The Obvious isn't Always Obvious...

"Relinquishing My Mental Frustrations"

I have this crazy hobby, or maybe obsession.  

I read anything and everything related to nutrition.  I mean everything....Research, Diet Books, Blogs, you name I read it.

I read it with a pair of Diabetic Glasses on, looking for ways to improve my health(and others) I have written posts about food, and controversial topics like What's Up with the Food Guide and Pro Carb vs. Low Carb so one could say I am a little biased in my opinion.

I am now trying to figure out why so many in the medical profession (at least the ones I meet)tend to not agree with reducing the carbs.  So I started looking into what knowledge the General Practitioner gets regarding Nutrition. 

I asked a brand new, wet behind the ears Resident or Family Doc in Training how much education he received in the area of nutrition during his medical degree.  His response was, "Hardly Any" 

Hmmmmm. So I decided to pull a Medical Physiology Textbook written by Guyton from the shelf to have a look at what these doctors review in terms of Insulin Metabolism, and the storage of Macronutriants, like Carbohydrate, Protein, and fat.  Thinking, there must be a profound reason we are offering the general public a guideline to consume a diet that contains 65% carbohydrate. So I flip it to the pertinent section. And read the following:

In time, the insulin plays an important role in storing the excess energy substances.  In the case of excess carbohydrate, it causes these to be stored as glycogen mainly in the liver and muscles.  It causes fat storage in the adipose tissue.  Also, all the excess carbohydrate that cannot be stored as glycogen are converted under the stimulus of insulin into fats also stored in the adipose tissue

Okay, so they are taught in medical physiology that insulin is the main stimulus for fat storage. So I ask myself, what causes increased levels of insulin in the human body?

Excess Carbohydrate causes an increase in blood glucose, which in turn cause an increase in insulin which in turn gets stored as fat.  Apparently most of the world has missed this point.

Okay, I also read from the same text, now this is for those interested in how to up the fat burning engine in your body, which definitely includes me. 

All aspects of fat breakdown and use are greatly enhanced in the absence of insulin

Short quote. Now in the complete absence we'd be dead, so I guess what this Medical text is suggesting is that in cases of reduced insulin levels, we set our metabolism up to burn more fat then if we have higher levels.

So as I read this from a Medical Text Book on Physiology, that Doctors use to reference, I question how the hell we can in good conscious tell people to increase their insulin levels beyond capacity, when basic Insulin Metabolic Theory indicate the outcome of doing so?

What's my point?

Well, I guess I don't understand why the obvious isn't noted, and practiced. Perhaps it's the "Hardly Any" training some groups of health professionals receive in the area of nutrition. However, even the Professionals that are trained in the area of nutrition still encourage this high carbohydrate approach.

Who knows.

Trev 

Source:

Textbook of Medical Physiology, Guyton, Arthur C.8th Edition, WB Saunders Company, 1991. pp. 858-859.