Extra Protein, Extra Performance? - Excess protein turns into fat

By taking large quantities of protein, athletes hope to be able to run that extra mile or lift that extra weight without failing their drug tests. But, does it work? More importantly, is it worth the risks?

Joe Schwarcz PhD | 20 Mar 2017 

You Asked

No one can deny the importance of proteins in our diet. They are vital for countless body functions, especially tissue growth and repair. Proteins also provide energy to the body and help ensure a strong immune system. In striving to excel at their respective sports, many athletes subscribe to the notion that protein supplements enhance their physical performance. The existence of a multi-billion dollar supplement industry, however, does not prove that such products are necessary. Only a rigorous scientific investigation can do that.

Before delving into the science of protein supplements, let’s take a look at the differences between a supplement and a drug. Legally, dietary supplements cannot claim to cure, treat or prevent a disease, although they can convey how they potentially affect the body. Supplements do not have to go through the same regulatory process as drugs which undergo a thorough assessment for safety and efficacy before going on the market. Protein supplements therefore do not have to be proven effective before being sold. Indeed, their effectiveness continues to be a matter of ongoing debate, and with a lack of concrete evidence, many people continue to invest in this growing market.

An understanding of protein’s role in the body allows us to make an attempt at assessing the role of supplements. A normal adult requires only forty to fifty grams of protein per day in order to supply essential amino acids and replace the nitrogen eliminated in urea as waste. Essential amino acids are the nine out of twenty amino acids that the body requires but cannot produce on its own. When an amino acid is broken down, the nitrogen it contains is converted into urea by the liver which then is excreted via the kidneys. 

Many athletes, body builders, or teenage boys who are looking to “bulk up” turn to protein supplements or high protein diets to enhance their performance or accelerate muscle growth. Supposedly, the amino acids arginine and ornithine promote release of growth hormone, a natural hormone that stimulates muscle development. Glutamine and carnitine have also been marketed as strength-enhancing amino acids. By taking large quantities of these proteins, athletes hope to be able to run that extra mile or lift that extra weight without failing their drug tests. But, does it work? More importantly, is it worth the risks? 

A typical American diet contains approximately seventy to ninety grams of protein per day, meaning that most individuals far surpass their daily protein requirements. Dietary protein is used to replace proteins which were previously broken down and used by the body. Extra protein does not get stored. Instead, excess amino acids get converted to carbohydrate or fat. Thus, it seems that additional protein intake will not directly increase muscle growth, strength or physical performance and could even lead to weight gain and fat deposition, which are surely negative consequences for any athlete.

As a matter of fact, many health experts question the efficiency and safety of ingesting large amounts of proteins. In one study of elite junior weightlifters, consumption of protein supplements including glutamine and carnitine before workout did not result in changes in blood hormone levels during heavy training. Another study with bodybuilders found no change in blood growth hormones after consuming various mixtures of amino acids. Not only that, excess protein intake can have deleterious effects on the body. The recommended dose of protein intake for a normal adult is 0.8 g per kg of body weight per day. That’s 54 g for a person weighing 150 lb. High level athletes (and we are talking about those who compete at the national and international level, not your fifteen year-old who wants to impress a girl) require a bit more than that to compensate for their high energy output. According to one study, athletes competing in power or strength sports need about 1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight, while endurance-trained athletes need about 1.3 g per kg. There is still debate about the exact amount of proteins athletes should consume, but the consensus is that anything over 2.0 g per kg of body weight per day is excessive and no scientific evidence supports beneficial effects above this level. High protein diets on the other hand advocate protein intake on the order of 200 to 400 g a day! Too much protein intake can lead to liver and kidney overload; the liver cannot convert nitrogen into urea fast enough and the kidney has to deal with extra urea. Too much urea results in higher demand for water, which leads to dehydration. And we all know how important it is for athletes to stay hydrated. More serious problems include hyperaminoacidemia (excess amino acid in blood), hyperammonemia (excess ammonia), hyperinsulinemia (excess insulin), calcium loss and overreaction within the immune system.

All you need, really, is a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. No need to wreak havoc in your body with excessive supplementation. A 3-oz. portion of roast white chicken meat already contains 26g of protein. Beans average about 15g per cup, and pasta contains 5g per cup. While there is evidence that extra protein can be beneficial for athletes, you really don’t need much. A double-blind study with judoists showed that a daily protein supplement of 0.5 g per kg of body weight improved the maximum oxygen uptake. The effects disappeared when judoists stopped taking the supplements. However, such amounts can be obtained from a healthy diet. The body cannot tell the difference between proteins coming from foods and proteins coming from bottles. Proponents of supplements claim that they are more readily absorbed than the protein from food and that certain amino acids increase muscle mass and decrease body fat. The fact is, there is no reason to believe that faster absorption is better; after all, muscles don’t just grow from one second to the next. The best way to gain muscle mass is to add body weight by increasing calorie intake from low fat carbohydrate sources.

