Six common beliefs addressed, Part 108

1. Eating "high fat" is what produces weight loss on low carb diets. 

It might seem that way, at first, since the elimination of carbohydrate causes the body to no longer displace fat burning with glucose burning. The body also halts the storing of glucose as excess fat, but these temporary benefits are replaced with dietary fat storage instead. You eventually continue adding to your fat mass even though it appears you balanced it out temporarily. With time, the additional dietary fat will start showing itself as weight again, a stall in your weight loss and/or adverse metabolic markers. What produces weight loss on low carb diets is the elimination of carbohydrate in order to not further disrupt blood glucose homeostasis. Nothing else. 

2. Every time I go to the doctor, my blood pressure is elevated, but when I check my blood pressure at home, or at a blood pressure check machine, it is low or normal. 

There can be multiple reasons for this. It could be caused by “white coat syndrome”, which is just basically a high stress response to being seen by a doctor. Sometimes this is worse when it’s a new doctor or a specialist. Other times, it’s a basic folly in how blood pressure is checked at your doctor’s office. 

Just because a nurse is checking your blood pressure, doesn’t mean that they are doing it correctly. Many times, you have to walk down several hallways before reaching the doctor’s office. Then, before your butt hits the chair, the nurse is already slapping the cuff on you. That’s going to produce a higher reading. Other times, the nurse may be asking you questions, while taking your blood pressure. You are not supposed to talk, while having your blood pressure taken. You also have to sit upright, with both feet on the ground and still for a few minutes. Blood pressure increases dramatically by the slightest variation in muscle tension. 

So, if you are experiencing this, I suggest you measure your own blood pressure, at home, several times a day, for a few days, to get more accurate information on what could be going on. 

3. There is no relationship between menstruation and body fat. 

Hunter/gatherer women have very little body fat and less body fat, means less years of menstruation. Typically hunter/gatherer women begin to menstruate in their late teens, not their early teens, and menstruation ends earlier in life as well. This means that for 99% of our history, women have not menstruated as frequently and/or as regularly as they do now. 

Marinating in sex hormones, which we did not evolve to do so, has significant consequences for neurological, psychological and metabolic health. There are modern women still menstruating well into their 50's, which is not typical nor considered normal in our evolutionary past, since the viability of a woman’s eggs begins to deteriorate in their 30's. Women are basically still menstruating long after their biological clocks have run out. This has implications for cancer, as well as other diseases. 

So, I am not quick to jump on the bandwagon that believes more menstruation is indicative of good health. It is actually unnecessary, unless you want to get pregnant. But a 28-day cycle is the reality, we all have to deal with, in modern life where everyone has high body fat. 

4. There are no advantages to eating breakfast.

The advantage of eating breakfast has long been seen in multiple studies. Early eating, versus late eating is a common practice of the lean. But this advantage is only seen with higher protein meals. So, when you eat a high protein breakfast, you have several metabolic advantages: 

• You increase your protein intake for the day. Having another protein-based meal, allows you reach your protein goals easier. 
• You eat lunch later because of less hunger. A filling breakfast can stave off hunger longer. 
• You tend to skip dinner because of the later lunch. When you stop eating earlier in the day, you are always at an advantage with insulin because it has a chance of dropping to its lowest level during the overnight fast. 

5. Insulin is a "fat storage hormone". 

Insulin is an anabolic/anti catabolic hormone. It is required to grow fat and also lean body mass. Insulin also stops the body from breaking itself down into glucose and ketones. Describing insulin as simply a “fat storage hormone” is asinine. The only thing that matters is what insulin is doing in your body. If it is storing fat, rather than building muscle, then its because you are in an active obesity state. This is determined by your entire metabolic state, not just by insulin alone. 

6. As long as you remain fat but do not gain any more weight, you are saved from diabetes. 

No. As long as your metabolism is stressed from the effects of high body fat, you are at risk for diabetes. losing body fat is he signal that your metabolism is correcting itself.