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Transcript excerpt · English

Translator: Rhonda Jacobs Reviewer: Tanya Cushman

What if I told you that breakfast being the most important meal of the day

was wrong?

(Laughter)

What if I told you it is more important when you eat than what you eat?

Perhaps much of the nutritional dogma that we've been raised with

is now outdated,

like snacking all day long and eating many meals.

Over the next few minutes, I plan to discuss with you

what I believe to be the most profoundly transformational concept and strategy

as it pertains to health and aging.

Over the last 20 years,

as a nurse practitioner and a functional nutritionist,

I've seen tremendous shifts,

tremendous shifts in health and wellness:

escalating rates of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease -

many of which are preventable.

The choices we make in terms of nutrition are profoundly impactful on our health,

more than most of us realize.

During my training as a nurse practitioner

many years ago,

the dominant nutritional paradigm was exercise more, eat less.

I've found this to be profoundly ineffective

for most, if not all, of my female patients.

The concept of "calories-in, calories-out" alone is just not effective.

Many of the things that I work with, with my female patients

really focus on the connection between our lifestyle choices

and how that impacts healthy aging

and weight gain.

I do not believe, nor do I support, the limiting belief

that women have to accept weight gain as a normal function of aging.

The National Health and Nutrition Exam Survey,

which looks at data with regard to children and adults

in terms of their nutrition and escalating obesity rates,

compares what went on in the 1970s,

where most Americans consumed three meals a day

and no snacks;

fast forward to today,

most of what we are doing as Americans is eating three meals a day

and snacking all day long.

Really.

And so one of the things that starts to happen

when healthcare providers are telling our patients

that we need to eat all day long -

it's wrong.

Eating all day long overtaxes our pancreas and our digestive system.

It overtaxes it so much that it cannot work properly.

And if it cannot work properly, we cannot absorb our food

or the nutrients in that food.

Another really important distinction when it comes to meal frequency,

or how frequently we're eating,

is the debate over sugar burners versus fat burners.

And when we're talking about that,

a sugar burner is someone that consumes lots of carbohydrates

and taps into glucose as their primary fuel source,

which is incredibly inefficient.

If you recognize these individuals:

They are frequently hungry.

They often get hangry.

They have - yes - significant dips in their energy level.

They struggle more with fat loss, and they struggle more with their weight

because insulin levels are high.

Insulin is that fat-storing hormone.

So if levels remain high, we have more oxidative stress;

we have more inflammation;

and we struggle more with weight gain.

In sharp contrast to this are fat burners.

They tap into fat stores for energy;

they have sustained energy;

they are much more clear cognitively;

they don't get hangry;

it's easier for them to lose weight

because they tap into those fat stores;

they sleep better; and they age more slowly.

So meal timing and how frequently we are eating - it's absolutely crucial.

Absolutely crucial.

Let's talk about some statistics as they pertain to women

and healthy aging.

So we know two-thirds of women 40-50 years of age are overweight,

and more than half are obese.

How do we proactively address this statistic

without quick fixes?

It makes me want to cry

when my female patients would prefer I write them a prescription

than work on changing their diet,

more exercise,

other lifestyle changes.

Women in their 50s and 60s gain an average of 1.5 pounds per year.

Per year. That's average.

And some of this is attributable to things like hormonal fluctuations,

women having less lean muscle mass than their male counterparts,

sleep disturbances and mood disorders.

However, there are strategies we can use to help offset this.

So folks, I want you to save your money

on potions and powders and supplements that are not long-term solutions.

I've got a better idea.

And I'm going to tell you about it.

I've got a better idea.

There are lots of strategies that I use with my female patients,

but none more powerful than intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting can help fuel fat loss

as well as many other benefits that I'll talk more about in a second.

But it also can improve interpersonal relationships

and self-esteem.

And for many women, this permits them -

it's the magic bullet that allows them to gain back their former selves.

Really powerful.

And the really cool thing about intermittent fasting

is it's free,

it's flexible and it's simple.

You take nothing else away.

Free. Flexible. Simple.

So let's talk about intermittent fasting.

It is the absence of food during a prescribed time period.

You exist either in a fed or a fasted state.

I'm sure for many of you, you had breakfast this morning.

So when you eat, insulin is secreted by the pancreas

to move sugar into the cells.

We store the bulk of our sugar in our liver and our skeletal muscle.

But when we exceed those storage sites,