One of the problems with a glucocentric approach to nutrition is that the things you do to keep glucose low might be making your health worse in other ways. Reducing circulating glucose, increasing circulating fats….. One of the obvious ways that a person might choose to lower their blood glucose is to go very low carb. And yes, a diet with 8%kcal from carb, 70%kcal from fat and 15%kcal from protein FLATTENS glucose …..(chirpse the figure below):
I recently read Food for Life, whilst reading it it felt like an advert for a company. It also contained an incredible amount of opinion with out any science to back it up. Thank you for this series, I think your message is incredibly important at this time with the huge fad of CGM's.
There are as you say keto influencers who would tell you to sub fat for carbs. But I don’t think all the glucose spike influencers/social media personalities do that. I guess the question is , does it help at all to try to flatten spikes if you do it without eating more fats or other potentially unhealthy foods? Spiking glucose may not be a problem for everyone but they might be problem for people who will eventually develop prediabetes or diabetes.
65% of the population have insulin resistance, because 65% of the population is either overweight, or obese, & under active, not simply because they eat a "high-carb" diet.
I have been reading your articles and I think you are right that we might be confounding correlation and causality. I have always been a bit skeptical about the claim that carbs are bad because I have not seen any evidence that low carb is better for health and most evidence-based recommendations like the mediterranean diet are moderate in carbs (although I have heard multiple times that mediterranean is low carb, how can 40-50% carbs be low carb???). This recommendation, of course, does not critically asses the potential damage of high fat diets. However, what I wonder and that I cannot answer is then, what is causing this metabolic dysfunction in the first place? Lack of physical activity? Additives in food? Lack of vegetables? Nutrient deficient diets? Extreme dieting patterns (low carb or low fat)? Excess fructose? Certainly, the arrow of causality High glucose excursions=future T2D is appealing for its simplicity, and I do not know a definite answer about what is causing this disease in the first place, except a constellation of factors
'Let me draw this article to a close by telling you about the patient who made me realise how just utterly wank these personalised nutrition products can be:'
I recently read Food for Life, whilst reading it it felt like an advert for a company. It also contained an incredible amount of opinion with out any science to back it up. Thank you for this series, I think your message is incredibly important at this time with the huge fad of CGM's.
There are as you say keto influencers who would tell you to sub fat for carbs. But I don’t think all the glucose spike influencers/social media personalities do that. I guess the question is , does it help at all to try to flatten spikes if you do it without eating more fats or other potentially unhealthy foods? Spiking glucose may not be a problem for everyone but they might be problem for people who will eventually develop prediabetes or diabetes.
Have a read of the “does keeping my glucose low prevent T2D and CVD?” one
Yes. Why would 65% of population have insulin resistance, if not for high carb meals over a prolonged period of time? Is this not a problem?
65% of the population have insulin resistance, because 65% of the population is either overweight, or obese, & under active, not simply because they eat a "high-carb" diet.
I have been reading your articles and I think you are right that we might be confounding correlation and causality. I have always been a bit skeptical about the claim that carbs are bad because I have not seen any evidence that low carb is better for health and most evidence-based recommendations like the mediterranean diet are moderate in carbs (although I have heard multiple times that mediterranean is low carb, how can 40-50% carbs be low carb???). This recommendation, of course, does not critically asses the potential damage of high fat diets. However, what I wonder and that I cannot answer is then, what is causing this metabolic dysfunction in the first place? Lack of physical activity? Additives in food? Lack of vegetables? Nutrient deficient diets? Extreme dieting patterns (low carb or low fat)? Excess fructose? Certainly, the arrow of causality High glucose excursions=future T2D is appealing for its simplicity, and I do not know a definite answer about what is causing this disease in the first place, except a constellation of factors
'Let me draw this article to a close by telling you about the patient who made me realise how just utterly wank these personalised nutrition products can be:'
This is why I love your writing haha.
Incredible article!