Dr. Barnes on hypoglycemia:
My preference for switching to high carbs is just diving in, and probably keeping meal size very small – eating every 2 hours for someone just coming out of the gates.
And yes, the liver has a lot to do with hypoglycemia. Anything containing fructose or alcohol are the only things that have ever given me classic hypoglycemic reactions (wake up at 4am, sweating, with hunger pangs for example).
Also, excess carbohydrate increases thermogenesis, and fat does not stimulate the metabolism the same way that carbohydrate does. Carbohydrate has limited storage capacity, so eating excess carbohydrate increases body heat, physical energy, etc. whereas excess fat is just stored.
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In a calorie surplus you can’t help but grow new lean tissue. It’s automatic. Even laying around doing nothing, the average person will gain about a ¼ pound of lean tissue for every pound they gain when intentionally overfeeding. Doing some weightlifting ensures even more growth.
The higher the calorie intake, the lower the protein requirements for maintaining muscle mass. 30 grams of protein per day is sufficient for maintaining muscle mass or what is called “nitrogen balance” if you are a normal sized adult male – assuming your calorie intake is quite high. And it doesn’t take much above that level to trigger muscle growth.
http://180degreehealth.com/how-much-protein-do-you-need-to-build-muscle/
According to animal studies, excessive amounts of methionine might predispose to the metabolic syndrome. In some animal studies methionine restriction has been shown to protect against obesity, and to prolong lifespan. However, it seems that the main “benefits” of methionine restriction also require simultaneous cysteine restriction, and many of the beneficial effects are likely to be a consequence of some kind of a deficiency. It has also been suggested that some of the harmful effects of excess methionine might be caused by glycine depletion, because glycine is needed in the clearance of excess methionine. There are numerous studies showing that glycine protects rodents from inflammation, metabolic syndrome, cancer, diabetes, animal protein, endotoxin, hypoxia, hemorrhagic shock, lead and cadmium toxicity, dental caries, intestinal damage and many other thing. Rice protein has twice as much glycine and a little bit less methionine than casein, and it is possible that this is an important factor causing these beneficial effects. Examples of protein sources with a good glycine:methionine ratio would include: gelatin, scallop, fish, potatoes, lentils and beans.. Casein might decrease the harmful effects of a high-fat diet by decreasing fat absorption in the intestines.
– Some studies have been showing that individuals with insulin resistance might have lower plasma levels of glycine, histidine, and taurine than healthy people. Because this “deficiency” of anti-inflammatory amino acids might lead to more inflammation, it is possible that people with insulin resistance would benefit most from the amino acid supplementation.
http://180degreehealth.com/amino-acids-metabolic-syndrome/
http://180degreehealth.com/rrarf-addendum/ :
While RRARF (Rehabilitative Rest and Agressive Re-Feeding) is very successful at raising body temperature, improving digestion and overall well-being – one question remains…. Can it be done more efficiently? Can it be improved upon?
By more efficiently, I mean with less fat gain and greater lean body mass gain as well as a greater rise in temperature per calorie ingested.
I believe the answer to those questions is “yes.” So what’s better? Getting more calories from starches or getting more calories from fat?
Upon close scrutiny of the literature on overfeeding, a clear picture emerges. Straight studies comparing overfeeding with a high-fat/low-starch diet vs. a high-starch/low-fat diet yields clear-cut results. The higher the ratio of starch to fat when overfeeding, the greater the lean body mass gains and the lesser the body fat gains. Not only that, but since starch is not something that the body can readily store like it can fat molecules, the excess calories ingested MUST force an increase in body heat and physical energy to a much greater degree than fat overfeeding.
When large quantities of fructose are ingested during overfeeding, the effect is very fattening because a great deal of the fructose is converted to fat in the liver. However, this is not true when talking about starch overfeeding.Of the starches, those highest in amylose content and resistant starch – such as legumes, red potatoes, corn, and intact whole grains like Basmati rice (vs. those ground into flour as in bread/pasta) – particularly those that have been cooked and then chilled which forms a type of metabolically-stimulating resistant starch known as RS3, are ideal. A version of RRARF where these types of starchy foods are maximized and other foods more or less minimized in comparison is probably the most efficient route to take.
