Eat Meat And Stop Jogging: 'Common' Advice On How To Get Fit Is Keeping You Fat And Making You Sick (6 page)

“The lower limit of dietary carbohydrate compatible with life is zero, provided that adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed.”

―
Institute of Medicine (IOM)

Mistake #6

Believing Carbohydrates Are Essential

Our primal ancestors averaged 80g of total carbohydrates per day. If you opt for the standard North American breakfast that would mean you are restricted to 10-20g of carbohydrates for the rest of the day, as there’s upwards of 60g in a bowl or cereal or plain bagel.  That is, if you want to be lean like our friends from earlier:

Not to worry, this section isn’t that cut and dry. Although, this illustration is necessary because the typical reasoning for selecting carbohydrates is that we need them for ‘energy.’  If that’s the case, how did those before us (and the guys pictured above) survive and thrive on less than 80g of carbohydrates a day? 

Better yet, how did they manage to chase down a wild boar, climb a tree to escape a pack of wolves, walk more than 5 miles daily, and gather sticks and logs to build a shelter?

For whatever reason, we’ve all been trained to respond to any mention of cutting carbs with this rehearsed answer.  Perhaps our parents said it, we subconsciously heard it in an advertisement, or maybe we took a look at the government food pyramid.  The reality is:

There is no dietary requirement for carbohydrates.

If absolutely necessary, our body can synthesize any necessary carbohydrate structures from protein and fat. Carbohydrates provide no essential component, and supply none of the elements necessary to build or repair tissue in the body.  If we are ever desperate for energy, our body is perfectly capable of making it’s own glucose through gluconeogenesis – the process of generating glucose from non-carbohydrate food sources. Thus, saying ‘I need carbohydrates for energy’ is an inaccurate statement.  In fact, the size of our non-carb fuel tank is significantly larger than any ingested or stored carbohydrates could ever provide.

ALL Carbohydrates Become Sugar

The other
basic nutritional science the majority of the population fails to recognize, or understand, is that:

EVERY carbohydrate
ingested becomes glucose.

Either immediately
in the stomach, or eventually in the liver.  I won’t get into the boring specifics of the different carbohydrate options, but essentially you’re looking at monosaccharide’s, disaccharides, and polysaccharides.  You know what saccharide means…?

….Sugar!

You know what polysaccharide means…?

Many S
ugars!!

Regardless of mono, di, or poly, all carbohydrates are eve
ntually absorbed as glucose (or fructose) and thus trigger the same response as sugar.  Instead of seeing foods like this:

You need to start seeing foods like this:

If you’re anything like most North Americans, you are unknowingly filling up on foods high in sugar.  And I don’t just mean candy and sugar in your coffee; I mean cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, rice or pasta for dinner, and popcorn in front of the t.v.  The reality is:

Whole wheat bread increases blood sugar more than table sugar!

Yet our government is telling us to eat 6-11 servings of whole grains per day, and we think we’re being ‘healthy,’ or making a ‘wise choice’ when we do.  As you’ll soon learn, this is one of the driving forces behind the increased obesity and disease risk we’re seeing in North America.

Another common misconception is that our brain can only function on glucose and requires 120 grams of it per day.  The 120 gram requirement may be accurate, but assuming that this glucose can only be obtained from dietary carbohydrates is where the disconnect lies.  Because of the importance of brain fuel, our body is quite capable of creating it’s own, which can be accomplished by breaking down previously stored fat.

There’s no need for carbs, esp
ecially in the daily amounts most are consuming!

Excess Carbohydrates = Fat Storage

Fat is our premium energy source that’s readily available to be burned as fuel.  The problem is, when we eat excess carbohydrates consistently we never tap into this alternative fuel, and thus never burn fat.  I’ve found that the easiest way to understand this concept is to think of the body as having 3 empty cups:

• Cup 1 = Glucose to burn immediately for fuel
  
• Cup 2 = Glycogen to burn if Cup 1 empty
  
• Cup 3 = Stored Fat
  to burn if Cup 1 & 2 empty
  

Once Cup 1 & 2 are full, any excess carbohydrates are converted to fat in the liver, and either:

• S
  ent to the bloodstream as circulating fat (triglycerides)
  
• Stored as body fat
  

The greater the excess in
carbohydrates, the higher the production of triglycerides and storage of body fat. For example, a 1971 study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition put three groups on 1,800 calorie diets that differed only in carbohydrate content. 

