Life is Healthy

I don't want to leave you with those last two posts without giving you some practical ways to improve body composition. Body composition is the ratio of lean tissue to fat. The ideal ratio differs depending on gender and individual differences. In general, 10% and 20% bodyfat are good targets for men and women, respectively. There's no need to measure however, as the eye is a pretty good judge.

The most dangerous fat is visceral fat, or the "beer belly". Fortunately, it's also the most responsive to lifestyle changes.

The strategies I recommend all have one thing in common: they work to restore insulin sensitivity. This will not only improve body composition, it will normalize your metabolism on a fundamental level, reducing the risk of all the common chronic diseases. I may cover these topics again in more detail at another time.

1. Carbohydrate restriction. This is by far the most effective way to improve body composition. It will even benefit people who are already profoundly insulin resistant. Eliminating grains, legumes, potatoes and sugar is the simplest and best way to do this. That includes wheat, corn, rice, beans, oats, honorary grains like buckwheat and quinoa, and especially their derivatives. Carbohydrate is not the devil, but restricting intake to moderate amounts from vegetables and fruit is ideal for someone trying to lose weight. I think starchy root vegetables, soaked or sprouted legumes and soaked, sprouted or fermented non-gluten grains are OK for people who already have a healthy body composition.

2. Exercise. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had a word for exercise: "life". Exercise helps improve insulin sensitivity by increasing the muscles' demand for fuel. It also builds muscle mass. Any exercise is great, but the best kind is brief and intense (anaerobic). This includes sprinting and brisk weight training. It's more effective than jogging at improving muscle mass, decreasing fat mass, decreasing insulin and improving other markers of metabolic health. Chris at Conditioning Research covers this topic regularly. Traditional sports like soccer and basketball are effective because they have anaerobic and aerobic components. Even walking up stairs or down the street have measurable health benefits, however.

3. Intermittent fasting. This is very effective at improving insulin sensitivity and body composition. IF isn't starvation; it simply postpones calorie intake. Nor is it unhealthy. In fact, it's probably closely in line with the variable energy intake to which we are fundamentally adapted. My method is one 24-hour, water-only fast per week. No juice; that defeats the purpose. If you have elevated insulin like most people, it's best to get into IF gradually. Try skipping breakfast first. If you can skip breakfast and lunch, you've completed a 23-hour fast.

4. Lose the soda! Soda and other sweet foods are the enemy of body composition and general health. Fructose, found abundantly in high-fructose corn syrup, table sugar and agave nectar, seems to have a particular talent for causing insulin resistance. It's rapidly converted to fat in the liver, which is partially stored on the spot, and partially exported into the bloodstream as triglycerides. Diet soda isn't much better. It's been associated with weight gain in humans, and actually causes weight gain in rats. Normalizing insulin through carbohydrate restriction and fasting reduces cravings for sweet foods. A moderate amount of fruit is probably fine.

(Also available on b3ta.)

Laura wanted to lose a lot of weight. One hundred and thirty pounds. It took her two and a half years but she succeeded by beginning a very rigorous walking program. Now four years later, the weight has stayed off. But she walks an average of about 50 miles a week!

She's written a book about her experience; Commit To Get Fit: The Secret to True and Everlasting Weight Loss

"If you don't have a dream in life, I don't know what you have. You have to want something beyond your reach; it's exciting when it works out." ~ Liya Kebede

I lost count of the number of times we watched this tonight.

My sister, if she hasn't already seen this, would love it.




Update: It turns out that there's a whole bunch of these on YouTube. The kids and I may have watched them all. These guys are awesome. And hilarious. I just wish I could understand the banter.

Here's some good advice about the positive benefits of visualizing yourself as already being at your ideal weight;

The law of attraction states that you get more of what you put your attention on. When you are overweight your attention is focused on fat, food, diets, calories, etc. You are negatively focused. You are focused on the problem. The key to using the law of attraction for weight loss is to stay focused on the solution.

One of the most powerful ways of doing this is to act as if. Act as if you have already manifested and created the body and weight loss you want! Act like the thin person you want be!

