Dr. Sears will talk about why America is in the midst of a “Perfect Nutritional Storm” and its implications on any envisioned savings from health-care reform at the 92nd St. Y (Lexington at 92nd St.), New York City, Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 6:30 p.m.
“In the past 30 years, America has been caught in a perfect nutritional storm that dramatically increased inflammation in Americans due to growing diet-induced hormonal imbalances. It is this increased inflammation that is the underlying cause of our current epidemics of obesity and diabetes and acceleration of chronic disease,” he said. “Health-care reform must ultimately begin in the kitchen because of the hormonal impact of food and how those hormones can affect our genes. We need to reverse the current pro-inflammatory trend with anti-inflammatory diets. Today’s primary health-care concerns, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s are ultimately driven by dietary-induced inflammation.”
Dr. Sears believes that radical changes in America's food supply have resulted in a constant battle between the hormones generated by the food we eat and our genes.
“Obesity is not a consequence of sloth and gluttony, but rather an adverse interaction of our current diet with our genes," he said.
Dr. Sears will discuss how our increasingly pro-inflammatory diet has caused activation of a fat-trap in genetically predisposed individuals, but also increases hunger by changing brain hormone levels that override normal appetite suppression.
“The primary cause for this Perfect Nutritional Storm has been government subsidies for corn and soybean crops that have created an abundance of cheap refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils that, when combined, increase diet-induced inflammation. Dietary-induced inflammation can activate genes in people who are genetically predisposed to gain weight,” he said. “This accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. adult population. Once that happens, weight gain occurs with relative ease and is difficult to reverse.”
In his lecture he will discuss the relatively simple dietary interventions necessary begin to reverse this diet-induced inflammation.
Tickets for the talk are $18, $8 members. To order tickets or for more information, call 212-415-5500 or go to http://tinyurl.com/ylhcps2.