Chapter 13 Chapter 11 The Carnivore Effect

We now look at the last clues that cause diseases such as insulin resistance, diabetes, heart and circulatory system.This could more reasonably explain why insulin resistance has become so common around the world.This is particularly persuasive because it fits in with the other theories we've already talked about and helps us clarify a thorny question: why are only white Europeans compared to people of color living in other parts of the world? , it is easier to avoid the doom of insulin resistance and diabetes. Let's take another look at our Stone Age ancestors.At first glance, how do their bodies differ from ours?They have muscles!You might as well picture in your mind what an average German middle-aged man would look like, from every angle, and without clothes, spending most of his time at a desk or computer.The first thing you notice is that round tummy, and the buttocks are barely noticeable because the muscles in the buttocks are not exercised and may be flattened due to sitting for a long time.Some degenerated muscle lines can still be vaguely discerned in the legs. After all, we still have to rely on our own strength to complete some things.Where are the muscles in the upper body, shoulders, chest and back?Only a pair of thin arms hung on the drooping shoulders, so it is no wonder that shoulder pads are an indispensable auxiliary material for master tailors.In order to support the bones, the lack of muscle is filled with fat.This has the advantage that if it hits the corner of the desk or coffee table, it will not hurt the bone.

How muscular our ancestors used to be can be seen in documentaries of certain African or South American tribes who still lead a hunter-gatherer life today.It was a muscular, muscular body.Some of us, at least still in fitness centers, try to torture our bodies with machines to achieve this effect.What was always lacking or deficient in our ancestors was sugar, the preferred fuel for muscles. Whenever possible, muscles prefer to burn glucose first because it provides quick and easy energy.Therefore, when well nourished, working muscles are major consumers of sugar.Larger, more active muscles naturally consume more glucose than smaller, less active muscles.Like our ancestors, we live by hunting and gathering. No matter the typhoon or rain, we have to run for food every day, and our muscles are naturally exercised.Muscles enjoy it too, they just need sugar.But where are there so many carbohydrates that can provide sugar?In the age of drinking blood, where are there so many healthy and delicious foods?Where are the cereals, potatoes, noodles and chocolate?Paleontologists assure us there are not even shadows!

With the advent of the Ice Age, the food structure of ancient humans also changed.Wild fruits and berries are favored but very rare.It must not be forgotten that there were no large juicy cultivated fruits with which we are now familiar, and wild fruits must have looked poorer then.From time to time, humans can also find pitifully small plant tubers that provide a few grams of starch, and sometimes, even a little bit of honey.However, wild vegetables and nuts contain almost no carbohydrates, and a little weed seeds cannot provide rich starch.Other than that, there aren't many other appreciable carbs.Of course, large and small animals on land and in water are the delicacies that human beings can't wait for.There is no doubt that carbohydrates that can produce sugar were always lacking in that era, so it seems that our ancestors were in a state of imbalance: so much muscle, but the intake of sugar was very thin.What about humans today?Just the opposite, eat a lot of carbohydrates, but not much muscle.

How did our Stone Age ancestors solve this problem?Just imagine, carbohydrates are a scarce commodity. Most of the limited sugar obtained from daily food is provided to the muscles. The original reserves have long been used up on the way to find food, and there is nothing left for the brain and reproduction. organ.This contradicts the survival instinct of living things.Therefore, if you can prevent sugar from entering the muscles, it is indeed a smart way.Muscles use fat as fuel and can still work, even if not efficiently.The more insulin-resistant your muscle cells are, the more precious sugar you can save and divert to vital organs.In ancient times, people who developed insulin resistance faster had a clear survival advantage over those who were insulin sensitive.Experts today have little disagreement with this relationship.People with this genetic gene have survived the evolution process as strong ones and reproduced, otherwise our human beings today would not exist.

The problem occurred after the end of the last ice age.About 10,000 years ago, humans living in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers discovered the possibility of growing crops.Humans began to grow plants, especially grains, on a large scale.Carbohydrates have gradually taken an important place in the human diet.Human beings' skills in planting crops continued to improve, and spread to Central Europe and then to Northern Europe with the high civilization of the Middle East.The better the body is supplied with carbohydrates, the less stress the competition for survival will place on insulin resistance.Once the muscles and other organs have enough sugar, insulin resistance is no longer a survival advantage.Therefore, in Europe, the genes that promote insulin resistance and their development have stagnated, or even degenerated, until today's level.

The answer to the question is becoming clearer: people who have been hunting and gathering in the past, such as Pima Indians, Australian aborigines and Nauruans, if they eat a lot of carbohydrates all at once, their nutrition will be unbalanced. It cannot be avoided.If they're on that diet, and still only some of the blood sugar goes to the muscles, the blood sugar levels keep rising to unhealthy levels, and the pancreas has to make more insulin.If this Western-style eating habit continues for a long time, the vicious circle will intensify.Day after day, always a lot of carbohydrates and a lot of insulin, this increases insulin resistance, which in turn develops into chronic hyperinsulinemia.Finally one day, the pancreas could no longer support it, and it was diagnosed as diabetes.

Some scientists believe that with the help of insulin resistance as a means of normality and health, humans have successfully adapted to a diet with less carbohydrates and more meat during hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, until they faced the quantity and quality of carbohydrates today. problem arises.This theory is known in the academic literature as the carnivore connection.Janet from the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Sydney.Professor Brand︱Miller (Jannette Brand-Miller) and Steffen from the Department of Metabolism and Diabetes, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney.Professor Stephen Colagiuri studied the above-mentioned relationships by investigating the aborigines in Australia, and proposed this theory.