Fat Is the Preferred Fuel for Human Metabolism - Metabolic Paradigm Shift

(Robin) #21

Did you say recently that you have Scottish ancestors? Same here. And of all the places I have yet to go, I want to back to Scotland first. Went there 20 years ago and fell in love.

#23

This isn’t just a theory, it’s factually true. The current population and infrastructure cannot be sustained by animal farming. And that’s before considering any pollution arguments. Plants are the cheapest and quickest way to keep the economy going. Just looking at the FDA guidelines and it’s clear that they don’t care about health, they are okay with any toxins in food so long as they are slow acting so you don’t die before working age.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #24

Unfortunately, the link in the article is broken. The following link works, but it’s not the whole book only the first few chaps:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #25

But there is far more agricultural land suitable for grazing, than there is arable land suitable for growing crops. Experts such as Alan Savory and Peter Ballerstedt have shown that there is by no means enough farm land available to support the world’s current population, and this is not taking into account the carbon footprint of the necessary fertilisers to cope with soil depletion. Ruminant agriculture not only makes use of otherwise unusable land, but it also sequesters more carbon than it uses, while fertilising the soil at no cost of petroleum resources, manufacturing, or transportation.

Nor is plant protein, generally speaking, of sufficient quality to sustain human life. Peter Ballerstedt makes a distinction between crude protein and usable protein. When people talk about the protein content of plant foods, they are generally, whether they realise it or not, talking about the crude protein content, Ballerstedt says. The usable protein is only part of that. This is something recognised by animal agronomists, but it seems to be missed by scientists concerned with human nutrition, Ballerstedt says.

By contrast, virtually all of the protein in meat is usable protein, and furthermore it is of much higher quality. Beef, in particular, provides the amino acids needed by the human body in almost the precise proportions required. Plant proteins have a much more erratic amino acid profile, though combining them properly can mitigate the problem, at least to some extent.

Peter Ballerstedt goes into these considerations in quite some detail in various lectures available on YouTube. He feels strongly that if we are to have any hope of feeding the world’s population, it will have to be by ruminant agriculture, and he has many persuasive arguments in support of that point.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #26

It is also available for under ten bucks on Kindle, whereas a print copy costs, as I recall, US $90.

#27

Where I live in Northern Ireland, and indeed most of the rest of British Isles and Rep of Ireland, raising cattle and sheep on our green fields (yet not sunny enough for a plant based agricultural foods economy) makes sense. We have exceptions, and plant grown poly tunnel fruits like strawberries etc., and potatoes, brussel sprouts, cabbage etc., but large scale wheat production is for the south of England where it is warmer. The bread bin of the UK.
There is nothing wrong with sheep, cattle, dairy…even pigs, when your environment can sustain it.
When the sun shines, make hay. Works for us.

#28

I forgot to mention chicken, hens eggs, foul and fish…all of which we have in abundance.
I’m starting to consider the carnivore diet.
I suppose it was inevitable, lol.

#29

Fat isn’t the preferred fuel. If it was, why gluconeogenesis would happen?

Those thinking they’re living on fat forget they’re living on gluconeogenesis.

When our ancestors ate fat, they were also eating protein, lots of it. It wasn’t the fat. It was the gluconeogenesis, or whatever it is called to make glucose from protein.

But internet doctors and influencers will continue to post videos with opinions on whatever makes them popular and sells their supplements, books and youtube ads.

We may develop health problems that make the using of glucose energy problematic. Then fat becomes more important, though you will still need glucose and your body will make it. But that’s because we’ve never lived so long, exposed to so much excess of bad things. The bad air we breathe, the processed foods we eat. Including the processed ‘keto’ bars and shakes your favorite influencers are advertising.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #30

Gluconeogenesis is required on a low or no carb diet, because certain cells lack mitochondria and are unable to metabolise fatty acids. Primarily it is the erythrocytes (red blood corpuscles) we are talking about, but there are some other cells in the same boat, throughout the body.

