Clearing fat from muscle cells: The amazing effects of a plant-based diet

Let metabolism return to normal.

So how do we eliminate fat from cells and restore normal metabolism? One extreme method is surgery, but I don't recommend it. Researchers at the Roman Catholic University in Italy performed a bilopancreatic diversion on eight severely overweight adults. This surgery is more complex than gastric reduction surgery. A small portion of the stomach was removed, and the section of the small intestine responsible for absorbing fat was completely separated. After the surgery, you can't eat too much of anything, and all the fat you eat essentially just passes through your body and is excreted directly.

The results of the surgery were remarkable. Not only did the participants lose weight, but their intracellular fat-the lipids within muscle cells that influence fat metabolism-decreased by 87%! Of course, surgery has many drawbacks, and I reiterate that I definitely do not recommend it. However, this experiment demonstrates that if fat no longer enters our bodies, then fat within our cells will be released.

Fortunately, there's an easier way to get rid of those unwanted fats from your cells. That is, to avoid fat in your diet. Researchers at Royal University School of Medicine in London wanted to know if people who avoid meat and other animal products have fewer fat cells in their bodies. After all, they can avoid all the fat in beef, pork, cheese, and other animal products.

These researchers recruited a group of people who followed a completely plant-based diet and then measured the fat content in their cells. As you might have guessed, their cells contained 30% less fat than those who ate meat. In other words, eliminating common high-fat foods reduced the amount of fat within the cells.

So, what if you go even further? What if you not only avoid animal fats but also most vegetable oils? You could choose oil-free salad dressings, skip French fries, and cook using steaming, boiling, or baking instead of frying. This removes even more fat from your diet. This further reduces fat within your cells, right? That's exactly what we did in a study. Participants avoided animal products and kept their vegetable oil intake to a minimum. As a result, their post-meal calorie burning efficiency improved rapidly.

So the secret is this: if you avoid most of the fat in your diet, then every slimmer little cell in your body will respond to insulin more quickly. They will extract sugar from the blood and convert more sugar into energy. Your cells will become energized and ready to burn calories more rapidly.

Not only can it help you lose weight

“Wait a minute!” I heard you. If this dietary change could help insulin work better and flush sugar out of the blood, it sounded like a great way to treat diabetes. In fact, that's what we thought too. In 2003, the National Institutes of Health funded our research team to study the effects of this approach on diabetes. Our findings changed the clinical practice recommendations of the American Diabetes Association. Now, let me share an experience that took place a thousand miles away from our research center.

The Marshall Islands, located northeast of Australia, consist of 1,200 islands and islets in the Pacific Ocean. Many are very small, but all are incredibly beautiful. Between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. government conducted intensive atomic bomb tests on the islands, causing enormous negative consequences. Besides widespread radiation contamination, some residents were forced to relocate from one island to another to ensure the tests could continue. American food became a hot commodity, especially Spam luncheon meat, a canned luncheon meat. Grocery store shelves were filled with these unlabeled canned meat products, along with sugary drinks and snacks. Before you even learned to say "intracellular lipids," diabetes was already rampant there.

In many other parts of the world, a similar situation is unfolding, with imports from the West not of Spam luncheon meat, but of hamburgers, chicken nuggets, cheese pizzas, or fried chicken. This tsunami of high-fat foods has brought with it diabetes.

However, a bright spot shone through the clouds over the Marshall Islands. A medical team known as "Mission Canvas Duck" assembled a number of diabetes experts, including Dr. John Kelly and registered dietitian Brenda Davis, to establish a diabetes health program with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. Their most significant impact was removing Spam from the diets of visiting diabetic patients. The team recommended a plant-based diet that happened to align with the traditional Marshall Islands diet-the diet before the arrival of the Americans, the atomic bomb, and Spam.

This program has had a huge impact. Diabetics have found they've lost weight and no longer need medication. For some patients, their diabetes has become undetectable.

One of the participants was a 38-year-old pilot, or rather, a former pilot. A routine medical checkup revealed he had diabetes, which brought his flying career to an end. He was married with two children, supported by his work as a pilot, and loved his job very much. But diabetes meant he could no longer be a pilot.

Then, he stumbled upon this diabetes health program, from which he learned how to cook healthy plant-based foods. He also added exercise to his daily routine. Shortly after joining the program, he said, "I completely changed my diet and started exercising every day. At my last physical exam, the doctor told me I was cured, and I passed my pilot's medical exam. Without medication, my fasting blood sugar is below 90 mg/dL. I am no longer diabetic. I have regained my career and my life."

So now you have two powerful ways to permanently control your weight-both controlling your appetite and boosting calorie burning. These two approaches work in parallel: one adjusts calorie intake, and the other adjusts calorie expenditure. These two are the cornerstones of the 21-day weight loss challenge. And the best part is that the foods that bring you these benefits also help you stay young and healthy. Next, let's turn to the topic of heart protection, which is the third fundamental point of the challenge.

Do not diet

It may sound surprising, but some dieters are unaware that they are directing their metabolism in the wrong direction.

Their mistake is trying to lose weight quickly by drastically reducing calorie intake. This seems like a reasonable plan. But the problem is your body doesn't know you're doing it intentionally. It mistakes this frugal eating for a famine. To avoid losing weight too quickly, your body automatically slows down its metabolism. That is, it reduces the rate at which you burn calories. A blood test will show a drop in leptin levels. Leptin is a hormone that controls appetite while maintaining a normal metabolic rate. Dieting causes a significant drop in leptin levels, resulting in a slower metabolism.

Therefore, don't diet, and there's no need to. If you change the types of food you eat, you'll easily lose weight without having to deliberately reduce your calorie intake.