SUGAR vs. FAT

As many of you know by now, fat has been given a bad rap. People worry about high blood fat levels, about being fat, having a fatty liver, or plaque in their arteries…

But what really causes all of the above? Is it fat?
NO – it’s SUGAR!

One might be asking then: so what about all those recommendations for a low-fat diet? Here’s a clue: a recent New York Times article revealed how 50 years ago three Harvard scientists were paid off by Big Sugar, including Coca-Cola, to say that sugar was fine, and fat was the culprit regarding cardiovascular disease!

What Really Happens…

When we eat, our bodies break down the macromolecules of protein, fats and carbohydrates into micronutrients, amino acids, fatty acids, and ultimately glucose. The pancreas then secretes the hormone insulin to carry the glucose to our cells. Inside the cells are insulin receptors. These receptors travel to the cell membrane to meet the insulin/glucose molecule and transport the glucose inside the cell for energy production.

OK- so that sounds like glucose is necessary for energy production, and it is, but not from table sugar (sucrose), or refined carbs like breads and pasta. Overconsumption of those kinds of sugar causes the pancreas to secrete too much insulin.

When there’s too much insulin binding with the glucose, the insulin receptors become resistant to responding. This is known as insulin resistance. Think of what it’s like when your inbox is constantly being flooded with emails asking for money; even though the causes are all great, you just start pressing the delete key without even reading the emails.

So what happens to the excess glucose attached to the insulin? It gets stored as FAT, or as PLAQUE in one’s arteries. Not only that—insulin resistance foreshadows diabetes.

This is because the pancreas, with so much sugar/carb intake, after overproducing insulin for a while begins to weary of producing it. Eventually it either stops, or does not produce an adequate amount to transport the glucose to the cells. THIS is diabetes. As a result, in order to utilize the natural glucose produced from the breakdown of even healthy food, one needs to take medications such as Metformin. This medication, and others like it, are not without sometimes serious side effects.

Another thing that happens when one eats sugar is that the liver takes the sugar and then creates fat (lipogenesis). In other words, excess sugar causes fatty liver, as well as excess body fat!

EATING FAT, on the other hand is essential for brain health, neurologic health, metabolism, mood, energy, hormone production, and the health of the cell membranes which regulate the transport of nutrients and other biochemicals into and out of the cell.

Of course, this all depends on the kind of fats we consume. Primarily, we want the health-supporting Omega 3 fats. Omega 3s improve insulin sensitivity and help to lower inflammation in the body. Omega 3s also mobilize fat from the fat cells to be burned by the mitochondria (the cell’s powerhouse), and this leads to weight loss.

Other good fats are medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) such as those found in coconuts and macadamias. These are rapidly burned in the mitochondria as well, and are considered super fuels. They also help one lose weight!

Processed fats, on the other hand, disturb our metabolism. Interestingly, and very importantly, the fat in beef changes depending on what the cattle are fed. Pasture raised, grass-fed cows produce the healthy Omega 3s. Those feeding on antibiotics, grains, and hormones do not. The fats from these animals are rendered fats. They produce free radicals, which are damaging to our cells. Another type of highly processed fat is TRANS fat. Trans fats poison the mitochondria, inhibit energy production, and cause weight gain.

Making it Simple…

Fats that are damaging and inflammatory:

• Sweet, salty fats – like French fries! 
• Meats from hormone and antibiotic injected animals
• Trans fats: margarine, shortenings, deep fried foods, store bought cakes and cookies, crackers with long shelf-life (think saltines and Ritz), pancake and waffle mixes, and many more store-bought processed foods.

In fact the FDA is working to remove artificial trans fat from the food supply  by 2018.

Healthy Fats:

• Cold water fish such as salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, black cod, bluefish
• Avocados
• Olives
• Nuts, seeds (pumpkin, flax, chia)
• Olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, ghee, algae oil
• Dark chocolate (in small amounts ).

Now I’m getting hungry! 

