Weight loss is not just about vanity; it’s about improving our health and reducing inflammation.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- How weight loss can help solve your inflammatory problems
- How losing weight restores communication between organs and hormones
- How losing weight decreases inflammatory molecules
- How losing weight decreases ‘sick fat’
- A simple tip to help boost weight loss and improve health
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In today’s podcast we are going to talk about how weight loss is an inflammation solution. And I’ll also be sharing one simple tip you can do in the morning to boost your weight loss, improve liver function and help reduce inflammation, so be sure to stay tuned for that later in the podcast.
We’ve talked about fat cells in a previous podcast and the fact of the matter is that fat cells can make us more susceptible to a whole range of conditions as we put on weight.
Having more fat cells can affect our health and impact our immune system.
That’s right, fat cells are actually very interesting cells in our bodies and right here in this podcast today we’re about to delve into 3 very powerful ways weight loss can reduce inflammation naturally. And it all has to do with our fat cells!!
- Losing Weight Restores The Communication Between Organs and Hormones
Fat cells are VERY metabolically active.
Our fat cells are extremely interesting because they can affect our whole body. We don’t think of them like that because we feel like they just sit there but they are not just dormant things that fill up and just sit there.
In fact, fat cells are now recognised as a VERY active endocrine organ.
That’s right, your fat cells are like an organ in themselves and secrete various different hormones and chemical signals that help regulate many physiological and pathological processes and maintain balance in the body.
Fat cells can talk directly to our liver via the portal vein and they also talk to various other organs via chemical messengers or hormones such as leptin and adiponectin.
This process is amazing if the process is functioning properly but as we put on weight, the cross talk becomes interrupted and the messages aren’t clear. This creates all sorts of problems including increased inflammation.
So losing weight can restore the communication between organs and hormones that is necessary if we want to feel healthy and alive.
- Losing Weight Reduces The Production Of Inflammatory Molecules
When fat cells increase in number and size, our immunity is altered and our fat tissue starts producing and secreting various chemical messengers and cytokines that mediate the crosstalk between our fat tissue and various metabolic organs like the liver, muscles, pancreas, and the central nervous system too.
But increasing fat cells mediate a negative cross talk and one of the driving factors for this is that most chemical messengers in our fat cells are pro-inflammatory and contribute to low-grade systemic inflammation.
Fat cells produce lots of inflammatory molecules and our metabolic and immune systems are intricately connected, and so we have fat cells that are an active organ that produce and secrete various chemical messengers that interrupt the balance and function of the body.
That means losing weight can reverse this process from occurring. Most importantly, losing weight decreases the production of inflammatory molecules.
- Getting Rid Of Fat, Gets Rid Of Sick Fat
We have a couple of different sorts of fat, we have subcutaneous fat and this is the fat on our buttocks and thighs and is ultimately for energy storage. It’s the kind of fat we use for energy later if we need it. But we also have visceral fat.
Visceral fat is fat that gets stored around the mid section, around all our organs. It’s the fat we all know as ‘belly fat’, and it’s this fat that is more metabolically active and increases inflammation and all risk factors for the development of conditions.
Once we start gaining more and more visceral fat we begin recruiting more and more immune cells and pro-inflammatory molecules because our fat cells are stressed and sick.
In the scientific literature, they call it ‘sick fat’ because of this reason.
The fat cells become sick because they are not getting enough nutrients and oxygen and so the immune cells cluster around the stressed fat cells and the whole process of inflammation begins, continues, and progressively becomes worse.
That is the unfortunately thing about inflammation is that it will be an ongoing cycle if you do nothing about it. The good thing is we can do something about it.
Weight loss reduces visceral fat (aka belly fat or sick fat) and this reduces inflammation naturally because the body produces less pro-inflammatory molecules and the immune system begins to restore balance.
Losing Weight Makes A MASSIVE Difference
Weight loss can have a MASSIVE impact on our health. MASSIVE. It’s not just about looking good or having 6-pack abs, sure maybe we’d all like them but for many of us it’s unlikely to happen. But lots and lots of things can be improved by simply losing weight; even just a little bit of weight, and this includes the ability to powerfully reduce inflammation naturally!!
Amazing right?
That weight loss can be an inflammation solution!