Acting “as if” creates a powerful energy shift. Your actions will begin to align with your new intentions because it creates a positive expectation of success.

See more weight loss secrets and good advice at Secrets of a Weight Loss Master.

Good morning from LA! My daughter and I arrived yesterday for a quick 4-day visit with friends and family. If you want to, you can read more about the non-food part of the trip on my writing blog: www.zenbaglady.typepad.com.

My stomach was NOT happy yesterday, particularly with the three-hour time difference. I bought some fruit and a breadstick (it was the only carb I could find at the airport that wasn't sugar- or fat-laden) and ate them on the plane to Cincinnati. On the long flight to LA, I had two little sugar cookies (you know those "complimentary" snacks they give you on planes?), a few animal crackers (I was very proud of myself for only stealing a couple from my daughter's bag), a few peanuts, and a bowl of Kashi with some strawberries and 2 percent milk (gag).

We landed and were on the road to my sister's house by 1:30 local time, but my body was feeling like 4:30 and I was hungry. When we got to my sisters, I made a salad with her leftover, bottom of the bag lettuce and a shriveled up tomato, and ate a piece of bread with apricot marmalade (it was all she had in the fridge!). We later went shopping at Trader Joe's and I bought a bunch of good stuff that will last me the rest of the trip: asparagus, good salad stuff, and of course, my favorite of all decadent carbs: Trader Joe's corn tortilla flat breads.

I'm trying to stretch out these extra three hours. I woke up at 5 a.m. local time and my body thought it was 8. I had some grapes and tea. Lunch will be noon local time, 3 body time, so I'll probably have some of those corn tortillas on the road to Hollywood this morning. Emily (my sister) wants to eat at a Thai restaurant. This will be a first for me. I wish I'd had a chance to ask you all what I should eat! LOL

Eating on the road is tricky. I'd love to hear how you maneuver it.

This study was released today, demonstrating in 6,583 patients that visceral fat mass in the 40s predicts the risk of dementia in old age. Patients in the highest quintile (20% with the most visceral fat mass) had an almost three-fold higher risk of dementia than patients in the lowest quintile. This is a greater effect than you see from "genetics". Overall fat mass was less strongly correlated with dementia. This study is so timely, they must have heard about my blog post.

They used a measure of visceral fat called the "sagittal abdominal diameter", basically the distance from the back to the belly button. In other words, the beer belly.

What we're looking at is another facet of the pervasive "disease of civilization" that rolls into town on the same truck as sugar and white flour. Weston Price described it in 14 different cultures throughout the world in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer and dementia all seem to come hand-in-hand. It's hard to say exactly what the root cause is, but the chain of causality seems to pass through visceral fat and insulin signaling in many people.

I am grieving the death of an old friend today.

Ron Crawley, many people will miss you very, very much.

Instead of a regular post, I am linking to a post from BlogHer by Catherine Morgan. It's about the environmental causes of breast cancer but the information applies to other cancers as well.

Top Gear are at it again, but this is by far the MOST exciting race to date!!

A Bugatti Veyron VS Eurofighter Typhoon, who will win.....???

Speeds you could only dream about, money you wish you had and excitement beyond your wildest fantasies - sit back and enjoy ;)

Did you guess which one won?

Here are some of the upcoming movies for this year...

WANTED:- Angelina Jolie looks SO hot !!!


THE LOVE GURU:- A little too Austin Powers, but hey baby thats not a bad thing!!!


INDIANA JONES:- He's back!!!


SUPERHERO MOVIE:- from the makers of Scary Movie, oooohhhh YEAH!!!


THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM:- about time Jackie Chan & Jet Lee (Li) together!!!


Also watch out for THE INCREDIBLE HULK; but dont expect too much & M. Night Shyamalan's THE HAPPENING; but again doesn't look very promising

This week, I stumbled upon a very interesting series of articles from the lab of Dr. Nir Barzilai.

