A common mainstream advice, that we have all heard before, is that you have to eat often to "stabilize blood glucose", but this is incorrect. This idea has been pushed by Big Pharma, so that diabetics can mitigate the effects of blood glucose lowering medications and exogenous insulin. People on exogenous insulin, have to eat often, in order to stabilize blood glucose levels that are being constantly dropped by these doses of insulin. People who are not on medications, do not have to do this.
The best way to stabilize blood glucose is to eat at meal times only, eat only foods that do not interfere in blood glucose homeostasis and follow a daily fasting regimen. This is the best way to allow the body to stabilize its own blood glucose, in the long term.
2. Since metabolic syndrome is so common, is it just a part of getting older?
Metabolic syndrome and other metabolic abnormalities are not a normal part of aging. They are the effects of a lifetime of blood glucose abnormalities. If you want to live an active and productive life, well into your senior years, you have to fix metabolic disease through a lifestyle change. Just because many older people are on a slew of medications and have numerous health problems, does not make it normal. It just makes it common.
3. Will a high fat diet cause my cholesterol to increase?
Perhaps. It depends on your genetics.
Cholesterol levels increase in some people who follow carbohydrate restricted diets, which incorporate saturated fats and eliminate vegetable oils. The majority of the time, this is due to a rise in HDL cholesterol. What matters is the cholesterol profile, not it’s total number. Lipoproteins are very complex and there are no routine medical tests available that can determine whether they are functioning properly or not. Your medical doctor also cannot interpret these tests, even if they were available. You would need a lipidologist.
But there are still some tests available to you that can give you a glimpse to what might be happening with your lipoproteins such as an advanced lipid panel, which measures lipoprotein size and number and an oxidized LDL test which measures how oxidized your LDL is. Neither are perfect but they can still give you more information than a basic total cholesterol number.
Heart disease is caused by multiple factors and it is not always related to cholesterol. When it comes to lipoproteins, research suggests that oxidized lipoproteins enter damaged arterial linings causing a clot, which can suddenly release and cause the heart attack or stroke. This process be exacerbated by certain lifestyle factors but it is mostly a genetic predisposition to lipoprotein abnormalities.
Metabolic abnormalities that create systemic chronic inflammation and oxidative stress can exacerbate this condition. In other words, metabolic syndrome puts you at risk for heart disease, not high total cholesterol. That is why more than half of heart attack patients have normal to low cholesterol levels.
4. Is dairy inflammatory?
Some people experience an exaggerated immune response when they consume dairy. Lactose is not the cause of this, instead it’s the dairy proteins, mostly the casein protein.
Dairy proteins usually come accompanied by grains and/or sugar, in the Standard American Diet (SAD). The body mistakenly flags them as enemies, as the casein protein is broken down in the same pathway as indigestible gluten proteins. Many processed foods use concentrated dairy proteins, in their products along with glutens, as stabilizers or fillers. The body was not meant to eat isolated and highly concentrated forms of any macronutrient.
Also, grain fed, conventional dairy has an abnormal variant of the casein protein, which is not recognized by the body. The immune response caused by the misfolded casein is manifested as inflammation and/or an allergic reaction. People with other allergies and/or autoimmune conditions, like celiac disease, are at most risk for this immune response.
If you experience this reaction then you must eliminate dairy from the diet. Eventually, with time, the immune system can reduce its hyper excitability and be able to tolerate dairy again, but that’s not true in all cases. People with this issue can try A2 casein milk or goat milk to see if there is any difference in their symptoms.
Lactose intolerance is simply the inability to digest lactose (milk sugar). People with this condition can try dairy that includes the missing enzyme, that's needed for the proper digestion of lactose.
5. Do I need to buy grass fed meat and pastured poultry in order to follow this diet?
You do not need to buy any specialized meat to follow a carbohydrate restricted diet. As long as you eat meat and not pasta, you are making an improvement. Buy the meat you can afford. Just make sure it's fresh, not processed and hasn't been marinated or flavor enhanced in any way. Buy at the butcher's counter, not at the freezer or the hot dog aisle.
Though meat, even the cheapest, is more expensive than mac 'n' cheese, you will not be spending more, since you will be buying meat instead of snacks, bread, crackers, pasta, candy, cookies, drinks, etc.
6. Will eating fat get me to goal weight?
No. Only proper blood glucose regulation can achieve that.
Heart disease is caused by multiple factors and it is not always related to cholesterol. When it comes to lipoproteins, research suggests that oxidized lipoproteins enter damaged arterial linings causing a clot, which can suddenly release and cause the heart attack or stroke. This process be exacerbated by certain lifestyle factors but it is mostly a genetic predisposition to lipoprotein abnormalities.
Metabolic abnormalities that create systemic chronic inflammation and oxidative stress can exacerbate this condition. In other words, metabolic syndrome puts you at risk for heart disease, not high total cholesterol. That is why more than half of heart attack patients have normal to low cholesterol levels.
4. Is dairy inflammatory?
Some people experience an exaggerated immune response when they consume dairy. Lactose is not the cause of this, instead it’s the dairy proteins, mostly the casein protein.
