HOW WE GET FAT
Obesity, the accumulation of excess fat on the body, is
usually thought to be caused by too many calories. The flow of fat is composed
of the fat you eat, the fat released from storage in your fat cells, and the fat
you make from excess protein and carbohydrate.
The body can make fat from carbohydrate and plenty of it.
That’s why eating fat-free foods that rapidly turn to sugar in the body
won’t contribute to weight loss.
New science indicates that too much insulin has more to do
with obesity. Too much sugar and
high carb, high glycemic foods cause the body to produce too much insulin.
The two hormones, insulin and glycogen do a dance.
When you eat, your body breaks down food into basics,
protein, carbs and fat, and absorbs them into the bloodstream, causing a rise in
blood sugar. This signals the
pancreas to make and release insulin that attaches to sensors in the tissues,
enabling the sugar to come out of the blood and move into the cells, where it
can be either burned for energy or stored as fat in the fat cells or as glycogen
in the muscles.
If we produce too much insulin from a meal, the body takes
the food energy, a fat triglyceride, to a regular cell, and its receptors say
“sorry, I’m too full.” It
takes carnitine to take bring the fat into the cell.
Insulin inhibits the fat-carnitine process. So the insulin then takes the
food energy to a fat “storage” cell to wait until a muscle or other tissue
can use it.
Because it’s crucial to get the sugar out of the blood
and into the cells, the pancreas will compensate by making much more insulin to
force the sluggish sensors to respond. A
vicious cycle begins requiring ever more insulin to keep the system going.
Some people become so resistant to insulin that the amount necessary to
make the sensors respond and clear the sugar from the blood is more than their
pancreas can make, which results in diabetes.
Excess insulin results in the kidneys retaining salt and
fluid, the liver is stimulated to produce more cholesterol, triglycerides
increase, and the muscular portion of the artery walls thickens increasing the
risk for high blood pressure…and it sends a strong message to the fat cells to
store incoming sugar and fat.
Our cells make cholesterol – 70-80% of it.
Only 20-30% comes from diet. All
cells have the capacity to make cholesterol, but most is made in the liver,
intestines and skin.
Excess food increases blood sugar, which increases insulin,
and the excess insulin acts as a growth hormone for creating excess cholesterol.
This excess insulin encourages the
growth of smooth muscle cells in the linings of our arteries so that the cells
thicken the walls and make them less elastic so plaque develops and heart
disease is possible.
Glycogen is the storage form of glucose in the muscles. It
stimulates the breakdown and disappearance of the smooth muscle overgrowth in
the arteries. It accelerates
the fat-carnitine process, rapidly moving the fat into the cell to use for
energy. Glycogen stimulates the body
to get rid of fat by burning it for energy.
The body doesn’t need cholesterol to rid itself of cells, so glycogen
shut down the production of cholesterol and sends it out of the circulation. It
signals the kidneys to release excess salt and fluid, the liver to produce less
cholesterol and triglycerides, and the artery wall to relax and drop blood
pressure, and finally to the fat cells, to release stored fat to be burned for
energy. The metabolism heals and the
cell receptors regain their sensitivity. When
the healing occurs, the insulin resistance is improved or disappears.
Cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure return to normal, blood
sugar stabilizes, and you can lose stored body fat.
One of these pathways usually is predominant.
Either you burn fat for energy, or you store it.
Altering the ratio of insulin to glycogen can be done
through our selection of food. We
can then control our biochemistry, not have it control us.
The fat cells have two enzymes, both regulated by insulin
and glycogen. One, called lipoprotein
lipase takes the fat into the fat cell and keeps it there.
This enzyme also stimulates the rapid regain of lost
weight.
This enzyme is very sensitive for eight months to a year after weight is
released.
Then it finally
normalizes. It’s as though the fat
cells expect to be filled again causing this enzyme to call out to the body,
FEED ME. FEED ME. This is the
most crucial part of the healing of your system.
You must hang in there and wait it out by eating low-glycemic foods.
This enzyme increases
tremendously immediately after weight loss. The
very act of losing weight strengthens and makes more potent the enzyme that is
largely responsible for the overweight state to begin with. Insulin further
activates the lipoprotein lipase which is what causes so many to regain
their weight.
The second enzyme, hormone-sensitive lipase releases the fat from the fat cells into the blood.
