Chapter 5 Chapter 3 The Carbohydrate Trap

Before we formulate strategies for combating the unknown syndrome, we should also take a good look at its scope and context.If insulin resistance is based on sugar conversion disorders, it should first be understood whether humans really need sugar and how much. Protein and some so-called essential amino acids that are indispensable for survival must be taken in from food, otherwise people cannot survive.The body also needs some essential fatty acids, but essential carbohydrates are absent.In other words, in order to survive and maintain the normal functions of the body, human beings do not necessarily need to consume carbohydrates. When necessary, the human body can synthesize them from protein.

All digestible carbohydrates that come from food, whether from oatmeal, pasta, chocolate, or granulated sugar, are broken down and transformed through the chemical process of digestion and metabolism, and the end product is the same substance, glucose.The body can store glucose in a special compound called glycogen, sometimes called animal starch, in the muscles and liver.Under normal dietary conditions, the body stores about 300 to 400 grams of glucose. Glucose is used as an energy source by any cell in the body.Every cell needs this fuel to maintain its own functions, and the most demanding ones, of course, are those with heavy tasks, like working muscle cells.The exact amount required varies according to speed, skill, weight, age, condition, etc., just like the gas consumption of a car.When the exercise time is doubled, the energy consumed by the muscles will also double.If the exercise intensity increases, the energy expenditure will even increase exponentially!Muscle cells can also obtain energy by burning fat or protein, but obtaining energy from fat requires more oxygen, which is more laborious and time-consuming than burning glucose.Once the muscle cells are under-oxygenated, such as when running fast, the muscles need more oxygen to produce energy than can be absorbed by breathing.At this time, fat can no longer meet the body's energy needs, but glucose or glycogen must be burned.On the contrary, when the body is in a relatively calm state and the inhaled oxygen is sufficient and can enter the blood and muscles, the body will still choose to burn fat first, which can save limited carbohydrate reserves to cope with sudden large consumption.

To get energy from protein, muscle protein needs to be broken down, transported to the liver, and then synthesized into glucose.From the liver, glucose enters the blood again, where it is transported to working muscles.If the supply of carbohydrates and fats is adequate, the body will naturally conserve protein reserves, which it needs to have strong muscles after all.Only when calories and carbohydrates are insufficient, the body has to use the protein reserves in the muscles. The liver is an important glucose storage organ.In a resting state, it constantly pumps glucose into the blood to supply brain cells, nerve cells, kidneys, and red blood cells.None of these organs get energy from fat.As the body's work intensity increases, more glucose is transported into the blood by the liver, and then sent to different tissues and muscles.Therefore, glucose stores play a key role in maintaining blood sugar levels.

If glucose stores are insufficient, the body has to resort to other means.For example, in situations of food shortage or voluntary fasting, when carbohydrates and glucose are in short supply, muscle and liver cells resort to insulin resistance as a survival emergency.At this time, muscle and liver cells are forced to absorb less glucose, so that it can be saved for the most important organs to maintain life.Once enough carbohydrates are in the diet again, insulin resistance resolves itself.This is normal. A minimum of one hundred grams is required to provide the glucose required by all vital organs twenty-four hours a day.The liver can store about 80 grams, and the muscle can store about 300 grams.It can be inferred from this that in a calm state, after three to four days, the above-mentioned glucose shortage will appear in the body, and if there is more activity, the maintenance time will be shorter.In this case, therefore, a temporary insulin resistance is necessary.

But what if we could always get enough carbohydrates?Looking at the energy composition of the diet, forty to five percent of today's Western diet is carbohydrates.Taking a moderate energy intake of 3,200 kcal as an example, 990 kcal comes from carbohydrates, which is equivalent to 240 grams of pure carbohydrates.That's too little!Our nutrition authority criticized that such nutrition is unbalanced and unhealthy.They suggested that we should limit the unhealthy and fattening fat intake to 25%, that is, about 60 to 80 grams per day, and not too much protein, up to 15%.This leaves more room for healthy carbohydrates.The recommended proportion of carbohydrates is 60%, which is equivalent to 330 grams per day.This results in a nutrient ratio of 60:25:15, which nutritionists call balanced!

