Six common beliefs addressed, Part 264

1. I've decided to stop taking collagen. I'm trying to determine if protein is contributing to my "leptin resistance".

Protein has nothing to do with "leptin resistance". Collagen is not even a complete protein....SMH

Poor leptin expression is very complex and still being studied as very little is known of its exact mechanism. What we do know is what contributes to it. It occurs through metabolic dysregulation, mainly the cross-talk with insulin, as leptin is a slave to insulin. Hypothalamic dysfunction caused by chronic obesity and excess "sweet taste", not to mention the effects of being sedentary on adipocytes (fat cells) through leptin/adiponectin ratios, all affect leptin expression.

So we know metabolic hormones, the brain and adipocytes are all involved in leptin function. Unlike insulin, leptin is completely regulated by the state of your neuroendocrine system, not by any one external force. This is why there is no "leptin diet". The closest we have to a "leptin diet" is a protein sparing modified fast and a good enough amount of exercise because both of these affect your neuroendocrine state. There is also no "leptin pill" as serum leptin levels have nothing to do with its expression on the adipocytes and brain.

Aside from that, what makes you think you are "leptin resistant" anyway? Just because you are overweight/obese does not automatically make you "leptin resistant". You could just have temporary under expressed leptin until you correct the lifestyle factors that are contributing to your poor metabolic state. Intractable obesity would be more commonly considered as "leptin resistance".

Ugh, the low carb world just went from insulin to leptin, got them both wrong, and not one pound lost.

2. I go out shopping daily so I "make my steps" while walking around Walmart. Does this count as walking?

No. "Making steps" is not exercising.

You would be surprised how many steps an overweight/obese person can make from walking a very short distance. In fact, they can make 10K steps from just walking from their car to the front door of the Walmart. I remember when I started walking, I hit a milestone of 35K steps from walking a route I now make only 12K steps on. How is this possible, if it's the same route?

Because people who are in generally poor health, have a very short stride. They simply take more steps to cross the same distance compared to a healthy person. It has been harder for my husband JC, to improve his health compared to me and I can see this clearly in his stride. As we walk, he takes two additional steps for every one of mine. When we are both done walking and compare our pedometers, he always has about 900 more steps than me, though we both walked the same route together. So pedometers can be deceiving and must be used as a rough guide only. Just because you are "making your steps" doesn't mean you are exercising enough or as frequently as you should.

As my health improved, it started becoming harder and harder to make 10K steps on the routes that would give me 20+K steps before. I have been unable to surpass or even duplicate those 35K steps. For this reason, counting steps are great for a beginner but you can't remain there and they certainly won't work very well for a healthier person. A healthier person must change their walking goals to miles, rather than steps. You can also use "hours active" to monitor daily activity levels.

You have to "walk for exercise", which means exertion. Your walking routine should increase heart rate and make you feel as though you're getting a work out. Walking for exercise is not a stroll and it's non-stop until the goal is reached. Make your steps count.

3. I have a friend who was recently diagnosed as diabetic. They are not overweight/obese and have a history of working out. They suddenly ended up in the hospital last week with kidney problems from diabetes. How could diabetes do this to them so quickly and suddenly?

This is the unfortunate reality of Type II diabetes. It is quite insidious.

First, many diabetes cases are diagnosed late. This means that the person has had serious blood glucose abnormalities for a very long time before the diagnosis is made. This is because diabetes really does not have any symptoms, or just a few common mild symptoms, until a complication arises.

I have mentioned before how my husband's coworker had blurry vision for years. They complained constantly that none of the glasses they ever bought helped. They then passed out one day, on the job, and were taken to the hospital to find out they were a full blown diabetic and nearly went into a coma from a sudden rise in blood glucose. Once their diabetes was treated, their vision was no longer blurry. Of course, the damage the diabetes has caused on their body cannot be reversed.

