Why Weight Loss is So Hard

Interviewer: Doctor, one of things you're talking about here at the AM Forum this week is obesity and weight loss.  Why is weight loss so hard for so many people?

Dr. Tania Tyles Dempsey: You know, there are so many factors involved.  Clearly, the types of food that everyone is eating, the exposure to the foods that they're eating.  People are stressed.  They're using food emotionally to relieve their stress.  So, there really are so many factors here.  Even, toxicity, the toxins that we're exposed to change our metabolism, and our ability to lose weight.  So, it really needs to be a multi-factorial, a multi-disciplinary approach to weight loss for it to be successful.

Interviewer: How do the toxins, and the toxicity inhibit weight loss?  What's happening there?

Dr. Tania Tyles Dempsey: Well, we know that the toxins usually like fat cells.  So, they go into the fat.  They change the metabolic properties of the fat, and there are probably other relationships.  There is probably a relationship to insulin release from the toxins, the effects on the pancreas, the effects on the liver.  And the liver is responsible for making sugar when your body doesn't have enough, or in response to too much insulin.  So then you get this big release of sugar from the liver, which then perpetuates insulin resistance and obesity.  So again, there are various different levels, but toxins are clearly an issue that has to be resolved if people are going to lose weight and better their health.