The reasons why that is goes far beyond a larger increase in lean body mass in comparison to fat gains, but incorporates positive changes in the microbial environment of the gut, intestinal production of the most metabolically-stimulating and insulin-sensitizing fatty acids known (such as butyric and propionic acids), and perhaps most-importantly – pronounced appetite inhibition with an increase in metabolism, meaning that weight gain is minimal or weight is even lost eating to appetite while metabolism simultaneously rises (the Holy Grail of health and weight loss).
For overfeeding, I really don't think much meat/fish/dairy is needed at all. 1 portion per day is more than enough while eating beyond appetite. I'm actually prefering far less. I feel best when I wait until I really crave animal protein to eat it – which usually ends up being once every 3-4 days.
The higher the starch to fat ratio, the greater the muscle gain to fat gain if weight is gained eating to appetite (for those coming off the SAD, weight loss is more likely).
A typical meal might be 1 pound of roasted potatoes sprinkled with a little cheese, and a plate of rice and beans with lots of salsa.
Fat is very healing for someone coming off a prolonged low-fat, low-calorie restricted diet. But a very large portion of people trying RRARF are former low-carbers, and they stand to get more healing from high-carb intake.
Either way, if you are coming from low-fat/low-calorie damage or low-carb damage and you eat lots of both together to appetite, you'll see a rise in body fat almost guaranteed. Not to say that this isn't healing. It is. It's awesome.
Starch overfeeding doesn't have the same result. Excess starch does not become fat. Excess simple sugar becomes fat, and doesn't improve insulin sensitivity. The opposite actually. But in real life, what happens is that insulin levels go up if people are really overfeeding hard, but in the absence of fat any weight gained is almost pure muscle.
But most spontaneously eat fewer calories, have a drop in insulin, lose fat.
Here are the prime factors in the flavor-calorie theory, which explains numerous diets all under one umbrella…
1.) Calorie density – the more calorie-dense a food is, the more it triggers an activation of reward centers in the brain and a mysterious rise in weight set point.
2.) Absorption rate – the faster a food is absorbed, the stronger the flavor-calorie association and the larger the rise in the activation of reward centers in the brain and a rise in set point that occurs when these pleasure centers are tickled.
3.) Flavor-intensity – the more highly-flavored the food is, the more it raises set point
4.) Food familiarity – the more you eat ditto foods with a strong flavor-calorie association (like, say, Cool Ranch Doritos), the more you start to prefer those foods, the stronger the flavor-calorie association becomes, and the more fattening those foods become.
5.) Liquid vs. Solid – Liquids, in general, promote stronger flavor-calorie associations and are more fattening than solid foods – raising the set point.
7) Feeding humans less calorie-dense foods, such as a diet high in fiber and water content from fruit, vegetables, and unrefined starches causes a massive decrease in calorie consumption – up to an instant 40% decrease with no decrease in satiation reported (from Burkitt et. al.’s Western Disease).
11) Low-carb diets that contain artificial sweeteners often negate the hunger-suppression and weight loss effect of a low-carb diet. Even Atkins reported this, and advised those who weren’t losing weight to make sure they excluded aspartame from their diets.
Fruit, which has a very low-calorie density, eaten by itself, does NOT form strong flavor-calorie associations. When consumed with a high-calorie load after a mixed meal, I find fruit to be very fattening, and juices even more so, which would be expected if Roberts’s theory is accurate.
Those attempting to lose weight may find much better success…
– eating almost exclusively homecooked whole foods
-cooking differently each time or with the addition of different spice combinations to reduce flavor-calorie associations
-eating lots of food that is not calorie dense – like root vegetables and vegetables
-avoiding all liquid calories
-eating foods that require lots of chewing
-keeping fat intake reasonable (which decreases flavor-calorie associations), and being wary about foods with strong flavor-calorie associations where fat and carbohydrate are conjoined and in ditto form – pizza, ice cream, fast food, chips, cookies, etc.