Endurance or strength exercise does increase the body’s dietary protein requirement, therefore athletes who are generally more physically active than the average person, require more dietary protein. Just how much more is hard to determine but needs can certainly be met without resorting to protein supplements. Furthermore excessive protein intake is not without problems. Potential side effects include dehydration, which is secondary to high urea excretion, gout, liver and kidney damage, calcium loss, bloating and diarrhea. Yes, athletes do need more protein, but not in gargantuan amounts. And supplements are great, for those who sell them. There is nothing you cannot obtain from a healthy diet. As for bulking up... exercise by itself already significantly increases growth hormone levels, so leave the health food stores alone and head for the gym!

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-you-asked/extra-protein-extra-performance

Five Common Mistakes That Steal Testosterone

It’s one of the first—and most upsetting—casualties of aging… Testosterone levels start to drop as men get older. And it doesn’t wait until retirement. It can start as early as your 30s.

INH ResearchOctober 3, 2014

But age isn’t the only threat. There are some common—and sneaky—factors that drain this hormone from you no matter how old you are.

Here are five common mistakes that steal testosterone:

1. Going Low-Fat: You know all the myths about eating fat… But heart health and a slim waistline aren’t the only reasons to add more of it to each meal. Research shows that it only takes six weeks of reducing fat intake to lower your testosterone levels. Just dropping from 40% to 25% fat a day means around 15% less T.

So if you have been one of the millions of people in the U.S. afraid to touch fat, your testosterone levels could be suffering. Try adding avocados, coconut oil, and grass-fed butter to your meals. These clean fats will help set the table for healthy, natural production.

2. Skipping Sleep: It isn’t always easy to get a good night’s sleep… But if it’s happening more than a night or two a week, it could put your hormones in jeopardy. Just one full week of getting five or less hours of sleep each night can drop T levels by up to 15%.1 And that’s only one week. If you’re making a habit of burning the midnight oil—or have sleep problems you need to address—the damage could be even worse over time. Trying natural sleep aids will help you fall asleep easier—and keep your testosterone levels from sinking.

3. Drinking Too Much Alcohol: A glass of red wine with dinner can be good for your heart and help boost your health. But if you’re having more than two drinks a day, you’re helping your body convert testosterone into estrogen.2 That’s the female sex hormone. It’s true that men need this hormone in small amounts… But when it comes from sacrificing testosterone, it can put out your fire fast.

If you’re a beer drinker, it only gets worse… The hops in beer are estrogenic. They may even help women avoid hot flashes during menopause.3 Your best bet is to limit your alcohol to a glass of wine. If you prefer to sip the hard stuff instead, limit it to a drink or two on the weekends. This helps prevent inflammation and spares testosterone.

4. Over-Exercising: Health Watch readers know that less is more when it comes to exercise. But spending less time in the gym—and turning up the intensity—doesn’t just help keep your heart in top shape. A study at the University of British Columbia found that long-distance runners had at least 20% less testosterone.4 But it’s not just about running less. It’s about greater intensity.

Another study reveals that high-intensity interval training causes bigger testosterone spikes after workouts that normal running.5 It may not be as easy as a jog… But high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can cut your gym time in half—and brings your T levels to where they need to be to fight aging.

5. Eating Soy: It not only lowers your sperm count,6 eating soy depletes your testosterone. It may even prevent your body from being able to make more of it over time. One study found that taking a soy protein supplement led to a 19% drop in serum levels of this hormone in only two weeks.7 But avoiding soy isn’t always easy. That’s because it’s a popular filler ingredient in processed foods. It’s a cheap way to help foods—especially powders—emulsify. That’s why many protein supplements contain soy even though it isn’t being used as a protein source. But even “healthy” foods aren’t immune. Most of the salad dressings you’ll find—even the organic ones—use soybean oil as their base. Always make sure to read the labels on the foods and health products you buy to avoid this testosterone killer.

You don’t need dangerous hormone therapy or an expensive doctor’s prescription to start reclaiming your youthful vigor. There are natural ways to do it. But you need to protect any gains you make. Fixing these simple mistakes is the first step to reigniting your fire—no matter how low the candle may be burning.

Testosterone levels decline about 1% a year after age 30. This is just one more symptom of what we call “Male Aging Syndrome.” Most men think problems like lack of energy or libido are a natural consequence of getting older… when it may actually be an easy to fix chemical imbalance! See the four ways you can break free of Male Aging Syndrome here.