But when fat-adapted on a ketogenic diet, the skeletal muscles will reject glucose (and even ketones) in favour of fatty acids for fuel. This is a phenomenon called “adaptative glucose-sparing,” and it saves the glucose and ketones for those cells that really need them. If this isn’t a preference for fatty acids, I don’t know what you would call it. Yes, the skeletal muscles will use some glucose when explosive power is called for, in which case the liver shares some of the glycogen it has stored up for just such an eventuality. But absent that need, the body maintains only about a U.S. teaspoon of glucose circulating in the blood. Gluconeogenesis is a pretty tightly regulated process, and is not driven simply by the amount of protein available. This was the old understanding, but recent research has come to a more nuanced understanding.

One of the reasons that elevated serum glucose gets moved by insulin into fat tissue and muscle cells is that hyperglycaemia (excessive blood glucose) is deadly and constitutes a metabolic emergency. The elevated serum glucose reacts with proteins and causes damage, and the elevated serum insulin required to clear it also causes damage in a number of different ways. The adipose tissue and the muscle tissue function as sinks for the excess glucose, but I wouldn’t call that a “preference” for glucose, just a handy way of getting rid of the excess. Much as your mother made you eat the extra liver, so it wouldn’t be left over.

#31

Simplest of truths. The body only requires fat and protein (preferrably meat proteins because those contain ALL the basic elements/nutrients of life your body requires in one product and supplies ALL this) and it requires not one carb.

Your body will always be ketone fueled for best survival on this planet as science and proof of this is set in stone.

Glucose is a secondary burn for survival if required.

Nature gave us 2 options to ‘make it on this planet’ with ketone as actually the first and best fuel for your body point blank and it gave us a second option of surviving on glucose burn from plants but of course, as humans, we went WAY too far thinking glucose is required in our bodies from outside sources. It is not. Our bodies make any and all glucose the brain etc requires from our fat/meat protein intake, which is a natural body function created in our systems.

It doesn’t get any simpler.

We became a glucose burn population thru food intake and it became ‘the norm’ as some kind of truth when it is not.

Gluconeogenesis is a natural body function. It is not something to be feared or warped in thinking what ‘it does’ to you at all. A ketone burning body as natural life intended on this planet before farming was that the body has so many functions to survive and thrive solely on fat/meat protein intake.

I firmly believe it has all became so backward it is frightening! We all see what our ‘glucose burn’ bodies have done to us. We see it more rampant on the crap food of today so…

Ketone fueled bodies is how life started.
Glucose was adopted thru starvation factors with limited meat available, civilization/farming as a standard food intake and has wrecked the populations forward to ill health to this day and even worse now in our present day.

Now it has become a ketone fueled body burn vs. a all in glucose fueled body burn. While I get the debate, simple science of truths show easily that ketones rule the human system as the best fuel for life!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #32

Glycolysis is an ancient process, evolutionarily speaking. Every cell can metabolise glucose. In mammals, ketosis is generally a state found in the later stages of starvation; human beings are the only mammals that enter ketosis so readily.

I mentioned in my earlier post that mitochondria are required for fatty acid metabolism. Glycolysis, however, can occur both in the mitochondria and elsewhere in the cell. The reason we need to readapt to fatty-acid metabolism when embarking on a ketogenic diet after years of carb-burning is that glucose causes damage to any mitochondrion that tries to metabolise it, and over time that damage becomes significant, particularly in our skeletal muscles. Also, certain other cellular processes that are required only for fatty-acid metabolism get deactivated from lack of use. Hence the need for fat-adaptation; the mitochondria need time to heal, and the deactivated processes need time to be reactivated.

Fatty-acid metabolism requires a bit more time than glycolysis, but it actually yields slightly more ATP, and at a slightly lower energy cost. So given a choice, cells that can metabolise fatty acids tend to do so more readily. Certain muscles, such as the heart, do even better on ketones because, being partial metabolites of fatty acids, they require less oxygen to metabolise. This is important when the arteries feeding the heart muscle are blocked, thus reducing the amount of available oxygen. It also helps that when glycated haemoglobin is low (low HbA1C), the blood is much less likely to form clots unnecessarily.

As far as the regulation of gluconeogenesis and serum glucose are concerned, experiments in mice indicate that when the mice are able to secrete neither glucagon nor insulin, they never become diabetic; it is only when insulin secretion is impaired but glucagon secretion is unimpaired that they become diabetic. This indicates that their bodies have additional regulatory mechanisms that control serum glucose, not just glucagon and insulin. Although it is difficult to generalise from animal studies, it is probably reasonable in this case to assume that the human body is similarly constructed.

#33

This is a perennial issue, which I found myself taking up on TNation again (article link below). In summary, its author, Tara Garrison, was making the case for keto as a short term strategy. Unfortunately, her argument was flawed as she made the same basic error as Christian Thibaudeau did not that long ago, namely: ‘When we eat both fat and carbs, our bodies don’t make ketones out of fat first. We only make ketones when our bodies are extremely deprived of carbs and have no other choice.’ The conclusion then follows: [therefore] 'Our bodies are designed to run primarily on carbohydrates.’ l challenged this and, in fairness, she replied, although she declined to address the flawed logic and tried to take the argument down another path.

Do Keto. Not Forever. (t-nation.com)

#34

fat/meat proteins give all the body requires for full on natural life survival.
not one carb from plants is required for life on this planet.

conclusions are so simple to put against so many ‘whatever studies’ out there ya know.

back to simplest body truth science basics one can find real truths on what it takes for total survival.

why do vegans HAVE to watch vits/minerals, fat intake and ‘do more’ to make this lifestyle work in some type of healthy way? cause they are going against basic human body elements of true body system survival.

why do vegetarians need to be sure they are getting adequatre and protein intake thru tons more plant intake vs. what a meat eating human would never have to do.

any diet that has to be controlled for survival and health while eating it is whack LOL

Keotogenic menus are ‘made’ to suit a person in that being on a Keto Plan menu means one can have more options to ‘eat normally’ (whatever the heck that means in full truth against what the 'normal is to eat thru evolution factors) and gives options for that person to give more soley to bigger meat/fat intake and use veggies on the side to complete meals that suit them to make their lifestyle a good one in this day and age and those foods work well for that person.

carnivores thrive without no plant intake. simple as that. IF ONE can do the plan correctly LOL

Our bodies can use carbs not a doubt about it but it is not the preferred fuel because MEAT protein intake from fish/fowl/seafood and red meats means they contain all the B vits/vit C, all the vit/mineral elements we require for survival. Plants will never, ever contain ALL WE NEED for life on the simplest nutritional scale. Fat and protein content in all plants are very severely limited unless you pick ones that are geared directly at those sources…as in eat an avacdo for fat or eat beans for some limited protein…ugh… Thru the seasonal changes when availability was never there one could ‘not control’ in any way their fat/protein intake thru real life seasons on this planet on a daily eating basis for best survival.

yea in this day and age we can ‘buy produce’ in 10 ft of snow from the store, where did the human find produce/veg/anything in 10 ft of snow, they didn’t, they ate that deer looking for grasses and tree bark in that 10 ft of snow :wink: because life gave us it ALL in meat intake for survival. It never gave it all in plant survival in that one can not get their hands on ALL plants to ever give them all life requires in one source during seasonal changes BACK in beginning evolution times. Yea NOW we can get it all, lol,but back then, nope. No one was shipping oranges from Spain to another country cause it was freezing outside and their season couldn’t produce an orange come heck or highwater thru mother nature :slight_smile: real life is not the global transport or farming in groups thru onslaught of civilzation so if we think way way way back…come on, we can clearly see life as it was intended, but that will now be so warped against these simple truths…and it is just a global pandemic of ill sickly obese hurting people who suffer, I know, I was one.

Meat/seafood fish and fowl ONLY do that! Not one plant on this planet can give what a hunk of animal protein can give ever.

(Edith) #35

I think this sounds counterintuitive but if external carbs were essential to our bodies, we would not use gluconeogenesis to make glucose. We would HAVE to ingest glucose in our diet. Just like there are some essential amino acids and some nonessential amino acids. The amino acids that are essential are the ones our bodies cannot make. We HAVE to ingest them. So, therefore, carbs are nonessential.

#36

The liver can create glucose or ketones as fuels. If carbs and glucose were the preferred fuel, why not produce all glucose and no ketones when carbs aren’t ingested. Maybe because we evolved that way?

Ancient versions of our fruits and vegetables didn’t have nearly as many digestible carbs. We’re eating foods specifically bred to be higher in carbs (and sugars). Those are not the foods we evolved to eat.

An Australian zoo stopped feeding their animals fruits because the animals were getting obese and having their teeth rot. The fruits have been selectively bred to have a higher and higher sugar content.