Six common beliefs addressed, Part 106

1. Carnivore will keep your hair from falling out.

Carnivore is just a dietary regimen, used primarily by people who have adverse health effects when they consume plant-based food. That’s it. That’s all it's for. It’s not a cure for anything. It’s just a diet that can be used alongside other medical treatments or it might help you all on its own. It just depends on what condition you are trying to treat and what’s causing it. 

Hair falling out can be caused by multiple different conditions. Unless your condition is protein deficiency, which can cause hair to fall out, carnivore isn’t going to do a darn thing to help you. 

2. People who have hyperinsulinemia and/or insulin resistance should not be given more insulin. 

People with these conditions are given insulin because they are trying to lower dangerously high blood glucose. Remember, the way conventional medicine addresses diabetes is through the lowering of blood glucose. This is because that’s the symptom that is most obvious, causes the most complications and is easiest to address. We also have the ability to measure blood glucose and lower it. When all you have is a hammer.....you know the rest. 

When the person is marinating in too much insulin, and their organs and tissues have become resistant, the only way to get blood glucose down is by supplying the body with a pharmacological dose of insulin. This is an amount of insulin that their bodies would not naturally produce and so it has an immediate effect on blood glucose. This is the wrong approach for the reversal of metabolic disease, but conventional medicine is not there to reverse anything. They are there to hide and mask symptoms. 

The reason for this is because reversal is extremely difficult and requires the cooperation of the patient. The patient has to make drastic and severe long-term lifestyle changes, which affect their diet, their mobility and their habits in general. Doctors would need to become therapists in order for that to take place. Most people are incapable of changing their lives, to that extent, in order to tackle a complicated disease like diabetes. For this reason, insulin and other blood glucose controlling medications are given instead. 

I’m going to take this statement to make this point. A lot of people online, diabetics mostly, complain about how conventional medicine only wants to medicate them. These are the same people who are also constantly complaining about how they are continuously “falling off the wagon”. If you can’t even follow a simple low carb diet properly, on your own, then it is impossible for you to follow an entire lifestyle that will reverse your disease. So, before others are blamed for your disease, point that finger on yourself. No one can control your life for you. You are the one holding the reigns, or rather the bread roll. 

3. You should use algae oil instead of any other oil.

On this blog, we recommend, animal based, saturated fats, primarily. Preferably they should come from the foods you eat, which already contain them, but they can also be used for cooking. They should not be added to foods in other way. 

Algae oil is a plant-based source of Omega 3, which is not the ideal way of obtaining these essential fats. Plant-based sources of Omega 3 do not contain DHA or EPA. They only contain ALA, which then has to be converted by the body and that conversion is not very efficient or effective. 

"Oils", in general, are not very good for you, even if they come from "natural sources" like algae, olive oil, avocados, nuts, etc. Oils are modern concoctions that we never evolved with. They tend to increase subcutaneous fat and interfere in proper fat break down, so this means they aren’t metabolized as efficiently in the liver. You don’t want to start filling up your fat storage with unnecessary added fats. 

It’s easier to add oils to food, rather than saturated fats, so people tend to over consume them. If you prefer algae oil to olive or avocado, fine. Use it on your cold salad, but refrain from making these types of oils the primary source of fat in your diet. 

4. If you have any chronic condition, you are insulin resistant. 

On this blog, we define "insulin resistance" using the same parameters as metabolic syndrome because that's technically what insulin resistance is. This is because the term "insulin resistance" is often misused and misapplied. For this reason, we use the classic five criteria, which are present in metabolic syndrome:

• Waist circumference over 40 inches (men) or 35 inches (women) 
• Blood pressure over 130/85 mmHg 
• Fasting triglyceride (TG) level over 150 mg/dl 
• Fasting high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level less than 40 mg/dl (men) or 50 mg/dl (women) 
• Fasting blood sugar over 100 mg/dl. 

You do not have to have all of these. If you experience three or more of the conditions listed above, you are considered to have metabolic syndrome, unless they are the direct result of some other condition or medication. If you have metabolic syndrome, then you can be certain you have some level of insulin resistance. 

5. You can become "insulin resistant" from steroidal use for a medical condition. Insulin is to blame.

I know the low carb community wants to blame insulin for everything under the sun, but that’s because they are misguided, misinformed or, what I personally believe to be true, outright lying. But then again, I am a cynic and that belief could just be my own bias. Either way, you need insulin to live. 

Insulin is an anabolic hormone that not only grows fat, but it also grows lean muscle mass. It facilitates glucose entry into cells, but it also facilitates amino acid entry, electrolytes and other nutrients which are vital. It is also an anti catabolic hormone, which prevents your body from withering away into a pile of Dixie Crystals and ketones. Insulin helps mediate fuel partitioning and regulates other metabolic hormones and processes. You are alive due to insulin. It is an ancient hormone. 

Unfortunately, steroids ramp up glucose production in the body, increasing its requirement for insulin and eventually driving metabolic abnormalities. For some people, an alternate treatment may have been just as effective. For other patients, there truly is no alternative. They must take these medications or risk serious complications and/or death. If they develop another condition, in the future, due to these medications, they will have to deal with that at that time. 

If you have a condition that requires steroidal use, then all the more careful you have to be with your diet and exercise regimen so that your blood glucose regulation is not disrupted further. Exercise, especially, is vital because it allows the proper regulation of cortisol, which is a steroid. If you are able to better regulate your own internal cortisol, you wouldn’t need as much external cortisol. You want to make sure that you eat a diet that promotes lower blood glucose because you don’t need more glucose piled on top of what the steroids are already producing. Lifestyle also deeply effects the conditions that usually require steroid use. If you can follow a lifestyle that prevents flare ups and symptoms, you can potentially reduce your use of steroids. 

Lastly, talk to your doctor and discuss alternate treatments that can lower or eliminate your need for steroidal use. Get involved in your health care. 

6. You should watch out for loose skin, after weight loss, high cholesterol and a lack of minerals when going low carb. 

Then you need to find another diet. People who go on low carb are more scared of diabetes, obesity and metabolic abnormalities, which can lead to serious, life threatening diseases. Loose skin, high cholesterol and “lack of minerals” are not life threatening.

• Loose skin is a fact of life. It is mostly determined by genetics and age. Some people get it and some don’t. It is irrelevant, though, when you have to lose 200 lbs. in order to save your health. 
• High cholesterol means nothing. If what you are scared of is abnormal lipid function and clearance, then that’s something you have to be tested for with your healthcare professional. This is also mostly driven by genetics and family history can pretty much tell you if you are affected by it. 
• The “lack of minerals” doesn’t even make sense because if you are eating a proper, nutrient rich diet and monitoring and supplementing electrolytes, it’s a moot topic. 

Losing body fat should be the main concern and reason for going low carb. All this other nonsense are non-factors. I get the feeling that people who make this type of excuse are much more concerned with no longer being able to eat chocolate cake, than anything else.