I can’t help but be annoyed, saddened, driven nuts by so many conflicting nutrition messages out in the world. I’m not at all surprised people are so confused. Here is just a small selection from high profile Doctors with blogs promoting a particular viewpoint.
Carbohydrates ‘kills’ message from Dr Ron Rosedale to prevent metabolic syndrome and diseases of aging
Why are we recommending a low starchy carbohydrate count? It is important to understand that both simple and “complex” carbohydrates can only turn into one thing in our bodies ― sugar! Heart disease, obesity and aging itself are directly affected, if not caused by the intake of excess sugar, whether its source is the best whole grain bread or a dish of your favorite ice cream.
Carbohydrates are well known for being our prime energy food, yet burning sugar for energy is similar to heating your house in the winter with newspaper. It provides quick heat, which dies out rapidly. Our goal is to show you how to eat so that your energy does not come from these “fast burn out” carbohydrates but from a slow burning, much more effective source.
Don’t worry about getting enough carbohydrates. They are everywhere, so avoiding them completely is impossible. That said, you don’t NEED any at all. Contrary to popular belief, there is no lower limit to the amount of sugar your body needs. This is not just our theory; it is proven scientific fact. Your body can only run on either sugar or fat. Eliminating sugar and eating fat is the quickest, easiest way to become a fat burner and thus, a healthier person. The most effort you have is avoiding starches, that is, those foods which, when broken down to a cellular level (which is what your cells do) become nothing but basic sugar. This means you’ll be cutting back on many of the current diet staples such as pasta, rice, breads, potatoes (baked or fried), crackers etc. However, there is good news for your taste buds. You’ll be surprised to learn what foods are healthy for you and how satisfying those foods can be. …
When your body receives sugar from your diet, its response is to produce a hormone called insulin. Most people, and even most doctors, still believe that the purpose of insulin is to simply lower blood sugar. This is a dangerous misconception! Although insulin does have the effect of lowering blood sugar, its purpose is to promote the storage of energy, which it does by turning blood sugar into fat!
So, when you eat carbohydrates (the starchy ones) your body turns them into sugar and produces insulin. The insulin tells your body to turn it into fat. The equation looks like this:
Carbohydrate (starchy) > Sugar > Insulin > Fat Storage
A perfect example of this is illustrated in the meat industry. When you “fatten up” animals for slaughter you feed them grains. This recommended “low fat and high carbohydrate” diet has caused an increase in obesity in the U.S. by a whopping 30% in the last ten years. This is also why the diets currently recommended by the American Diabetic Association and the American Heart Association will actually promote rather than reverse heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc.
When we eat a high carbohydrate diet we not only store fat in our midsections, but we store it in our veins and arteries as well. The yo-yo effect of carbohydrate on our metabolisms also primes us up for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and food cravings, keeping people on a nonstop blood sugar (and therefore, insulin) roller coaster.
Meat ‘kills’ message from PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) to prevent diseases of aging
Vegetarian diets, which contain no meat (beef, pork, poultry, or fish and shellfish), are naturally low in saturated fat, high in fiber, and full of vitamins, minerals, and cancer-fighting compounds. A multitude of scientific studies have shown that vegetarian diets have remarkable health benefits and can help prevent certain diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. We encourage vegetarian diets as a way of improving general health and preventing diet-related illnesses.
Vegan diets, which contain no animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, or other animal products), are even healthier than vegetarian diets. Vegan diets contain no cholesterol and even less fat, saturated fat, and calories than vegetarian diets because they exclude dairy and eggs. Scientific research shows that health benefits increase as the amount of food from animal sources in the diet decreases, making vegan diets the healthiest overall….
Carbohydrate-rich foods help with permanent weight control because they contain less than half the calories of fat, which means that replacing fatty foods with complex carbohydrates automatically cuts calories.
It’s important to remember to eat healthful carbohydrates, such as whole grains, pasta, brown rice, and sweet potatoes.
What about seafood and omega 3?