References:
1http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2011/20110531-sleep.html
2http://www.fammed.wisc.edu/sites/default/files//webfm-uploads/documents/outreach/im/handout_testosterone.pdf
3http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20167461
4http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1724199/
5http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23310924
6http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18650557
7http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/16/12/2796.full

https://www.institutefornaturalhealing.com/2014/10/five-common-mistakes-that-steal-testosterone/

Five Easy Fixes for Lowering Breast Cancer Risk

Breast cancer is something that affects every woman in some way—whether they develop it themselves or not. And the numbers are on the rise. It’s important to have awareness… But it’s even more important to be informed and proactive.

 INH ResearchOctober 17, 2014

Here are five easy ways to lower breast cancer risk:

1. Minimize Chemical Exposure: Toxins bombard your body every day. And you won’t even know it. Many of them raise your risk for breast cancer. Things like acrylamide in tobacco smoke and aromatic amines in hair dyes. Then there are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air pollution and car exhaust.

One study found that exposure to these compounds makes women up to 142% more likely to develop breast cancer.1 It may be impossible to avoid these entirely… But switching to low temperature cooking and staying away from air pollution is a good start.

2. Avoid Antidepressants: Forget the side effects you already know about. On top of those dangers, every pill you take could be raising your breast cancer risk. That’s because SSRIs—like paroxetine—create a flood of fake estrogen in your body. And when you consider that 70% of breast cancers are sensitive to estrogen, you see how dangerous this can get…

To make matters worse, depression is a side effect of Big Pharma’s toxic cancer drugs. So women getting conventional treatments could be feeding their cancer at the same time if they use an SSRI. It’s a combination that could make you over 90% less likely to survive your battle with cancer.2 Skip these drugs and use safe, natural antidepressants instead.

3. Add Lycopene:  Adiponectin is a critical hormone for protecting against breast cancer. Not having enough raises breast cancer risk by almost 20%. But eating lycopene is one of the easiest ways to increase your levels. A diet rich in tomatoes may help you raise adiponectin by as much as 13% in about 10 weeks. And even more good news? It only takes about a single cup of fresh tomato juice a day to get the amount of lycopene you need to see benefits.

Just make sure to avoid the stuff that comes in a jar or can. Most of it is full of sugar that raises inflammation—and your likelihood of facing cancer. Use fresh, organic tomatoes to make your own juice. You can also add tomato to your green smoothie or salad for an extra lycopene boost.

4. Get More D3: You already know that D3 can help lower your overall cancer risk by 15%.3 But studies show this vitamin can lower breast cancer risk by over 50%. That’s because it helps breast tissue cells divide properly. These tissues even have receptors that actively look for D3.

You can find a natural vitamin D3 supplement in most health food stores and online. Look for one that gives you at least 1,000 IU per serving. You can also add wild-caught salmon to your diet to get even more of it each day.

5. Embrace Healthy Fats: Speaking of wild-caught salmon, its healthy fats are another way to help keep breast cancer at bay. Research shows the omega-3 fatty acids you get from eating just two portions of fish a week can lower risk by 14%. Adding more fish to your diet may lead to even better results. But you’ll get the most benefit from oily, cold-water fish.

It’s no surprise that salmon is your best choice. But you can throw in wild-caught tuna every now and then too. Just remember it’s a high-mercury fish. Too much of it may actually erase the anti-cancer benefits of the omega-3 fatty acids over time.

Breast cancer may be on the rise… But you have the power to prevent it. Don’t rely on pink ribbons to make a difference. Be proactive. Help us spread this information to the women you care about.

References:
1http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15668476
2http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20142325
3http://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(13)70212-2/abstract

https://www.institutefornaturalhealing.com/2014/10/five-easy-fixes-for-lowering-breast-cancer-risk/

Ketogenic diet could be the key to making a cancer treatment work

PI3K inhibiting drugs have shown little success. Now researchers may have figured out why.

4th July 2018

A ketogenic diet is low carbs and high in fat. This can help keep insulin levels low, which is believed to improve the effectiveness of certain cancer drugs. 

For their study, scientists tested the drugs in mice who’d been fed either a standard or ketogenic diet. While it was largely ineffective for the mice eating standard fare, the treatment shrunk the tumors of mice who’d eaten the ketogenic diet.

The drugs in question work by inhibiting the PI3K pathway, a cell-signaling network that’s overactive in many types of cancer. However, while there are lots of PI3K inhibitors in development, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have struggled to make them effective. “While more than 20 PI3K inhibitors have entered cancer clinical trials, only two have been approved,” said Benjamin Hopkins, a postdoctoral medical researcher at Cornell University who is one of the study’s authors.