The Bottom Line…

STOP or greatly minimize sugar consumption; that includes white bread and white flour products. These are absorbed too rapidly, causing spikes in blood sugar levels. As we now know, this leads to insulin resistance, puts stress on the pancreas, and can result in diabetes.

As an aside, if you’re thinking “well I’ll just use artificial sweeteners like Sweet n’ Low,” think again; those kinds of sugar substitutes are endocrine disruptors. These too have been shown to cause metabolic syndrome which leads to diabetes.

STOP eating trans fats. Here’s a good rule of thumb: “The longer the shelf life of a product, the shorter your shelf life.”

EAT HEALTHY FATS, as listed above.

And if you need a little more help with what (and what not) to eat, here are some healthy diets you can follow:

• Paleo
• GAPS
• FODMAPS
• Anti-inflammatory

Most of these are low (or no) starchy/refined carbs, and high in protein and good fats.

For more on this, see my earlier blog  I LOVE FAT.

Prevention vs. Cure

The Choice is Yours!

Remember the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” Well it’s still true! From my observation, unfortunately, it’s not how most people think and act. It’s rare that a patient comes to the office saying, “I feel great and I want to stay feeling great, that’s why I’m here!”
 
I often hear from patients who had been to other doctors about their back or knee or shoulder, and the doctor might say something like “there’s nothing we can do; wait until you need surgery, and in the meantime take ibuprofen as needed.”
 
So what about that ounce of prevention; that is, preventing the need for “the cure?” In the case of musculoskeletal pain and injury, the ounce of prevention would be a Chiropractor and/or Physical Therapist.
 
In my practice of over 30 years I have had fewer than a handful of patients who ended up needing surgery. Clearly surgery cannot always be avoided—there are times when it’s absolutely necessary—it’s MUCH less likely to be the case if one makes use of preventive measures.
 
This holds true for most illnesses, most of the time. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s; these are all diseases that, to a large extent, can be avoided.  Studies show these to be linked to and often caused by chronic systemic inflammation resulting from unhealthy diet, stress, and lack of exercise.

See:
Preventing Diabetes (cdc.gov website)
Alzheimer’s and Dementia Prevention (HelpGuide.org website)
Inflammation, a Key Event in Cancer Development (Molecular Cancer Research; April 2006)
 
In other words, there are certain lifestyles that lead to disease, and others that tend to steer away from disease. Yet most researchers are still mainly focused on looking for the cure!
 
Don’t get me wrong; disease, accidents, genetic defects, etc. are a sad fact of our existence. People get sick, and it will probably always be so. And I am very grateful for and respectful of doctors like surgeons who can repair broken bones, ruptured appendices, etc., and doctors who can prescribe lifesaving medications  and treatments.
 
What concerns me is that so many of our health problems are caused by poor dietary choices. For starters, these choices adversely affect our gut bacteria. Much research has been done on the importance of gut bacteria and our immune systems. If there are too many bad bacteria, and not enough good bacteria, our immune systems will be thrown out of whack, causing a chronic inflammatory response, which can lead to the aforementioned diseases. Poor lifestyle choices can also potentiate an overactive immune response, as is the case with autoimmunity. Diseases such as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis and Psoriasis are all autoimmune diseases.
 
It is my strong belief that if as much money were spent on prevention research and education, as is spent on looking for cures, it’s very likely we would all be a lot healthier and happier.
 
As a final aside, this all reminds me of another old but invariably true adage: “You are what you eat.”  This old news is GREAT news because it’s something we can control!  We decide what we put in our mouths and our stomachs. If you’re wondering where to begin making healthy choices, here’s what I recommend: Eat REAL Foods: Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts and Legumes (organic whenever possible), Fish (wild or sustainably farmed) Lean, Grass-Fed Hormone and Antibiotic Free Meat,  Hormone Free (pasture raised) Chicken and Eggs.
 
We have a great deal of control over our health because we decide what we eat, how we move, how we think, and what’s important to us!

I LOVE FAT!!!!

