In Dr. Barry Sears‘ The Zone, a No.1 New York Times bestseller, and in his most recent book, Toxic Fat, he explains why America is in the midst of a “Perfect Nutritional Storm” and its implications on any envisioned savings coming from the current health-care reform debate.

“In the past 30 years,” says Sears, “America has been caught in a perfect nutritional storm that dramatically increased inflammation in Americans due to growing diet-induced hormonal imbalances.  It is this increased inflammation that is the underlying cause of our current epidemics of obesity and diabetes and acceleration of chronic disease. Health-care reform must ultimately begin in the kitchen because of the hormonal impact of food and how those hormones can affect our genes.  We need to reverse the current pro-inflammatory trend with anti-inflammatory diets.  Today’s primary health-care concerns, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s are ultimately driven by dietary-induced inflammation.”

Dr. Sears believes that, “obesity is not a consequence of sloth and gluttony,” but instead can be traced to the radical changes in America’s food supply, such as government subsidies for corn and soybean crops that have created an abundance of cheap refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils which are consumed in great quantity.

On Jan 19, Dr. Sears will be at the 92nd Street Y to discuss the relatively simple dietary interventions necessary begin to reverse these trends in your own diet. How to reduce the “toxic fat” creating an inflammatory situation that can spread throughout the body, resulting in obesity, neurological disorders, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

If you have any questions for Dr. Sears, leave them below in the comments, and they will be considered during the Q&A.

[Battling the Perfect Nutritional Storm]

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