For more on Seth’s theory, read the Shangri-La Diet or Seth’s free report here:
Fat overfeeding causes the most fat gain and the least thermogenesis.
Essentially, the brain releases dopamine in proportion to calorie density. Now, 7-day averages, not overfeeding, I'm probably at:
100 grams protein
70 grams fat
400 grams carbohydrate
As for fruitarians, they consume a very low-fat diet, get insufficient protein which I believe raises catabolic hormones and therefore suppresses insulin, and generally waste away on the diet – not gain. Elizabeth also pointed out that fruit has low calorie-density when eaten alone, and is therefore not fattening for that reason.
But it is safe to say that the higher the carb to fat ratio and the starch to sugar ratio, the greater the lean mass gains and thermogenesis when excess calories are consumed.
"Insulin converting carbohydrate into fat? That’s not how insulin works at all. In fact, a solid debunking took place a couple months back athttp://www.carbsanity.blogspot.com/ in which it was shown that the body is in negative fat balance (burning more fat than storing) during postprandial insulin spikes – like the kind you get after having some good old corn starch. On top of that, the easiest carbohydrate to convert to fat has been shown time and time and time and time and time again to be the one that travels to the liver and is digested most slowly. It’s called fructose. Not only does the presence of fat make fat storage easier, if fructose is converted to fat in the liver (which it can be under certain circumstances) it increases insulin resistance, which can lead to increased fat storage (insulin lowers appetite and increases metabolic rate, so becoming unresponsive to the hormone has a tendency to increase appetite and reduce metabolic rate)." Matt Stone
Fiber also ferments into short-chain fatty acids that have a long list of metabolic benefits, most noticeable being an increase in mitochondrial activity (metabolic rate), insulin sensitivity, and reduced blood levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, and various inflammatory markers.
A low body temperature is known to increase the intensity of the inflammatory response – perhaps why allergies, food sensitivities, autoimmune disease, and other inflammatory conditions often worsen long-term on various diets of all kinds.
The most weight-set-point-lowering thing you can eat is probably raw, uncooked, unprocessed food. caffeine and salt can lower weight set point somewhat. Many anecdotally report effortless drops in body weight when cutting out common triggers of allergic or inflammatory reactions, like wheat or dairy products. There are a lot of possibilities here when it comes to changing what you eat or drink that can lower weight set point.
Breakfast eaters typically weigh less, with more muscle mass, than those who skip breakfast.
I think it’s highly variable from person to person, a lot more than food is involved, and age is certainly a factor that works against losing weight spontaneously. Age is a big factor. It seems most people in their teens and twenties go through the refeeding, gaining, and losing process at hyperspeed. Maybe the whole thing will take six months to reach completion at that age for most. The older you get, and the more extremes you’ve been through, the longer it seems to take to actually get to the point of seeing the weight come off, if it ever does. These are just generalizations based on observations.
http://180degreehealth.com/befriending-insulin/:Insulin, for starters, helps take food energy out of our bloodstream after digestion takes place and packs it away into muscle cells. Wow! I bet that feels really good, stimulates your metabolism, improves your immune system, satisfies your appetite, and makes your muscles grow…. It does.
The problem is, most people’s bodies are NOT working correctly, and the muscle cells are resistant to insulin. This is where the problem lies, and there is no single piece of evidence the world over that suggests, in the slightest degree, that unrefined carbohydrate staples consumed by human beings over the past 10,000 years has anything to do with causing that dysfunction. One of insulin’s wonderful qualities in preventing obesity and metabolic disease is the fact that it is a primary satiating hormone.
