It's Not By Eating Too Much :It is not by eating too much

Brief

Obesity is not caused by energy surplus but declining transformability. Via oxidizing reaction, food is transformed into vital energy and fat. Vital energy is the product of thorough oxidization and it can be used directly by human body while fat is the result of incomplete oxidization stored in subcutaneous tissues. Their ratio is called transformability ratio. A high ratio indicates less energy is transformed into energy stored in fat. That’s why people with more vital energy are more vigorous and better shaped. Transformability mainly depends on the balance among organs (five-zang organs, namely, heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys and six fu-organs, namely, gallbladder, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, urinary bladder and ternary cavities) and their activeness. Unbalance among five-zang organs and six-fu organs leads to decreasing transformability, thus a stronger ability to transform energy into fat stored in human body.

Is That by Eating Too Much?

Obesity is traditionally viewed as the result of heavy eating while lacking exercise. From the perspective of energy conservation, when energy intake outweighs that consumed, the surplus will be stored in the form of fat that makes people look plump. This logic seems reasonable with few doubts. However, it can not provide a sound explanation for many phenomena in reality:

Why some people remain slim even if they are big eaters whereas some become plump even though they have little? Some treat this as individual difference. Apparently, this explanation is not convincing enough.
Why some people achieve little in losing weight no matter how much exercises they do while some keep a shapely figure even though they seldom do sports?
Now that fat is energy stored in human body, people with more fat should have more endurance. Yet the reality just goes the opposite.

The big headache may not be how to reduce weight but how to control frequent weight rebound. An endless array of slimming products flood markets but overweight population seems to increase proportionally. Why?

Are there any mistakes in the traditional conclusion about the cause of obesity? Yes. Based on the theory of five zang-organs (heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys) and six fu-organs (gallbladder, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, urinary bladder and ternary cavities) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), experiments are conducted to study the causes of obesity, discovering that obesity is not caused by energy surplus.

Transformability: The Key Factor to Obesity

Let’s first look at what happens to food that enters into human body. No matter how complicated the absorption and metabolism of human being are, a clear point is that metabolism is a process of producing acidic substances. It depends on cells, the basic unit of life, to oxidize and decompose nutrients so as to obtain energy and meanwhile release acidic metabolites. This chemical common sense tells us that an alkalescent environment is conducive to neutralize acidic metabolites, making oxidation and decomposition proceed completely so that energy can be continuously released. When oxidation proceeds in an acidic environment, it will be incomplete: only small part of energy is absorbed by human body while the rest is stored in the form of fat, a partially oxidized product. From this perspective, obesity is not caused by energy surplus but human body’s incompetence to thoroughly oxidize food to gain maximal energy.

Here we bring our explanation about obesity:

Through oxidizing reaction, energy intake is transformed into two kinds of energy: vital energy, the product of thorough oxidization and the other fat, the result of incomplete oxidization stored in subcutaneous tissues. Their ratio is called transformation ratio.
Vital energy is stored in blood and organs. Reflected by the quantity and quality of blood as well as by organic functions, it is a form of energy that can be directly used by human body. Fat needs further oxidizing before being used, in other word, it cannot be used directly.
As the total amount of calorie absorbed is given, the more the vital energy, the less the energy stored in fat. People with more vital energy are stronger and more energetic. They may also keep a shapely figure, an embodiment of good health. On the contrary, those who have less vital energy may look feeble, languid and obese, which mirrors a sub-healthy or unhealthy state.
Fat is stored in fat cells. Generally speaking, an adult’s fat cells remain unchanged in quantity. When cells are filled with a great deal of fat, their volume will increase several times. This is the obvious cause of obesity.
The ratio of vital energy to energy stored in fat is named transformation ratio (TR). Higher transformation ratio means more vital energy. A person with more vital energy will be more vigorous, healthier and they also have a shapelier shape, vice versa.
Transformation ratio, indication of a person’s ability to transform energy intake, depends on the balance among organs and their activeness. Balanced and active organs bring about a higher transformation ratio and more vital energy, vice versa. A decrease in vital energy may result in a low transformation ratio, thus weak transformability. Outcome of this vicious circle will be a weaker and plumper body.

From the view of TCM, the real cause of obesity is the unbalance among organs and the hypofunction of some organs. TCM believes that human body, with the core of five-zang organs (heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys), is an entity highly harmonized with nature. Thus ancient Chinese laid the five-element theory (five elements refer to wood, fire, earth, metal, water and their motions) describing law of nature as the foundation of medicine. A healthy body comes from balance among five organs, however, diseases come up when unbalance takes place. The theory of five-zang organs and six-fu organs is a huge and complex system. To put it simple, human body is an independent ecosystem with five zang organs as its main biological chain. These five organs are mutual promoted and restrained. Mutual promotion refers to one organ nourishing another, to be more specific, liver nourished heard, heard nourishes spleen, spleen nourishes lung, lung nourishes kidney and kidney nourishes liver. On this chain, the ecological balance will be destroyed if the function of an organ such as liver declines. As time wears on, organs on this ecological chain all decline in their functions. Mutual restraint actual means lung restrains liver, liver restrains spleen, spleen restrains kidney, kidney restrains heard and heard restrains lung. Through preventing some organ from being too strong, mutual restraint keep the balance among these five organs. When one organ becomes weak, it will fail to restrain its corresponding organ. Disease symptoms appear after organic balance is ruined. Therefore, TCM treatment aims at a permanent and complete cure by searching problematic organs out of symptoms rather than merely a stop to symptoms. TCM deems that diseases can only be cured completely after finding out their origins.

We all know that obesity results in diseases such as heart disease. TCM holds a different view regarding the relationship between heart disease and obesity. It is heart disease that causes obesity. Obesity acts as a warning to inform the brain: there is something wrong with your organs. Your organs will be increasingly weaker and you will be plumper if no treatment is exercised for long. But doctor of modern medicine may tell you: “You are too obese to have heart disease. It is time to lose weight.” While in TCM, the only correct way is to restore balance between organs and increase transformation ratio. Methods just controlling absorption of calorie or accelerating burning of fat can only achieve temporary success. When these methods are stopped, because transformability hasn’t been ameliorated, a majority of energy absorbed from food will be turned into fat stored in fat cells, which makes cells grow bigger and weight rebound, just as the case in reality. What’s more, some methods (especially instant ones) bring short-term effect at the cost of vital energy, which will definitely results in a weaker transformability. In the event that those methods are ceased, weight rebounds, hence a plumper yet feebler body.

ChinaLegacy

Brief

Is That by Eating Too Much?

Transformability: The Key Factor to Obesity

Related Topics