SCIENCE OF HUNGER An Educational Publication An Introduction to a Physician’s Guide to Weight Loss DR. PATRICK M. NEMECHEK, D.O. Copyright 2010 21173 Elm Way, Verrado, AZ, 85396 • telephone: 913-948-4802 • fax: 866-480-0357 • www.SOH.com ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Patrick Nemechek is a board-certified Internal Medicine specialist who began his career managing the complexities associated with HIV Disease as an Associate Professor of Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine. He rapidly became one of the foremost experts in the man- agement of HIV-related weight loss, lecturing across the country and de- veloping one of the largest HIV medical practices in the Midwest. As the success of HIV treatments progressed, Dr. Nemechek opened his research and treatment center to patients with a wide variety of general medical conditions such as Insulin Resistance, Autonomic Dysfunction, Diabetes, Hypertension, Sleep Apnea, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and many other common aliments such as heart burn, low blood sugar, frequent urination, heart burn, chronic con- stipation and erectile dysfunction. Dr. Nemechek has since become one of the leading specialists in the treatment of these common medical conditions. His approach consists of a combination of nutritional counseling and short term medical therapies which resolve the underlying autonomic nervous system dysfunction and often result in com- plete reversal of many of these medical conditions. Download Dr. Nemechek’s resume by clicking here. MEDICAL DISCLAIMER All information contained within this book and on the Hunger of Science website (www.scienceofhunger.com) is intended for informational and educational purposes. The information is not intended nor suited to be a replacement or substitute for professional medical treatment or for profes- sional medical advice relative to a specific medical question or condition. We urge you to always seek the advice of your physician or medical professional with respect to your medical condition or questions. As a recipient of information from this book, you are not establishing a doctor-patient relationship with a physician. There is no replacement for personal medical treatment and advice from your personal physician. ! 2 Introduction: Decrease Your Hunger and You’ll Decrease Your Weight The Science of Hunger: A New Approach to Weight Loss Most weight loss programs are primarily focused on reducing the consumption of calo- ries. Why is that? You don’t “choose” to eat extra calories every day. You eat extra calories because your brain is commanding you to eat. When you simply try to eat fewer calories your brain begins telling you that you’re hungry and you need to eat. Constructing a weight loss program without addressing the brain’s excessive sense of hunger is as illogical as trying to avoid sleeping because you can get more work done in a 24 hour period. Over time with sleep as with hunger, the commands of your brain will ultimately win out. The Science of Hunger Program focuses on teaching you to de- cease your hunger. You have a “hunger” problem, not an “eat- ing too many calories” problem. Once you’ve learned to decrease your hunger, you will naturally begin eating less and will start to lose weight. Why Do We Use the Word Hunger? Our brain receives countless signals from our body. Some signals strike our brain as pleasant while others make us feel uncomfortable. You may feel some foot pain because of a small pebble in your shoe, enjoy the pleasing smell of a flower or maybe sense a grumbling sensation in your stomach that you interpret as hunger. You may think of the stomach grumbling as hunger only because eating food makes the grumbling go away. While true hunger is the biological drive for nutrition, many other sensations will improve when you eat in spite of the sensations having nothing to do ! 3 with the need for nutrition. Just think of the times you’ve eaten soup or crackers to set- tle your stomach when you’ve been ill. You weren’t necessarily hungry, you often felt a little nauseated. The food reduced your nausea not because you needed nutrition but because of other biological effects food can have. You often believe you’re hungry because your brain has learned that if you eat, this uncomfort- able sensation go away. It’s a cause and effect relationship. Feel grumbling... eat food... symptoms go away... therefore it must be hunger. Unfortunately, this string of logic is often wrong. The grumbling you feel in your stomach often has nothing to do with your need for nu- trition and the reason the grumbling goes away after eating is not because you’ve in- crease some level of nutrient in your body. It goes away because food can have effects on our body’s functioning other than simply raising our blood sugar. The Science of Hunger Program is designed to help you understand the difference between real hun- ger and the symptoms that mimic hunger. You’re Overweight Because Your Brain Is Too Hungry. The primary reason you are overweight is not simply because you eat too much. You’re overweight because your brain is telling you to eat food that will make the symptoms you are experiencing go away whether or not you truly need nutrition at that moment. In other words, you are overweight because your brain is too hungry. You don’t plan on over eating during the day. You over eat because your brain is ordering you to eat to make certain sensations or symptoms go away. Remember, we refer to these symptoms as hunger only because food makes us feel better but its often not true biological hun- ger. Your brain uses food almost like a medicine to make you feel better. Therefore, ! 4 your weight is really a reflection of your hunger. Excessive hunger equals excessive eat- ing. Excessive eating equals excessive weight. Learn how to decrease your hunger and you will learn how to fi- nally lose weight. Isn’t Calorie Reduction Important? A reduction in calories is very important to the ultimate reduction in weight but making calorie restriction the primary focus is often futile. Although calorie reduction may seem like the logical first step to take, it often fails. Why am I so certain of this? Look at our population that is growing in size every year. I speak with my patients everyday about the difficulties they have in losing weight. If it were simply a matter of eating less, almost anyone could lose weight by simply choos- ing to eat less yet that is not the case. I believe the conscious effort to reduce calories is an important aspect in weight loss but I believe it is an important refinement step much later in the process. One must first understand what components are driving them to crave foods in spite of recently having eaten a nutritious meal. In other words, you first need to understand that much of the hunger you feel is really a mimic of hunger and learn how to eliminate them. Only after understanding you hun- ger mimics will the conscious effort of calorie reduction be successful journey rather than one filled with inadequacy and failure. How Will The Science of Hunger Program Help You? Have you ever eaten lunch only to feel hungry an hour or two later? How about the craving for food a few hours after eating dinner? Why should you feel hungry when you have just recently eaten? ! 5 The truth is you don’t need additional nutrition. You need to learn to correctly under- stand the sensations you’ve experienced and have incorrectly labeled as “hunger” over your life time. These false hunger sensations are often caused by certain foods we eat such as artificial sweeteners or processed sugars or symptoms of your body not func- tioning in a healthy manner often because of the excessive carbohy- drates you consume. The Science of Hunger Program will teach you to identify and properly treat the many false sen- sations of hunger you experience throughout the day without eating food. You will experience a significant decline in your hunger level in a few short weeks. As a result of your declining hunger, you will naturally not eat as often nor as much and will effortlessly begin to lose weight as well as feel healthier than you have in a long time. Part 1: Stone Age Humans in a Carbohydrate World Many of us go through life often taking many things for granted and forgetting that many seemingly commonplace aspects of our life are quite new. For example, it was only two decades ago when cell phones were a novelty and now they have become seemingly indispensable to our daily personal and work routines. The same holds true for the foods we eat. The last 3-4 decades have seen a significant increase in the amount of processed carbohydrates into the average American diet. Mounting scientific evidence suggests the dramatic increase in carbohydrate consump- tion may be the primary cause behind the obesity and diabetes epidemic in the U.S. ! 6 How can carbohydrates lead to an increase in obesity? Why now? What other factors might be at play? Understanding how we evolved as a species can shed some light on the present epidemic and help you to better understand the essential elements in the Science of Hunger weight management program. Stone Age Humans and Carbohydrates Modern humans evolved from our Stone Age ancestors that lived within a hunter- gatherer society whose main sources of food were animal meat and plants. The animal meat provided a significant source of protein and fat while the plants they ate provided a significant amount of vitamins, minerals and fiber.