Six common beliefs addressed, Part 59

1. Low carb diets are easily grasped by diabetics.

That depends on what is meant by "grasp".

Can a diabetic understand that carbohydrates interfere with blood glucose control? Yes. Especially if a healthcare professional explains it to them. Most people are not open to some "know it all", Joe Shmoe, off the street, advising them on diet. They would be much more open to advice if it's coming from a dietitian, nutritionist or even their own doctor.

Grasping is not where the problem lies. When low fat was pushed, people grasped it quite well and complied. Of course, this compliance was set forth by the food manufacturers, not the people themselves. Saturated fat was simply eliminated from the food supply and low fat fare, like grains and unsaturated vegetable oils, were introduced. Everyone either adapted or didn't eat. The best compliance, appears to be forced compliance and that's where the problem really lies.

Though a diabetic can grasp why low carb would be best, many are simply unable to find a practical way of implementing low carb into their lives. This is because "low carb" is very complicated, especially if you want to do it correctly. Simplified and common low carb advice is to eat whatever you want, as long as it doesn't go over a set amount of carbohydrate grams a day. This basically equates to "eat less". You're still eating the same junk as before, just less of it. Because carbs are the diabetics habitual fare, it's very difficult to keep them low, since their meals are mostly carbohydrate based. This causes "carb creep" or a reliance on a caloric deficit, once again.

The simple solution would be to just tell a diabetic to eliminate the carbs, all together, but you can't, because they simply won't. Low carb living is a commitment that takes them out of their dietary comfort zone, in a permanent way. The reality is that most people are unwilling to make that commitment. This why the whole premise of "eat less, move more" came into play. Calories are the standard advice, because everyone is on board for eating less junk, but they will jump ship if they can't eat any junk.

We know that eating less does not work. Eating less junk continues to affect blood glucose negatively. So, the diabetic is back to square one. For this reason, there are medications. I know the low carb world doesn't want to accept this reality, for some reason, but this is not a mystery. Everyone knows this is what occurs. You can see it occur in real time in any low carb group. People are constantly complaining about "falling off the wagon". So, if the people who want to make a commitment can't, imagine the person who doesn't want to, but feels forced. It's not going to work. Long term is the only thing that counts, when it comes to managing metabolism.

2. Can drinking vinegar help "heal" my high blood glucose?

The acid in vinegar interferes with the absorption of starch, thereby reducing the effects on blood glucose, after a meal that includes starchy vegetables. Vinegar also helps break down proteins if you happen to have low stomach acid. Proper stomach acid is required for protein break down. This can help you avoid digestive discomfort after eating a steak. But no, vinegar cannot cure metabolic abnormalities or diabetes because vinegar cannot regain proper blood glucose regulation. 

3. If I am burning body fat, I will not be hungry for carbohydrates.

Assuming that if your metabolic hormones are normalized, you would not be hungry for carbohydrates, because your body is running off body fat, is a fallacy. First, you don't know if you are properly burning excess body fat or not. The only way to tell, if that's occurring, is if you are losing weight and inches. If you aren't, you aren't burning a thing from storage and basically just living off what you're burning from diet and the excess glucose your body is producing from itself.

It is naive to assume that if your body has enough fuel, it will automatically reject food. That's totally not true. No matter how much fuel the body is using, it will always have room for pie. This is because the body simply stores excess fuel. We never evolved a way to say no to bread or pies, because these items are not recognized as "food" by our brains. That is why there is always room for dessert, but not for more steak. Sugar and grains disrupt satiety signaling and that's why we must actively eliminate them through our actions, instead of depending on a magical day when we will no longer want them.

4. I can snack on all the food I want, as long as it's low carb.

Low carb foods like almond butter, which have been deemed "safe" by low carb enthusiasts (roll eyes here), are not to be eaten as a snack or meal. They are to be eaten sparingly, during meal times only. It doesn't matter if it's "low carb", it's still high fat. This makes these items high energy novelties. I know obese people, in the low carb world, alongside their questionable low carb "doctors", have told you that "fat doesn't make you fat", but New Flash!, it does. In fact that's exactly how carbohydrates make you fat. Carbohydrates turn into fat, inside of your body, so you can store it efficiently. Every almond butter bottle you eat will be stored as fat, because fat does make you fat due to a rise in basal insulin levels which further disrupt fasting blood glucose.

Eat proper meals, during meal times only, and include low carb food items, at that time, exclusively.

5. You can get "back on track" after eating high carbohydrate foods during the holidays.

There is no way to get "back on track", because eating high carbs meant you were never on track to begin with. You were just dabbling in a diet, you probably read about online, decided to give it a try and obviously couldn't stick with it.

The only thing that keeps people on track is a commitment to their new lifestyle, which many people obviously cannot make. Maybe they aren't ready for it. Maybe they realize it's not what it was cracked up to be. Maybe it wasn't something they took seriously. People are usually more apt to commit, to their diet, when their life is on the line. Until then, it might continue to be a hit or miss process.

On this blog, we eat as if our life depended on it, because it does. I have no advice for those who don't.

6. "Fat fasting" will get me past a few days of dietary indiscretions.

"Fat fasting" is a technique, used by Dr Atkins, to introduce new people to low carb dieting. It allows metabolism to begin using fat for fuel, instead of glucose. It also allows the build up of the enzymes required for metabolizing fat, helping to avoid the "Keto Flu". After a few days of "fat fasting", the person is ready to begin their new lifestyle with minimal side effects.

Fat fasting was not intended to be used as an "antidote" for a bad diet. This is because the worst thing a metabolically diseased person can do is chronic fat fasts. People with obesity/metabolic syndrome/diabetes produce large amounts of glucose endogenously, in response to the erratic blood glucose fluctuations caused by "dietary indiscretions". This causes them to store large amounts of dietary fat, easily. So, you will ultimately store all of the fat from your fat fast, making you even fatter by the end of it. This is regardless of how much water weight you lose in the interim.

The obese always spare fat mass. You can't "outrun" a bad diet. You also can't "outfast" one and you certainly can't "outfat" one.

7. Can doing a fast, after eating carbohydrates, help me continue my weight loss?

No. It will only help you continue your weight gain.

Like the response to the fat fast above, you also cannot use fasting as an "antidote" to a bad diet. Thinking that eating less, after eating a lot, will help you lose weight is based on outdated "calorie theory". Obesity and metabolic syndrome is not about calories. It's about hormones. All fasting will do, after a terrible diet, is ramp up the body's stress response, causing it to spare fat mass further, through excess glucose production. You are condemning yourself to obesity.

You know what does help continue weight loss? Not going off  protocol.