Insulin, in the ABSENCE of food, definitely isn’t satiating. It’s deadly. But insulin, under normal circumstances, is an appetite suppressant. Insulin is also the primary driver of muscle growth. Because it packs amino acids and glucose needed for muscle growth into muscle cells, muscle tissue cannot be added very efficiently without insulin present in sizeable quantity.Because of this, among other actions of insulin (such as working in concert with leptin to raise metabolism, suppress appetite, increase lipolysis/fat burning, and so forth), insulin is a profound stimulator of the metabolic rate as well – which is probably why very low-carbohydrate diets, and low-calorie diets, produce huge drops in T3 – the active hormone that regulates metabolism.
Along with the drop in T3 comes drops in testosterone as well – another of the primary hormones involved in building muscle mass and decreasing body fat, which depends upon ample amounts of insulin to be stimulated.
Insulin also works on an axis with the catecholamines – which includes cortisol. When insulin goes up, adrenal activity falls. When insulin goes down, adrenal activity picks up. Keep insulin too low for too long and you run the risk of adrenal fatigue.You are also likely to increase the activity of cortisol (which, unlike carbohydrate ingestion, actually DOES cause insulin resistance) by keeping insulin levels suppressed, which increases insulin resistance, decreases testosterone, decreases fat burning, and otherwise takes you ever-closer to metabolic syndrome.
The result is more body fat and less lean muscle tissue – not to mention a slower metabolism in general, which all ties into the fact that your muscle cells are literally starving. There is no insulin to pump vital matter into cells when insulin is low, and if you return to eating lots of carbohydrates, they are very fattening until the point at which your cortisol levels fall, your metabolism rises, your insulin resistance decreases, and then… finally, your muscle cells start receiving nutrients and you feel better for once.
The ever-popular way to deal with insulin resistance by taking carbohydrates away from a person may have all kinds of benefits in the short-term. This is because chronically-high insulin levels as a result of insulin resistance (not caused by unrefined carbs) are lowered, and many other systems are able to come into balance because of this drop in insulin.
However, it is a dead end, and is not fixing the problem. Eventually, a person on a low-carb diet will run into negative symptoms of insulin deficiency, such as decreased metabolic rate, suppressed fat burning, weight regain, lowered testosterone, decreased immune function, and so forth. This takes a lot longer to take place in an overweight, insulin resistant person, and happens VERY quickly in an insulin sensitive lean person that has no business being on a low-carb diet in the first place.
The best way to bring metabolic syndrome under control? Eat unrefined, nutritious foods to appetite or beyond without severe macronutrient restriction (but an emphasis on starch to increase insulin sensitivity and lower cortisol most quickly), get lots of rest and relaxation, lots of sleep, and whatever else you can do to minimize your burden of stress, inflammation, etc. – ranging from having root canals pulled to treating sleep apnea to decreasing the omega 6 polyunsaturated fat content of your diet.
Ironically, the hyperinsulinemia epidemic that is sweeping the globe is best solved by befriending insulin and eating plenty of high-quality, nutritious, starchy carbohydrates as well as other foods that stimulate insulin, like beef and cheese.
For low carbers: I find it can be better to go way to the opposite end of the macronutrient ratio spectrum for a week or two to recover more quickly without the fat gain. Trying to sneak in a few extra carbs slowly after a really long time on a low-carb diet is always a killer though.
Often getting chunky is the exact thing that is required to heal very serious metabolic disorders. In women, a messed up metabolism can increase androgens. In men, you see more of an overproduction of estrogen and low testosterone when metabolism is low.
Insulin is not a stimulator of fat burning when it is present in high amounts. But being able to shuttle nutrients into cells and stimulate the metabolism does increase fat burning in between meals, during sleep, etc. It also allows insulin to fall lower due to increased insulin sensitivity.
I don't need a study to confirm to me that carbohdyrate restriction causes loss of sex drive and reduced sexual function in Matt Stone. I don't need a study to show me that lack of sleep makes me grumpy. I don't need a study to show me that excessive endurance exercise lowers my metabolism… again, these are all facts, not theories.
