1. I saw a meme that stated refined carbs are what cause high blood glucose and insulin. Is this correct?
It’s not incorrect but it’s not complete. Carbs, particularly refined carbs, are the most common culprit for blood glucose issues but certainly not the only one. Refined fats are implicated too, along with a number of other things. Many things can cause blood glucose dysregulation. Refined carbs are only one of those things.
Unrefined carbs can do the same thing because overall diet composition is king for determining long term metabolic homeostasis. So raw sugar, one thousand grain bread and brown rice will not save you.
Lack of exercise is a huge factor for losing blood glucose control. Irregular eating patterns like abnormal fasting or eating too much at once cause blood glucose abnormalities. Things unrelated to diet or exercise can affect blood glucose regulation as well, like certain medications and chronic conditions. These blood glucose abnormalities are what cause abnormal insulin expression.
So, the meme is not false but it’s also obvious low carb propaganda. You have to be careful with propaganda because it won’t help you in the long run. It is reducing a very complex problem to a one sentence slogan. You can never properly treat what you don't fully understand.
2. Why have low carb advocates and followers stolen work from Dr. Bernstein? I have noticed his work posted on several low carb pages but it's out of context and misquoted. I am a Type 1 diabetic and am very familiar with his protocol as I strictly follow it. What's going on here?
A lot of low carb advocates/quacks are simply parasites that take other people's work and misapply it to fit their narratives. This is typical of scam artists. They have conducted no studies of their own because they aren't real researchers and/or the research that's out there has proven their hypothesis incorrect, so they snag bits and pieces of other people's work that would fit with their beliefs.
I have seen this happen not only to Dr. Bernstein (Type I diabetes) but also to Dr. Longo (fasting), Dr. Phinney (ketosis) and Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi (autophagy). Some of them have ignored it. Others tried to play along and at least try to correct their misrepresented work until they regretted their name being associated with these people and stepped back. Some of them actually went public to condemn the misuse of their work by these quacks. Dr. Longo, for instance, struggled with this for a long time when fasting gurus started hijacking his research for their own gain when he has specifically stated that wasn't the intention of his studies and they were being misapplied. Sure, this attention gave Dr. Longo recognition outside of academia, but it also bastardized his decades of work. It's sad but it's a reality when dealing with these zealots.
Dr. Bernstein has dedicated his life to improving the lives of people living with Type I diabetes. His protocol is specifically for Type I diabetics and though a Type II diabetic can follow it and achieve some benefits, the best outcomes are experienced by Type Is. Type I diabetics do not have insulin resistance and control their own insulin exogenously. But because Bernstein believes that low carb dieting is the best way Type I diabetics can control their blood glucose and injected insulin dosage, low carb advocates quickly wanted to make him another "low carb guru". Thankfully he refused and has publicly condemned fad "keto" diets multiple times. He also did not cave in and sacrifice his name and reputation by the lure of easy money. I know of a liver specialist who did not have Bernstein's type of integrity and now he is just another clown in this circus.
This should be a warming to other doctors and researchers out there that actually care about their legacy and reputation. If they claim low carb, they will be the next ones mentioned at these low carb conferences and their work will be misquoted and misapplied. It will not be easy for them to shake the fleas off, and no amount of money can make up for it.
3. Why do body builders say that the best muscle growing formula is "meat and rice"?
What body builders say is irrelevant to the overweight/obese/diabetic. I know a lot of these people sell their "diets" to the obese because they can make quick money but those diets were never meant to be obesity treatments. They were meant to be followed by other body builders.
Body builders build muscle. The obese build fat. They are both building their bodies, but in two completely different ways. If the body builder stopped body building and decided to take on knitting instead, they would not automatically become obese. They might not become obese at all. Body building was not what prevented them from becoming obese and it won't magically make the obese slim. So, rice might help a body builder work out longer and stimulate insulin, causing them to acquire better results from their protein intake, but the obese will only use that rice to build more fat and continue to work less.
Just like obesity is not simple weight gain, it is also not simply "being out of shape" or "unfit". This is why the treatment for obesity is not "losing weight" or "getting in shape". Those methods have proven to be completely useless for tackling obesity, particularly in the long term. Yes, the obese benefit from building muscle mass but they benefit most from stopping the exaggerated breakdown of this muscle mass to begin with.
4. I heard from a "carb expert" that the amount of carbs consumed are what determines if they are used?
First, there is no such thing as a "carb expert", just like there is no such thing as a "low carb doctor". Carbohydrates are just different types of sugars (glucose, fructose, galactose) found in foods. Not even nutritionists are "carb experts". There's nothing to be an expert of.
Second, the only thing that determines if "carbs are used", in real life, is the type of exercise you do, not the amount. Carbs are the fuel source for high intensity physical activity such as sprinting, swimming and all competitive sports. People who do these activities and do not consume enough carbs, will have a very difficult time with their performance. They will burn through their glycogen quickly and then "crash out". The body does not have significant glycogen stores. The body has a large fat storage, but it does not use fat for high intensity activities in any significant way. Fat is the fuel of choice for being sedentary and for long duration, steady state activities, not competitive athletics. Athletics require glucose.
We never evolved to do high intensity activity chronically and our metabolisms and fuel compartmentalization show just that. For this reason, high intensity activity requires an unnatural diet with a macronutrient composition that matches their required fuel output - low fat, high carb and protein prioritized.
That's it. That is the only determiner of whether carbs are used or not. Anything else you hear is simply fidder-fodder. People love getting sidetracked with fidder-fodder but it won't help you one bit. You need to know what actually occurs in practice, with your metabolic state.
If you consume carbs and do not engage in any of the activities listed above, in any significant way, the carbs you consume will not be used and will be stored instead as glycogen and fat.
5. I was watching a program where they talked about obesity and they kept making comments such as "watch your diet", "proper exercise" and "fast for 18 hours". They seemed confused by the notion of an obese person not already doing any of these things. They also made it seem as if the obese haven't already tried them all. Why is it that obese people are talked about in this way?
There are a lot of ignorant people always giving their two cents about obesity and how to resolve it. Like I have mentioned before, not all obese people eat Ding Dongs and sip on sodas all day. In fact, there are plenty of lean people who do just that. Obesity is not caused by pancakes and Twinkies. It's caused by any food, eating habit and/or co-morbid factors that disrupt proper blood glucose regulation.
If you are obesity resistant, you can sustain blood glucose regulation for longer, even while eating pancakes and Twinkies. You won't sustain it forever, but you can for a very long time. That length of time is determined by multiple factors, primarily genetics. Obesity resistance almost always wanes with time, so you aren't forever protected.
Most obese people are continuously "watching their diet" but receiving incomplete, mixed and plain wrong information about it. They try to exercise as well but also receive conflicting information on that too. As far as "fasting for 18 hours" goes, many obese people fast for longer periods than that. Most lean people do not fast at all.
Obese people know they are obese. They don't have to be reminded and they don't have to be told what to do by an obesity resistant person who has no clue what obesity even is. When they obtain the Noble Prize for curing obesity, then they can talk. In the meantime they have to stay in their lane.
6. Are obesity/diabetes true "metabolic dysfunctions"?
Yes and no.
We call them metabolic "dysfunctions" because chronic uncontrolled blood glucose and the excess storage and sparing of body fat it triggers is a metabolic state that leads to pathology, but the reality is that obesity/diabetes are the result of a normally functioning metabolism. Your metabolism is reacting the way it should to the conditions it's being placed under. It's protecting you from starvation. The problem is that if this starvation adaptation is chronic, it results in disease.
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