The Leptin Diet: How Fit is Your Fat?

 

Leptin - a hormone - has been getting buzz lately since two physicians were awarded the Shaw Prize for Medicine (a prestigious award from a private foundation in Hong Kong, which comes with a $1 million bucks) for their work in studying the role leptin plays in obesity. Now, the leptin studies haven't flipped the weight loss industry upside down or changed the world, (yet, anyway) but renowned health experts and quack scammers alike have been - and continue to - sniff around it as potentially the holy grail.

Author Byron Richards, he of the earlier work "Mastering Leptin", is a clinical nutritionist and one of the early proponents of the leptin theory. First things first: what is leptin? It's a hormone produced by the fat cells in the body, which regulates appetite. It's designed to trigger when we are deprived, and tell the brain that we need to eat to get energy. So low leptin levels creates the starvation response, but the brain must sense the proper level of leptin for it to know how much fat the body needs. When and if leptin levels are in balance, the message sent to the brain is one of satiety - or in other words, "stop eating now."

What is the leptin theory? According to Richards, the brain regulates metabolism based on the accurate reading of how much leptin is in the body. (Remember, when we starve our metabolisms slow down to save what fat we've got.) So if the brain reads the leptin balance incorrectly, it thinks that more fat is required for survival and the overeating begins in earnest. And why would the brain read a leptin balance incorrectly? What Richards and others call "leptin imbalance" means that fat cells are overproducing leptin, leptin is running rampant in the body, and the brain doesn't recognize it. What causes leptin imbalance is the subject of this book, and forms the foundation of Richards' wellness mini-empire of nutritional supplements, "Wellness Resources", available online.

The Leptin Diet, according to Richards, is not just about weight loss - but also improved cardiovascular health, improved digestive health, improved immune system and higher energy levels. Richards' program is centered around 5 golden rules:

• Never eat after dinner
• Eat 3 meals per day, not 5 or 6 as others recommend
• Do not eat large meals
• Eat a high-protein breakfast
• Reduce starchy carbs

According to Richards, adhering to these 5 rules keeps the leptin in balance - and that is scientific fact. Now, as noted above the "scientific fact" part of it is exaggeration at this point - leptin research is still exploratory at best. But are those 5 rules good ones to live by weight loss and overall health? Absolutely. We can't argue with Richards about that. Our only criticism of Richards' "leptin theory" is the wholesale commercialism - the plethora of herbal and other natural supplements and the "Leptin Diet Package" (a copy of the book, a CD and 7 nutrient packets "on sale" for $142.42) he hawks from his website as critical elements of this "backed by science" plan. Bottom line: good advice, overdressed.