(Not on my body, of course…)

But in my food! Yes! That’s where I want it. I adore avocados, go wild over walnuts, applaud almonds, am so pleased with pecans, go crazy for coconuts, over the top for olive oil, mad for macadamias, so silly for sesame seeds, would swim the deep blue sea for salmon, yell hurrah for herring, smile at the smell of sardines, feel fueled by flax, and it’s not cheating eating chia either.

Why, you may ask? Many, many reasons, but for this post I will talk primarily about maintaining healthy weight, and diabetes / cardiovascular disease prevention.

To begin with, for years I have told my patients that they need to eat fat to burn fat. What?! What about that whole low-fat thing that started in the 70’s? Well we now see clearly what THAT lead to: OBESITY, DIABETES AND HEART DISEASE! How so? Because fat tastes so good, and when it was removed from foods, in order to compensate for the loss of flavor, the fake food giants added sugar! Too much sugar leads to insulin resistance, which in turn leads to diabetes, and then to heart disease. Plus, when one is insulin resistant, glucose cannot be utilized properly for energy, and then it gets stored as fat: a.k.a. obesity! You can read more about this in my Healthy Weight Loss Blog.

So how does eating fat contribute to weight loss? Here are a few mechanisms:

1) We have receptors on our intestinal lining that bind with omega-3 fatty acids (that come from fats). These turn on the gene that enhances insulin sensitivity, thereby allowing the glucose (which all foods break down into, and is not to be confused with sugar that we eat) to be used for energy, rather than being stored as fat. This process also lowers inflammation in the body.

2) Fat is the preferred fuel for the mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell), and thus increases mitochondrial function. The main function of the mitochondria is to turn food into energy; i.e. burn more calories, thereby increasing weight loss! BAD fats, such as trans fats, do the opposite. They inhibit energy production from the mitochondria, and cause weight gain.

3) Another benefit to eating fats in terms of weight loss is that fat increases satiety. We feel more satisfied and full when we eat good fats, and therefore do not feel compelled to eat more or overeat. It’s the opposite of what happens with sugar. Sugar and refined carbohydrates are addictive. They actually turn on a part of your brain called the nucleus accumbens, which drives addiction. And remember, it’s the overconsumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates that leads to insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes.

Fat Sources are Important

To elucidate: Cows that are grass-fed do not manufacture the same kind of fat that cows injected with antibiotics and bovine growth hormone do. Grass-fed cows take the unsaturated fat from the grass they eat and convert it to a healthy omega-3 saturated fat, while cows treated with bovine growth hormone (BGH) and antibiotics are not able to manufacture that healthy omega-3 saturated fat. The fat in beef from that cow is inflammatory, as are butter and dairy products from such animals! You will not only fail to lose weight by eating BGH/antibiotic meat, you will also be likely to disrupt your endocrine system; i.e. hormones, insulin, estrogen, testosterone, etc. But that’s a whole other can of worms, best saved for a future blog post. Suffice to say, just don’t eat it!

Another matter to consider is food treated with pesticides. Pesticides kill bugs. We have trillions of health-modulating bugs in our intestines. Pesticides wreak havoc with them and, consequently, our intestines and our immune system. Remember, the omega-3’s bond with receptor sites on the intestinal lining to fuel the mitochondria to burn fat. Well that’s not going to function so well with the pesticides killing off our good bugs. So actually, plants that have been sprayed with pesticides not only have the potential to prevent us from losing weight, they may actually contribute to weight gain!

Here’s my advice, and this has been said by many renowned physicians before me: a healthy diet should be approximately 70% plant-based, mostly organic, and 30% lean organic or wild protein, along with healthy fats. You don’t have to go seeking the fats so much either. For the most part these are incorporated in protein-rich foods: wild fish, nuts, grass-fed animal products. And when you cook, cook with olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, or butter from grass-fed cows. You don’t need to count calories, you just need to look at your plate and make sure 70% of it is a colorful array of vegetables, mostly greens!

All this to say, if you only fall in love once, let it be a true infatuation with healthy fat!