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(TunnelRat @ Mar. 19 2008,19:32)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Martin Levac @ Mar. 19 2008,18:02)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Why did our diet become high carb all of a sudden? We've only been eating high carb for a few decades. Before that, we always ate high fat with whatever protein there was in the food. The carbs that we did eat were whole, unprocessed and unrefined. Most of it was made of fiber anyway. As a result, we didn't eat that much digestible carbs.</div>
I don't understand your point about "we've only been eating high carb for a few decades". How about the whole country of Ireland that for centuries was famous for subsisting on potatos? During the classical period there is massive evidence that the major Greek cities survived on imported grain. The Romans had their bread and circuses. The bible speaks of the ancient Egyptians living on grains, and what do you do with "Man does not live on bread alone"...?
I would think that historically it is much more rare that we ate much meat. That was done during feast days since the meat could not be effectively kept for more than two or three days at a time.
Or am I missing your point altogether...?</div>
By refining carbohydrate based food, we take away many nutrients including protein and fiber contained within grains for example. To get the same amount of protein, we must eat more of those carbs. As a result, it makes our diet high in carbs and low in everything else.
On the other hand, eating unrefined and unprocessed carbs means we must eat less to get the same amount of protein.
It is important to note that we don't require sugar or starch. What little glucose we need, we can get from gluconeogenesis. And even then, little to no protein is used up since lactic acid, a by-product of glycolysis, can be converted back into glucose in the liver, sparing protein.
We require protein and fat for building blocks. We can readily use fatty acids for almost all our energy needs. Or we can use ketone bodies which are derived from fatty acids.
But even then, we're not going far enough in time to understand why eating carbs creates an abnormal metabolic profile which in turn brings us to draw incorrect conclusions about the whole thing. Think of a couple of million years instead. Even 10 thousand years is not enough to bring any significant change in our genetic profile.
Historically, we survived by eating fat meat. Growing fat means we become slow and a slow prey is an easy prey. There's your natural selection criteria for not eating carbs. We're not the descendants of those who ate carbs. We're descendants of those who ate fat meat.
If you've read as much as I have, you've surely noticed that the most frequent question new lifters ask is: How do I grow bigger? And the most frequent answer to that question is invariably: Eat more. The question and the answer both come from the same lack of understanding of how our bodies work. We believe, erroneously, in the Positive Caloric Balance hypothesis. We think we must eat more to grow and eat less to shrink. I used to think that myself because that's all I ever read. If that's all there is, surely it must be true. How short sighted I was.
The hypothesis is erroneous because it assumes that intake and output are independent variables. It also assumes that fat will just get pushed into adipose tissue. It assumes by extension that fat will just be pushed out when we eat less.
I thought I could cut by reducing the amount of food I was eating. So that's exactly what I did. After all, that's what everybody was telling me. Would you believe I was eating as little as 600 calories a day and training as much as 90 minutes a day and still I wasn't losing any weight? Any weight, not muscle, not fat, nada. Maybe something was wrong? You bet. But not what you think.
I cut the carbs from my diet. The fat on my belly just goes away. Effortlessly. No hunger whatsoever. I can eat all day and not gain an ounce of fat. I can eat as much fat as I want and not gain a gram of fat. I eat anywhere between 1500 and 3500 calories a day and still I grow lean and muscular. Would you believe it? It's like miracle or magic. It only looks like a magic when we don't understand. Once we do, it all makes sense.
Do you think this is only anecdotal evidence? Sure. If I only look at myself. But there are literally millions of people who's fate is exactly the same as me. They shed the fat and gain the muscle. With no risk to speak. Indeed, health improves as soon as we cut carbs.
The hypothesis does not work because of insulin resistance. The advice to eat more, or to eat less for that matter, doesn't work either because of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is what's it's all about.
As we eat carbs, we grow a little more insulin resistant each day. As we grow insulin resistant, we must eat more to feed our cells. As we eat more carbs, we further grow insulin resistant. And we eat more. And we grow more insulin resistant. And round we go. Until we become completely insulin resistant, especially in our lean tissues such as muscles, and become diabetic type 2.
Insulin resistance doesn't progress at the same rate for all tissue and organs. The liver is first, the muscles are second, the adipose tissue is last. So, our lipid profile gets it first then our muscles get it next. As our muscles get insulin resistant, they are resistant to both the effect of insulin on glucose and on amino acids. Because insulin is needed to push both glucose and amino acids into muscle cells. Not only do our muscles not get the energy they need, they don't get the protein either. Certainly, lifting a heavy object will immediately increase insulin sensitivity but it won't do so permanently. As soon as we eat carbs after the workout, insulin resistance is back in full force. But here's the kicker: We continue to grow fat because adipose tissue remains insulin sensitive for a very long time after muscles stopped responding.
So when we advise to eat more, the only thing those lifters will do is become more insulin resistant. Unless we also advise to cut carbs altogether.
A note on training. Regardless of what we eat, flexing our muscle will increase insulin sensitivity. But when we start with a very high insulin resistance, it's much harder to counter it. It's easier to start with a low insulin resistance. Cutting the carbs will only enhance our muscle's ability to take in amino acids.
I've been reading on the subject for some time now and if you haven't read what I did, then all we'd be doing here is disagree because we don't have the same knowledge base. It's best if you read it too and make up your own mind on the subject.
We can see why our metabolic profile is abnormal when we eat carbs.
