Human Survival Depends on Hormones and Fat

Excerpted from
The Schwarzbein Principle: The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy and Feeling Younger
By Diana Schwarzbein, M.D.

The balanced eating program I prescribe for my patients is appropriate for everyone because we all share the same physiology (the physical and chemical processes that define humans as the same species). The DNA (genetic blueprint), biochemistry and endocrinology of human beings has not changed in millions of years.

In prehistoric times, survival of the fittest meant surviving infectious diseases such as viruses, parasites and bacteria, as well as avoiding accidents and escaping violent death. In addition, humans were susceptible to inborn errors of metabolism (such as a five-year-old child dying of heart disease), autoimmune diseases (such as Type I diabetes), genetic defects (such as sickle-cell anemia) and the normal aging process. All of these things were beyond human control.

The average life expectancy of a prehistoric human was eighteen to twenty-five years. Most died of infectious diseases such as pneumonia. Those who had the most developed hormone systems survived the longest because a developed hormone system is essential for a strong immune system. Since a lack of hormones leads to a weakened immune system, many died young and most did not survive past midlife. Children and adults past midlife were the most susceptible to viruses and bacteria, because children's hormone systems were not developed fully and older adults had diminished hormone systems.

In modern times, we have eradicated most plagues with immunizations. We now prevent bacteria from multiplying through the use of antibiotics, sanitation, refrigeration and food preservatives. Today most people do not die of infectious diseases but of degenerative diseases. Therefore, avoiding the accelerated metabolic aging process in modern times is the new definition of survival of the fittest.

Modern humans still have the same physiology as prehistoric humans, and this physiology depends on proteins and fats to produce hormones and regulate them. How you balance your hormones throughout your life will affect your life span. Hormone regulation is within your control.

Since hormones, including insulin, depend on fat for normal production and functioning, eating fat is essential for our survival.

Wasting Away on a Low-Fat Diet

I have seen many patients who appeared to be suffering from either cancer or AIDS. When I started asking these patients about their habits, it did not take long to discover why they were wasting away. By the time Robert came to see me, I had learned to tell the difference between real disease and self-imposed (though not intentional) starvation.

Robert, an articulate, dignified man in his late sixties, came to me at his wife's urging. His wife, Linda, had heard me speak on menopause and nutrition, and she made an appointment with me to discuss her issues. As I got to know her, I learned that she was worried about her husband, who had suffered two heart attacks. During one appointment, I asked Linda how Robert was doing. She burst into tears. When I learned that Robert was eating an extreme low-fat diet, I gave him a call and asked him to come in to see me.

Robert: I had my first heart attack when I was sixty years old. I was not ready to die, so my wife and I read every one of Nathan Pritikin's books, and one book written by his son. I went on the Pritikin Diet to improve my cholesterol profile.

In an attempt to rid my diet of fat, I started to eat only sixteen ounces of protein (meat, fish or poultry) a week and gradually reduced it to four ounces a week. The balance of my diet consisted of vegetables, with a heavy emphasis on carbohydrates-grains, beans, pastas and fruits. Almost no fat. I did not add fat to anything. I'm a type A personality. I'm disciplined, persistent and tenacious about things. I did not do the Pritikin Diet halfway. I did what Pritikin said to do. I mean, my wife and I were in the kitchen measuring, going through all this math computation about fat and everything else.

I had suffered from gastrointestinal problems for some time and they were getting worse. The reflux and spasms increased in frequency and severity. I had very uncomfortable gas. I would have chest pains and wouldn't know if I was having a heart attack or esophageal spasms. I can't tell you how many times I went to the emergency room because I thought I was having another heart attack, only to be told it was reflux again.

Then, six years later, in June of 1992, I did have another heart attack and had to have heart bypass surgery. After the lengths I had gone to, to minimize fats in my diet, I was told that I had three blood vessels clogged! I thought, How could this be? I had exercised and done everything by the book.

After the surgery, I went on Pritikin's total vegetarian diet.

During this time I became so fatigued that I could do very little. The energy I did have was spent going to doctors and desperately reading medical literature to try to determine what was wrong with me. The doctors had nothing to offer except test after test and acid-blocking drugs. One doctor concluded that I was depressed, and he wanted me to take antidepressants, which I refused to do. Another concluded that I was a hypochondriac.

I went from 155 pounds in 1992 to 139 pounds by late 1994. I am five feet, ten inches so, at 155 pounds, I was already very thin.

I was not sleeping well at all. I was up most nights with heartburn, stomach and chest pains. One such night I was up until four in the morning with chest pains. My wife called 911 and took me to a hospital emergency room. Again, it was determined that I was not having a heart attack. The cardiologist and gastroenterologist, working together, ran tests on about every organ of my body. The upshot of all the tests and examinations was in essence, "Gee, we don't know what's making you sick."

I didn't know what else to do at that point. Then I got a call from Dr. Schwarzbein, who had spoken to my wife. After that conversation, I visited Dr. Schwarzbein to see if she could improve my cholesterol profile and perhaps prevent another heart attack.

Dr. Schwarzbein: I was shocked when I first saw Robert. The extreme low-fat diet that he was on had aged him inside and out by depriving his body of the important nutrients it needed to regenerate.

By eating a high-carbohydrate diet, Robert had sustained prolonged high insulin levels, which in turn disrupted other hormone levels, causing heartburn and other gastrointestinal problems and an abnormal cholesterol profile. We had to reverse the process immediately because Robert was in the danger zone. He was going to die if he stayed on his low-fat, low-protein, high-carbohydrate diet.

I explained to Robert that hormones are made from and regulated by the proteins and fats we eat. Therefore, to maintain normal body-system communication and repair and rebuilding, we must eat a balanced diet that includes proteins and fats.

As you learned in the previous chapter, regeneration can be described as the combined effects of all the processes that build the body up, plus those that break it down. We need to eat to replenish cellular resources and energy stores for all the processes within the body. Eating increases metabolism. When you break your body down more than you build it up, you lower your metabolism. This is accelerated metabolic aging. Again, this aging process leads to disease. Because illness and accelerated metabolic aging are outcomes of the same process, anyone's metabolism can be ruined by diet and lifestyle, causing that person to become ill.