The first article I came across showed that surgical removal of the visceral fat deposit of rats increased their lifespan. Visceral fat (VF) is the "beer belly", and consists of the perinephratic fat around the kidneys and the omental fat in front of the intestines. It doesn't include subcutaneous fat, the fat layer under the skin.

VF is tightly associated with the metabolic syndrome, the quintessential "disease of civilization" that affects 24% of Americans (NHANES III). It's defined by three or more of the following criteria: high blood pressure, large waist circumference, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high fasting glucose. The metabolic syndrome is associated with a 3-4-fold increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and a 6-fold increase in the risk of developing type II diabetes. From a review on the metabolic syndrome (parentheses mine):

The most common alteration related to the impaired glucose metabolism with aging is the progressively increased fasting and postprandial [post-meal] plasma insulin levels, suggesting an insulin-resistant state.

• A meal high in quickly digested carbohydrate elevates blood glucose. OR, excessive fructose causes insulin resistance in the liver which leads to high fasting glucose.
  

• Visceral fat responds by increasing production of FDPs.

• FDPs, directly and/or indirectly, cause insulin resistance in the liver, muscle and other tissue. Liver insulin resistance causes alterations in lipoprotein ("cholesterol") profile (more on this in another post). Fat tissue remains insulin-sensitive.

• Fat tissue (including VF) grows in size, because due to its insulin sensitivity it's taking up more than its share of glucose.
  

• The vicious cycle continues, with increased visceral fat size and glucose uptake increasing FDP production, which makes the liver more insulin resistant, which increases glucose production by the liver, etc.
  

• In the absence of lifestyle changes, the cycle only stops when the fat tissue becomes insulin-resistant, at which point you lose control over blood sugar and become diabetic.
  

I was planning a post about cancer clusters today but I have decided to put that off until tomorrow.

Instead I will link you once again to Sara, who has left me furious, sad, scared, hopeful. inspired and even amused by a single post.

Cancer is a bitch.

After being jammed in yet another transportation issue I thought it time to vent my frustration and confusion at the systems we have and use daily.

Car
number of seats = number of passengers (4) , no one is allowed to stand.

Aeroplane - Boeing 747
number of seats = number of passengers (366) , no one is allowed to stand; but once in air standing is possible - (you also have to listen to safety instructions!)

Bus
number of seats = number of passengers (40) + standing room for around 18 more passengers, sitting or standing optional. (no safety instructions)

Double Decker Bus
number of seats = number of passengers (80) + standing room for around 32 more passengers, sitting or sanding optional. (no safety instructions)

Train - EUROSTAR
number of seats = number of passengers (766) - no standing, but movement is permitted (no safety instructions)

Metro / Tube / Subway
number of seats = number of passengers + standing for as many as you can fit until the doors no longer close! sitting is rarely an option. (no safety & no instructions, except please MIND THE GAP)

So basically my question is this why is this permitted, allowed or accepted?
If the need is so great then surely we should be able to travel in comfort and safety, because I'm sure if there was a problem at peak times on the Metro/Underground/Subway, there would simply be no safe way in or out of this system, and bodies would be piled on top of each other.

How much longer do we put up with this - answers on a postcard to your relevant MP

I'm making a resolution to become more positive—one day at a time. So, just for today, I will have a positive attitude. I'll worry about tomorrow when it gets here.

The following are scenes taken from the amazing show: WHO'S LINE IS IT ANYWAY!

This is a great show, demonstrating the ability to think fast and act crazy, basically how to have fun with a subject.


Living Scenery



Sound Effects



Helping hands



Sit, Stand & Bend



Voices & Characters

As part of an exercise I did last January, I wrote a list of things that I would like to do before I die.

Don't worry, I'm not being morbid nor have a received any bad news of late. It's an exercise that anybody could do, although it does feel more loaded now than it would have before I was diagnosed with cancer.

I re-read my list today and was surprised by it, even though I only wrote it two months ago.

The list contains things I feel I ought to do and things I fantasize about doing, things that are achievable (and that I will do) and things that probably fall under the category of pipe dream.

This is what I wrote, through stream of consciousness and completely uncensored:

Finish my queen-sized bed spread.