This is stimulated by glycogen. By
keeping insulin levels low, and keeping the glycogen elevated, we can remove the
stimulation of the lipoprotein lipase enzyme.
Olive oil, almond, safflower, sunflower, walnut and light
sesame oils should be used to increase the Linoleic acid that helps promote
the increase of glycogen. Avoid partially hydrogenated fats.
Add EPA (fish oil) to the diet.
Cholesterol:
It’s essential for life.
It isn’t a fat. It’s a
pearly-colored, waxy, solid alcohol that is soapy to the touch.
It is located in every cell of your body, where its consistency provides
the cell membranes with their structural integrity and regulates the flow of
nutrients into and waste products out of the cells.
It is the building block from which your body makes adrenal hormones and
sex hormones. It is the main
component of bile acids to digest fatty foods.
It’s necessary for normal growth and development of the brain and
nervous system. It coats the nerves
and makes the transmission of nerve impulses possible.
Cholesterol gives skin its ability to shed water and is a precursor of
vitamin D in the skin. It’s
important for normal growth and repair of tissues since every cell membrane are
rich in cholesterol. It moves blood
fats (triglycerides) throughout the circulatory system. CLA is an
important oil from saturated fats that is essential for good health.
Eighty percent of cholesterol is produced in the body
itself. And every cell in the body
is cable of making its own cholesterol. However,
the liver, intestines and skin is the largest producer.
When the diet is rich in cholesterol, the liver produces less.
The body requires a steady supply of cholesterol to build and repair cell
membranes and carry out other tasks. The
cell either extracts cholesterol from the blood or makes its own, or both.
The key to lowering elevated cholesterol levels is not in
the restriction of dietary cholesterol or fat, but in getting the cells to
manufacture cholesterol. Cholesterol
levels are regulated only inside the cell.
There is no signal for the body to lower cholesterol levels
in the blood when they get too high. It
is the interior of the cell where the cholesterol sensors are located.
When cholesterol levels fall, the sensors are triggered to fire off
messages to increase the supply…either make it or get more from the blood.
Cholesterol problems are caused by having too many cholesterol plaques in
the blood. But the cells don’t
know it. High levels of insulin
continuously stimulate production of cholesterol, leading to an abundance in the
cells. Glycogen slows down the
production of cholesterol within the cell so the supply inside begins to run
low.
Since LDL is the biggest
problem in the development of
coronary artery disease, the secret of cholesterol control is in knowing how
your body deals with LDL so you can influence the cells to remove as much LDL
from the blood as possible.
The
cells get the cholesterol from the blood by sending structures called LDL
receptors the surface of the cell to grab the cholesterol-filled LDL particles
and pull them into the interior of the cell, where the cholesterol is removed
and used for cellular functions. Then
the receptors head back to the surface of the cell where they grab another one.
The cell sends its LDL receptors to the surface of the cell to bring the LDL
cholesterol from the bloodstream, resulting in less cholesterol in the blood and
bringing it into the cell where it can be used.
The more LDL receptors we have scavenging cholesterol from the blood and
hauling it into the cells, the better off we are.
HDL scavenges cholesterol from the tissues, including the
linings of the coronary arteries and carries it through the blood and hands it
off to VLDL particles circulating in the bloodstream, ultimately converting it
to LDL. LDL carries cholesterol
toward the tissues for deposition. HDL
gathers it from these tissues and carts it back the other way to the cells of
the liver where it is disposed of.
SIMPLY PUT
If you are overweight and have been for awhile, when you
eat foods that are high in sugar or quickly turn into sugar (all bakery goods
with white flour, crackers, cookies, cakes, Danish, cinnamon rolls, éclairs,
popcorn, pasta, pizza, white rice, and high caffeine drinks, all candy), your body
makes too much insulin and leptin.
This
triggers the storage of excess fat and the potential accumulation of plaque in
your arteries because insulin triggers the liver to make more cholesterol so
that the cells don’t accept the beneficial cholesterol needed, and it stays in
the bloodstream instead.
Only by glycogen signaling the liver to slow its
cholesterol production will the cells start to accept cholesterol from the
bloodstream to repair and maintain their structure.
Glycogen removes the fat from storage and burns it for energy.
When you don’t eat sugar foods, glycogen removes fat.
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Reference:
Protein Power by Michael R. Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, M.D.
I highly recommend the
reading of this book.