The researchers posited that insulin may be the reason these drugs aren’t living up to their promise. The PI3K enzyme regulates glucose metabolism. 

When glucose levels are high, the body produces insulin. Insulin stimulates the PI3K pathway which then leads to cell proliferation and tumor growth. This means that rising insulin levels could counteract any drugs taken to inhibit the enzyme.

So the team started looking for ways to keep patients’ insulin low while they’re taking PI3K inhibiting drugs. 

They tested two approaches in mice: a diabetes medication and a ketogenic diet, which prevents glycogen from being stored in liver and muscle tissue. “Both interventions caused dramatic improvements in responses to multiple PI3K inhibitors in multiple cancer types,” said Hopkins.
The researchers stress that their study doesn’t suggest a ketogenic diet alone would help prevent or treat cancer. In a leukemia model, the ketogenic diet even seemed to make the cancer worse in mice who hadn’t received a PI3K inhibiting drug. 

“But the combination of a PI3K inhibitor and ketogenic diet was effective in a surprisingly wide spectrum of cancers,” said Hopkins. “Our study suggests that more patients would respond to these drugs if their serum insulin could be maintained at low levels during therapy by these interventions.”

To see if their approach will also work in humans, the study’s authors plan to conduct a clinical trial within a year. This could provide some of the answers researchers, drug developers, and patients are looking for. Hopkins explains: “Patients often ask whether they should change their eating habits when diagnosed with cancer, and physicians admit that there is little evidence that this can improve the outcome. Conducting a clinical trial to test this idea is critical.”

Featured image courtesy of jensteele via flickr

https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/ketogenic-diet-could-be-the-key-to-making-a-cancer-treatment-work

How a poor diet in your 20s lasts for life:

People who eat more fat when they’re young ‘face diabetes and heart disease risk as they age’

• Researchers at Qingdao University, China, studied 217 healthy 18 to 35-year olds
• Found that those with lower-fat diets had better microbiomes than their peers
• Experts say this is a warning for Asian whose where dietary habits are changing

By PETER LLOYD FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 23:30 GMT, 19 February 2019 | UPDATED: 23:55 GMT, 19 February 2019

Eating a high-fat diet in your 20s and 30s heightens the risk of ill-health later on - and not just because of weight gain.

According to researchers at Qingdao University, China, fatty foods cause a reduction in, and mutation of, so-called 'good' bacteria in the gut.

Specifically, an unhealthy diet modifies microbiomes - which break down food in the stomach - and sparks a rise in inflammatory markers throughout the body.

The data, published online in the journal Gut, raises fears this could sow the seeds of metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, over the long term. 

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Taste test: Researchers at Qingdao University, China, studied 217 healthy 18 to 35-year olds

The researchers set out to see if different levels of dietary fat alter gut bacteria in healthy young adults from China.

Dietary habits in the Asian country are moving from being low-fat, high-carb to relatively high in fat and low in carbohydrates.

The researchers divided 217 healthy 18 to 35-year-olds of normal weight into three dietary groups.

The participants then received different ratios of carbs - white rice and wheat - and fat - mainly soybean oil.

Fibre and protein intake was kept the same between all the participants.

The three end diets were either low fat, where lipids made up 20 per cent of the participants' energy intake.

Moderate fat - equal to 30 per cent of energy intake - or high fat - where lipids accounted for 40 per cent of energy intake.

Each participant stuck to their particular diet for six months.

Its impact on their gut bacteria and inflammatory markers was assessed in blood and faecal samples taken at the start and end of the experiment.

After six months, participants in all three groups lost weight, with those on the low-fat diet shedding the most. 

But certain changes, with potential implications for long-term heath, were only evident in the samples from the high-fat group.

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Warning: The data, published online in the journal Gut, fears this can sow the seeds of metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, heart disease and strokes over the long term

Although there were no major changes in the overall volume of gut bacteria among the three groups, the number of beneficial bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids, including butyrate, only increased in the low-fat diet group. 

By contrast, the numbers of these beneficial bacteria fell in the high-fat group.

And the number of 'bad' bacteria found in the guts of people with type 2 diabetes, for example, had increased.

Certain bacteria, such as Blautia species - which are associated with lower cholesterol levels - were abundant among those on the low-fat diet. 

Bacteroides species, which are associated with elevated cholesterol levels, were more common among those on the high-fat diet.

What's more, the higher-fat diet was associated with significant and potentially detrimental changes in long chain fatty acid metabolism.