Write a novel.

Organize my house.

Travel with my kids.

Go back to school.

Run a marathon.

Participate in flyball or agility with a dog and my older son.

Get the message out re living long and well with metastatic cancer.

See the midnight sun again.

Go to Australia.

Become a soup-making expert.

Get more writing published.

What would be on your list?

Web hosting providers provide web space to put your website on the internet. It is also very important to find that what kind of hosting service is best for you. But on the other hand, you have to pay monthly fee for using paid hosting service. Web hosting is the service provided by a web hosting company, which includes storage, connectivity and other services necessary to function files to host

I went to my step class this morning. I discovered I'm still a little weak. I tired out pretty quickly. I made it through the class, but had to stop a number of times to catch my breath or rub an aching muscle. I'm tired of being pathetic.

The inhabitants of Okinawa, an island prefecture of Japan, are one of the longest-lived populations in the world. Their diet and lifestyle have been thoroughly studied for this reason. Papers typically focus on their consumption of vegetables, fish, soy, exercise, and the fact that some of them may have been mildly calorically restricted for part of their lives.

The thing that often gets swept under the rug is that they eat lard. Traditionally, it was their primary cooking fat, and they use it liberally. Of course, they also eat the pork the lard came from.

I'm not saying lard will make you live to 100, but it certainly won't stop you...

Over the weekend, no one could view my blog because Blogger wanted to "review" it and make sure I wasn't spam. Seeing that word all weekend, "spam," made me a little hungry, I won't lie. It was one of those things I ate as a kid and loved. Grilled Spam and Velveeta sandwiches were my favorite. On white bread, of course. And lots of butter on each side.

Ah...the good old days!

Anyway, I'm glad to be back. I apologize for the inconvenience of yesterday. I'll have another real blog very soon (one that doesn't talk about artery-clogging foods of days gone by). I just wanted to pop in and say thanks for hanging in there and I'm glad you came back!

Yea. I made it to the gym. I'm still a little under the weather, but doing much better. I did my usual workout—60 minutes of cardio and weights followed by a 15-minute walk around the track. I did OK.

Diana gave up meat many years ago. She said it made her feel sluggish and mentally slow. Diana is 55 years old and teaches yoga classes. She says eating meat affected her yoga practice.

See an interesting article about the health benefits of vegetarianism. They say people who cut meat from their diet have about half the cancer risk and are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease. Vegetarians are less likely to be obese. They have lower cholesterol, blood pressure, rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and prostate and colon cancer.

Your great-grandmother would have told you that natural, homemade lard is an excellent cooking fat. It has a mild, savory flavor and a high smoke point. It's well suited for sauteing and frying foods, and it makes the flakiest savory crust. It's also cheap to buy and easy to render. Rendering lard is the process by which fat tissue is turned into pure fat. I buy the best quality lard available for $2/lb at my farmer's market, making it far cheaper than butter and olive oil of equivalent quality.

The best place to buy lard is at a local farmer's market. Look for pigs that have been "field-raised" or "pasture-raised", and are preferably organic. This ensures that they receive sunlight and have been treated humanely. The "organic" label by itself simply means they have been fed organic feed; the pigs will often not have had access to the outdoors. I recommend avoiding conventional (non-organic) pork at all costs, because it's profoundly inhumane and highly polluting. This is where I buy my lard.

If you don't have access to good quality local lard, there are a couple of sources on the Local Harvest website. Look for "leaf lard", which is the fat surrounding the kidneys. It's lowest in polyunsaturated oil and thus has the highest smoke point and the lowest omega-6 content. It's also practically pure fat. You will recover 90% of the pre-rendering volume from leaf lard. On to the recipe.


Ingredients and Equipment:

• Lard
• Cheesecloth
• Baking dish
• Jars
  

And now for a truly extraordinary intermission...

After looking into some commercials I thought I would see if I could find some old favourite programs and guess what... ...I did!
Here is a collection of theme tunes to some old favourites when I was a child - and yes they DID have TV back then!

AIRWOLF

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

AROUND THE WORLD WITH WILLY FOGG

A-TEAM

BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA

BLACK ADDER

BUCK RODGERS

CAPTAIN CAVEMAN

CRYSTAL MAZE

DANGER MOUSE

DESMONDS

DOCTOR WHO

FALL GUY

FAWLTY TOWERS

FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR

GRANGE HILL

GREEN HORNET

HAPPY DAYS

HE-MAN

INCREDIBLE HULK

KNIGHT RIDER

KUNG-FU

LAUREL & HARDY

LOST IN SPACE

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

MONKEY

MONTY PYTHON

ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES

RED DWARF

STEPTOE & SON

STREETHAWK

THUNDERCATS

TWILIGHT ZONE

WOMBLES

I can't remember the last time I was as sick as I 've been over the past week. I'm finally feeling better today. It all started with what I thought was a stiff neck--all of the glands running along my skull, including the ones behind my ear, were sore. I had laryngitis, nausea, congestion, a cough, a fever, fatigue, and numerous other complaints. Everyday seemed worse than the day before. But finally, I feel better. I will resume exercising tomorrow. But I'm back.

This blew me away:


Awareness Test - Watch more free videos

I think I'm going to be very nervous next time I'm on my bike.

World Water Day

Today, March 22, is World Water Day. The theme for this year is sanitation. Every 15 seconds another child dies in this world from a waterborne disease due to lack of potable water and proper sanitation. This is the most crucial environmental crisis we face along with the climate crisis, and water shortages in many parts of our world due to lack of infrastructure, mismanagement of resources, and now climate change only lend to this crisis.

Please, take time today to do something to take action to save water and call for clean water for the children of our world. I will be sending letters to my Senators today and also sending a message to all of the presidential candidates to stand up for water and to make its conservation and availability and sanitation part of their environmental platforms, and that includes not supporting energy sources that pollute our waterways ( like coal and nuclear.)

This is so close to my heart. I will talk about this everyday until people get sick of hearing it. It is the only way to get it out here. The simple truth: without water we die. Without the moral and poltical will to address this crisis as well as the climate crisis we will forever alter this planet for our children and other species, and that is simply not an option. There is nothing more important than this. Without a planet we have nothing else.

Water is a human right, and all children of this world deserve to live in a world at least having the water they need to survive. This crisis is thankfully getting more exposure thanks to the UN, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, and others who are spreading the word, and also Al Gore who addressed it in An Inconvenient Truth and has talked about freshwater resources . For years people have been warning that we better start conserving this resource because it is even more precious than oil...and we are now getting closer to that tipping point as well.

We are one with the Earth. What we do to her we do to ourselves. We are seeing that much more with each passing day. What we then do with that knowledge will determine our future.

Also, take a look at this site: http://www.water.org/ and consider pledging to give clean water to those in our world who need it. Water is our most precious resource. Water is life.

Thank you

That's right, ladies and gentlemen: lard. The word alone makes lipophobes cringe like a vampire from garlic. It also makes epicures salivate. But why is lard so unhealthy? Let's take a look.

The fatty acid profile of lard might give us a clue. A major portion of lard is monounsaturated, 40% by weight. This is the same type of fat that predominates in olive oil (73%), and which is widely recommended by mainstream nutrition experts. Another prevalent class of fat in lard is saturated, at 48%. More than one third of this saturated fat is stearic acid, which even the most hardened lipophobe will agree has a "favorable" effect on blood lipids. Then there's the 8% polyunsaturated fat, which has been the darling of mainstream heart disease research for decades due to its ability to lower blood cholesterol (for the record, I believe the polyunsaturate content is lard's least healthy feature). The omega-3:6 ratio depends on how the pig was raised, but is typically skewed more toward omega-6.

So what does that leave us with? 66% fats that we're told are heart-healthy, and 30% non-stearic saturated fats that are supposed to be unhealthy. But if you still believe saturated fats cause heart disease, check out this post, this one and this one.