Dairy proteins usually come accompanied by grains and/or sugar, in the Standard American Diet (SAD). The body mistakenly flags them as enemies, as the casein protein is broken down in the same pathway as indigestible gluten proteins. Many processed foods use concentrated dairy proteins, in their products along with glutens, as stabilizers or fillers. The body was not meant to eat isolated and highly concentrated forms of any macronutrient.
Also, grain fed, conventional dairy has an abnormal variant of the casein protein, which is not recognized by the body. The immune response caused by the misfolded casein is manifested as inflammation and/or an allergic reaction. People with other allergies and/or autoimmune conditions, like celiac disease, are at most risk for this immune response.
If you experience this reaction then you must eliminate dairy from the diet. Eventually, with time, the immune system can reduce its hyper excitability and be able to tolerate dairy again, but that’s not true in all cases. People with this issue can try A2 casein milk or goat milk to see if there is any difference in their symptoms.
Lactose intolerance is simply the inability to digest lactose (milk sugar). People with this condition can try dairy that includes the missing enzyme, that's needed for the proper digestion of lactose.
5. Do I need to buy grass fed meat and pastured poultry in order to follow this diet?
You do not need to buy any specialized meat to follow a carbohydrate restricted diet. As long as you eat meat and not pasta, you are making an improvement. Buy the meat you can afford. Just make sure it's fresh, not processed and hasn't been marinated or flavor enhanced in any way. Buy at the butcher's counter, not at the freezer or the hot dog aisle.
Though meat, even the cheapest, is more expensive than mac 'n' cheese, you will not be spending more, since you will be buying meat instead of snacks, bread, crackers, pasta, candy, cookies, drinks, etc.
6. Will eating fat get me to goal weight?
No. Only proper blood glucose regulation can achieve that.
Leptin is a counter regulatory hormone to insulin. Insulin tells the body to store fat, leptin tells it to burn it. This prevents us from storing too much fat. As the body becomes insulin resistant, because of persistently high/present insulin levels, it also becomes leptin resistant, due to the same. Leptin can never go high enough to stop insulin’s effects and for this reason, these persistently high leptin levels, makes the body resistant to leptin signaling.
In metabolically healthy individuals, insulin levels are normal and as body fat increases it secretes leptin, which is intended to decrease appetite and signals the body to stop gaining weight, by ramping up the basal metabolic rate to burn excess fuel. In hyperinsulinemia, leptin resistance develops, so appetite doesn’t decrease and the body never ramps up metabolism to burn off excess fuel.
Dietary fat does not cause insulin levels to go up in the short term, since the body does not need insulin to metabolize it, but it does need insulin to store it and keep it stored. Insulin will continue holding on to body fat, until the dietary fat in the bloodstream is used. The amount of insulin required to do this depends on the amount of body fat it has to hold back. This is why dietary fat causes a rise in insulin levels in the long term (basal insulin), if too much fat was consumed and not being burned. So in the end, fat is being stored, and being kept in storage, which requires insulin, causing more insulin resistance and leptin is not counter regulating this affect, since the body is also leptin resistant. That's a recipe for getting fatter.
The goal is to reduce basal (fasting) insulin levels, in order to achieve better metabolic function and eating globs of fat will not help with this. Stabilizing insulin will stabilize your leptin. You will become healthier overall. For this reason, you do not avoid fat, but you do not purposely consume it. If you purposely consume it, by drinking oils and dumping sticks of butter over your cooked food, your body will store it and you will get fatter.
You need to increase insulin sensitivity through carbohydrate restriction and intermittent fasting. That is the proper treatment, not eating copious amounts of fat or "eating fat to satiety". Eat food to satiety.
In metabolically healthy individuals, insulin levels are normal and as body fat increases it secretes leptin, which is intended to decrease appetite and signals the body to stop gaining weight, by ramping up the basal metabolic rate to burn excess fuel. In hyperinsulinemia, leptin resistance develops, so appetite doesn’t decrease and the body never ramps up metabolism to burn off excess fuel.
Dietary fat does not cause insulin levels to go up in the short term, since the body does not need insulin to metabolize it, but it does need insulin to store it and keep it stored. Insulin will continue holding on to body fat, until the dietary fat in the bloodstream is used. The amount of insulin required to do this depends on the amount of body fat it has to hold back. This is why dietary fat causes a rise in insulin levels in the long term (basal insulin), if too much fat was consumed and not being burned. So in the end, fat is being stored, and being kept in storage, which requires insulin, causing more insulin resistance and leptin is not counter regulating this affect, since the body is also leptin resistant. That's a recipe for getting fatter.
The goal is to reduce basal (fasting) insulin levels, in order to achieve better metabolic function and eating globs of fat will not help with this. Stabilizing insulin will stabilize your leptin. You will become healthier overall. For this reason, you do not avoid fat, but you do not purposely consume it. If you purposely consume it, by drinking oils and dumping sticks of butter over your cooked food, your body will store it and you will get fatter.
You need to increase insulin sensitivity through carbohydrate restriction and intermittent fasting. That is the proper treatment, not eating copious amounts of fat or "eating fat to satiety". Eat food to satiety.
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