This resulted in higher levels of chemicals that are thought to trigger inflammation. 

The opposite was true for the low-fat diet.

The researchers emphasise sampling was only done at the start and end of the trial.

And a more complete picture of microbial changes would have emerged with more frequent sampling.

As all three groups lost weight, it is also not entirely clear whether the weight loss prompted the changes seen, or vice versa.

And as the participants were all young, healthy and a normal weight, the findings might not be more widely applicable, they add.

But the findings do seem to illustrate the need to curb dietary fat, the scientists suggest.

'Compared with a lower fat diet, long-term consumption of a higher fat diet appears to be undesirable....for young healthy adults whose diet is in transition from the traditionally consumed lower fat, higher carbohydrate diet to one characterised by an appreciably higher fat content,' they concluded.

Their findings might also have implications for other countries. 

'These findings might also have relevance in developed countries in which fat intake is already high,' the researchers added.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6721309/Eating-high-fat-diet-20s-30s-makes-likely-heart-disease-diabetes-later.html

Drinking full-fat milk could protect against strokes, study suggests

Drinking full-fat milk could lead to a longer life by protecting against strokes, scientists have suggested.

While conventional diet advice has for decades dictated that skimmed and semi-skimmed milk is much healthier for us than full-fat milk, a study suggests that the opposite may be true.

•  Isolde Walters

16 JULY 2018 • 9:47AM

The study suggests the conventional diet advice that skimmed and semi-skimmed milk is healthier that full-fat varieties might be wrong CREDIT: SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG

Researchers found no significant link between dairy fats and heart disease and stroke, two of the biggest killers associated with a diet high in saturated fat. In fact, certain types of dairy fat might actually help guard against having a severe stroke, researchers reported.

It will be welcome news to people who prefer full-fat varieties of milk, butter, cheese and yogurt to those with lower quantities of fat.

Professor Marcia Otto, of the University of Texas, who led the study, said: "Our findings not only support but also significantly strengthen the growing body of evidence which suggests that dairy fat, contrary to popular belief, does not increase risk of heart disease or overall mortality in older adults.

"In addition to not contributing to death, the results suggest that one fatty acid present in dairy may lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, particularly from stroke."

Whole fat dairy foods... are essential for health, not only during childhood but throughout lifeProf Marcia Otto

The study evaluated how multiple biomarkers of fatty acid present in dairy fat related to heart disease and mortality over a 22-year period.

The method, as opposed to the more commonly used self-reported consumption, gave greater and more objective insight into the impact of long-term exposure to these fatty acids, according to the report.

Nearly 3,000 men and women aged 65 and older were included in the study, which measured blood levels of three different fatty acids found in dairy products in 1992, and again six and 13 years later.

None of the fatty acid types were significantly associated with total mortality and one type was linked to lower cardiovascular disease deaths.

People with higher fatty acid levels, suggesting a higher consumption of whole-fat dairy products, had a 42 per cent lower risk of dying from a stroke.

While health experts often recommend a diet rich in fat-free or low-fat dairy, including milk, cheese and yogurt, the researchers said that low-fat dairy foods such as chocolate milk and low calorie yogurt often include high amounts of added sugars which may lead to poor heart health.

Health officials warned that a single pot of yogurt can contain the entirety of a child's daily sugar allowance earlier this year after a number of major brands were found by Public Health Liverpool to contain the equivalent of almost five sugar cubes.

Clarissa Lenherr, a registered nutritionist, pointed out that by stripping fat out of dairy products, the food is not as filling and vitamins are lost.

She said: "The fat in dairy products is what makes them satiating, and by stripping dairy products of their fat, you are also reducing the amount of Vitamin A and D that they contain. Both are crucial vitamins and both are fatsoluble, which means that they need fat to be absorbed.

"So even when you choose low-fat dairy products that have been fortified with these vitamins, you may not even be absorbing them, due to the fact that the product has little fat left in it."

Professor Otto added that whole-fat dairy products are rich sources of nutrients including calcium and potassium. She said: "Our results highlight the need to revisit current dietary guidance on whole fat dairy foods, which are rich sources of nutrients such as calcium and potassium.

"These are essential for health, not only during childhood but throughout life, particularly also in later years when undernourishment and conditions like osteoporosis are more common."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/07/16/drinking-full-fat-milk-could-protect-against-strokes-study-suggests/

Fighting cancer with fat

Way back in the 1920s, researchers observed that compared to healthy cells, cancer cells capture large amounts of glucose.

On top of this, cancer cells metabolize that glucose in a very different way than healthy cells. It’s this altered metabolism that is linked to the growth, survival, maintenance and proliferation of cancer cells.

