Weight Loss Interview

Page 1 2

Jim: Okay, and since we’ve touched on the Western diet and that’s what most people in North America are familiar with, what are the strengths and there’s probably a lot of weaknesses with this particular diet system?

Yuri: Yeah, I would say there’s absolutely no strength in the Western diet

Jim: Okay.

Yuri: Really, if we look at how our ancestors ate; obviously, none of us were around 10,000 years ago but they diet for different reasons. I can’t imagine…it’s tough to tell if they suffered from cancer and stuff like that but obesity is something that’s really come out…come up about in the last 50 years as a result of processes foods – huge influx of high fructose corn syrup in our food supply, lots of sugar in our foods. Also these it’s the stuff that we don’t need and a lot of those stuff is added to our food supply for economical reasons because the big food companies have their best interests – not our best interests at hand – and what I’ve said is that we’ve kind of traded our health for convenience. We’re looking at microwave foods that take five seconds versus spending a little bit more time preparing a salad or a healthy meal.

So I don’t really think there are many strengths to the Western diet and I think our health, and just looking at people can speak to that; the weakness, there’s so many. Foods…if you look at…if you go to a grocery store and you pick up a box or package, you’re looking at food ingredients that you have no idea what they are.

Jim: Right.

Yuri: So we’re getting foods that are basically manufactured, they’re not even real. All right, so they’re basically produced in a laboratory and these are foods that in…

Jim: It’s sort of scary when you think of it.

Yuri: Yeah, it is, and these are foods in most cases that are not even natural to the planet. So how is our bodies supposed to metabolize them? So whether it’s food additives, or pesticides, or processed foods, or whatever it might be, these are all components of the Western diet – things that are refined where they’ve had their minerals and fiber stripped to them and then we’re being promoted to eat other foods to get that fiber back in. It’s…I really don’t think that there is a lot of merit eating the way North Americans do, so that’s my personal approach.

Jim: Okay, I know just…I’ve become a label reader when I go to the grocery store and just the amount of high fructose corn syrup in foods you would never think of is amazing and to find a loaf of bread that I would consider eating is a challenge in a supermarket.

Yuri: Yeah…

Jim: Because it’s just all chemicals.

Yuri: Yeah, and the funny is thing is that you’ve got these bread commercials now where people are becoming more aware, for instance, that omega 3’s are good for them like DHA and EPA. So now bread companies are saying, “Hey, buy this white bread but it has a DHA in it, so it’s good for your kids.” There should be…this stuff should be outlawed. Personally, I get very…as you can probably tell, I get very built up about this stuff as I think it’s actually ridiculous.

Jim: It is and people get exposed to so many different diets; we get bombarded by these diets. And another one you hear a lot about is the Mediterranean diet. What’s your opinion of that diet?

Yuri: Again it’s…I think it’s…I’m not a huge fan of promoting different diets and I think really there’s just a healthy way of eating and I think culturally that’s going to vary, right? So I think the Mediterranean diet came about looking at why is that people in the Mediterranean suffer from less heart disease, live a little bit longer on average; and it’s important to realize that people in the Mediterranean, their bodies are best able to metabolize and digest and resonate with that type of food – so olive oil, tomatoes, grains, pastas, and stuff in many cases, those are foods that those type of people genetically are able to deal with a lot better.

For instance, my mom is Danish, my dad is Moroccan; so I have that kind of Mediterranean influence from the Moroccan side, now it’s of the northern – the Scandinavian side; but if you take a Scandinavian and see them in a Mediterranean diet, their body is not going to respond to that as well and vice versa. Same thing with somebody from India; if you take them from India and you bring them over to North America, they start obviously eating North American food and they become a Western obese person, they’re not going to…they resonate naturally; their bodies doesn’t resonate with the food that is not part of their culture and I think this is a…it’s kind of a far stretch for a lot of people to imagine but this is also one of the reasons, one of the benefits of eating locally. If you eat locally and seasonally, you actually benefit from the foods that are best able to resonate with your body.

Again, thinking back to thousands of years ago, our ancestors didn’t have the luxury of transporting food thousands of kilometers; they eat what was local to or what they could catch or hunt or gather and that’s pretty much how our bodies developed. So I think the Mediterranean diet is suitable for people of a Mediterranean background, but I think there are elements of it that most people could benefit from, too; being, for instance lycopene from tomatoes which is…they’re really powerful antioxidants. However, tomatoes also have alkaloids, which aggravate things like arthritis and different inflammatory conditions, so it’s a Catch 22. Olive oil, monounsaturated fats like that I think are great and…so there is some merit to that and generally they’re eating more fruits and vegetables as well which is obviously another bonus.

Jim: Okay, we’ll just do one more and…it’s like the low carb or high protein dilemma that people…they hear all these diets and they’re promised all these great advantages, but what are…when people look back or if you would just step back and look again, what are the advantages or the disadvantages of focusing on like a low carb or high-protein diet?

Yuri: Yeah. Again, it really depends on who you speak to. If you speak to a body builder, you’re going to hear “Eat lots of protein animal stuff like chicken breast, steak, all that kind of stuff, and vegetables. Don’t go towards the rice and the pastas and stuff,” and then that’s kind of what’s worked for them, that’s their approach.