PCRM does not recommend eating any fish or shellfish because they can contain unsafe levels of contaminants and are often high in mercury and other environmental toxins that have no place in a healthy diet. Fish also contain no fiber and are high in animal protein, and often, in saturated fat and cholesterol. The most nutritious sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are plant-based foods, including green leafy vegetables, legumes, wheat germ, soybeans, and ground flaxseeds. We do not recommend fish or fish oil as a healthy source of essential fatty acids. By getting omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and protein from plant-based foods, you can avoid the health risks associated with fish consumption.
Fat kills message from Dr Esselstyn for reversal of heart disease, and prevention of diseases of aging
NO OIL! Not even olive oil, which goes against a lot of other advice out there about so-called good fats. The reality is that oils are extremely low in terms of nutritive value. They contain no fiber, no minerals and are 100% fat calories. And above all they contain saturated fat which immediately injures the endothelial lining of the arteries when eaten. It doesn’t matter whether it’s olive oil, corn oil, or any other kind of oil. You should not consume any oil if you have heart disease. This is so important I have detailed oil in Chapter 10.
Olive oil, canola oil, coconut oil, Sunflower oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, any oil – Which oil is best?
Avoid oils. They injure the endothelium, the innermost lining of the artery, and that injury is the gateway to vascular disease.
From an evolutionary viewpoint, none of these views make sense. None.
What does a healthy modern day, hunter gatherer eat? One that is free in their old age of all modern diseases? (Text for your reference; Food and Western Disease)
Animal and seafood protein, including organ meats, pure animal fat (marrow, brain etc), nuts, starchy carbohydrates and maybe other vegetables, plus fruit. Natural foods as available. None are vegans, they do not avoid fat, or sugar when found (fruit and honey) or starchy carbohyrates. They don’t need to. Not when they eat real, fresh unprocessed food.
Rosedale is wrong; insulin tells your body to store the fat that is in circulation from your adpocytes, and coming in from your diet, so that it can deal with the glycaemic load first. Part of this dealing-with-glucose might involve converting some carbs to fat, especially if there’s fructose to produce more glycogen, but in evolutionary terms you’d just burn this fat later, all good.
Two things mainly – inactivity, and constant drip-feeding of carbohydrate (sweet drinks and snacks) create a pathology where metabolism swings too far in favour of the use of glucose as a substrate, and fat can’t be managed effectively. This couldn’t happen if one moved as much and ate as seldom (no matter what or how much one ate at a sitting) as hunter-gatherer ancestors.
The other two comments are even more bizarre, because they seem to promote malnutrition, and because experiments seem to show that the more saturated fats promote less oxidation and better nitric oxide levels in endothelial tissue compared to high-monounsaturated or polyunsaturated oils.
Yes – Every doctor has a really simplistic view point. Thanks for your input.
Hi Julianne,
Why are you disagreeing with #1?
Every fact seems to be inline with convention Paleo thinking. Carbohydrates aren’t an essential macronutrient and were probably consumed least of all by our early ancestors. The carbohydrates consuming would have been also high in fiber.
Thanks for the links, always looking for anti-fat doctor arguments.
Happy New Years
-kelly
I don’t agree because we actually do need carbohydrates – they are SO important that we manufacture glucose to keep our blood sugar levels stable. This is why we can get away without glucose in our diet. However I go along with Paul Jaminet in that in my observation people need to have a minimum level of carbohydrates for health. Sugars are necessary for mucous production, and a very low carb diet often leads to low mucous and dry eyes. 100 grams a day is needed for physiological processes. In my observation most people feel best when they eat this amount. For more on carbohydrate deficiency read http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2012/08/ahs-2012-the-safe-starches-panel/ and other articles where Paul talks about problems with very low carb diets
Just realised I wrote “glycogen” where I should have written “glycerol” in that comment. Shame!
Fructose, compared to glucose, is preferentially converted to glycerol rather than lipids, which may promote more triglyceride synthesis via DAGT1 than glucose alone.
Yes – that makes more sense – thanks!
And here I was being driven nuts by all the dietitians with blogs promoting a particular viewpoint . . .