by Dr. Salomón Jakubowicz www.niunadietamas.com
7 am: The alarm clock sounds and your brain begins to worry: “It is time to wake up but we’ve already use all the sugar needed for fuel.” The real worrying starts, however, when the brain realizes the girl will not eat breakfast in attempts to lose weight.
9 am: The first neuron is called and dispatched to verify how much sugar the blood has. Answer: ”Enough for 15 to 20 minutes, no more, no less.”
9:20 am: The brain sends another neuron messenger to the liver: “What does he have in reserve?” Liver explains that his savings amount only to 20 to 25 minutes.
9:45 am: In total there is only 290 grams of sugar in reserves, amounting to 45 minutes, all of which the brain prays the girl will finally eat her breakfast.
Many overweight people are too hurried or do not have appetites in the mornings, which causes the brain to go in overdrive: “Maximum alert! We are running on fumes. We need cortisone, pronto, take what is necessary from the muscles, ligaments, even the skin’s collagen.”
The cortisone will get the cellular mechanisms to open up, just like mom’s purse when its time to buy school supplies, and release protein. This will go to the liver where sugar will be produced. The process will continue until the girl eats.
As you can see, those who do not eat breakfast are not aware that you are eating– your own muscles. The consequence in muscle loss is that the brain, instead of preoccupying itself with intellectual functions, spends the morning activating emergency system protocols to obtain fuel and nutrition: fatigue and depression kick in.
How does weight affect this? Fasting in the mornings signals our body’s energy storage system in overdrive, and consequently our metabolism decreases. The brain does not know if the fast will be for hours or days and it takes precautions in case of severe fasting. If one decides to eat afterward, that food will be considered surplus and will be stored as fat on reserve. Eventually, weight gain is inevitable.
The reason our muscles are the first utilized for fuel is because in the morning our predominant hormone is cortisone which stimulates the destruction of protein in muscles and converts protein to sugar. Instead of being converted to sugar, muscles should actually received sugar and calories that are consumed. The worst scenario is when the afternoon arrives right before we lose all our storage of sugar. Before the brain loses all sources of energy, it sends massive cravings and hunger pains which lead us to desire sweets and salty foods. In anxiety, we begin to eat whatever is in front of us– leading to more weight gain.
Finally, because those foods are consumed in anxiety in the afternoon and at night, we are lead to fasting the next morning and a vicious cycle of weight gain.
Four Medical recommendations:
1. Eat a well balances breakfast,
2. If you crave carbohydrates in the afternoon, this means you did not have enough protein at breakfast,
3. Eat breakfast within 60 minutes of waking up,
4. Taste your favorite desert so that you won’t crave it in the morning.
