Obesity: The Burger Effect
Did you ever wonder why you feel so heavy after eating a couple of hamburgers?:
Obesity is often rumored to be caused by a combination of ones’ eating habits, a lack of physical activity, and the lack of awareness of what happens to ones’ own body. As results of research tend to prove that the body does not waste anything, it is safe to assume that if it receives extra rations, it will start stockpiling reserves. And it will always do this in the most efficient way possible.
What follows is not aimed at obese people who suffer from physical disorders that deregulate their digestive systems. Their obesity is caused by an illness, and they should trust their professional medically trained therapists if they have access to them.
The burger effect: Part 1
Good old fashioned logic or common sense would dictate that when one eats a single hamburger, there is not enough food in the stomach to fill it up. To continue with this fallacious approach, one could also assume that this prevents the individual from obtaining a feeling of satisfaction. When we are not satisfied or when we are still feeling hungry, we quite naturally tend to go for a second helping.
This way of thinking is, alas, splendidly and ironically missing the point in a most spectacular way. An average hamburger is typically a combination of meat, bread, a small amount of vegetables and herein precisely lays the actual problem.
Consider this: meat and bread put together in a stomach do not fit together very well. Why? Because to digest the meat, which is protein, the stomach will have to produce acid fluids and to digest the bread, which is starch, the stomach will have to release base fluids. In chemistry, it is well known that base fluids and acid fluids neutralize one another.
This reasoning is the foundation of food combining and is the result of Dr. Herbert M.Sheltons’ research into this field. In his book, “Food Combining,…made easy.”, that was published for the first time in 1951, he describes in detail how he researched and how he came to this conclusion.
The result is that the first phase of the digestive process is thrown into complete disarray. (Absorption of food through the mouth into the stomach, from where it is broken down further and then released into the intestine). Instead of digesting the meat in the usual 35 minutes it would normally take if the bread was not present in the stomach, the process will take up to four times longer. The same goes for the bread.
“No wonder!”, you will think, “both the necessary fluids that are needed to digest these types of foods neutralize each other!” You are right of course, but that, unfortunately, is not all there is to it.
As the individual, who has eaten the hamburger, now has accumulated neutralized digestive liquids in the stomach, and nutrients at body temperature that are constantly being stirred around, a natural process of fermentation is set into motion.
This means that instead of processing the food, the stomach now has become the receptacle of a fermenting process. This causes a number of chemicals to be rearranged and some of these are quite toxic, in short, poisons are being produced. The quantities of toxins are very small, but they are present nonetheless and now, they will also be released into the next phase of the digestive process.
Eventually, the stomach copes with this fermenting broth and it is released into the bowels. Here, the body’s digestive system will make the best of it while coping with contradicting elements. As the first law it obeys is always: “thou shall not waste”, it breaks the surplus energy (that entered the body as food) into the most efficiently manageable parts, which include the small amounts of toxins that were created by the fermenting process, and stores it in the cells that were specifically designed to do this: the fat cells.
The result is obvious: instead of consuming the intake of energy, the body stores it, as this is the most efficient way of dealing with the numerous demands that it has to cope with. Indeed, normally, after a solid afternoon meal, the individual will not lie down to rest, but rather, he will continue his daily routine.
Since the brain consumes a staggering percentage of the available energy that the body has at its disposal (the rest of the body still has to be furnished with power as well) it is no wonder that the toxins created by the fermenting process in the stomach are also stored away into the fat cells, to be processed at a later time.
The burger effect: Part 2
1. The fermenting process causes one to confuse a feeling of irritation with hunger.
Food combination theory (see part 1 of this article) explains that mixing certain types of food in the stomach sets in motion a fermenting process that also creates toxins which are then absorbed by the fat cells. While digesting food combinations that are not optimal, the stomach is actually irritated. There are not that many different types of nerve cells in the stomach, so a person can easily come to confuse a feeling of irritation with hunger.
Nutritionists have calculated there are more than enough calories in one hamburger to count for a whole meal. But when the stomach is irritated, the owner of the stomach might interpret this signal as something else. So, notwithstanding the fact he has absorbed the equivalent of a whole meal with the first hamburger, his irritated stomach seems to claim yet more food.
2. The fermenting process makes one drowsy.
Ever heard of the expression “a sugar high”? Remember the first nicotine or alcohol high? It is not unusual to receive a “reward” under the form of slight or even intense feelings of euphoria when one short circuits the delicate chemical balance of the blood with powerful or concentrated and sometimes potentially lethal chemicals. A dangerous reward it is! It is the trap drug addicts or alcoholics fall into.
In this case, the fermenting process that is set in motion in the stomach not only creates toxins, but also a small amount of alcohol. And because we are processing food, which is surplus energy for the body, the brain has a tendency to release some dopamine. Now add the effect of slight poisoning, a tiny amount of alcohol and the dopamine and you have a cocktail producing drowsiness.
3. The fat cells absorb the toxins.
When we try to lose fat, the toxins it contains are released into the bloodstream so they can be sent to other organs to be processed and eliminated. This is particularly devastating when a person decides to start a diet. As soon as a person decides to change unproductive eating habits, the body reacts immediately.
For example, by avoiding wrong food combinations, the body is suddenly confronted with a large surplus of energy. The fermenting of food in the stomach is avoided and instead of having to stockpile large amounts of extra energy, it can now reverse the whole process. This is how the theory of food combining explains why we lose weight by eating the right combinations.
4. Eating wrong food combinations can become addictive.
As the fermenting process caused by wrong food combinations makes one drowsy, this could be perceived as a “reward” by the individual who could become addicted to this form of gratification. When one consistently eats unfavorable food combinations, one trains the body to deal with this situation and eventually, one is not even aware anymore that one is actually doing more harm than good.
In time, the habitual hamburger consumer might not feel satisfied unless he feels the drowsiness that usually accompanies such heavy food consumption. By eating the equivalent energy intake of two whole meals every time one goes for a hamburger, it is not really that surprising to see the person who acquires this habit to become obese.
Is it any wonder then, that an ever growing number of people become obese? On top of that, when one tries to reverse the situation, one gets “rewarded” by feeling really awful. If that’s not ironic, what is?
