Some of those articles read though the glasses of an eating disorder are kinda triggering. Don't wanna become insulin resistant!
Don’t let your eating disorder convince you that “lol science says no grains ever or you’ll get mega fat” because that is literally not the message of the article I posted. The researchers are positing a more nuanced hypothesis for the obesity epidemic than a simple “people eat too much and exercise too little,” which is simply not the case for a great number of obese individuals.
The researchers hypothesize that a diet that is based on simple starches and simple sugars which sharply increase blood glucose levels can lead to insulin resistance and eventually to obesity. I strongly believe that obesity is not caused by simply eating more than the body requires, although that is obviously a contributor, but instead a complex interaction between hormones that influence metabolic reactions.
Please read this section of the article:
“To understand what makes the hormone hypothesis of obesity so intriguing, it helps to grasp where the energy-balance hypothesis falls short. The idea that obesity is caused by consuming more calories than we expend supposedly stems from the first law of thermodynamics, which merely states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. As applied to biology, it means that energy consumed by an organism has to be either converted to a useful form (metabolized), excreted or stored. Thus, if we take in more calories than we expend or excrete, the excess has to be stored, which means that we get fatter and heavier. So far, so obvious. But this law tells us nothing about why we take in more calories than we expend, nor does it tell us why the excess gets stored as fat. And it is these “why” questions that need to be answered.
Specifically, why do fat cells accumulate fat molecules to excess? This is a biological question, not a physics one. Why are those fat molecules not metabolized instead to generate energy or heat? And why do fat cells take up excessive fat in some areas of the body but not others? Saying that they do so because excess calories are consumed is not a meaningful answer.
Answering these questions leads to consideration of the role that hormones—insulin, in particular—play in stimulating fat accumulation in different cells. Insulin is secreted in response to a type of carbohydrate called glucose. When the amount of glucose rises in the blood—as happens after eating a carbohydrate-rich meal—the pancreas secretes more insulin, which works to keep the blood glucose level from getting dangerously high. Insulin tells muscle, organ and even fat cells to take up the glucose and use it for fuel. It also tells fat cells to store fat—including fat from the meal—for later use. As long as insulin levels remain high, fat cells retain fat, and the other cells preferentially burn glucose (and not fat) for energy.
The main dietary sources of glucose are starches, grains and sugars. (In the absence of carbohydrates, the liver will synthesize glucose from protein.) The more easily digestible the carbohydrates, the greater and quicker the rise in blood glucose. (Fiber and fat in foods slow the process.) Thus, a diet rich in refined grains and starches will prompt greater insulin secretion than a diet that is not. Sugars—such as sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup—may play a key role because they also contain significant amounts of a carbohydrate called fructose, which is metabolized mostly by liver cells. Though not definitive, research suggests that high amounts of fructose may be an important cause of “insulin resistance.” When cells are insulin-resistant, more insulin is required to control blood glucose. The result, according to the hormone hypothesis, is an ever greater proportion of the day that insulin in the blood is elevated, causing fat to accumulate in fat cells rather than being used to fuel the body.
This alternative hypothesis of obesity implies that the ongoing worldwide epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes (which stems to great extent from insulin resistance) are largely driven by the grains and sugars in our diets. It also implies that the first step in solving these crises is to avoid sugars and limit consumption of starchy vegetables and grains, not worrying about how much we are eating and exercising.”
The only issue I have with this hypothesis is the researchers assertion that obese individuals - and anyone, apparently - should replace carbohydrates with fats when instead my humble opinion is that the focus should be placed on eating complex carbohydrates along with an adequate fat intake.
Complex carbohydrates along with dietary fat can keep blood glucose levels more moderate for longer periods of time, whereas simple sugars are broken down completely much more quickly and therefore result in a sudden spike in blood glucose, which leads to a sudden spike in insulin. High levels of insulin have been linked of insulin resistance,which has been linked to insulin resistance.
I hope that I have been able to offer you a more solid understanding of what this information means, and I will perhaps in the future offer more information about the articles I am posting and how the information within should be interpreted rather than simply posting the articles without further information.
