The carbohydrate-insulin model (and racial disparities)

(Bob M) #1

On Bluesky, someone asked a question about what the worst nutrition advice was. A respondent (a woman of Asian descent, I believe) posted that she thought the animosity toward “white” food was terrible, since her family ate white foods all the time. I think she meant rice and possibly potatoes.

Of course, I posted back that all that food did for me what explode my blood sugar and make me hungry. Which is true.

But this got me thinking: why it is like this? Can two people eat exactly the same thing (and - gasp! – the same calories), yet get two different results? I knew from studies with CGMs that this was possible, but there seemed to be something more that was missing.

Then this study came out, where they put African American women on two different diets: high carb; or low carb. There was a difference in fat loss, depending on whether the women were more or less insulin sensitive.

https://davidludwigmd.medium.com/will-a-low-carb-diet-reduce-racial-ethnic-health-disparities-a90c95502b13

Some quotes:

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I have always had questions about why one person can have 1 piece of pizza and get “full”, why I could have 3 and want 5. If I produce a higher insulin response than they do, then my carb calories are immediately getting put into fat cells (or muscle cells if I’ve exercised), and I have no energy. Meaning I’m hungry. It’s Richard’s idea of the hungry fat man.

To me, these types of studies help answer those questions. Some people really can eat carbs and be “full”, while others, like me cannot. And this means that two people eating exactly the same calories will lose or gain weight, and/or have higher or lower energy output, due to their insulin sensitivity/resistance, which is in part due to genetics.

This makes sense to me.

#2

To be fair, two people have wildly different energy need and a bunch of other differences… Of course, it’s totally possible that carbs work differently for them too. We know some people get satiated by very carby food while others just get hungry…

For my body, only calories seem to matter if it’s about fat-loss BUT carbs make me hungry so NO WAY I lose any fat while eating higher-carb. (Not like I lose fat on any low-carb diet but I still tend to eat less and what’s more important, feel better and less hungry.)

Pizza always made me very satiated very quickly though, probably due to it’s very high non-carb content… Or IDK.
Bread with butter and honey? I could eat A TON and stay hungry :smiley: Satiation is strange. But I didn’t want to write about that but that 1 piece of pizza is a very tiny meal, of course no one who needs bigger meals will get satiated by it, no matter if they find carbs satiating or not. My SO gets super satiated for long term with a bunch of carby food (like oatmeal) but a tiny pizza slice couldn’t do the trick. Eating 3 and wanting 5 is more like a sign that the pizza isn’t satiating for you (or if you get satiated just want more, it affects your appetite. I have such items).

Indeed, we humans are highly different, I always found it very interesting how much.

#3

Yes we are individuals. I´m not surprised.

That test was not low-carb though, in the beginning the low carb group had 60 grams carbs. And later 100 grams.

Proper keto might show some other differences. I´m one of us whose hunger goes away almost too well at 10 g carbs / day.

#4

100g is totally low carb. Even keto for some but not for most of us, of course.