fat. In my workshops, I provide more information and methods specifically for quieting the immune system, which allows the body to become naturally slim.
Here’s a simple tool that can help you get started. Pick a time in your day that is relatively quiet – in the shower is a good option, because that doesn’t require extra time in your busy schedule. Imagine you can form a ball of light that spins around and through all your tissues, soothing your body with light and comfort. Imagine that the light is teaching your body this simple state: I am safe. Let ‘I am safe’ spin through your body with the light.
You may think – of course I’m safe, I’m at home in the shower. Remember, the goal of this process is to stop your immune system from flooding your body with chemistry that is initiated by secretions from fat cells. Frankly, it’s got nothing to do with your cognitive assessment of whether you are safe.
Learning tools that can change your body to be naturally slim is much easier than accepting the fact that body chemistry is dictating your relationship with food – not willpower. And yet, when has willpower been anything but a short term solution? Even if you’re slim and buff, this tool will help with any ailment that activates your immune system. How could inflammation be hurting you?
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