Tag Archive for: carbohydrate

It’s All About the Calories

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The paper advocating the carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM) for explaining the obesity pandemic, not only in the U.S. but throughout the world, was written by the leading experts in endocrinology and nutrition. There were experts who’ve conducted some of the major nutritional studies that you’ve heard about over the years, from the Women’s Health Initiative to studies on the ketogenic diet. This is an expert group.

I agree with their desire for more research in this area. They’re trying to find out what would constitute their definition of cause: what increases appetite? Does palatability drive food choices? What hormones impact how much a person eats? And more. Where I disagree is in their lack of acknowledgement of the energy balance model (EBM) as valid. I outlined a written response to send to the journal that would have been about five pages long. Here are my two primary arguments.

Prior Research on Weight Loss

The authors talk about prior research showing that a low-fat diet doesn’t work long term; one of the authors was heavily involved in the weight loss study on a low-fat diet in the Women’s Health initiative. Their analysis was incorrect. The objective of that study was to compare a group of normally fed women eating the typical American diet of close to 40% fat with a group who was going to lower their fat intake to 20%. In the analysis, there were no differences in weight loss over the course of the study. The results suggested that a low-fat diet doesn’t work.

Here’s the problem: looking at the data from that study, what you see is that the women who were supposed to achieve a 20% fat intake couldn’t get below 28%. That doesn’t meet the goals of the study and thus doesn’t support their conclusion.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment

My primary argument goes back to the research done on conscientious objectors during World War II. I’ve talked about this fascinating study many times, but here’s the short version: for a period of six months, 36 men who were conscientious objectors had their caloric intake cut by 25%. Their physical activity was also increased; they had to walk up to 22 miles per week.

What was unique was that they were weighed every week and their caloric intake adjusted based on weight loss or weight gain. If they did not lose the required amount, they were given less food. If they lost too much, they were given more food.

What makes that study even more consequential is the types of food that they were given to eat. The menu was very low fat and had virtually no protein; it consisted of breads and starches from root vegetables. In the CIM, that would be just about the worst types of food to eat to lose weight. But remember, the purpose of that study was to feed people foods that would be available after the end of the war. Every subject lost weight and lost it on a linear basis; most emerged looking emaciated. That’s the only study I’ve ever seen where people lost weight in a linear fashion over that period of time, and they did it eating an almost 100% carbohydrate diet.

The Bottom Line

There are many other aspects of the paper that I could comment on, but those are my two strongest points. I do believe that insulin is the most powerful hormone in the body; it does help store food as fat if someone overeats for an extended period of time. That makes it more difficult to sustain weight loss until the body is retrained to lose weight and keep it off.

But let me be clear: it always was, it is, and it always will be about the calories regardless of the source. Eat too many and you gain weight. Eat fewer and you lose weight. For sure, make better choices on the selection of the food that you eat and move more. But it’s all about the calories. Period.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: AJCN. 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab270.

The Weight Loss Battle: Carbs vs Calories

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As a member of the American Society of Nutrition, I get a news feed that lets me know what’s being published in their journals. A recent article talked about the carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM) as a cause of the obesity pandemic. The debate surrounded the question of whether the energy balance model (EBM) that says calories in should equal calories out is adequate to explain the 70% overweight population in the U.S. Instead, a large group of researchers suggested that it’s time to research insulin as it relates to the highly refined carbohydrate intake of the population as the actual cause of obesity.

But that’s not all. The article suggested that insulin causes the body to store excess carbs as fat. More than that, to maintain blood sugars, it forces people to eat more carbs because they’re actually being starved, which drives hunger and is actually responsible for obesity. They went on to explain the fallacy of the EBM model and to deal with the criticism of the CIM model. In actuality, the researchers want to study the CIM approach, and this was a call for research to find out what really causes obesity.

To say it didn’t sit well in the nutrition and medical community is an understatement. Over 100K responses were generated in a couple of weeks, and I guess the nutrition Twitter world went nuts. Why? This is actually a battle over the ketogenic diet and everything else that focuses on counting calories. I’ll give you my opinion and why I believe what I do on Saturday.

The Insider Conference call is tomorrow night at 9 p.m. Eastern. If you have questions about your health or products, become an Insider before 8 p.m. and you can participate. Even if you only want to listen, you’ll learn something new to improve your health and the health of others you know.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: AJCN. 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab270.

The Keto Diet and Fiber

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More and more people are trying the ketogenic diet. If you do, the directions recommend that you eat plenty of green leafy vegetables for the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and especially the fiber. The problem is that many people cut the carbs from all sources and that includes vegetables.