Lard also contains a small amount of vitamin D. The sun is the best source of vitamin D, since your skin synthesizes it when it's exposed to UVB. But due to the low angle of the sun in winter, and the fact that many people don't spend enough time outdoors even in the summer, extra vitamin D in the diet is helpful.

I think you can see that lard's bad reputation is undeserved. It may be a legacy of the time when hydrogenated vegetable oils were competing with animal fats for the food market.

There is such a thing as unhealthy lard, however. It's the stuff you might find at the grocery store. Store-bought lard is often hydrogenated to make it more shelf-stable. It also comes from confinement-raised pork operations, which aside from being profoundly inhumane, do not allow access to the outdoors. Thus, the fat won't contain vitamin D.

In the next post, I'll talk about how to buy pasture-raised lard and render it yourself.

Top Reason to leave Britian



A collection of funny adverts



More funny adverts



Shaolin Refreshment



Shaolin Refreshment 2



So wrong but so funny



So wrong but so funny 2



SO WRONG but SO FUNNY


now get back to work, breaks over!

Faithful readers, I'm really sorry to do this to you. But I needed to change at least the blog portion of my website in order for me to better integrate features that were lacking at my old blog home. You'll see what I mean in the weeks to come.

You can still access this blog through the Lynn's Journey site (www.freewebs.com/lynnsjourney) by clicking on My Weight-Loss Blog. The tab "Blog Archives" are blogs written the last few months that one day, when I figure out exactly how, I will move over here.

In the meantime, welcome to new blog home Blog #1.

I've been thinking a lot about change lately, probably because it's spring and spring is a time of renewal. I've never understood why we make resolutions to change on Jan. 1, in the dead of winter when motivation is at an all-time low. Make them in the spring when everything is fresh and new!

I'm resolving to change my body image. Yes, you read that right. I had a rough few days this week with body image. I went to the Gap and Target on Wednesday and tried on some summer shirts. I hadn’t really looked at my upper body since late summer since I’ve been buried in long-sleeved shirts all winter. What I saw in the dressing room mirror surprised me and actually scared me in a way.

I have a major rotator cuff tear in my right shoulder and a minor tear in my left. I also have bursitis and arthritis in both shoulder joints. I opted not to have surgery just yet because my granddaughter was just born and it would be months before I could hold her. I went to see a chiropractor and she's done wonders. Through weekly treatments (sometimes very painful treatments) and daily rehab exercises with hand weights, I am relatively pain free and have 80 to 90 percent mobility.

This is great news and I'll continue to rehab and see my chiropractor for treatments. However, all those exercises have really defined my arms and chest, which means on my medium to large-boned frame, I am very bony and old looking. I was shocked when I saw my reflection in the dressing room mirrors. Really honestly shocked. The bottom half of me looks the same, but the top is kind of scary.

I'm also going to tell you a truth not everyone likes to hear: the excess skin under my arms (my armpits) is more apparent, too. More than it was last summer. This means I want to be careful what kinds of clothes I wear. Yes, I’m vain that way.

I was mad at first. I mean, here I go and lose all kinds of weight and I have to be almost as selective about clothes as I was at 300 pounds. Then with the help of my maintenance support group, I realize that I’ll probably never be satisfied with how I look and so I’m learning to accept the person I look like now.

I do the rehab because it helps my shoulders. The consequence is that I’m cut and bony. I can live with that. I will change my body image. It'll take some time is all.

Are there any changes you want to make? Small or big, it doesn't matter. Let us know!

My friend Sara has just written the most beautiful, moving and utterly persuasive post in favour of universal health care that I have ever read.

Here's a really good video by one guy who is 40 years old and wants to get fit again.



By his birthday on May 12, he wants:

1) More muscle tone and continued cardio
2) Continued weight loss (lose the rest of the tummy so you can see those killer abs hiding beneath the cottage cheese)
3) Healthier and more frequent eating, but not at night.
4) Reduced caffeine

It's easy to forget why you started something, so here's my reminder to myself. I wanna feel really healthy and secure hanging out by the pool this spring/summer!

I can't stop thinking about this story.

This should never, ever have happened. And so many medical professionals contributed to the problem.

