How my “skinny-fat” body almost killed me, and what no doctor seems to know.

 Growing up we were really lied to about food. The narrative I got from adults, commercials, doctors and common wisdom was that all unhealthy food was, was stuff we should only indulge in occasionally because if we overate we’d become fat, and once your fat you get sick. 

That was an oversimplified lie that has ruined my health.

I thought because I ate 80% healthy food and only 20% processed or fast food and was skinny that I was healthy.

Wrong.

The problem with fast food, processed food, packaged food, even a majority of so called healthy foods out there that say “natural” on the box and are made with seemingly healthy things like grain and fruit, is that they are chemically engineered to taste better with substances that once altered are no longer digested by the body as those foods were intended.

To focus on one simple aspect, everything is laden with sugar, often hidden under one of its many names. 

If you are eating a peanut butter sandwich you may as well be eating 2 homemade chocolate chip cookies because that white bread, and even many “wheat” breads is going to be processed in your body the same as sugar, the jelly is just sugar and unless you buy a certain brand that peanut butter is also sugar. 

It all becomes glucose in the body, a necessary ingredient for energy, but one that the body only needs a very small amount of. The amount we get in one peanut butter and jelly sandwich is likely to be more than the entire days amount.

Any excess is turned into fat. 

Why do I care? I’m skinny. I don’t hold on to weight. 

Because it’s not that fat looks bad, or makes you sick. Actually it doesn’t necessarily do that at all.

Rather the danger with too much glucose is your body becomes insulin resistant overtime. When that happens you become metabolically sick like me.

Me who went to a doctor and had my hormones tested 1 year ago and was told everything was in normal range. 

Me who asked the doctor should I be concerned that my TSH levels are on the low end of the “healthy” range? What about my red blood cells  and hemoglobin? They are “in the range” but low. Should I take iron. 

The doctor was unconcerned. Sure you could if you want, just don’t overdo it.

1 year later I am at the hospital with a resting heart rate of 140 bpm because my TSH levels are so low that my thyroid is overreacting and overproducing hormones. I have an hyperactive thyroid and since it hasn’t proven itself to be chronic yet they put me on atenelol for my heart and send me home to rest.

As if that’s all I need.

As if my diet had nothing to do with this disease.

As if we couldn’t have seen the signs a year ago when things were already on the low end.

This is why you should always get 3 second opinions and read up on health yourself because modern medicine is not up to date on modern science.

We know that sugar in excess is causing insulin resistance. We know that it doesn’t just lead to diabetes, but all kinds of sickness. Including things like thyroid issues.

What have I always been? A sweet tooth. 🦷 

It’s my sugar habit that is literally killing me and not one single doctor has ever suggested I even consider eating less sugar because I have always been skinny.

I’m now reading “Metabolical” by Robert Lustig MD. A doctor who has worked with obese children and proven their health got better when they stopped eating sugar even if they lost not a single pound.

You can gain weight and become healthier simply by being off sugar.

This is why the keto diet works so well for so many, but it’s an extreme diet hard to maintain and not for everyone.

For the rest of us there is just plain old avoiding processed foods, refined white grains and sugar. 

Please be careful out there. You may be getting sicker each year without even knowing it and a doctor won’t tell you until you are verifiably sick, or like me, on deaths door.