The simplest way to give yourself some insurance while doing the ketogenic diet is to get at least five or more grams of fiber per day from a fiber supplement. Remember, the grams of fiber do not count as carbohydrates because they’re not absorbed. Check out Your Fiber Insurance, a free Health Info on my website for more information on exactly how to get your fiber every day. Health Infos are posted in PDF format so they can be downloaded, printed, and shared with others.

But what if in spite of all you do, you get constipated? See Thursday’s Memo for the answer.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

More Carbs? Better Choices

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Have you decided whether the extra years you may get by eating too many or too few carbohydrates are worth the effort? How about if you don’t have to make that choice at all? What if you could eat more or fewer carbs and not have to worry about it? Here are the other significant results of the study we’ve looked at this week.

When the researchers considered what people would eat to replace carbohydrates if they chose a low-carb diet, they assumed it would be animal protein such as beef, pork, lamb, and cheese as well as chicken with and without the skin. Likewise when they considered the extra carbs if people ate over 60% carbohydrates, they assumed people would choose more refined carbohydrates. They concluded correctly the additional refined carbs would contribute to metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. They suggested that, based on other studies, if a low-carbohydrate diet used plant-based sources of protein, fats, and oils, there was no increase in mortality on a low-carb diet.

I’ll take it a step further and it’s something you’ve heard before: eat better. It doesn’t matter whether you want to eat a high-carbohydrate or a low-carbohydrate diet. That’s your choice. You just have to eat your vegetables and fruits first, and I’m not talking about just peas, corn, and bananas; there are hundreds of other choices to explore. You can increase the carbs in your diet without hurting your health as long as you make the right choices. Lead with vegetables and you’ll get the fiber and phytonutrients your body needs.

High carb or low carb, it all comes down to eating better. The key to living longer? Eat less. Eat better. Move more.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2468-2667(18)30135-X.

 

Too Many Carbs vs. Too Few

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Yesterday I talked about a Lancet study that says too many carbs are bad and can kill you—but so can too few carbs. The logical question to ask is: what timeline are we talking about? Is it 10 years or 20 years or more? Based on the results of the study, let’s compare the extremes of carbohydrate intake with the mean intake of carbohydrate for a 50-year-old person.

If you ate fewer than 30% of your calories from carbohydrates, you might live up to 29 more years compared to the 33 years a person might live if they ate 50–55% from carbohydrates, so 79 vs. 83. What are four potential years worth to you? They’re only potential years because these are just hazard ratios; it could be as little as 2.5 years or as much as 5.5 years.

On the other hand, if you ate more than 65% of your calories from carbohydrates, you might live another 32 years compared to  33 years for someone who ate 50-55% from carbohydrates. At 82, do you care about one more year?

Only you can decide what those years are worth to you, and to compound the issue, we don’t know what our health will be like when we’re that age. But there may be a way to put the odds in your favor whether you want to eat more or less food high in carbohydrate. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2468-2667(18)30135-X.

 

Huh?

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That’s exactly what I thought when I looked at my health news feed pictured above. Carbohydrates will kill you—maybe. Too many are bad. Too few are bad. It’s all referencing the same study published in Lancet Public Health. What the heck is going on? You’ve heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Evidently, so are provocative headlines.

Researchers examined the mortality rate of participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The subjects had been followed for 25 years. At the beginning of the study and periodically afterwards, they completed an abbreviated Food Frequency Questionnaire using food models to estimate serving sizes. Foods were analyzed using the Harvard food database to estimate protein, fat, and carbohydrates as well as sources of fats and protein.

What did they find? Just what the headlines said: too many or too few carbohydrates are related to an increase in death. As always, the details are found in the data. We’ll take a look in tomorrow’s Memo.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2468-2667(18)30135-X.

 

As Much Sugar As You Want!

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Continuing the topic from Tuesday’s message, I’m going take a look at one specific statement that the author made in his article in JAMA (1). I chose it because he specifically stated it was used to justify the increase in carbohydrate recommendations in public health policy. I also had never heard of it before—and I’ve been around awhile. The inner quote was taken from an article written in 2001 (2) that was used as a reference in . . .

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The Battle of Fat vs. Carb

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Sometimes I just can’t let go. Such is the case with this diet debate of fat versus carbohydrate. I’m going to address both of these questions this week. It won’t end the debate, but at least you’ll have the facts.

The debate comes down to two separate but related questions:

  • Does a diet high in saturated fat contribute to heart disease?
  • Is the high-carbohydrate and low-fat diet recommended by the USDA the cause of the obesity epidemic?

Let’s begin with scientific evidence that a high-fat diet . . .

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