The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health (50 page)

Nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, almonds, and peanuts

Seeds, such as sesame seeds and flaxseeds

Healthy fats in plant foods, such as olives and avocados

Fatty fish, such as salmon, trout, herring, and tuna

Vegetable and fruit oils, such as olive, canola, and safflower

Herbs and spices, such as turmeric, ginger, garlic, basil, and pepper

Having too much belly fat really turns on the burn when it comes to inflammation. Belly fat produces molecules called pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are molecules that trigger inflammation. Belly fat causes so much inflammation that it has been referred to as the “hotbed of inflammation.”

As you improve your diet, lose weight, and add more activity into your daily life, you’ll naturally whittle away belly fat and with it, your chronic, systemic inflammation.

I love making this recommendation. It’s like telling people to eat more candy. Who doesn’t love sleep?

Here’s why I’m suggesting it: Poor sleep actually revs up chronic inflammation. When you don’t get the sleep you need—either because you’re staying up too late and getting up too early, or you have a sleep disorder that interferes with the quality of your sleep—inflammation increases as your body boosts its production of inflammatory chemicals.

In a 2010 study, Emory University researchers compared inflammation markers in people who slept fewer than six hours a night with those who slept six to nine hours. They found that those who got the least amount of shut-eye had higher levels of three inflammatory markers. For example, C-reactive protein levels were an average of 25 percent higher in the six-hour-per-night group.

Aim to get around seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Research shows that people who live the longest get about that much sleep, and they’re less likely to be overweight along the way.

So now you know what inflammation is, why it matters, how to cool it down, and the many ways in which The Doctor’s Diet can help fight it. You notice I mentioned that getting enough sleep is a natural anti-inflammatory. As it turns out, sleep has lots of other links to weight loss. Amazingly, the connections go both ways: not only does sleep help with weight loss, but weight loss can improve sleep. I’ll tell you more about that next.

When it comes to sleep and weight, you’re looking at a double-edged sword. Consistently getting too little sleep can raise your chances of gaining excess weight and becoming obese. That’s one side of the sword. The other side is that gaining excess weight and becoming obese raise your chances of getting too little sleep.

So, as you can see, sleep and weight are connected in a continuous spiral that feeds upon itself. Sleeplessness leads to weight gain; weight gain leads to sleeplessness. How do you break free from this endless cycle?

In order to get truly healthy, you’ve got to work on both of these problems. Lose weight, and your sleep should improve. Get more sleep, and weight loss should be easier.

You’re moving in the right direction by following The Doctor’s Diet. You can take a few other steps as well, which I’ll explain in this chapter. By making smart sleep choices, you’ll be resting better in no time.

Being overweight or obese affects sleep in several ways.

Excess weight can make it harder to breathe. As people gain weight, especially if fat collects in the neck and trunk area, breathing can become disordered. Fat can actually obstruct your airways, compromising respiratory function and interfering with your body’s ability to get the oxygen it needs.

Problems with nighttime breathing can lead to a condition called sleep apnea, in which breathing pauses for short periods of time because airways become blocked. Sleep apnea can prevent people from sleeping deeply and from moving into all of the normal sleep phases their body needs to maintain good health. It is a leading cause of daytime sleepiness and is linked to other health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure, stroke, diabetes, abnormal glucose metabolism, cognitive dysfunction, and driving accidents.

Sleep apnea can cause daytime sleepiness because you don’t get the
rest you really need, even if you spend the right number of hours in bed.

Having excess fat can interfere with sleep on a hormonal level as well. Fat cells, especially those in the belly, can produce abnormal levels of certain hormones that disrupt healthy sleep. When your sleep hormones are out of balance, it’s harder to get the shut-eye you need.