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Fasten your seat belt for this podcast! I’ve been shocked to learn, as I suspect you will be too, that carbohydrates do not elevate blood sugar!!! I will repeat while you catch your breath: carbohydrates do not elevate blood sugar!!! And I am further shocked to learn limiting carbs has multiple downsides - from contributing to poor sleep, poor energy, poor exercise tolerance to brain fog! Brain fog YES, when translated is decreased cognitive function!!! I learned this in an interview with Georgi Dinkov. His work is extensively available on YouTube and in podcasts if you wish for more details. Actually, I am relieved to report this is good medical science! Clinical studies backing these seemingly outlandish statements provide an understanding that can prevent and reverse diabetes. So let’s dive in… We burn two fuels for all our energy needs. We burn glucose and we burn fats. Both glucose and fats are metabolized, that is, broken down to the same molecule, Acetyl-CoA. The name of this molecule is not important. It is, however, important to understand that both glucose and fats can only burn in mitochondria after they are converted to this molecule. Mitochondria are the ‘furnaces’ if you will, that burn efficiently with oxygen inside most cells. In mitochondria, Acetyl-CoA is transformed, transforming glucose and fats into energy, known as molecular or ATP energy. The ratio of dietary fats to carbohydrates in our diet is crucial. If our dietary fat-to-carb ratio is high, we primarily burn fat in mitochondria with oxygen and glucose anaerobically, without oxygen. Anaerobic metabolism of glucose, also known as glycolysis, is inefficient and inflammatory. Two molecules of glucose yield only 2 ATP energy molecules via glycolysis, whereas they yield 34 ATP molecules aerobically in mitochondria. Further, when glucose is metabolized in mitochondria, very few free radicals are formed. In contrast, glucose burned anaerobically, via glycolysis, is a major generator of free radicals of inflammation throughout the body. Glycolysis is not the only effect of a high-fat-to-carb dietary ratio. Glucose builds up in cells when there is a high-fat-to-carb diet. This buildup prevents more glucose from entering cells. Therefore, blood sugar rises. Then insulin rises in an attempt to drive glucose into cells, albeit ineffectively. Cells already have too much glucose. HgA1c also rises. A rise in HgA1c indicates there is insufficient aerobic burning of glucose. A rise in HgA1c is an indicator, not a cause! Pharmaceuticals to reduce HgA1c actually increase all-cause mortality! A diet with a high fat-to-carb ratio explains the high glucose we see in diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and often with heart attacks and strokes. In others, low-carb intake results in low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. When there is low blood sugar, a hormone, cortisol, comes to the rescue to increase blood sugar. Raising low blood sugar is absolutely necessary since glucose is the essential fuel for the brain. However, the price we pay for cortisol is very high. Cortisol increases blood sugar by shredding muscles and brain tissue. It converts amino acids from muscles and brain into glucose. Further, high cortisol interferes with our sleep and decreases our cognitive function, energy, and exercise tolerance. Cortisol is the primary driver of aging, and high levels are implicated in every chronic disease. Moreover, unlike other hormones, it does not decrease with age. So we need enough carbs to avoid elevations in cortisol and must avoid too many fats that prevent carbs from burning in mitochondria. Let’s get practical. Let’s use our IC diet as our baseline. Our IC diet is the Inflammation and Insulin Control Diet...