The only way to effectively tap
into our fat reserves, while still maintaining our health and nourishing our bodies with essential nutrients, is to lower our carbohydrate intake (empty cups 1&2).  The other way to empty those cups is to simply not eat, but then we’re burning muscle and risking our long-term health. As I’ve illustrated, a lack of nutritionally dense calories will lead to malnourishment, hormone disruption, and degeneration.  Conversely, by eliminating the 1 macronutrient not required in the diet we burn strictly fat without sacrificing our health.

Excess Carbohydrates = Insulin Resistance

If you look at evolution and the Feast & Famine lifestyle of our ancestors, it becomes easier to understand why we store excess sugar as glycogen and fat (Cup 2&3).  Insulin is the hormone secreted by our pancreas to help us store glucose for later use.  Before drive-thrus and fridges, we would go very long periods without food.  This is an extremely important feature should we need to function when food is scarce, but perhaps not as useful when food is consistently available.

When we eat a meal, our blood sugar rises.  Our body utilizes the sugar it needs immediately and insulin is secreted to distribute the rest into carbohydrate storage (glycogen) or fat storage (body fat) for future use.  Although this is an important mechanism to maintain blood sugar homeostasis and store energy for later, when insulin is chronically secreted our storage cells start to become less receptive.  Essentially, the cells already have an adequate supply of glucose, yet insulin continues to attempt to push more in to ensure blood sugar levels are stabilized.  Over time the cells either reduce the number of available sites for absorption or turn off completely. When cells no longer respond to insulin, any glucose we consume is more likely to be stored as fat.  Meaning even if there is an energy deficit inside the cells, they don’t have the receptors to absorb the fuel.  So not only does daily overconsumption of carbohydrates increase the likelihood of glucose converting to fat, but it worsens the responsiveness of our cells to insulin. The more comfortable our bodies get with daily sugar consumption the more receptor sites we lose and the closer we get to something called insulin resistance or carbohydrate intolerance.

Less receptor sites makes it easier to gain fat, even if you’re eating less and exercising more than everyone else. The more resistant your cells are to insulin, the higher the likelihood that what you eat will become fat instead of muscle. Even after exercise, when we would normally accept large amounts of glucose to store as muscle glycogen (for future use), the cells are unable to absorb carbohydrates.  Sadly, this resistance also means amino acids (from protein) and other essentials have difficulty reaching the cells.  Making it more difficult to build muscle, in addition to the increased likelihood of storing fat.

In essence, consuming excess carbohydrates is increasing fat storage and decreasing fat burning, along with compounding the rate of each.  The more resistant our cells become, the more difficulty we will have burning fat and building muscle.  You can imagine the long-term impact on one’s body composition, although the effects on long-term health are potentially worse.

Excess Carbo
hydrates = Degenerative Disease

When insulin struggles to find somewhere to put excess glucose because of insulin resistant cells, blood sugar r
emains high longer than usual.  This causes inflammation and the excess sugar in the blood goes through a binding process with proteins and lipids (fats) to form something called AGEs (Advanced Glycation End Products).  Excess carbohydrates not only increase our risk of heart disease by raising triglycerides, but when attached to proteins to form AGEs, they gum up arteries and capillaries.  These AGEs eventually cause further damage to DNA, enzymes, and receptor sites, and have shown correlations with early aging.  Australian researchers determined in 2004 that:

AGEs produce a 50-fold increase in free radical produ
ction, which accelerates aging and increases our risk of the same diseases associated with insulin resistance. 

Chronically elevated insulin is associated with an increased
risk of cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders (like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s) and early death.

Despite claims favoring a plant-based diet consisting of plenty of grains and legumes to prevent cancer, there’s plenty of evidence suggesting otherwise. Dating as far back as 1843, an increase in whole-grain and carbohydrate consumption was highly correlated to an increased risk of cancer. Recently, two studies from Italy looked for a relationship between starch intake and breast and prostate cancer.  The first study took 1294 men with confirmed prostate cancer, and 1451 men without, finding a direct correlation between starch intake and prostate cancer. It was determined that:

M
en who consumed the most starch had a 1.4 times higher risk of prostate cancer than those consuming the least. 

The other study, from the Universita Degli Studi Di Milano, an
alyzed dietary habits of 2569 women with breast cancer and 3413 women without from 1991-1999. The results were incredible: