Jet Fuel vs Battery power

Time for our first collaborative post, by collaborative, I of course mean, Mark did all the research/writing, and I'm posting it. I know there are some some questions/comments from the last post, we haven't forgotten them, and will address them in an upcoming post. There is so much great information.Learning about how to take care of our bodies should be important, this challenge has already taught me that I hope you take the time to carefully read this great post, and hopefully it inspires you. 
 ****

Your body can run on one of two fuels: Carbohydrate or Fat. (per webmd). Carbohydrate should be read as sugar, because the only things your digestion can do with any carbohydrate is turn it into sugar - glucose (source), or pass it out undigested. The body prefers sugar, and must process it first - it is like jet fuel that burns quickly and hot.  Fat is more like a battery for - longer term energy storage.

 You typically have less than 1 teaspoon of glucose in your bloodstream (calculation).  When you eat carbohydrates, that raises your blood sugar, which your body must deal with.  For reference, an medium order of McDonald's french fries contains about 10 teaspoons of carbohydrate for your body to process (source). Dangers of persistent high blood sugar levels include hypertension, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and a host of other issues, none of which you want (source and source). The mechanism your body has to exert control is insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas whose job it is to turn blood sugar into fat and push it into storage in your fat cells. This process is the method by which you gain weight. 




"What? There's some green in there."

 

If both fat and carbohydrates are eaten in the same meal, and the body has a comfortable blood sugar level, insulin will push the dietary fat into fat cells so that it can burn the sugar first. Any sugar over what the body may need is turned into fat for later storage. The fat may slow down the digestion of the sugar, but the carbohydrate will eventually be digested into sugar and processed by insulin. This is true whether the carbohydrates are high refined (simple) or complex - for the body to use it, it must be broken down into glucose.



A high carbohydrate diet is, to the body, a high sugar diet - over time, the effect is weight gain, obesity and metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic condition which may now affect 20-25% of Americans (source). The body's tissues become insulin resistant, so the pancreas must produce more and more insulin to have the same lowering effect on blood sugar.  If the pancreas is unable to produce insulin, you have type 1 Diabetes. If it can't produce enough to overcome your insulin resistance and control blood sugar, you have Type 2 Diabetes.

Many might agree with the statement "Sugar makes you fat", but linking obesity and diabetes to high carbohydrate intake is a difficult connection for some to make. The recent work of science reporter Gary Taubes has been a significant catalyst for starting to change the way I think about sugar and healthy eating:

• Book:  Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It
• Article:  What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?
• Article:  Is Sugar Toxic

Mr. Gary Taubes' presentation at Google gives an hour and half summary of his "Why We Get Fat" book.

Rest assured there is more to come on these topics, addressing specific foods (and drinks), and we will try to answer as many questions as we can, or at least point you in the right direction for additional research.

****