Robb Wolf: On Fruit

Fruity? 

Notice that I did not mention fruit. Most folks are battling some kind of metabolic derangement, aka obesity, diabetes, fertility issues, depression, etc. This with a mixed bag of autoimmunity and systemic inflammation. Until you are lean and healthy, you don’t get much fruit. There is no nutrient in fruit that is not available in veggies, and fruit may have too many carbs for you. When we start talking about what constitutes “health,” we will see where on that spectrum you are. For now, just keep things simple and you will reap the greatest rewards.  

~ Robb Wolf, p. 214 The Paleo Solution

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Quotations: Lustig on Fructose and Glucose in Nature

Glucose

Despite its absolute necessity for life (see chapter 10), dietary glucose isn’t perfect. When it exists in nature without fructose, it’s called “starch,” and it truly does supply “empty calories,” energy for either storage or burning.

Fructose

Fructose is never found alone in nature. Rather, it is always partnered with its more benign sister molecule, glucose.

Robert Lustig,   Fat Chance

p.154, 156

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Robb Wolf: On the Role of Calories vs. Carbs/Insulin

... but it was my new-found energy and activity level that drove my leanness, not an inability to store fat in the absence of significant insulin. I think this is one of the most damaging messages that comes out of the LC camp to this day, I was duped by this, so I’m not going to do what a lot of other recovered LC writers do and make folks out to be idiots for still believing this…but, it is time to face facts. In every damn study it is clear that for fat loss we’d like adequate protein, and a calorie restriction scenario.

Robb Wolf, Dec. 2012

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Mark Sisson: It's All About the Insulin

If you’ve forgotten everything you ever learned in biology, just remember this and own it: carbohydrate controls insulin; insulin controls fat storage. 

It's All About Insulin (Well, at Least 80 Percent of It): Eighty percent of your ability to achieve body composition goals is determined by your diet—essentially, your ability to moderate insulin production so you can access and burn stored body fat for energy, while preserving or building muscle. Insulin is an important hormone that transports nutrients into cells for storage. When the delicate insulin balance is abused by habitually consuming too many carbs, cells become insulin resistant; more fat is stored and it becomes increasingly difficult to burn. This sets the stage for the development of serious conditions like Metabolic Syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Synthesis of testosterone and human growth hormone are hindered by excessive insulin production, creating an artificially accelerated aging process. There are also serious immediate drawbacks to consuming high-carb snacks or meals. The sugar high-insulin release-stress response cycle causes problems with fatigue, mental focus, mood swings, and jitters, resulting in the familiar condition of burnout. The regulation of insulin production is perhaps the most important takeaway message of the Primal Blueprint for preventing obesity and many modern health problems.

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Robb Wolf: On Palmitic Acid, Carbs, LDL and CVD

Palmitic acid is 16 carbons long, fully saturated, and commonly found in palm oil and animal products, including beef, eggs, milk, poultry, and seafood.  Palmitic acid has long been implicated in CVD, as it tends to raise LDL cholesterol.  Among the saturated fats, it would appear palmitic acid does pose the greatest likelihood of increasing LDL cholesterol.  However, palmitic acid has also recently been shown to be vital both to forming new memories and accessing long-held memories.  As we shall see when we investigate how our diet has changed, a Paleo diet supplies an adequate amount of palmitic acid for optimum cognitive function while limiting the intake to levels that are not harmful to the cardiovascular system.  It is also important to note that excessive carbohydrate intake leads to palmitic acid production.  If you recall from the insulin chapter, when liver glycogen is full, additional carbohydrate is converted to palmitic acid.  This process appears to blunt our sensitivity to leptin, which then inhibits our satiety to a normal meal.  This is the beginning of insulin resistance and is at the heart of the mechanism of how we cease to respond to food by feeling "full."

From The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf 2010, p. 108.

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New On the Record Series

In recent discussions here, it's become clear that there is a lot of confusion regarding where "Guru X" stands regarding "Topic Y".  This is somewhat more confused by the fact that many of the movers and shakers in the community have tweaked, refined and sometimes outright done a 180 on various topics through the years.  This series is not to present "gotcha" moments, but rather to collect in one place where various voices stand on issues, and what they've said in print (books, articles, blogs) or otherwise (podcasts, interviews, videos, etc.).  So I'll use the label "On the Record" for all of these posts.  This way I can use the same widget I used for all of my posts chronologically to create a page of OtR posts.  Since this is The Carb-Sane Asylum, the focus will be on the role of carbohydrates in various issues.    

My hope is that this can be a resource newbies to the community can be directed for accurate information on where various people stand, and/or where positions have changed.  As always comments will be encouraged and appreciated, so that we can get it right! 

I'll probably bugger off my critics as well by creating a separate page just for my buddy Gary Taubes, who knows, maybe even my bestie Jimmy.  :-)