What happens after we eat so much bread, pasta, potatoes, rice and sugar?First, starches are digested and broken down until the remaining glucose is delivered to muscle, liver and kidney cells and red blood cells.This process requires insulin.If you have healthy pancreas, you will always provide enough insulin, day after day, year after year.We can only hope it doesn't suddenly strike or fail.But do our muscle cells really need so many carbohydrates, so many super fuels?What kind of work do our muscles do on a typical day?Suppose you cycle to work every day, 40 minutes each way, and you're running so fast that you're out of breath.Ideally, assuming that you burn 800 calories a day on the road, that's 200 grams of carbohydrates.If the nervous system and red blood cells consume another 100 grams per day, then the 330 grams of carbohydrates recommended by nutrition authorities is reasonable and can really make the best use of them.

But do you really consume 80 minutes of physical energy on the bike every day?What is the actual situation?Maybe you go out of the house, go straight to the elevator, go to the underground parking lot, start your sporty, fairly automatic, air-conditioned car there, drive to the parking lot of your office, you walk briskly to the elevator, and sit on the first floor I went to the computer desk, sat down in a comfortable armchair, and started working with full energy.After you come home from a long day of work, you throw your briefcase in the corner, lie down on the sofa, raise your legs, and close your eyes.After spending so much time in air-conditioning, your throat feels dry, so why not relax with a beer?After dinner, maybe read another detective novel, and if you haven't fallen asleep by then, you will shuffle to the soft bed.Everything is normal.But on such a busy day without much exercise, do you need so many carbohydrates as super fuel?

If you follow the advice of the authority on nutrition, it is like filling your idle muscle cells with fuel they don't need.The energy required for office work is provided by fat, which is more than enough.But everyone tries to add carbohydrates to themselves, and these carbohydrates must be consumed, because the body's capacity to store them cannot be expanded, so the consumption of fat must be relatively reduced. So what?I seem to have heard someone retort.I'd love to have that luxury, it's better than eating that much fat.It never hurts to listen to the experts. What I want to tell you is this: Foods with a lot of carbohydrates and low fat will prompt the body to synthesize fat itself.Oddly enough, it's the bad saturated fatty acids that are synthesized, and we eat less fat in order to get rid of them.Over time, they push the polyunsaturated fatty acids out of the cell membrane, which is not a good thing!If the calorie intake is greater than the consumption, these excess carbohydrates will even create a lot of fat!

In addition, if there is no relatively large amount of physical activity, a diet rich in carbohydrates will also cause a significant increase in blood fat.This includes triglycerides, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins such as very low-density and medium-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride-rich residual particles, which are particularly threatening to the heart (see p. Chapter II).Especially after a meal, a low-fat and high-carbohydrate diet will make the above-mentioned blood fat rise by hundreds of milliliters, and it will not drop throughout the day.A diet rich in carbohydrates even hinders the decline in blood fat.

Blood components rich in triglycerides, in turn, enhance coagulation, increase the risk of thrombus formation, and inhibit the ability to dissolve coagulation.In addition, low-fat foods can also make LDL cholesterol into small and dense particles, making its properties even worse.Another undesirable blood fat parameter, the so-called Lp(a), is also elevated.At the same time, the benign high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood was reduced. All of the above are pathogenic factors of heart and circulatory system diseases.The combination of high levels of triglycerides and low levels of HDL is another important risk factor, and all of these add up to a greater risk.The adverse effects of the diet advocated by nutrition authorities can be seen in healthy and normal-weight people, perhaps not so significant, and not enough to affect clinical treatment.However, for people who are already metabolically dysfunctional, such as obese and slightly insulin resistant, this situation can quickly become very dangerous!Because such a diet will also increase blood sugar and insulin levels, while blood fat will continue to rise.This in turn worsens insulin resistance.The stronger the insulin resistance, the faster the process of this vicious circle.

Most of all, I want to know what perceptions and criteria are used by today's nutrition authorities to label a high-carb, low-fat diet as particularly healthy, year after year.After fifteen years of research, I have found no evidence for this assertion.I also specifically consulted the authority on nutrition, but I didn't get any explanations and explanations that were helpful to me.It is worth noting that weight loss authorities tend to promote high-carbohydrate and low-fat diets in favor of those who are obese and therefore prone to insulin resistance.The reason they advocate is often that through this diet, the obesity problem can be easily solved.Then we have to see what clues will be left on this sharp blade