You are what your body does with what you eat

A newly published study, in the journal Lipids - Comparison of Low Fat and Low Carbohydrate Diets on Circulating Fatty Acid Composition and Markers of Inflammation - found that subjects given a low-carb diet experienced "profound alterations in fatty acid composition and reduced inflammation compared to a low fat diet."

The press release, issued from SUNY Downstate, sums it up completely:

Metabolic syndrome is a condition afflicting one quarter to one third of adult men and women and is an established pre-cursor to diabetes, coronary heart disease, and other serious illnesses. Patients have long been advised to eat a low-fat diet even though carbohydrate restriction has been found to be more effective at reducing specific markers, such as high triglycerides, characteristic of the syndrome. Now, a new study indicates that a diet low in carbohydrates is also more effective than a diet low in fat in reducing saturated fatty acids in the blood and reducing markers of inflammation.

While there have been contradictory and confusing messages directed at health conscious consumers about dietary recommendations, most researchers agree on the need to limit inflammatory agents. In a report published today in the on-line version of the journal Lipids, researchers at the University of Connecticut, SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, and the University of Minnesota show much greater improvement in inflammatory markers in patients with metabolic syndrome on a very low carbohydrate approach compared to a low fat diet.

Lead researcher Jeff S. Volek, PhD, RD, associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut, describes the study as “adding to the evolving picture of improvement in general health beyond simple weight loss in keeping blood glucose and insulin under control.” The work is part of a larger study (currently under review) showing numerous improvements in blood lipids.

The current work concludes that “lowering total and saturated fat only had a small effect on circulating inflammatory markers whereas reducing carbohydrate led to considerably greater reductions in a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and adhesion molecules. These data implicate dietary carbohydrate rather than fat as a more significant nutritional factor contributing to inflammatory processes.”

Richard Feinman, PhD, professor of biochemistry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, adds, “The real importance of diets that lower carbohydrate content is that they are grounded in mechanism: carbohydrates stimulate insulin secretion which biases fat metabolism towards storage rather than oxidation. The inflammation results open a new aspect of the problem. From a practical standpoint, continued demonstrations that carbohydrate restriction is more beneficial than low fat could be good news to those wishing to forestall or manage the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome.”

One of the remarkable effects in the data presented that may have contributed to the results is that despite the three-fold greater saturated fat in the diet for the low carb group, saturated fat in the blood turned out to be higher in the low fat group due to the process known as carbohydrate-induced lipogenesis.

Dr. Volek points out that “this clearly shows the limitations of the idea that ‘you are what you eat.’ Metabolism plays a big role. You are what your body does with what you eat.”

Eastern Europe, Obesity Among Highest in Europe!

The 15th European Congress on Obesity is taking place in Budapest, Hungary this week. In the article European Congress on Obesity deals with bariatric surgery techniques, outcomes and metabolic benefits, I was surprised to read that "[s]pecial attention was needed in Eastern Europe where obesity rates are among the highest and particularly to the alarming increase in childhood obesity."

I don't know about you, but when I think Ukraine or Azerbijan, I don't think obesity.

How is it that Eastern Europe is growing fatter, faster than the rest of Europe?

If countries in Eastern Europe are growing fatter, I have to wonder, do they also have high rates of CHD?

Seven countries in Eastern Europe have abyssimal rates of CHD in men; in fact, per 100,000, deaths from CHD is reported as:

• Armenia 464
• Georgia 507
• Uzbekistan 540
• Moldova 650
• Azerbijan 662
• Kazakhstan 703
• Ukraine 839

In the United States, deaths from heart disease is 106.5/100,000.

Their life expectancy isn't too good either:

• Armenia 71.84
• Georgia 76.09
• Uzbekistan 64.58
• Moldova 65.65
• Azerbijan 63.85
• Kazakhstan 66.89
• Ukraine 69.98

In the United States, our life expectancy is 77.85 years.

I bet they eat too much fat in their diet!

Oh, maybe not....

In each country, the percentage of calories from fat:

• Armenia 17.2%
• Georgia 18.5%
• Uzbekistan 28.7%
• Moldova 16.7%
• Azerbijan 16.4%
• Kazakhstan 28%
• Ukraine 25.1%

Ok, I bet they eat way too much saturated fat in their diet!

Oh, maybe not....

All consume less than 10% of their calories from saturated fat, and three even consume less than the AHA's optimal target of "less than 7%" of calories from saturated fat:

• Armenia 7.3%
• Georgia 5.2%
• Uzbekistan 9.2%
• Moldova 5.8%
• Azerbijan 5.7%
• Kazakhstan 8.1%
• Ukraine 7.6%

Just some food for thought, since, ya know, we're repeatedly reminded to reduce our dietary fat, and especially our consumption of saturated fat; of course this is in an effort to not only keep our weight within normal, but also to reduce our risk for coronary heart disease (CHD).

Data from MONICA and CIA World Factbook.

High Fat Meal Deadly, Take Two

Oh joy, it's deja vu!

