Six common beliefs addressed, Part 82

1. You can stop hair loss on carnivore.

Hair fall out usually occurs when the body is sensing some form of stress. In the diet world, this stress is usually in the form of starvation, either from caloric restriction and/or protein restriction. Starvation is a huge stressor. Hair can also fall out during times of prolonged emotional stress. People usually complain about this during a divorce or death in the family.

When the body is under stress, it tends to shut down non-vital functions, such as hair growth. So, it's not that your hair is "falling out", per say, it's just that you're not growing enough new hair to replace what's loss.

It's long been known that a diet without adequate protein effects hair and nails. This is caused by "low grade" protein deficiency. On carnivore, you are more prone to eat adequate amounts of protein, stopping hair loss and brittle nails. 

Men experience hair loss due to a combination of genetics and hormonal factors. It is a normal part of aging and can be treated but not with carnivore.

2. Diet Doctor showed they "reversed diabetes" using this study.

That is not a "study". It is a professionally drawn up document of anecdotal evidence. Basically a bunch of low carb advocates got together and sent questionnaires to their followers, so they can share their "experiences" following low carb. They also got consent from these participants to allow them to compare past labs with current ones. I can do that as well, with my readers, and the results will most likely be the same - a "reversal" of diabetes, based solely and exclusively on lower blood glucose. You can't really blame them for this. They are using the same standard as conventional medicine. Conventional medicine diagnoses diabetes, solely and exclusively on high blood glucose, so why not join in and play their same game? This "game" ends up hurting you.

What was found, in this "study", was what we already have seen ourselves, many times before, - blood glucose lowers on low carb. Surprising? Not so much. I have already said, many times before, that lowering blood glucose is as easy as pie. Actually, it's as easy as getting rid of the pie. That is not remission or reversal of metabolic syndrome. It's simply the improvement of one easy to manipulate marker. Improvements of this sort have been seen with many other interventions as well, because it's so easy. But, the most important areas that require improvement in order to achieve remission, are never measured, since they are so hard:

• Body fat was not measured or discussed and we all know that body fat is the main determiner of true, sustained remission. The loss of body fat is the main signal that metabolic function is improving. This is because many things have to be corrected upstream before body fat is lost.
  
• Blood glucose regulation was also not talked about at all. "Lower blood glucose" is not proper blood glucose regulation. Only through proper blood glucose regulation can the downstream  pathology of metabolic syndrome be corrected.

But, we can kind of guess why these two, very important markers, were not ever discussed or mentioned. It's the same reason they aren't discussed or mentioned in any other low carb group or page, anywhere. It's because:

• Most low carb followers are still overweight/obese and therefore continue having high body fat, despite their "miracle all curing" diet. Their diet has simply not affected their metabolism enough to get to the fat.
  
• Most low carb followers are still struggling with blood glucose regulation, even though they have lower individual glucose readings, their doctors have declared them "free of diabetes" and/or they have reduced/stopped diabetes medications. This means they still suffer from dawn phenomenon, hyperglucagonemia and large disparities between blood glucose highs and lows, despite their "miracle all curing" diet. Again, their diet has simply not affected their blood glucose enough to achieve the insulin sensitivity required for proper blood glucose regulation.

Basically, a FAIL. But, if you are a reader of this blog, you already knew it was going to fail, since you know that diet alone is not enough. Especially when it's a diet that most people cannot, or simply refuse, to follow long term or even correctly. All dietary interventions must be long term, as obesity/diabetes only responds to long term, draconian interventions. The intervention must be sustained long enough and must affect blood glucose profoundly enough to affect insulin and finally leptin.

So, this "study" ends with this word salad -

Conclusion: This study described the foods and characteristics of an LCHF (low carb high fat) “lifestyle” that was sustainable and effective for certain T2D (Type 2 diabetes) patients in a real-world setting.

In other words: Nothing special was found here that hasn't been found before using other dietary interventions.

3. Since no viable studies have been able to be conducted on low carb, no one can claim it works. 

This is a great segue statement to the one above. It is correct. Research into the effects of diets, any diet, are very expensive, difficult to conduct and nearly impossible to run long term. After all, people avoid jury duty, so they sure as hell don't want to be sequestered at a facility and fed daily, for years, just to know how certain diets affect them. Hunter/gatherers are about the only people whose dietary habits can be studied, in any significant way, but you can't choose which diet you want to study on them. You have to just accept what they currently eat. For this reason, we are left to critical thinking, as there will never be a study that will determine anything about any specific diet. At least, not long term. When you add into the mix the genetic variability within individuals, then the situation becomes even more complex, as not everyone reacts the same to every diet.

Having said that, studies on diet are pretty much asinine, in themselves, because the studies on hunter/gatherer's diets have already pretty much answered the most important questions we have about the human diet. The diets of hunter/gatherers vary wildly from 0% carbs to 80% carbs. They tell us that humans can thrive on many different types of diets. They have also pretty much established that the only diet adverse to health is the Standard American Diet (SAD).

The reason that carbohydrate restricted diets would be the best diets to follow, for obesity and metabolic health, is simply because they match how our metabolisms actually work. Low carb diets address the following facts:

• Protein doesn't grow fat mass, so it's just common sense to prioritize it, while limiting the ones that do - fat and carbs. Low carb diets are protein centric.
• Our bodies make its own glucose, through gluconeogenesis, so this means you do not need to consume glucose, in any form from the diet, as it disrupts this process. Low carb diets remove the sugar.
• Our bodies run primarily on fat, when dietary glucose is restricted. This means the body likes to burn body fat, for most of its energy requirements. So, you have more leeway with dietary fat, than you do with dietary carbohydrate, as carbohydrates are used for very specific energy requirements. This is very convenient when living mostly sedentary lifestyles, as is the case in Western societies. Low carb diets burn fat, not sugar.