Jedha Dening

In other words, glucose (or sugar) makes you more susceptible to cancer, 14 different types in fact, according to research referenced in a post by Dr. Michael Cutler.

This knowledge that sugar sours your health has recently sparked researchers to explore this metabolic pathway as a way to prevent cancer and possibly treat it…

Anti-cancer diet

You’ve probably heard a bit about the ketogenic diet. Lots of athletes are following it these days, but athlete or not, a ketogenic diet may help you avoid cancer…

The ketogenic diet is based on a high fat (90%), moderate-to-low protein (8%) intake, and minimizes the intake of carbohydrates (2%) as low as 20 to 50 grams per day in total.

This creates a state in the body known as ketosis where the body produces more ketone bodies in the blood. Ketones are molecules that can be used by cells throughout the body as an alternative ‘fuel’ source to glucose. Other metabolic offsets of the diet include lower blood glucose, lower insulin production and more balanced blood pH levels.

And researchers believe all these benefits offer some cancer prevention and treatment potential…

To date there have been some great findings — decreased tumor tissue, changes to metabolism in cancer cells, stabilization of tumors in cancer patients, increased immune function and more.

But while it’s true that we do need more research (and there are currently more than a dozen trials still underway), one great finding of particular importance is that a ketogenic diet can reduce lactate levels in cells. And it’s high lactate that often leads to a worsened prognosis, particularly in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Besides cancer, a ketogenic diet has been shown to be beneficial for many other chronic health conditions — epilepsy, obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and respiratory conditions.

But what about the fat?         

A ketogenic diet is not a typical diet that most large organizations recommend. And for you, as is the case for most people, it is way off track from what you’re used to.

One of the first objections most people have is: won’t all that fat make me fat and give me high cholesterol?

The answer is no — particularly when you eat fat as your main macronutrient.

There are many nutritional myths around fat and in recent years it has been shown that excessive carbohydrate intake contributes more to the development of heart disease than fat.

In fact if you really want to be a lean machine, forget the low-fat nonsense and ditch the carbs. Omitting carbs switches your body from a glucose-burning engine to a fat-burning one. So just by eating a low-carb or ketogenic-like diet, you can burn fat just by eating the right way.

Another thing that many people struggle with is the super low carbohydrate intake of a ketogenic diet. Most ketogenic dieters limit themselves to 20-50 grams. The good news here is, in many cases (especially in terms of prevention) there is no need to go that low. Significant health benefits can be found by lowering carbs to 120 grams per day maximum.

I have previously covered what types of carbs to eat and avoid over here and if you’re interest in reducing your risk of a number of chronic lifestyle diseases, lowering your carbs is well worth the effort.

The ketogenic diet is not recommended for children, unless directly by a physician for certain conditions. If you’re an adult on blood pressure-lowering medications, talk to your doctor or seek the guidance of a nutritional professional when you begin an ketogenic diet. The diet is typically beneficial at lowering high blood pressure, but in combination with medication you could experience a sudden drop.

Sources:                                                                     

1. Oliveira CLP, et al.  A Nutritional Perspective of Ketogenic Diet in Cancer: A Narrative Review. — J Acad Nutr Diet. 2017

2. Low-carb diets should be reinstated as pillars of diabetes control, suggests new study — Diabetes.co.uk. (2017). Retrieved 11 May, 2017

https://easyhealthoptions.com/fighting-cancer-fat/

A fat lot of good – Part 3

After all the bad news about trans-fats, you might be relieved to know that there is one class of trans-fats which has been claimed to be actually beneficial to human health – they are known as conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) and are a family of around 30 isomers of a fatty acid known as linoleic acid.

MAY 22, 2016

BY CHRIS CHAN

It takes much more effort to digest and extract the energy from fat than from sweet foods but the body just loves to make and store fat, as fat is much more adept at producing energy than carbohydrates.

After all the bad news about trans-fats, you might be relieved to know that there is one class of trans-fats which has been claimed to be actually beneficial to human health – they are known as conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) and are a family of around 30 isomers of a fatty acid known as linoleic acid.

Isomers are molecules with the identical atomic constituents of another molecule – but with the atomic bonds arranged differently.

Where CLAs differ significantly from PTFs (plant trans-fats) is that these fatty acids have both the cis and trans molecular configurations.

You can see how the double-carbon bonds of these fats are joined (or conjugated) in the diagram of a CLA, producing a molecule with both cis and trans molecular characteristics.

Whether CLAs have significant health benefits for humans is still open to debate but at least there are no identifiably negative health effects of this trans-fat.

In our diets, CLAs are present mainly in grass-fed beef, butter and mutton, although the highest concentrations are found, oddly, in kangaroo meat.