What I was surprised to hear from Graham, was his thorough understanding of the negatives of eating lots of fat (as well as purine-rich meat) and lots of fruit together – even from wholesome sources. Granted, most of the wholesome sources were omega 6-heavy fat sources like nuts and avocado, which I’ve noticed to be a far worse combo with fruit than primarily saturated fat (like cream or coconut).
Most people try to eat a low-fat diet and cut calories at the same time. This is the worst possible diet known to man. In general, the higher your diet is weighted towards carbohydrates, the greater the muscle mass you will lose while in calorie deficit – and the greatest out-of-control hunger and cravings you will experience.
In fact, calories are more muscle-sparing than protein. The higher in calories you go, the less protein you need to maintain lean body mass. Other primates average less than 10% of their caloric intake as protein, and generally have a 500% greater ratio of strength to bodyweight than humans. No matter how you examine it, we are an awful lot like other primates.
When you lose weight on a diet, the body’s reaction is to gain weight after. When you gain weight on a non-diet, the body’s reaction is to lose weight after. But I find for some it does take some action – actually obeying your body’s cues for movement and lighter fare instead of perpetually trying to override that with more rest and more food. In other words, you can eat lightly and exercise your brains out and lose weight. If it doesn’t feel like a diet, and your body isn’t shutting down metabolically like you’re on a diet, you’re probably not going to have a post-dieting reaction to it.
One school of thought suggests that certain foods feed “good bacteria.” I talk about this at length in Diet Recovery, as resistant starches (from starchy foods, beans, whole grains, legumes, chilled starchy foods, Mr. Bean) and foods that don’t fully digest feed “healthy” gut bacteria, resulting in the production of the most metabolically-stimulating of all fatty acids – butyric acid (and other short-chain saturated fatty acids – SCFA’s, thought to generally have a positive health impact). While Peat might acknowledge some benefit here, he seems to believe that there is an even better strategy at addressing this problem – and suggests we eat highly digestible foods that digest completely before they reach the digestive tract, while also eating raw carrots – a food that has an anti-bacterial property that can supposedly help to sterilize the gut (carrots are roots that live in the dark, wet dirt where they must protect themselves from bacterial invasion and have thus developed antibiotic properties). Linda Bacon discusses this in her excellent book Health at Every Size…“Fatter people tend to have a significantly greater proportion of one of the two main types of bacteria found in the gut, known as Firmicutes, than the other, known as Bacteroidetes. Detailed molecular analyses show that the Firmicutes are much better at extracting calories from food.
When researchers spent a year meticulously measuring the gut flora of the heavier volunteers as they tried to lose weight by eating low-calorie diets, they actually discovered that the proportion of Firmicutes in their digestive tracts rose and the proportion of Bacteroidetes fell.
Only when my fruit intake eclipses a very large portion of my total diet do the benefits start to take place without the drawbacks (like tooth pain, increased hunger, increased fat, lethargy, anxiety, sleep problems, bleeding gums, zits). If you want to try it, try eating only fruits, 50-50 diluted juices, and starches like rice, potatoes, beans with no added fat or meat until your hunger goes down. It might take a while, but within a week you'll probably start to lose the strong desire to eat something else. At that point you can start slowly working other things into your diet. To me, this is a much better approach than trying to slowly add fruit, which simply doesn't work for those who have this same kind of reaction.
It’s not the carbohydrate per se that causes the positive insulin-sensitizing impact and enhanced glycemic control. It’s not necessarily the severe fat restriction either. It appears that the big drops in triglycerides and increase in insulin sensitivity that commonly occur on the type of diet used by Anderson, as well as in real life in clinical practice by guys like Joel Fuhrman (who prescribes a “beans and greens” approach to reversing type 2 diabetes), result from a heavy intake of fiber – including resistant starch discussed last week, and a high ratio of starch or “complex” carbohydrate to simple sugars. This increases the production of short-chain fatty acids in the gut such as acetate, butyrate, and propionate – discussed in part in this eBook DIET RECOVERY , which increases metabolism, decreases appetite, causes spontaneous weight loss, increases physical activity, drops triglycerides, lowers cholesterol, improves both insulin and leptin sensitivity, and improves HDL to LDL ratio all in one shot. This also patterns an improvement in gut flora to favor the type of gut flora seen in lean people such as rural Africans as opposed to that seen in the obese, which also provides better resistance to infection and decreased chance of developing bowel cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and more.
