One problem is you produce less insulin when you get older, even if you live healthily, so you just stock up fat.
I wonder if, in general, ordinary older people shouldn’t have some sort of insulin supplement, like in the way we all should have D vitamin supplement.
Wait, less insulin causes increased fat in otherwise normal/healthy people? Seems counterintuitive, as insulin is the mechanism by which cells utilise glucose. Got a link to anything where I can start reading - sounds like there’s more to the story than I currently understand.
Also, didn’t realize pancreas reduced insulin production as we age - though it probably shouldn’t be all that surprising, given everything seems to go sideways as we age.
Utilize as in turn sugar into energy rather than fat?
Not sarcasm, I don’t know shit about this, but if that’s how it works I can see why OC would suggest what he did.
Yea, insulin is a hormone to which cells respond by metabolising glucose in the blood stream. The more insulin, the more metabolising of glucose (including fat cells).
This is part of why high glucose levels from a high-glycemic meal are problematic - as soon as our mouth or gut recognize the incoming carbohydrates, the message to release more insulin is sent, which then means increase glucose consumption, including fat cells.
The crazy thing is it doesn’t even take a carb that we can metabilize - those zero calorie sweeteners apparently cause an insulin spike too, because sweetness sensitive receptors react to them, and don’t realize they can’t be metabolized, so still cause an insulin release.
In the early 90’s a biochemist (Barry Sears) wrote a book called “The Zone”, where he breaks down in layman terms how metabolism works, why more frequent, smaller meals, with minimal carbs is best for most (which diabetes docs advised in the 40’s), and noted that glycemic instability is a major cause of heart disease (which docs are just now starting to recognize). Don’t get any other Zone crap - that first book is the only one that’s all about the biochemistry, the rest are more “use my methods, buy my tools”.
I found his book because of diabetes and hypoglycemia in my family. Practically overnight symptoms for everyone improved. That was pretty convincing. Today we can predict when someone’s gonna feel bad, and how long, just by what they eat - we rarely get surprise low glucose anymore.
That being said, would metabolizing more sugar and fat be a cause for less fat stored? Unless metabolize doesn’t necessarily mean “used or spent”
Simplistically no, but then again, yes… because again fat cells metabolize too (as in they grow). (But we’d want to clarify the circumstance, as metabolism isn’t just one simple thing. I’d say this question is sort of a next level discussion of metabolism).
Increased glucose metabolism is (generally) only good if it’s caused by exertion - aka exercise (or heavy thinking, the brain is a massive glucose consumer). Then it’s more being metabolized by muscles than fat cells (if the muscles
aren’tare out-pacing supply, and have sufficient oxygen).I’d say this is part of why multiple, smaller meals is better - lower total glycemic load per meal, so a smaller insulin response, less opportunity for fat cells to engage, and also reduced eicosanoid production (these are hormones that trigger things like inflammation, iirc).
All this is why folks like the old diabetes docs and Sears focus on the simple approach: more calories from fat and protein than carbs (especially fat, since it reduces glycemic load and is more easily metabolized into more varied nutrients), and avoid simple carbs (bread, dammit, my nemesis) as much as possible. That’s easy to understand, and fairly easy to visualize proportions once you’ve done it a while.
Very interesting, you’re really good at explaining things you know a lot about to people that don’t. Very valuable skill to have. Thanks for explaining!
Cereal bombs
Prescription of Lizzo
Start eating healthier and move.
If only wed thought of that before, wed have no obesity epidemic. Thanks for the amazing insight. Now, if only we could let everyone know.
Generally people have tried eating less and moving more but not enough. Clearly its not just a motivation or time or diet issue given it occurs everywhere worldwide, even places like Japan and Greek islands with the worlds healthiest diets.
I’ve lost count of the arguments I’ve gotten into where someone repeats the “eat less and move” refrain, and refuses to accept that people who actually research this stuff and control for those variables have concluded “it’s way more complicated than that.”
Not saying you’re wrong but sugar addiction is a thing and we’re all part of it. One day we’ll treat sugar the right way, it’s far worse than other drugs.
Though this comes off as flippant, it is relevant.
Via the use of these drugs, patients may gain the ability to change their perception on food, as well as achieve greater mobility by losing weight.
It’s not a sure thing, but the chance to pilot a healthier body in a healthier lifestyle may be significantly motivating, such that patients can independently maintain new goals
How dare you suggest a sane and healthy way to manage weight that requires a modicum of self-control and determination instead of using a pharmaceutical shortcut that alters biochemistry with poorly understood consequences. Its like you don’t even care about the shareholders.
A modicum? It sounds like you have absolutely no idea what addiction is like.
My liver says you must have a hearing problem.
Maybe you should read the labels of food and see exactly how much corn syrup is in damn near everything. There’s no feasible way to escape it and maintain a healthy diet.
You must eat a crazy amount of processed and artificially sweetened food if you think HFCS is unavoidable.
Regardless, you don’t get fatter in a calorie deficit and that is just a fact of science. Eat less or do more, pick one to start losing weight but both together are fastest.
Don’t eat processed food. If it comes in box or plastic, it is likely processed.
Produce, meat and carbs do need prep tho most of the time.
You should really see just how much processing goes into the meats, produce and carbs.
Factory farming predominantly uses nutritionally deficient grain and corn to quickly fatten up the livestock quickly, before slaughter and often quite extensive processing to keep the meat looking pretty and last longer.
Produce is picked long before its ripe, and forced to ripen, which as a process, doesn’t let the produce develop the full capability of nutrition.
As for grains all the nutritionally useful stuff is ground away for the nice white grains and flours we use.