So let’s share a simple technique that can help to boost weight loss, improve your skin, cleanse & detox your liver, stimulate your digestive function, and start the morning fresh.
It’s a simple method that I use myself and get many of my clients using too.
What is it?
It’s a lemon and apple cider drink taken with warm water on an empty stomach first thing in the morning! It really does work and has so many benefits too.
So what are the benefits of Lemon & Apple Cider Vinegar?
Lemon is a natural antioxidant, has antiviral, anti bacterial and immune boosting properties to promote wellness on many levels. It’s loaded with vitamin C, bioflavanoids, magnesium, calcium and other vitamins and minerals, and is an incredibly neutralising and cleansing fruit for the body.
Apple cider vinegar has long been used as a natural remedy for many things. It has natural anti bacterial and anti viral properties. It also contains many minerals, has alkaline properties, can aid with blood sugar regulation, and help lower blood pressure and cholesterol.
5 Ways This Lemon & Apple Cider Tonic Boosts Weight Loss & Wellness
- It balances the body
If you’re in the process of losing weight chances are you’ve come into the process with a body that is way out of balance. This can occur on a variety of levels but one of the areas that is most important to get under control is the digestive system. The digestive system is key in helping you to effective metabolise your food, extract nutrients, and eliminate toxins. When the digestive system has become inhibited by the consumption of highly processed foods and so forth, then one of the best ways to help bring back the balance is to drink this wonderfully neutralising and balancing drink.
- It allkalizes the body
Having an over acid body can lead to low level chronic inflammation in the tissues throughout your body and organs. This can slow down the process and function and also possibly lead to disease. Although you’d probably think of lemons as being acidic, they actually have the opposite effect and are incredibly alkalizing. When your body has a more stable pH balance it helps reduce inflammation and will generally function better, keeping your immune system in good shape and helping to ward off disease.
- It cleanses & detoxify the liver
The liver is an amazing organ and is responsible for processing all the nutrients we eat and then shipping them out to the various parts of our body. It also helps to process the toxins we constantly bombard our bodies with. This lemon drink helps to cleanse toxins out of the liver and also stimulates function to help more effective and efficient processing of nutrients, including increasing fat metabolism.
- It aids digestion & cleansing of the colon
This little magic drink greatly helps with the stimulation of digestive enzymes throughout your gut. There are thousands of these enzymes working hard to digest your food effectively so giving them a helping hand is a very beneficial thing. It also helps to assist with better elimination by stimulating the bowel. So if you suffer from constipation it can be a great help too.
- And lastly it boosts weight loss
All of the above benefits will help your body function better and improve your digestion and metabolism and thus increase your weight loss results. I’ve also found that one additional benefit is that it helps to decrease sugar cravings and regulate appetite, my clients have also found this to be true. The other great benefit is that when you kick start the day on a good foot like this, it often means the rest of the day is going to be great too.
Of course it also helps to accompany this morning ritual by following with a day filled with healthy nutritious food. Any attempt to have only the lemon and apple cider drink and still eating crap is certainly not going to help too much. The point is that this wonderful drink helps set the perfect scene on the inside of your body so that everything else you do will have additional benefits and make your results all the more rewarding.
So How do you make this Morning Drink Recipe
Place the juice of half a lemon and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a mug. Fill the mug with half boiling water and half cold water so that it’s warm but not hot and cool enough to drink. Have it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.
That’s how simple it is!
Give it a try and let me know how it helps you. It sounds so simple but really is very effective. People have also reported what a difference it makes to their skin, which is just another added advantage.
So that’s all we’ve got for you today. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast and know that those efforts of losing some weight are doing more for your health than you can imagine. Decreasing inflammation in our bodies is very important and is a good motivator to lose a few pounds.
Before we close off, I’d really love it if you could go to itunes and leave a rating and review for the Good Food Eating Podcast. It helps this podcast get out to more and more people so they can learn about nutrition and health and apply all the tips and strategies we share as well. Thanks to everyone who has already left a review, I really appreciate it but for those of you that haven’t, just take a few minutes of your time to leave a review. If you don’t know how to do that go to GFE.com/review and there’s a short instruction on how to do it.
Jedha
Nutritionist & Health Counselor
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