Taube: Fructose is different from any other type of carbohydrate in terms of how it is metabolized. It passes through the liver where it is known to be converted to fat while increasing the type of cholesterol most associated with heart disease, VLDL – very low-density lipoprotein. “Regarding the potential dangers of sugar in the diet, it is important to keep in mind that fructose is converted more efficiently into glycerol phosphate (a molecule associated with the storage of body fat) than is glucose. This is another reason why fructose stimulates the liver so readily to convert it to triglycerides, and why fructose is considered the most lipogenic carbohydrate.”By lipogenic, Taubes means fat-forming.
When you are cold, especially in the hands and feet, your urine is clear, the urge to urinate is strong, or you are peeing frequently… YOU NEED TO EAT MORE AND DRINK LESS. When you are hot, especially in the hands and feet, your urine is dark or you haven’t peed in a really long time… YOU NEED TO EAT LESS AND DRINK MORE.
In my experience a low-carb diet can be very metabolically-suppressive regardless of fluid and salt intake. The glucose seems necessary in order to take advantage of the salt itself, and there are known glucose transporters involved in the process, which is why rehydration drinks always contain glucose.
Too much exercise can interfere with your ability to produce a great deal of body heat at rest. Stress and exhaustion lower the metabolism so you need to sleep enough. When I was working on raising my metabolism, I tried to sleep 10-12 hours per night. Nowadays I only get about 8 hours a night, and my temperature is stable at 98.6.
The most important use of the snack is to lift your body out of an active stress event. It takes a surprisingly miniscule total amount of food to do this. Signs that your body is having a stress event might be cold hands and feet, a sudden urge to urinate, frequent urination, a sudden crash in mood or energy levels, abnormalities in your pulse rate, a headache, nausea, a funky taste in your mouth or dry mouth, a loss of the pink color in your tongue – all kinds of things. Some foods are more “warming” than others. Some of his “superstars” are: cheese, coconut, chocolate, flour, red meat, potatoes, soy sauce, ice cream, and other desserts.
Fructose is well-known to trigger insulin resistance, where other types of carbohydrates, regardless of their absorption rates, cannot. Fructose does not stimulate the release of leptin. Johnson states:
“Blood tests showed that the women’s leptin levels were 35% lower when they drank fructose-sweetened beverages than when they drank glucose beverages.”
Raising leptin is key, and since glucose raises leptin more than straight fructose or any carbohydrate containing fructose such as High-Fructose Corn Syrup or sucrose (white sugar), it is vastly preferable. The funny part is that the most glucose-heavy carbohydrates often appear at the top of the Glycemic Index – grains, potatoes, and corn. Hence the
180 Degree Diabetes chapter title: “The Glycemic Index Catastrophe.”
Also, fructose is the only type of carbohydrate that can induce leptin resistance – where leptin levels, even if they rise, do not have the intended effect because the leptin isn’t getting through to its receptors. Johnson writes: “High doses of fructose cause leptin resistance.
Farris has been led to believe that the hormone cortisol, released in response to inflammation, is an important step in the chain of events leading to metabolic syndrome, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic disease states. An entire book has been written about how inflammation causes leptin resistance – the bread and butter hormonal connection between low body temperature, decreased lipolysis (fat burning), increased lipogenesis (fat storage), increased appetite, decreased energy levels, and all of the endless array of health problems that stem from this physical state. If margarine, shortening, and solvent-extracted corn and soy oils accumulates in our tissues, and is the precursor to the “Inflammatory Cytokines” – the substances that do the most cellular damage and invoke the greatest outpouring of cortisol, then the veggie oil connection to chronic disease is VERY POWERFUL.