The main CLAs appear to be vaccenic acid and rumenic acid, both created by the bacterial digestion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the biomass processed by the stomachs and intestinal tracts of ruminants.

CLAs are one of the reasons why some people stridently reject advice about the avoidance of meat and saturated fats, for there have been some interesting (but not yet fully substantiated) claims about the anti-carcinogenic, anti-obesity and anti-atherogenic properties of CLAs, mostly based on experiments with rodents and pigs.

One thing is pretty certain though – if I ever have any rats or pigs at home, and if I like them, then they will definitely get fed CLA regularly.

Diagram of a CLA showing a molecule with both cis and trans molecular characteristics.

How free fatty acids get free

As mentioned, all fats are triglycerides – meaning that all fats consist of three individual fatty acids held together (or esterified) with a glycerol backbone. The individual fatty acids are not always the same – an example triglyceride might contain palmitic acid, oleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid.

Unsaturated fats have a lower melting point compared to saturated fats – the reason is because the The double-carbon bond structures in unsaturated fats have molecular “gaps” and therefore don’t fit as snugly together as the hydrogen-saturated molecules in saturated fats.

Triglycerides can break apart under various conditions, such as bad storage, heat, digestive processes, etc – and therefore release their fatty acids as free fatty acids (FFA). Like PTFs, FFAs can have both good and bad implications for our health.

Firstly, FFAs are produced by the digestive processes and are a perfectly normal consequence of eating. Confusingly, FFAs are also produced by the body by burning stored fat in cells – but there are very highly significant differences between the two types of FFAs.

The story of how FFAs arise from the burning of body fat for energy is a fascinating subject – and they also don’t tend to cause health issues. So for the moment, we will focus only on the FFAs arising from the digestion of fats and why they might be bad for us.

How FFAs get and then lose their freedom

Despite what you might think, fats from food cannot be easily absorbed directly by the digestive system to provide energy. Instead, triglycerides need to be broken down first by pancreatic juices (specifically an enzyme called lipase activated by a protein called colipase) which function only when fats are combined with water.

Therefore, before the pancreatic juices can work, dietary fats first need to be emulsified by bile salts. Digestion of fats then occur and the triglycerides end up as a mixture of tri-, di- and monoglycerides, FFAs plus other fat soluble compounds such as vitamins and cholesterol.

This mixture forms a blend of micelles (aggregates of the digested fats and water molecules) which are then absorbed by special cells (called enterocytes) lining the small intestine – these then reconvert the micelles back into triglycerides.

Why people tend to get fat first around the belly is simply because it is where most of the body’s adipose tissues are normally located.

Yes, the digestive process converts native triglycerides from food into different glycerides and FFAs and then recombines the mix back into other triglycerides in the small gut – the difference is that the triglycerides from digestion are the types which the body actually want, for the moment.

The triglycerides resulting from digestion are then packed into chylomicrons (becoming a mix called chyle) which are then released into the capillaries of the lymph system in the intestines.

There could be huge amounts of chylomicrons floating around in the lymphatic system, enough to cause blood plasma to turn milky in colour after a fatty dinner. And then it gets even more complicated.

A gene called LPL causes the cells that line the inside of capillaries of fat (or adipose) tissues and muscles to express an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase. This enzyme digests the chylomicrons floating by and turn them into FFAs, glycerol and chylomicron remnants.

The FFAs are then absorbed by the local adipocytes (fat cells) where the FFAs are once again resynthesised into triglycerides – these final triglycerides are stored as fat droplets inside the fat cells.

The convoluted processes for digesting fats explain why the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF, or energy needed for digestion) is much higher for meats than for many carbohydrates – it simply takes much more effort to digest and extract the energy from fat than from sweet foods.

This also explains why oily fried rice is probably safer for a diabetic to consume than fluffy steamed rice – though please don’t take this as advice for diabetics to cook every-thing in oil because that is really not good either, as explained later.

Despite the high TEF of fats, it clearly does not stop many people becoming obese, or even morbidly obese – and the main reason is that the body just loves to make and store fat, as fat is much more adept at producing energy than carbohydrates.

Fat is also efficient in that it can be stored in the body in a state which does not require much water, unlike carbohydrates – and hence it is lighter.

For the same energy as from one kilo of fat, it is estimated that the body would need to store 6.75 kilos of water-bound carbohydrates – so please be (a little) thankful for fats as otherwise many people would be bigger than cows, swimming would be much more difficult and shoes will crumble after a few days unless the soles are made of metal. And we would be even more prone to high blood pressure, with CHD as an end result.