The same happened to my friend, who also passed out at her job from a dangerous rise in blood pressure. Turns out that blood pressure rise was associated to uncontrolled diabetes, which she was unaware she had.

Even if you go to the doctor and have a yearly physical, understand that the metabolic panel ordered, only tests for fasting blood glucose which is many times low for diabetics. In fact, a lot of diabetics will have incredibly low blood glucose numbers while fasting. Diabetes is a syndrome. It does not manifest the same for any two individuals, even if there are some common symptoms. For some diabetics, their blood glucose is always high but for others, that rise is not constant and there is an equal sudden low.

This is what happened to my husband's best friend's brother. He died in his car from a drop in blood glucose because he was an undiagnosed diabetic. He simply felt sleepy, pulled over to take a nap and never woke up. This was a young man in his twenties who was not overweight/obese.

This is why I tell my readers, over and over, that diabetes is not high blood glucose so lowering your blood glucose, will not help. Diabetes is the result of abnormal blood glucose regulation. That means blood glucose can go very high or very low but it's never normal. These highs and lows are dangerous and cause pathology. The lows are particularly malignant because they not only reinforce the condition and continue making blood glucose set points too high, but they can cause sudden death to boot as most metabolic syndrome/diabetes sufferers do not feel hypoglycemic symptoms.

What does this all mean for your friend? This means that this erratic blood glucose is causing abnormal insulin expression because insulin is a slave to blood glucose. Hyperinsulinemia is extremely pathological to the kidneys. High blood glucose is pathological to the kidneys as well by overworking them. All of this sets the stage for kidney disease, a very common diabetes complication and it doesn't take long for this to occur. You can already experience impaired kidney function while simply having metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome causes high blood pressure and this is detrimental to the kidneys as well. Certain ethnicities are more susceptible to this. Native Americans and other Native Peoples of Central and South America are experiencing an epidemic of kidney disease caused by diabetes. For genetic reasons, they manifest very high insulin resistance in response to blood glucose abnormalities and as I've stated before, insulin resistance is notorious for causing renal disease. So diabetes even manifests differently in different genetic lineages.

Everyone has to understand that abnormalities in blood glucose regulation is a silent killer. By the time you are diagnosed with diabetes, you are at the end stage of metabolic disease. You will also most likely be diagnosed during a serious health crisis caused by the syndrome.

Do you want to be diagnosed sooner? Buy a blood glucose meter. You no longer need a prescription to get one in the United States. You just have to pay out of pocket for it but they are quite inexpensive now. Check your morning fasting blood glucose and then check your postprandial blood glucose, two hours after the largest meal. Do this for ten days straight and see your results. High disparities between fasting and postprandial blood glucose of more than 40 points, even without hyper/hypoglycemic numbers, means you are at risk for developing diabetes. Now you can do something about it rather than waiting for it to happen.

4. Should I restrict protein to get rid of eye floaters? I am on "keto" and was told that the restriction of protein could help with this.

This question has nothing to do with metabolic health but again, I am going to address it because it is in the context of diet. Unfortunately, low carb diets are riddled with this type of nonsense. Like I have stated many times before, low carb diets are only a palliative treatment for metabolic syndrome. They are not meant to "cure" anything. They don't even cure metabolic syndrome!

Ketogenic protocols for the treatment of metabolic syndrome, fall under the umbrella of low carb diets. Often described online as "keto" diets, there are several iterations of them but the only legitimate ones are ones that do not restrict protein. There is no need to restrict protein on ketogenic protocols whose goal is better metabolic function.

Eye floaters are spots in your vision. They may look like black or gray dots but can also look like strings or cobwebs. They drift when you move your eyes and dart away when you try to look at them directly. Most eye floaters are caused by changes that occur as the jelly-like substance (vitreous) inside your eyes liquefies and contracts. Scattered clumps of collagen fibers form within the vitreous and can cast tiny shadows on your retina. The shadows you see are called "floaters".