It makes me furious.

Beverly Green, who is featured in this article (and was on the front page of the Globe and Mail last week end) is 45 years old and dying of liver metastasis. She found out way too late that she should have been given Tamoxifen.

I know that the government review being conducted will not lay criminal responsibility but I would really like to see some heads roll.

In my reading, I've come to the conclusion that, in some people, overweight may be a type of carbohydrate intolerance.

Insulin is the master hormone that orchestrates the metabolic changes that cause fat accumulation. It instructs the body to transport glucose and fat from the blood into the cells. It tells the liver to synthesize fat from sugar. It inhibits the release of fat from fat cells. There are no other hormones that have a similar range of effects.

Insulin is the "storage hormone". Don't believe me? Ask a type I diabetic. Type I diabetes happens when the pancreas no longer secretes insulin. These people are rail-thin until they are given insulin injections, at which point they often gain excess weight. Many deliberately skip injections to lose weight. Unfortunately, this has serious consequences as it allows their blood glucose to rise to dangerous levels unchecked.

If insulin is kept low, fat synthesis and storage are inhibited, and fat release from fat cells is increased. Carbohydrate is particularly effective at elevating insulin, acutely and chronically. As carbohydrate digests, it's broken down into glucose, which enters the bloodstream. The pancreas releases insulin in an attempt to keep blood glucose within a healthy range, and the storage begins. Refined carbohydrate is the worst offender, because it causes a large and rapid rise in blood glucose.

Regular overconsumption of carbohydrate causes insulin to be chronically elevated in many people [update- I no longer believe this is true. I now believe that only certain types of carbohydrate- namely wheat and sugar- cause a pathological increase in fasting insulin over time]. This comes along with "insulin resistance", whereby most or all tissues become desensitized to insulin. This is the tissues' way of saying "Stop! My energy stores are already full! I can't handle any more glucose or fat!".

Some people are able to maintain normal insulin levels (and sensitivity) in the face of a high-carbohydrate diet. This is probably partly genetic and partly environmental. Certain people, for whatever reason, have fat tissue that is prone to fat accumulation. It could be because they oversecrete insulin, or because their fat tissue is sensitive to the action of insulin, but probably both. It likely has to do with a combination of insulin resistance in non-fat tissue, and insulin sensitivity in fat tissue. Inactivity and fructose consumption (from corn syrup or sucrose) are also high on the list of suspects.

Fat tissue is typically the last to become insulin resistant because it acts as a valuable buffer to remove excess (and potentially toxic) glucose from the bloodstream. Unfortunately, simply being thin is not a reliable indicator that your body tolerates carbohydrate well. It can indicate either that all tissues are insulin-sensitive and insulin levels are low, or all tissues (including fat) are insulin resistant and insulin levels are high. The latter scenario leads to type II diabetes, pronto.

Since fat accumulation revolves around carbohydrate intake and insulin production, it makes sense that reducing carbohydrate causes weight loss. No more carbohydrate = a lot less glucose, and a lot less insulin to deal with it. This completely sidesteps the problem of insulin resistance, although that seems to respond favorably to carbohydrate restriction as well. Every time true low-carbohydrate diets are matched head-to-head with reduced-calorie, carbohydrate-rich diets, subjects lose more weight and have fewer problems with hunger on the low-carbohydrate diet. I discussed a recent study here.

The idea that you can achieve and maintain a healthy weight without cutting calories sounds too good to be true. In fact, all it represents is a return to our natural pattern of eating as human beings. It may involve breaking an addiction to carbohydrate. True hunter-gatherers eat between 0 and 35% of their calories as carbohydrate, and no refined carbohydrate [correction: a number of hunter-gatherer groups ate more than 35% carbohydrate, typically from starchy tubers]. In industrial nations, we eat approximately 50% of our calories as carbohydrate. Hunter-gatherers also exercise regularly, and don't eat Frosted Sugar Bombs for breakfast. This helps maintain good insulin sensitivity. Since we are genetically very similar to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we would be wise to learn from their example.