Drinking is not eating. We all evolved to have teeth for a reason. You should eat real meals, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is proper blood glucose regulation. So if what you are eating does not affect blood glucose homeostasis, then it doesn't matter if it's solid or liquid.
2. Is eating isolated fat the same as eating?
Again, the only metric is blood glucose regulation. Eating isolated fat can affect blood glucose regulation over time.
Just because isolated fat does not have an effect on blood glucose in the short term, it does raise insulin in the long term. The body does not require insulin for the metabolism of fat, but it does require insulin to store it. If you over consume fat, it will raise basal (fasting) insulin levels in order to store whatever wasn't used for fuel. Rising insulin levels, particularly during fasting, will disrupt blood glucose regulation.
The goal is to lower basal insulin levels so it does not effect fasting blood glucose. Excess fat consumption will not help with this. You are actually getting fatter by keeping basal insulin levels high, because it will cause/worsen leptin resistance.
Fat is not an anti-obesity magic pill. If it was, it would have already been patented, marketed and there would be no obesity epidemic, because everyone would be taking their coconut oil pill, in the morning, to keep eating their bagels without any ill effects. It doesn't work that way. Adding copious amounts of fat to your food will not treat the problem. The restriction of carbohydrates will.
3. Is food the only thing that can affect insulin negatively?
No. Diet is the most common cause, but it is not the only one.
Certain medications can cause the release of excess glucose from cells. The main hormone that causes this, and is affected by many of these medications, is cortisol. Cortisol not only releases stored glucose from cells, but it also makes insulin inactive, as it is a counter regulatory hormone to insulin. Because glucose is forced to remain in the blood and outside of the cells, it can not be used for fuel. Insulin remains at high levels for a prolonged period of time, because of the persistent presence of glucose in the bloodstream. As if cortisol locking glucose out of the cells isn't bad enough, insulin affects ghrelin levels, which can increase appetite.
This is why it is so important to follow a carbohydrate restricted diet, especially if cortisol levels are high due to medications, injury, lack of sleep or any other circumstance that causes stress and affects blood glucose. All of these situations become dire when combined with dietary carbohydrates and makes weight gain worse and weight loss impossible. The less exogenous glucose comes in, the less impact will be caused by the release of endogenous glucose, reducing this obesogenic effect.
4. Is cholesterol the most important biomarker?
A cholesterol panel can tell you a lot about your metabolic health, but not through your total cholesterol number. More information can be obtained from LDL particle number.
This doesn't mean that your cholesterol panel is entirely meaningless. For example, high triglycerides and low HDL are usually the hallmarks of metabolic dysfunction and they can occur decades before the disease reaches an advanced stage. This knowledge gives you leverage to correct the problem before it becomes dire. High triglycerides and low HDL are not corrected by lowering your total cholesterol number. They are corrected by changing your lipid profile and this is done through diet.
As you can see, the total cholesterol you have is not the biomarker you want to track. Instead, you need to know how damaged your lipoproteins are. Correcting the damage to your lipoproteins requires a lifestyle change that switches the focus from total cholesterol to damaged lipoproteins. Your total cholesterol number is no longer an important biomarker and shouldn't stop you from pursuing the lifestyle that corrects your metabolism and reduces heart disease. Metabolic syndrome is the biggest risk of heart disease you can have.
5. Should foods charts and macronutrients recommendations be followed?
Remember, the only "charts and macronutrient recommendations" that matter, are the ones that improve your blood glucose regulation because you will not see any results until that occurs. So every time you use these macronutrient calculators, what you are really trying to do is achieve better blood glucose control through what you eat. This is why these calculators can be tricky because there is no one size fits all recommendation since blood glucose regulation is very individualized.
Fat is not an anti-obesity magic pill. If it was, it would have already been patented, marketed and there would be no obesity epidemic, because everyone would be taking their coconut oil pill, in the morning, to keep eating their bagels without any ill effects. It doesn't work that way. Adding copious amounts of fat to your food will not treat the problem. The restriction of carbohydrates will.
3. Is food the only thing that can affect insulin negatively?
No. Diet is the most common cause, but it is not the only one.