This has nothing to do with dietary protein unless you plan on making your vitreous out of some other material that is not protein. Your body is already made of fat and protein and your diet will not change that. Eating water bottles will not make you into plastic. Not eating fat and protein will not turn you into gold or some other material. You will still be fat and protein. This is pretty much common sense. Even if you were to restrict all protein, your body will break down its own lean muscle mass and so the floaters will continue.

Some people see more floaters than others. I have high myopia and will occasionally have bouts of many floaters. Usually the more vigilant of them you are, the more you are apt to see them. Age greatly affects the amount of floaters you will experience so the older you get, the more floaters you will see.

Sometimes floaters can be a sign of a retinal tear so if you see many of them and they are accompanied by flashing lights, it's time to see a doctor. Particularly if you have had a recent head/face trauma. Protein restriction will not repair or reattach your retina. You would need emergency surgery instead.

5. I am trying to eat healthier so I bought a "healthy" butternut squash soup that tasted like sewer water. It had wholesome ingredients though. Why do healthy things taste like %^&*?

Yes.......yes they do taste like that. They either taste like crap or have the wrong texture or simply don't hold up to the real thing. This is usually what occurs when you take something that has been perfected already and try to make it out of something else.

I always laugh at these health zealots when they claim there are "so many delicious healthy" foods. I am sure there are but none of them are fried chicken and waffles. This means you have to leave the chicken and waffles behind because they won't taste the same made "healthy". Just enjoy naturally delicious healthy foods like baby back ribs. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

It's hard to find creamy soups like butternut squash in the "healthy aisle" as that usually means low fat and/or low carb. Butternut squash soup is neither. Even if you make it yourself at home to avoid the fillers, gluten and MSG, it still requires butternut squash (carb) and coconut milk or cream (fat). For some, the seasoning for it is brown sugar and/or maple syrup (more carbs). You probably found an iteration made with bone broth instead in order for it to be healthy. Well, you just found out there's nothing like the real thing, baby because fake stuff sucks.

I recommend you stay away from constantly trying to recreate items you can no longer eat. A lot of these "healthy" soups or other food items remove the ingredients that make the original so good. If you take away a model's beautiful long hair, fit body, young age and symmetrical facial structure, you end up with me. Can you truly say I'm still a model? No. Not if you're being honest.

So when you take away the sugar, dairy, wheat and MSG from your favorite staples, can you truly say they are the same? No. They aren't.

6. Can I drink mineral water instead of electrolytes?

All water, except for distilled water, contains electrolytes. Mineral water generally has more electrolytes than tap water so you can consume it if you wish, since it is cheaper than electrolyte mixes.

We get most of our electrolytes from food. The body usually keeps its electrolytes tightly regulated. There are some exceptions though and this is why we emphasize the importance of electrolytes on this blog.

When you follow low carb/"keto" diets, your insulin naturally lowers. Changes in insulin levels have an impact on serum electrolyte levels. This is why they usually mix sugar in with electrolytes. You see this in the electrolyte IVs they give at the hospital and also in many "sports drinks". Sugar facilitates electrolyte entry into cells by raising insulin. On a side note, many diabetics are in a constant state of mild "dehydration" because of insulin resistance.

Insulin is also an anti-diuretic so when it lowers, you will naturally release more water from your body and this can cause imbalances in electrolyte levels which make you feel generally unwell. This can occur with any diet, since all diets affect insulin, but because low carb/keto diets can be sustained for a longer term, the effect is worse as the imbalance increases over time. Whenever you hear people complain that low carb makes them "feel like crap" so they "need carbs", it's because of this effect. 99% of the time this unwell feeling is caused by electrolyte imbalances.

For this reason, you have to keep your electrolytes in mind always. Not only should you supplement 400 IU of magnesium daily, you should drink an electrolyte mix after exercising, working in the heat or if you begin to just feel unwell on your new diet. Make sure the mix you use, does not contain sugar. Though sugar helps cells intake electrolytes, it is not a requirement. Taking electrolytes should make you start feeling better again but if you don't, then you have to stop the diet and see your doctor.