• Single high-fat meal may be harmful to health
• Canadian scientists find even single high-fat meal harms body
• Research: A Steady, High-fat Diet Is Bad
• A steady, high-fat diet is bad, but the news gets worse

The study spawning the headlines - A High-Fat Meal Increases Cardiovascular Reactivity to Psychological Stress in Healthy Young Adults - was published in the Journal of Nutrition.

The "high fat meal" in question? A breakfast from McDonald's consisting of an Egg McMuffin, a Sausage McMuffin and 2 hash browns.

Junk science meets junk journalism again - it makes great headlines, but doesn't do a thing to advance our knowledge base, except maybe to point out what makes science "junk."

In this instance, one graphic is all that's needed to dispel the myth that dietary fat - high total fat or high saturated fat - leads to cardiovascular disease. Data from MONICA:

Diet - Not a Numbers Game Afterall

When searching online for topics to write about, I often hit google news and conduct a search based on various keyword combinations - diet, health, obesity, weight, diabetes - and I'm never disappointed by the sheer number of results. On Friday I noted that the headlines are often contradictory and those I posted were all within the first five pages of results using just two keywords - diet and health - in a search of the news headlines.

So, what are we to make of dieting to lose weight? Is it a losing proposition? If it is, then why the repeated attempts to encourage the masses to diet? And, most importantly, does dieting really work?

I think it's safe to say that the most widely recommended diet for weight loss - a calorie restricted, low-fat, carbohydrate rich diet - fails the test long-term. While intially reducing weight, in the long-term, such diets do little to improve health and enable a stable, lower weight over time.

The failure of the dietary recommendations are no small matter, various agencies go to great pains to explain away the long-term failure and wind up making the issue one of personal failure rather than admit the flaw is in the recommendations.

Whether or not an individual is able to lose weight and maintain the weight loss becomes a moral issue - having willpower over hunger, taking responsibility for portions, just eat less, just exercise more, stop buying junk food, etc. When the outcome is positive, the diet worked; when the outcome is negative, the person failed to follow directions.

As Malcolm Evans summed up in his commentary, Dieting is Fine Because it is Becoming Official, "The argument goes like this - the state in its wisdom has spoken; overweight is a health issue and as such it becomes a moral issue concerning wellness, interdependencies and budgets. Weight is to be managed downwards and to disobey will result in an implicitly escalating scale of reputational and material penalties (including the denial of certain health care provision). Biomedicine currently prioritises a sense of cure over comfort. The emphasis in almost all cases is to be seen to be powerful in the chemical intervention, with much less emphasis on empathy in relation to the inevitable, or on the emotional and psychosomatic dimensions. It is a culture that allows ten minutes and the prescription of a tranquilliser. It is also a culture which disallows the complexity of overweight and seeks rapid intervention, preferably leading to the mapping of satisfactory digits to numbered targets. In the absence of a magic weight control pill (how Big Pharma would love to have one of those that was in any way remotely effective!), dieting is perpetuated despite the accumulating evidence that it is a largely ineffective alone as a long-term solution."

As I noted on Friday, Fred Hahn said it well, "Fat loss and health is NOT a numbers game - it's a hormonal game. And a game that requires full understanding of the rules."

Yet the government and leading health organizations continue to perpetuate a dietary approach based on numbers - calories, fat grams, saturated fat grams, milligrams of cholesterol, sodium intake, fiber intake, the size of portions, and the number of minutes you engage in exercise each day. It's all about counting one or more things each day in your diet and lifestyle.

All of the recommendations made to the masses come back to one single hypothesis - dietary fat is deadly and must be limited to not only keep calorie intake balanced - fat has nine calories per gram and carbohydrate and protein just four - but to prevent development of chronic disease.

Recently the obession with total fat has relaxed a bit, from strictly maintaining an intake below 30% of calories, to an allowance now of a range between 20% and 35% of calories. But this concession comes with a stricter limit on saturated fat; we're now told to limit saturated fat to less than 7% of our calories, making it next to impossible to meet nutrient requirements for essential amino acids in those who are overweight or obese.

Ah, the unintended consequences of playing, on paper, with macronutrient ratios.

You see, if we take the recommendation to consume less saturated fat to heart, and also strictly limit our cholesterol intake as also recommended, we are left with significantly less animal foods in our diet each day, now dependent on plant-based sources of protein to meet our essential requirements for amino acids.

Surely, you say, there must be strong evidence to support these recommendations? Surely we can easily meet our essential amino acid requirements with a plant-based diet? Surely a diet recommended by the government and leading health organizations must be soundly established by scientific data and be shown to lead to long-term outcomes in health and well-being?

Well, not so fast.

Here is where, as Fred Hahn called it, the "hormone game" comes into play and the rules are such that if you're not playing within them, your health suffers.

The first, and most important rule you need to know in the "diet game" is eat your protein; and make it complete protein.

Tomorrow I'll explain why and then discuss the other rules of the "hormone game" to give you insight into why everything we're told about diet is either wrong and causing more harm than good in your metabolism!

Then, throughout the week, we'll sort out what to eat if you're trying to lose weight and improve your health for the long-term.