Compassionate Weight Loss
Published 6.3.2025: The next presentation in the vegan seminar, "The Truth About Weight Loass," was from Dr. Frank Sabatino. His talk starts with obesity statistics that are likely familiar to most in this audience (these were US statistics, so international readers may not know them all. Basically, tons of US citizens are fat— very fat). Being very fat, he notes, increases disease risk— again, not a surprise.
Appetite control is complicated and based on a lot of internal and external signals. A lot of his talk mirrors what the guys at Mastering Diabetes say. "fat blocks sugar from entering the cell, so eating an oil free diet will help. I don't know.
To the Salt, Oil, and Sugar (SOS) he adds "crunch" — which is just an ultra-processed food (UPF) that is hyper-palatable. I have long been team "hyper-palatable" because my family members didn't get fat eating UPF, they got fat eating hyper-palatable foods cooked at home. No chef tries to make food unpalatable. You can't make UPF at your home— you CAN make hyper-palatable food.
As an aside: Kevin Hall is the researcher who found that people eating UPF vs non-UPF foods ate about 500 calories more of the UPF foods. However, when the menus (UPF and not) were matched for hyper-palatabilty — THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE.
Sadly, Dr Hall announced that he is retiring from the National Institute of Heath as of April 16th— because he didn't feel like he could present his results without meddling. This is a huge blow to nutritional research efforts in the US, and is very much an indicator of the mess RFK Jr is in the process of making. The kind of studies that Dr Hall ran are expensive, and can't really be done absent government money. What a terrible waste.
And with that, the gentle reader has a pretty good idea of how delayed these pieces are.
Back to the presentation: Yes, plant foods have lower calorie density, again not a surprise. He believes in food addiction, but didn't separate it out. I still don't think that "food" addiction is real— I could be convinced that hyper-palatable UPF addiction is a thing.
Sabatino touts the beneficial effects of fiber, and I have no issue with that. Of course, you can only get fiber from plants, the issue is, do you need to only eat plants? and then he goes to the "bliss point" that most hyper-palatable UPFs are designed to meet— with a combination of SOS. That's also why I like hyper-palatability, because it is precisely defined. I've seen too many discussions be derailed but people arguing what is or is not a UPF— the real question is: Is it hyper-palatable?
He goes on to discuss how changing to a plant exclusive diet will alter the microbiome— and it would. And because people would (at least if they ate whole food plants) be eating much lower calorie dense foods, they would lose weight. But frankly, there are plenty of hyper-palatable VEGAN UPFs out there. And they are probably not any good for the gut microbiome either, but vegans might disagree, because at least there are no animal products.
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT any type of medical professional. Do NOT take medical advice from me!!
Appetite control is complicated and based on a lot of internal and external signals. A lot of his talk mirrors what the guys at Mastering Diabetes say. "fat blocks sugar from entering the cell, so eating an oil free diet will help. I don't know.
To the Salt, Oil, and Sugar (SOS) he adds "crunch" — which is just an ultra-processed food (UPF) that is hyper-palatable. I have long been team "hyper-palatable" because my family members didn't get fat eating UPF, they got fat eating hyper-palatable foods cooked at home. No chef tries to make food unpalatable. You can't make UPF at your home— you CAN make hyper-palatable food.
As an aside: Kevin Hall is the researcher who found that people eating UPF vs non-UPF foods ate about 500 calories more of the UPF foods. However, when the menus (UPF and not) were matched for hyper-palatabilty — THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE.
Sadly, Dr Hall announced that he is retiring from the National Institute of Heath as of April 16th— because he didn't feel like he could present his results without meddling. This is a huge blow to nutritional research efforts in the US, and is very much an indicator of the mess RFK Jr is in the process of making. The kind of studies that Dr Hall ran are expensive, and can't really be done absent government money. What a terrible waste.
And with that, the gentle reader has a pretty good idea of how delayed these pieces are.
Back to the presentation: Yes, plant foods have lower calorie density, again not a surprise. He believes in food addiction, but didn't separate it out. I still don't think that "food" addiction is real— I could be convinced that hyper-palatable UPF addiction is a thing.
Sabatino touts the beneficial effects of fiber, and I have no issue with that. Of course, you can only get fiber from plants, the issue is, do you need to only eat plants? and then he goes to the "bliss point" that most hyper-palatable UPFs are designed to meet— with a combination of SOS. That's also why I like hyper-palatability, because it is precisely defined. I've seen too many discussions be derailed but people arguing what is or is not a UPF— the real question is: Is it hyper-palatable?
He goes on to discuss how changing to a plant exclusive diet will alter the microbiome— and it would. And because people would (at least if they ate whole food plants) be eating much lower calorie dense foods, they would lose weight. But frankly, there are plenty of hyper-palatable VEGAN UPFs out there. And they are probably not any good for the gut microbiome either, but vegans might disagree, because at least there are no animal products.
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT any type of medical professional. Do NOT take medical advice from me!!