Unless you have certain medical conditions, like renal disease, that requires careful monitoring/restriction of potassium intake, you should not have any issues consuming electrolytes, since the body balances them for you. If you do have a condition where potassium can be problematic, speak to your doctor first.

Six common beliefs addressed, Part 47

1. You can consume your protein as soy. 

Soy protein is problematic and not because of what you may have heard online. So, I am not going to get into claims of soy protein containing lectins and protease inhibitors, which interfere with the absorption of nutrients. Nor will I get into the controversy surrounding the phytoestrogens in soy or the fact that soy is highly genetically modified (GMO). Nor will I debate whether fermented soy is better than convention soy. Whether true or not, it is all irrelevant for this conversation, since we know that there are populations that consume diets rich in soy and are not walking around with burnt thyroids, radioactive eyes and man boobs.

Okinawans, for example, are the longest living people on earth and consume a diet that is rich in soy. But, Okinawans have also genetically adapted to their staple diet and their bodies most likely break down soy and use it differently than individuals who never had generations of exposure to soy. This is why it irks me when people point to others as examples of why certain foods should or should not be eaten.

So, I am going to discuss soy only in the context that matters for metabolism, as this is not a nutrition blog, but a metabolism blog. If you want to build or preserve muscle, the driver of metabolism, whey protein is the way to do so. Why? Because -

• Soy is inferior to whey when it comes to synthesizing protein for muscle. This could be due to digestion rate or leucine content in soy versus whey.
• Whey is better at blunting the stress hormone cortisol, which only helps break down muscle, not build it.
• Soy does not have the nitrogen retention, for muscle building capacity, of whey or meat sources of protein, partly due to containing lower levels of methionine.
• Soy protein is slow absorbing with a significantly lower biological value than that of whey and animal foods. This might affect insulin release, which is necessary for muscle building.
• Whey protein has superior effects on muscle protein synthesis, during rest, as well as after resistance exercise.

So, if you want to get more bang out of your workout, use a good quality whey protein and not a soy based one.

2. Collagen can count towards my protein goals.

Collagen is not a complete protein. Complete protein refers to the building blocks of protein, which are amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids that can form protein - alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamine, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine and valine.

Nine of these amino acids cannot be produced by our bodies and are called essential amino acids, because we must get them from our diet - histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. When a protein is "complete" it's because it contains these 9 amino acids that we can't make. Collagen only contains 8 of these 9 essential amino acids. It is missing tryptophan. Also, the amino acids that it does contain are not equally balanced.

For this reason, you should never replace whey or casein protein with collagen. Though collagen is an important protein for health, you should not count collagen towards your protein goals.

If you would like more detailed information on protein use and muscle building, you might benefit from reading a body building blog or website, which has the expertise and experience on this subject matter.

3. Insulin has nothing to do with the development of obesity/metabolic syndrome/diabetes.

I get a kick reading posts and comments from "weight loss coaches and doctors" giving their two cents on obesity, which by the way, is a condition they absolutely have no clue about. If they just took the time to learn enough to increase their knowledge, one fraction above what they currently have, they would have to close shop or refuse to treat obese people, since they would realize their approach is wrong.

The simplest way to reveal the role of insulin in the development of abnormal metabolic states, such as obesity/metabolic syndrome/diabetes, is by looking at Type 1 diabetics - outliers.

Type 1 diabetics often develop a condition known as "double diabetes". This is when they develop Type II diabetes from years of high insulin dosing to control blood sugar. This is a perfect 'in vivo' example of how metabolic syndrome/diabetes occurs directly through chronic hyperinsulinemia, whether the hyperinsulinemia is the result of endogenous insulin production or exogenous insulin dosing. The common denominator is the insulin. Serum insulin levels do not even have to be chronically high for there to still be chronic insulin expression. 

