Q: You say that excess belly fat can make men's breasts grow larger and make women grow mustaches. Why?

A: All our hormones are connected in a big hormone soup. What we eat and where the food is stored affects our sex hormones, among other things. Belly fat is both the cause and result of too much insulin. Insulin is one of the master hormones, which controls all others. The dietary factors that control insulin are refined sugars and carbohydrates, high fructose corn syrup and trans fatty acids (or hydrogenated fats). So when women eat sugar, they make more testosterone – hence the facial hair. With men, however, the opposite happens – their testosterone levels drop (along with their sexual function) and the extra fat tissue actually produces more estrogen, promoting overall feminization, including non-scalp hair loss and breast growth.

Q: You say there are little powerhouses that produce energy in every cell – mitochondria. How do these affect your metabolism, and ability to burn calories?

A: The secret of life (and your metabolism) is hidden in every cell, in the form of hundreds of little energy factories that take the air your breathe (oxygen) and the food you eat (calories) and burn them, just like the engine of your car uses air intake and fuel to create the energy that makes your car run. The energy produced from burning food with oxygen in the mitochondria runs everything in the body. But just like a poorly tuned engine, or a car with a dirty carburetor, if your mitochondria are not healthy and tuned up, you will burn fewer calories and have a slower metabolism. Stress, toxins, poor diet, trans fats and other factors can easily damage them. Exercise is one way to increase both the number and the efficiency of mitochondria. Taking a multi-vitamin and adequate antioxidants also help give you a metabolic tune-up.

Q: You like the rule “if it has a label, don't eat it.” Why?

A: Have you ever seen an apple with a label, or a fish with an ingredient list? Whole foods generally don't come in packages, boxes, and/or cans with labels. Recently, health food companies are producing more packaged foods with labels and ingredients that are an improvement from the past. But even many of these foods lack the vitality of fresh, whole food. Also, two of the most dangerous chemicals found in our diet are found on foods with labels. These foods cause or contribute to every known chronic disease – and obesity. They are high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated or trans fats. Next time you are in a grocery store, see how difficult it is to buy something that doesn't contain one or both of these ingredients.

Q: Is it true that eating special types of chocolate can actually help you LOSE weight?

A: Chocolate as a health food? Chocolate to lose weight? Actually, it is true. Dark chocolate containing 70% cocoa, or, even better, cocoa nibs (containing only the cocoa and the cocoa butter) contain a special class of molecules called phytonutrients or plant chemicals. Polyphenols, the special molecules in chocolate, reduce inflammation, lower oxidative stress and improve insulin function through their effects on our genes. All these actions promote a healthy metabolism and weight loss. Dark chocolate (3.5 oz daily) is actually one of the few foods (along with almonds, vegetables, red wine, garlic and wild salmon or omega-3 fatty acid-containing foods) that when eaten daily, can cut your risk of heart disease by 75% and extend your lifespan by seven years. So enjoy, but remember, dark and only 3.5 ounces a day.

Q: Which foods switch on your metabolism – and which switch it off?

A: It is simple – whole foods switch on your metabolism. Processed, refined or junk foods impair your metabolism. The worst of the latter are high fructose corn syrup (and refined sugars and carbohydrates) and trans or hydrogenated fats.

Q: Are people “wired to get fat” – or genetically engineered to gain weight?

A: Our genes have evolved in the context of scarcity. Food was not abundant. Until 10,000 years ago when humans discovered how to grow food and raise animals, we were all hunters and gatherers, and 10,000 years is a fraction of a moment in genetic time. We were well adapted to eating whole wild foods with no refined or processed sugars or carbohydrates and no trans fats; and our diets were full of omega-3 fats and phytonutrients and fiber. When good fortune came our way in the form of a berry patch or a honeycomb, we were programmed to eat as much as we could and store it for later. The problem is that now we don't have to worry about later! All of our genetic adaptations help us survive with limited food resources and store extra calories very effectively. With unlimited food resources and easily consumed low-nutrient, calorie-dense food, our genes promote weight gain and disease. The SAD diet (or Standard American Diet) programs our genes toward weight gain.

Q: Can you rev up a slow metabolism?

A: Slow metabolism usually has a cause. The key to revving up a slow metabolism is finding that cause and treating it.
There are seven major causes of a slow metabolism and each one can be identified and treated with the latest scientific discoveries about how the body actually works– hormone and neurotransmitter imbalances, inflammation, stress, free radicals, unidentified thyroid problems, damaged or poorly tuned mitochondria and environmental toxins. By addressing these problems and providing conditions more natural to human evolution, we can turn off the genes that slow our metabolism and turn on the genes that speed our metabolism. This is the future of medicine – it is called nutrigenomics, or the science of how food affects our genes. Food has the power to harm or the power to heal our metabolism by way of the genes that are affected.Remember the next time you eat that you are speaking directly to your genes.

Q: How is ULTRAMETABOLISM any better or different than diets that work temporarily but fail in the long run?

A: Other diets may address one specific underlying cause of obesity; the relationship between insulin and sugar in Atkins and South Beach, meal composition in The Zone, or meal timing in The 3 Hour Diet. None address all of the known and the latest advances in understanding weight and metabolism. ULTRAMETABOLISM is the first science-based approach that considers all the causes of weight gain and impaired metabolism. By responding to each cause, the yo-yo problems of weight on/weight off stop and people life longer, healthier lives.