Kinds of stored human body fats

Incidentally, there are normally three kinds of stored human body fat: visceral adipose tissue (VAT, usually called abdominal fat), intramuscular fat (found in muscles) and subcutaneous fat (found under the skin). Why people tend to get fat first around the belly is simply because it is where most of the body’s adipose tissues are normally located – and the probable reason is the location is conveniently close to the small intestine where there is first access to the chylomicrons after digestion.

Remember – the body likes to make and store fat. After that, the other areas that accumulate fat easiest tend to be the skin and the bigger (but unused) muscles where lipoprotein lipase is also expressed in the capillaries. So now you know why trousers are the first adjustments on the road to obesity.

Belly pork with sweet preserved mustard and egg.

Ironically, the fat cells themselves do try to stop you overeating – and adipocytes do this by producing a hormone called leptin which is designed to turn off your urge to overeat.

But if you consume a lot of fructose (found in fruits, sweets and desserts) or have the willpower (sheer greed), then you can overcome the effect of leptin and continue overeating.

Then more fat cells will be produced, more leptin will be issued and ignored – and sooner or later, leptin resistance will develop. After that, there are very few stops left on the highway to plumpness, obesity or morbid obesity, depending on your choice of destination.

The good and bad FFAs

In moderation, there is no such thing as a good or bad natural FFA unless it is a PTF (for reasons already explained earlier). The body is capable of creating some of the fatty acids it needs to maintain health, but there are two main classes of essential fatty acids which it cannot synthesize and hence they must come from the diet – they are Omega-6 fatty acids and Omega-3 fatty acids.

The ways these polyunsaturated fatty acids work are pretty cool, but perhaps in even more convoluted fashions than the way triglycerides are digested and stored – so, to avoid boredom, the summary is as follows:

Omega-6 fatty acids: These are much more prevalent in modern diets than in Palaeolithic times due to our higher consumption of plant-based press-extracted polyunsaturated oils (eg. corn oil, soy oil, sunflower oil, etc), which would simply not be available in the past.

Omega-6 fatty acids are implicated in many important bodily functions such as brain function, anxiety, appetite control, autonomic responses, neuron functions, immune responses – and also, unfortunately, inflammation.

Too much Omega-6 has been linked to inflammation diseases such as asthma, arthritis, rheumatism, etc, caused partly by the overexpression of an enzyme called PTGS2 (Prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2, also known as COX-2). A common example of an Omega-6 fatty acid is linoleic acid.

Omega-3 fatty acids: As a guess, I suppose we are consuming probably around the same amount of Omega-3 fatty acids as humans in Palaeolithic times but the ratio then was about 1:1 for Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids – this is as opposed to a rough average of 15.8 times more Omega-6 than Omega-3 these days in Western countries.

This current imbalance has been associated with many modern ailments, usually linked with inflammation – and one such ailment is atherosclerosis. Omega-3 counteracts some of the effects of Omega-6 because it competes for the same enzymes and precursors as Omega-6, thus reducing the probability of the overexpression of potentially damaging enzymes such as PTGS2, for example.

Common Omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) – ALA is found in nuts and plant seeds, and EPA and DHA are commonly found in certain fish oils.

And curiously, there haven’t been any major negative effects associated with the overconsumption of Omega-3 fatty acids.

The strange side-effect of FFAs

A rather odd connection has been established between the presence of FFAs in plasma, and insulin: FFAs are known to actually inhibit the action of insulin, thereby reducing the ability of skeletal muscles to remove excess glucose from the blood.

At the same time, FFAs also promote the increased production of insulin, thereby compensating for the earlier inhibitory effect. This additional insulin spike due to FFAs would probably be tolerated quite well if the diet was based on meat – but modern diets typically include a lot of refined carbohydrates and sugar (eg. burgers, pizzas, noodles, end of meal desserts, etc).

The FFA-induced spike would come on top of the carbohydrate or sugar-induced tsunami of insulin – while at the same time FFAs are also inhibiting the effect of insulin.

In the end, prolonged exposure to this unsatisfactory situation can lead to chronic insulin tolerance, Type 2 Diabetes and arterial damage due to 

the persistent excess amounts of blood glucose (which can be toxic).

The situation is perhaps a little like a lousy marriage: people are pretty adept at complaining about a miserable partner – but what they seldom recall is why they got married in the first place.

http://www.star2.com/food/food-news/2016/05/22/a-fat-lot-of-good-part-3/

http://healthticket.blogspot.my/2016/05/a-fat-lot-of-good-part-2.html

http://healthticket.blogspot.my/2016/05/a-fat-lot-of-good-part-1.html

This post is on Healthwise