The other common denominator is why such high amounts of insulin are needed in the first place and that's simply a result of blood glucose dysregulation caused by diet. We know this because Type I diabetics that are on low carb diets, do not require such high insulin doses and are not at risk of developing "double diabetes". Outliers always set the rules.

4. Insulin cannot grow body fat, as it has no energy. 

But everything else you eat does. You would have to stop eating all together, forever, for this statement to be of any value. 

This is why caloric restriction has a short term effect on weight loss. Caloric restriction affects blood glucose and blood glucose affects insulin. So, caloric restriction works directly on insulin. It just doesn't sustain a positive effect on blood glucose long enough to make enough of a difference. 

Normal rises in insulin do not interfere with blood glucose homeostasis. Only abnormal, chronic insulin expression does. Insulin on its own is not an obesity hormone, but abnormal insulin absolutely contributes to obesity. No insulin = no obesity.

5. People who practice extended fasting are severely obese, but they claim fasting can make you lean. 

People don't understand why people who practice extended fasting are so incredibly fat, and don't seem to be losing a pound, regardless of how many years they adhere to these protocols. If anything, they appear to just get fatter. Many accuse these people of "cheating" or "lying", but in reality, I do not believe it's either. They are just true believers in their failed tactic, because they simply don't understand obesity or how metabolism works. Even though many of these obese extended fasters display disordered eating habits, that's not really "cheating". There is something else occurring, which falls under their radar due to ignorance or inconvenience, because it doesn't fit the narrative they are trying to sell.

People who fast chronically for long periods of time, through “extended fasting”, are adapting their metabolism for better fat storage and metabolic thrift. Fasting is a stressor, so the body must adapt mechanisms in order to survive each time it occurs. The fattest survive famines best, so the body must get better at fat storage, the more frequently it’s exposed to fasting. The body must also adapt to extracting as much energy as possible, for this storage, every time it eats. This is why people who fast often and for extended periods of time, store more fat, when they eat again, than those who don't.

For these reasons, they find it easier and easier to fast, the more they do it. The “fasting muscle” is just metabolic adaptation to energy conservation. The person is simply getting better at getting fatter.

6. People who practice "keto" are severely obese, but they claim "keto" can make you lean.

The fad "keto" diet that's being promoted online has the similar effect that extended fasting has, described above.

Insulin resistance is a disease of blood glucose dysregulation. The person is unable to regulate their blood glucose properly so that their metabolisms remain in homeostasis. This has a direct negative affect on insulin function commonly referred to as "insulin resistance". The person cannot resolve their insulin resistance, because now dietary fat is also contributing to its dysfunction. This is not even mentioning the very low protein intake, in these fad diets, which only turns the person into a ball of fat, both inside and out. Couple this failed dietary approach alongside extended fasting and you just gave steroids to your fat mass. 

So, there's a lot of issues going on, at once, with these failed protocols, which cause these people to be uber fat. The fattest people on the planet are doing "keto" and "extended fasting". If they weren't obese before, you see them at every low carb convention slowly packing on the pounds towards obesity. If you haven't done a carbohydrate restricted diet, please don't go to a low carb convention for inspiration or even information.

It is so embarrassing to introduce new people to low carb dieting, because the first thing they do is go online for "more information" and then they see what I wish they never had to see - butter chugging, bacon by the pound eating and mock "ketofied" foods. Not to mention the ridiculous, almost laughable, quackery of 400 pounders chasing "autophagy". It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. Then everyone comes back to me with a puzzled look, on their face, and I have to explain some pretty technical metabolic facts, that makes everything sound much more difficult than it has to be.

The low carb community is ruining low carb. They are their own worst enemies. It's not the vegans, not the American Diabetes Association, not The Dietary Guidelines, not mainstream doctors, but what's staring back at them in the mirror. If they were not a bona fide scam before, they certainly are now. I'm here to try and save what's left of low carb dieting.