Six common beliefs addressed, Part 148

1. Is lupin flour a good "low carb" alternative to conventional flour?

Lupins are beans so this is a legume flour. The fancy name does not make that fact go away. 

Legumes are not low carb. 

 

Flour should not be a staple in your diet as it can't be used for anything other than processed foods and novelties. Baking is not a form of cooking that is recommended on legitimate protocols. The only thing that's "baked" is meat or vegetables. Flour is not needed for either. 

2. There is nothing wrong with pea protein. 

Yes there is. It's not animal based. 

Pea protein is considered "complete" because it has all nine amino acids but it's low in one - methionine, making it inferior to meat as you would still need to consume protein from other sources in order to make up for this deficit. This becomes yet another excuse to keep eating. Eat truly nutritious food, at meal times only, and not food that requires you to eat more in order to get nutrition. 

3. Metformin is not okay to use if you have insulin resistance. 

This is a question that you should ask your healthcare professional as Metformin is generally prescribed by a doctor. If your doctor prescribed you Metformin, then obviously it's because they feel it's "okay" to use. Usually Metformin is used for the control of diabetes, which is the end stage of insulin resistance. 

4. Grains cause cancer. 

Cancer is a very complex disease that is multifactorial. Certain things can put you at risk such as smoking, radiation or toxins. Certain viruses have been directly associated with the development of cancer. Grains have not. There is no linear association between grains and cancer. 

There is a direct association between the Standard American Diet (SAD) and cancer but the SAD diet is not solely composed of grains. It's composed of a lot of chemicals, refined energy and a macronutrient composition that adversely effects metabolism, leading to many pathologies that ultimately contribute to an increased cancer risk, including obesity itself. 

5. Is sour dough bread fine to eat on "keto"?

If it keeps you in ketosis, yes, but it is not okay for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. 

6. Metabolic disease is a "disease of high body fat", so technically, a person can eat Snickers bars forever and remain healthy as long as they can keep their body fat low. - A Snickers Lover. 

Negative, dear Snickers Lover. The correct statement would be - "Metabolic syndrome is a "condition of poor blood glucose regulation", so technically, a person can eat Snickers bars forever and remain healthy as long as they can sustain their blood glucose homeostasis."

 

Metabolic "disease" can be described as a "disease of high body fat", but that's really downstream from the initial catalyst. Metabolic syndrome is primarily a condition of poor blood glucose regulation. This ultimately causes metabolism to acquire an adaptation where it stores and spares body fat beyond the body's fat threshold. Once this metabolic state is acquired, body fat itself causes blood glucose regulation to deteriorate further. So, high body fat is more of a "canary in the coalmine" for metabolic dysfunction but the root cause was already occurring. 

So, by this logic, the only thing you need to do to keep yourself from acquiring metabolic syndrome and becoming overweight/obese is to sustain your blood glucose regulation by avoiding large disparities between highs and lows.

Junk food, like Snickers bars, are benign in states of starvation (deficit). I want people to understand that "starvation" does not mean "not in excess". It means exactly as it reads: starvation - lack, deprivation, want. Only starvation will prevent the blood glucose abnormalities that end in the accumulation of body fat and ultimately result in diabetes over time. There is only one problem. Starvation itself also interferes in proper blood glucose regulation, by causing a prolonged period of time in hypoglycemia. So the only questions left, in order to keep these items in your diet, are:

• How much starvation is required? 
• How long can you starve for? 

No one knows. This is because blood glucose regulation varies between individuals. Some people can sustain theirs for long periods of time and others cannot. We know age is a big factor in this since a teenager can down some Snickers bars without a hitch while a middle aged person cannot. So it appears that insulin release/expression is involved in the impact blood glucose abnormalities have on metabolism. There are rare people who can sustain their blood glucose regulation, along side Snickers bars, for their whole lifetime. They have genetics that never cause them to develop insulin resistance, even in the face of higher than normal blood glucose which takes a few low dips. Their metabolism is simply resistant to adapting to blood glucose abnormalities.

 

So dear Snickers Lover, you can remain relatively "healthy" eating Snickers if you can sustain your blood glucose regulation but I wouldn't bank that you can. You can try and prolong the onset of metabolic syndrome by eating Snickers bars at starvation levels but you will still lose your blood glucose regulation over time from the starvation itself. So, the best thing you can do is eliminate the Snickers bars so you can remain healthy and not have to starve.