...with relevant commentary by medical practitioner, and medical
researcher and lecturer Dr. Philip Yoon, MD, MBA, CCFP(EM), FCFP Chief,
Department of Emergency Medicine, Professor of Medicine.
As a preamble to this piece, which turned out to be more of an
article than it is a simple blog post, I would like to publicly thank Dr.
Philip Yoon for taking the time to add commentary to my writing below. Dr. Yoon
is a very busy man and. like me, he values his time immensely. So we should all
be grateful he would take the time to lend his considerable opinion to
something like a blog entry of mine - THANK YOU, DR. YOON.
Oh how the fitness industry loves its little myths and clings to
them regardless of science. And I must say the “science” of late isn’t exactly all
that articulate and definitive either. But I have written about “scientism”
before so I will leave that aside for now.
Let’s just say a little
science in the wrong hands is a dangerous weapon wielded on the uninformed. The
issue with the diet and fitness industry is that they seek to “use” science to
fit into an agenda. They want to sell you diets and programs.
Therefore, getting scientific information from the fitness and
diet industry means it has already been filtered by them. Real science seeks the
truth. It has no agenda. It has no perceptual filter. And let’s be clear, a “research
finding” is not hard science. It is quite easy to interpret any research in
many particular ways and means, especially if you are not educated regarding
how to look at scientific research.
My 2010
Workshop Workbook, took to task many “assumed”
nutritional facts. But none of this stops the machine of industry. Diet and
fitness industry product promoters know they need “science” to promote agenda.
People should be viewing with scepticism any such research used by these
industries. They need to present certain research as “fact” so that they can
promote one size fits all programs and diets.
Paleo diet, Atkins, and many others use bogus research or take
research completely out of context in order to sell products en masse. But often what can be studied from
the microscope is not nearly as informative and accurate as what can be
observed from the macroscope.
This is the difference
between inductive and deductive reasoning. These promoters of “diets” need a
“hook” for agenda. For these particular diets and most of their off shoots, the
“hook” is the anti-carb bandwagon. But before you hop on it, let’s just examine
one truth, shall we?
is not nearly as informative and accurate as
what can be observed from the microscope”.
Most promoters of low carbs to no carbs diet, or no starches want
you to believe two things. The first is they want you to believe that insulin resistance is ‘an absolute’ and a modern
probability of genetic predisposition. Secondly, they want you to believe that
‘man in nature’ ate primarily a carbs-free diet. Well neither of these two
assumptions is true.
For the purpose of this blog I am only going to address insulin
resistance. (I think there is more on this as well in my download lecture, The
Science Behind the Cycle Diet, as well as in
my audio download, The
Truth About Diet.)
Insulin Resistance
(This is some unrelated science so you can skip it, if you like.)
Insulin resistance is often correlated to what is now known as
Syndrome X. By definition, insulin resistance (and its extreme of Syndrome X)
is characterized by “a collection of metabolic and hemodynamic disorders
associated with coronary artery disease believed to be secondary to pronounced
insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia.
” Syndrome X itself represents at least 4 elements which commonly
occur together. These are central obesity (that apple shaped middle of the
body) dyslipidemia (this just means elevated triglycerides with depressed HDL
levels), hypertension (high blood pressure), and hyperglycaemia (high blood
sugar).
The diet and fitness industry want to connect the dots of extremes
of insulin resistance to “scare” you away from carbs. (Fear is often used as a
marketing tactic) Unfortunately you do not really get the whole truth about
insulin, insulin resistance and carbohydrate metabolism by relying on the
paradigm blindness of the fitness and diet industry.
So allow me to explain all of this to you, so you can stop being
duped into thinking “carbs are bad” and into having buzz words like insulin
resistance being used to promote bad science. Moreover let me reassure you that
you are NOT carbohydrate resistant, no matter how
many bogus questionnaires can be set up to get you to think that way.
“I can
assure you that you are not CARB Resistant,
That’s NONSENSE”
Important Concepts: Let’s Examine the Facts Shall We?
We all know insulin to be a storage hormone, or as I like to say,
“a storage hormone with bias.” And when we discuss insulin resistance we must
always discuss the meaning of the word hyperinsulinemia.
Hyperinsulinemia
Hyperinsulinemia means exactly what you think, hyper = too much;
therefore, hyperinsulinemia just means too much insulin. Fine: Most people stop
there and therefore mistakenly believe that insulin is the problem and you must
limit insulin production. Well the absurdities of that statement would take a
chapter in a book to explain. But just let me say, that is an absurd notion
(unless you are medically diabetic of course).
In real science although some statements can be made “in general”
that never means they are “absolute.” In terms of insulin resistance, it is not hyperinsulinemia that is
the problem; it is the receptor. The cells are producing enough insulin but
insulin receptors elsewhere in the body become insensitive the circulating
insulin.
More often than not
“events” have occurred to cause eventual down-regulation of the insulin
receptor. And the events I refer to here are almost always a matter of
genetics, lifestyle, and body weight. The truth is about 80% of people with
type 2 diabetes insulin resistance are obese. 80 percent!
The other 20 % are almost always genetically predisposed to
genetic material coded for the production of an abnormal receptor-in other
words they have inherited a genetic problem that does not allow
the insulin receptor to work properly.
As you can see this doesn’t even remotely tend to describe active individuals
or more or less people of normal or regular body weight.
In terms of lifestyle and environment high fat stores
down-regulate insulin receptors. This of course causes a resistance to
circulating insulin. (Think of trying to pour water in a glass when the top of
the glass is covered with cellophane with a pin hole or two in it.)
"Healthy eating does not mean low carb eating.”
Without getting overly scientific here, the truth is and the
conclusion is that insulin resistance is not endemic to everyone on the
planet-not even remotely. Genetic predisposition and lifestyle are the most
important contributors to insulin resistance. Hyperinsulinemia
is just a commonly used buzzword in the fitness and diet industry that is
overused without contextual relevance.
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