8 Ways Nutrient Deficiencies Cause Weight Loss Resistance

Hey everybody. Welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is. Hey, Dr. Hyman, I've eliminated all these toxic foods, I exercise every day, I live a healthy lifestyle, and I just have not been able to lose the weight that I want. What gives? Well, this is a real challenge that people have. I know. And you might feel like you tried everything. You've cut out toxic triggers, you stayed away from sugar, you're eating all the right foods, and still months have gone by without significant weight loss. So what's going on? Well, unfortunately this can happen. And I've had many, many patients who've come to me after having exhausted every option. And when we dig deeper, actually they haven't exhausted every option, we actually can dig deeper. We find there's a hidden cause of their weight loss, resistance. And today I want to focus on one of those common causes, nutritional imbalances. And after reviewing the major nutritional research over the last 40 years and doing nutritional testing on over 10,000 patients, I can tell you that Americans are suffering from massive nutritional deficiencies. Now, upwards of 30% of Americans diets fall short of such common nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin a. More than 80% of Americans are running low on vitamin D. And nine out of 10 people are deficient in omega 3 fats, which are critical for cooling inflammation, controlling blood sugar and having you have a healthy brain. Now, Americans are overfed, but they're undernourished. So what does that mean? It means that most obese kids and adults in this country are also the most nutritionally deficient. So how can that possibly be? Well, what we know now is that we cannot assume that an abundance of calories delivers the nutrients that the body actually needs. Sometimes the opposite is actually true. So why are we so undernourished? Well, food is less nutritious, processed foods, they're full of high fructose corn syrup. Refined flours, refined vegetable oils, and trans fats, which we never ate 100 years ago, are now the majority of our diet. And these foods crowd out more nutrient dense foods because they're inexpensive and they're convenient, mostly because of subsidies of corn and soy and wheat by our government. Well, our species involved eating foods that contain dramatically higher levels of all vitamins and minerals and essential fats. In fact, Wild game has omega 3 fats and is more nutrient dense than animals raised in factory farms. Plus, the meats and fish eaten by most hunter gatherers were almost always fresh. And most store bought meats today Are full of hormones and antibiotics and pesticides and preservatives like nitrates. And they have higher levels of omega 6 fats because they eat grains. Our soil is being damaged by industrial farming, which depletes important nutrients from the country's farmland and the soil. And, and as a result, most vegetables harvested today have fewer nutrients than those plucked from the ground just two generations ago. Americans eat about 152 pounds of sugar and 146 pounds of flour per person per year, or about a pound a day for every man, woman and child. Now, these are pharmacologic doses of sugar and flour that harm our health, harm our metabolism, and really create all sorts of chronic diseases. And at the same time, the percentage of fat in our diets has gone down in the past decades, Although we're eating more calories total. So the overall fat's gone up, but mostly from refined vegetable oils, not from butter or lard, which have actually gone down. In fact, there's been a 500 calorie increase in our diets since 1970. Nearly, almost all that is from sugar and refined carbs, Most of which comes from high fructose corn syrup. Now, our nutrient poor, calorie dense, high carb diet has led to so many nutritional deficiencies, things like omega 3 fats, magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, all of which are affect our metabolism, and often nutrition based treatment can help reset your metabolism. So nutritional imbalances slow your metabolism. Why? Because they're essential nutrients that help us burn fat and balance our blood sugar and stabilize our hormones and build muscle. And if you're lacking these essential nutrients, you can kind of be in trouble. And on top of this, years of eating low fiber processed foods and exposing our bodies to environmental toxins can lead to damaged guts, or what we call a leaky gut syndrome, which is another reason why you might not be absorbing the nutrients from your food. So having great intestinal health means optimal digestion and absorption and assimilation of your food. So the first step is to heal your gut. You want whole foods, unprocessed foods, things like vegetables and fruits and nuts and seeds, Things that are high in vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and anti inflammatory compounds and fiber and essential fatty acids. These foundational foods are also eliminating many of the triggers of chronic illness, because when you do that, you get rid of trans fat and sugar and toxic food additives. Also, be sure to prioritize healthy fats. The best way to eat your fat is in the form of extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseeds, and nuts and all kinds of other seeds. And avoid refined vegetable oils like canola and soybean oil as well as trans fat. But you can eat lots of omega 3 fats because those are good for you. Also, be sure to get at least 4 to 6 ounces of protein with every meal. Why? Because it helps you build muscle, it helps your metabolism and the best sources are small cold water fish that don't have high levels of metals or other contaminants. Healthy fish choices you can pick from are things like sardines and herring, mackerel, wild salmon, trout, arctic char and wild game is hard to get, but wild elk and deer are great and I used to get those when I lived in Idaho as a doctor. They're also a rich source of omega 3 fats because they eat wild plants. It's hard to find those, but you can actually now get bison in many stores which are grass fed. Also use gut healing nutrients like glutamine and zinc which can help repair your gut lining so it can actually function better. And you might want to take digestive enzymes with food to help solve the problem of poor digestion. Also, you should take probiotics which can help replace and replenish the bacteria that are often missing in our gut. So make sure you do that and that's really key for good gut health. You also might need to address other issues that are going on in your gut, like overgrowth of yeast from taking too many antibiotics or eating too much sugar or things like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which are common. You get bloating from that. And if you have that, you should work with a functional medicine doctor if you suspect all those weird digestive things that aren't getting better just through diet or supplementation. Now if you've done all this for a longer period of time, in addition to managing your stress and getting adequate sleep and exercising daily and you're still not losing weight, well then I highly recommend getting tested for nutritional deficiencies. Now I want to hear from you. Have you discovered that you have nutritional deficiencies? That helping those deficiencies help with weight loss or your health in any way? Share your comments below or on my Facebook page. And if you like this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter and submit your questions to drhyman.com and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.