All of these facts point in the direction of carbohydrate restriction, with no bogus, dumb study needed. The study was already done in the countless biology books that describe human metabolism. So much is known about human metabolism, actually, that just about every single metabolic pathway has been described and detailed, down to the biochemistry. It's no longer mysterious or not well understood. It's completely understood.

What is not completely understood is how to resolve metabolic issues, once they begin, because that entails reversing adaptations that we have evolved to have under certain conditions. 

So, low carb works, but does it work? We have seen time and time again, since low carb became mainstream, that it has had the same rate of success, as any other diet that eliminates or restricts any type of food. People hate elimination. That's why calorie centric protocols are the standard and seem to work best, for short term adherence. People can reduce, but not eliminate. Unfortunately, with low carb, elimination is the only thing that works. For this reason, these diets become popular, every so often, and then die off with a whimper. That is in no way reflective of their efficacy when actually followed.

Now the only question left is will low carb work for you? Only if you are able to eliminate foods and commit to it indefinitely, consistently and you apply it to other lifestyle changes as diet does not address everything.

4. If I eat a piece of bread and measure my blood glucose, will I will be able to determine if I am "cured" of diabetes?

I hear all kinds of excuses for eating bread and though this one is more creative, than some, you can still do better next time.

Eating a piece of bread to find out if you're "cured" of metabolic syndrome is like using a lead pipe, on your broken leg, to find out if it "healed". Bread is not food, so it will always disrupt blood glucose, regardless of being "cured" or not. Blood glucose goes up, even in healthy people, when they eat bread. It just doesn't go up as high, as a diabetics would, because their metabolism still has some control left in it. It takes quite a number of assaults to make metabolism finally fold and that usually occurs once insulin is chronically affected. Remember, fasting high blood glucose is end stage metabolic "disease".

Fasting blood glucose is the last thing to be affected in metabolic dysfunction. It first fluctuates up and down, erratically, before it finally remains elevated chronically. Healthy people do not usually "see" these fluctuations, as they do not monitor their blood glucose and fasting blood glucose can remain "normal" for decades. Their postprandial blood glucose, which is not given much weight, as long as fasting blood glucose remains normal, also usually stays below 140 mg/dL. Their HbA1C's are not affected either, since the disparities between their blood glucose highs and lows, do not have much of an effect on their average readings. The high and low disparities cancel the averages out. So, these people will appear to be "healthy" for a very long time. Especially with the conventional medicine standard, which claims that an HbA1C of 5.7 is "perfectly normal" and "nothing to be concerned about".

So, eating bread will not allow you to know if you are "cured", because the results will always be metabolically abnormal. Just like the lead pipe won't allow you to know if your leg is truly healed, as the results will always be catastrophic. The way you know you are "cured" is when you are able to sustain proper blood glucose regulation, while eating a proper diet. Just like you will know your broken leg is healed when you can stand and walk on it, not when you can roll a tractor over it. Your leg was not meant to sustain a tractor. Your metabolism was not meant to sustain bread rolls.

Proper glucose regulation is when your body makes its own glucose when needed and does not overproduce it when not. People who are "cured" do not experience dawn phenomenon, hyperglucagonemia or large disparities between highs and lows in their blood glucose. This proper blood glucose regulation is sustained with real, whole food, not breads and pastas. Breads and pastas were the main cause of metabolic malfunction to begin with.

Aside from that, we refrain from using the word "cured", on this blog, when it comes to metabolic "disease", as this type of condition only goes into remission. The reason for this is because there is always a long term effect on the fat mass and hypothalamus, after you have been overweight/obese and/or diabetic, even when goal weight and proper blood glucose regulation is achieved. Obesity/diabetes are metabolic adaptations, not true "diseases". That is why the person with these metabolic adaptations must continue their treatment for life. An anti-obesity lifestyle must be followed consistently. This can't be achieved with Dr Oz's weekend diet plan. This requires a lifestyle change.

5. Going low carb will cause constipation. 

Changes in the diet can cause temporary constipation or diarrhea. We all know what diarrhea is, but many people misinterpret constipation. Constipation is when you have to go, but simply can't. Constipation is not when you don't have to go. If you only go every three days, it doesn't mean you suffer from constipation. It just means you are using most of the food you eat and do not extract much waste from it. This is typical of protein centric diets. Carnivores usually do not go every day. Herbivores go a lot. They go constantly. If you walk through a field of grazing cows, you would understand this first hand.

Having a bowel movement requires for your bowel to actually move (motility) and for there to be enough water to allow the passage of material (hydration). Changes to the actual bowel motility are usually caused by issues with the autonomic nervous system. Certain medications can cause this, like opioids and psychotropics. The main reason for changes in bowel hydration are hormonal statuses (premenstrual syndrome/perimenopause/menopause/pregnancy), electrolyte imbalances and diet.

If you have to go, but can't, there are certain over the counter laxatives that can help, but if you have tried them and they aren't helping you and/or you have gone past three days, without a resolution to this problem, you need to speak to your doctor about it, especially if you are on medications known to cause this issue. Do not let this situation persist. Not only is it uncomfortable and unhealthy, but ignoring it will cause for invasive treatments to have to be used, when it could have been resolved easily if addressed early on.

6. Fasting becomes easy the more you do it.

Fasting becomes easy when your circadian clocks adjust and expect it. That’s why it’s so important to have a set and consistent fasting routine that you follow daily. Do not follow people, online, who fast erratically, for sport, as this will only cause hunger and more hormonal dysfunction.