Certain medications can cause the release of excess glucose from cells. The main hormone that causes this, and is affected by many of these medications, is cortisol. Cortisol not only releases stored glucose from cells, but it also makes insulin inactive, as it is a counter regulatory hormone to insulin. Because glucose is forced to remain in the blood and outside of the cells, it can not be used for fuel. Insulin remains at high levels for a prolonged period of time, because of the persistent presence of glucose in the bloodstream. As if cortisol locking glucose out of the cells isn't bad enough, insulin affects ghrelin levels, which can increase appetite.
This is why it is so important to follow a carbohydrate restricted diet, especially if cortisol levels are high due to medications, injury, lack of sleep or any other circumstance that causes stress and affects blood glucose. All of these situations become dire when combined with dietary carbohydrates and makes weight gain worse and weight loss impossible. The less exogenous glucose comes in, the less impact will be caused by the release of endogenous glucose, reducing this obesogenic effect.
4. Is cholesterol the most important biomarker?
A cholesterol panel can tell you a lot about your metabolic health, but not through your total cholesterol number. More information can be obtained from LDL particle number.
This doesn't mean that your cholesterol panel is entirely meaningless. For example, high triglycerides and low HDL are usually the hallmarks of metabolic dysfunction and they can occur decades before the disease reaches an advanced stage. This knowledge gives you leverage to correct the problem before it becomes dire. High triglycerides and low HDL are not corrected by lowering your total cholesterol number. They are corrected by changing your lipid profile and this is done through diet.
As you can see, the total cholesterol you have is not the biomarker you want to track. Instead, you need to know how damaged your lipoproteins are. Correcting the damage to your lipoproteins requires a lifestyle change that switches the focus from total cholesterol to damaged lipoproteins. Your total cholesterol number is no longer an important biomarker and shouldn't stop you from pursuing the lifestyle that corrects your metabolism and reduces heart disease. Metabolic syndrome is the biggest risk of heart disease you can have.
5. Should foods charts and macronutrients recommendations be followed?
Remember, the only "charts and macronutrient recommendations" that matter, are the ones that improve your blood glucose regulation because you will not see any results until that occurs. So every time you use these macronutrient calculators, what you are really trying to do is achieve better blood glucose control through what you eat. This is why these calculators can be tricky because there is no one size fits all recommendation since blood glucose regulation is very individualized.
Many food charts and macronutrient calculators are inaccurate, because they are not giving you individualized recommendations. So, if you are the type of person that must track your macronutrient grams carefully, make sure you use a calculator where you can input your body fat percentage and your goals. Remember, you might not get results following someone else's macronutrient recommendations, as they might not normalize your blood glucose.
Results are the best indicator of whether you are doing something wrong or right. If you are getting results, then you must be doing something right. Do not fix what's not broken.
6. Can I fix my metabolic health with what I eat?
Results are the best indicator of whether you are doing something wrong or right. If you are getting results, then you must be doing something right. Do not fix what's not broken.
6. Can I fix my metabolic health with what I eat?
In this lifestyle, it is often believed that the addition of fat and eating whole food is what fixes metabolic health, but it's not. The only thing that can fix your metabolic health in an improvement in blood glucose regulation. The addition of fat and eating whole foods often tends to have a positive effect on blood glucose regulation. This usually occurs due to the subtraction of two obesogenic practices that actually caused blood glucose regulation to shift for the better:
- Elimination of carbohydrates. When carbohydrates are restricted, whole food automatically fills in the gap. This also increases animal based foods, which are particularly healthy and anti-obesogenic because they have a minimal effect on blood glucose homeostasis.
- Elimination of snacking. When carbohydrates are restricted, nearly all processed snack foods are eliminated. Most of these "snack foods" contain unnatural, man-made macronutrient combinations like very high carbohydrate and little fat, or high carbohydrate and high fat from "vegetable" oils which have a negative effect on blood glucose homeostasis.
The subtraction, not addition, of what was causing the problem in the first place, the fattening carbohydrate, is what improved health outcomes.
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