A few weeks back I destroyed the false and ridiculous ideas of our naturally produced hormone insulin damaging the brain and causing obesity in my article “Obesity Has Nothing To Do With Insulin Or The Brain. Obesity Is The Result Of A Bad Lifestyle.”
Today we will look at another study involving the brain and insulin covered by the medical and pharmaceutical shills at Medscape. Let’s see what they concluded and what may be somewhat truthful and what is complete lies and disinformation.
TOPLINE:
“A 5-day high-caloric diet triggered liver fat accumulation and disrupted brain insulin action in men with a healthy body weight, with effects persisting even after resuming a normal diet. Researchers postulated that brain insulin responsiveness may adapt to dietary changes before weight gain, potentially facilitating the development of obesity.”
Again, words and phrasing matters. You need to be specific and truthful instead of throwing around generic and meaningless words such as “high-caloric diet.”
Calories do not exist within biology and physiology as we are not burning anything to produce heat, that would be retarded, and even if you would have called it “high-energy,” it would still be misleading. The correct description would be a “processed food diet” high in plant-based ingredients such as carbohydrates, seed oils, and toxins. This is crucial, as it is the carbohydrates that turn into glucose and poses an immediate threat to our survival, hence the release of insulin to quickly try and mitigate the unnaturally increased blood glucose levels and all the damage it will cause. This is especially true in combination with any kind of seed/vegetable oils, as in unsaturated fats from plants, which are extremely toxic and cause a lot of damage, especially to our cardiovascular system and all organs, including the brain.
As for the brain’s “insulin responsiveness” adapting to dietary changes, that is a theory, and it might hold some truth, but I highly doubt it’s the whole picture.
One could argue that humans in the past ate some fruit and berries in the late summer and early autumn to “fatten up” before winter, and that this “adaptation” helped to put on body fat more efficiently so we could survive a scarce winter better — as seen with some animals, such as bears, that are omnivores.
However, before humans invented the evil and highly toxic grain, there were almost no sources of carbohydrates or simple “food items” that you could use during the winter. So, before agriculture, people simply lived where there were plenty of animals around and not in harsh climates or where there would snow a lot during the winter. Also, fruits and even berries were much smaller, had much less carbohydrates than anything found today which has been cultivated and genetically modified. Only a few hundred years ago, any typical fruit would only yield 10 grams of carbohydrates as most, and they would taste quite horrible so you would not eat much of them in one sitting. Today’s snacks contain triple that amount in a serving and a typical plant-based processed meal could easily contain 100 to 150 grams of carbohydrates. That’s totally insane. Also, these few edibles found in nature were only available seasonally. And this is why humans are obligate hyper carnivores, which has been proved over and over again throughout history. I’ve covered this many times and especially in my articles “Ancestral Health Principles Twisted Beyond Recognition,” and “The Sattvic Diet — A Deadly Modern Vegan Construct With No Historical Basis.”
So, while there might be some adaptations in the brain regarding insulin, the alterations could just as likely, or more so, be from damage caused to these cells from the onslaught of glucose, toxic unsaturated fats, and all the defense chemicals, antinutrients, heavy metals, pesticide residues, and man-made chemicals present in these processed foods. All modern plant-based foods today contain extreme amounts of carbohydrates and chemicals compared to anything you could ever find in nature and try to eat — and that is what our body’s defenses are built for, as in the occasional toxic plant based edible found untouched in nature, and not a man-made toxic cocktail of hundreds of grams of carbohydrates and a handful of chemicals.
And this is why people today are so ridden with “ailments” and “diseases,” why they are so stressed and tired, and why we only live to be around 80 years old, when our bodies actually are built to go on for at least 120 to 150 years.
Most humans no longer follow our natural species-appropriate and species-specific carnivorous diet, and those people pay a very high price for neglecting our physiology and the perfection of nature.
METHODOLOGY:
- “In healthy individuals, insulin signaling in the brain controls appetite and food intake, but in insulin-resistant states, this regulation is impaired, leading to increased visceral fat, poor metabolism, and greater fat regain after lifestyle changes.
- Researchers examined the effect of a 5-day high-caloric dietary intervention that incorporated widely available calorie-rich, ultraprocessed snacks alongside a regular diet on brain insulin action, body fat composition, and peripheral insulin sensitivity.
- They enrolled 29 male volunteers aged 19-27 years with a body mass index of 19-25 and assigned 18 participants to a high-caloric diet group and 11 participants to a control group receiving a regular diet.
- Participants in the high-caloric diet group consumed an additional 1500 kcal/d for 5 consecutive days before the first follow-up visit and then returned to their normal diet for 7 days prior to the second follow-up visit.
- Brain-specific effects of insulin action and fat content in the liver were assessed using MRI.”
Insulin resistance is a man-made construct, in reality cells become damaged over time by exposure to repeated unnatural elevations of blood glucose from carbohydrates, and as they become more and more compromised, they can not store as much glucose as glycogen and eventually they shut down or the cell would die. The more cells that can’t store glucose, the longer it will take for blood glucose to come down to normal and safe levels. That is not “insulin resistance” or “adaptation,” that is survival due to accumulated damage. The retarded practice of administering more insulin to force the cells to store more than they are capable of will only cause more damage. Instead, remove the offender, as in the carbohydrates, and the body will eventually heal and restore its metabolic functions. I covered this in many articles.
TAKEAWAY:
- “Liver fat content significantly increased at the first follow-up visit in the high-caloric diet group (P = .005); however, no such effects were observed in the regular diet group. Body weight, peripheral insulin sensitivity, or inflammatory markers were not different between the groups.”
The liver will take damage from elevated blood glucose, from fructose, and especially if combined with seed/vegetable oils. And liver fat increases as a storage for toxic glucose and fructose, and can also be a protective mechanism that provides fuel and components needed for the detoxification and healing processes of the liver. If liver fat increases, it is an indicator of the liver taking damage and that your body is trying to heal it. Liver fat is not bad in itself as it is a survival mechanism, it is what is causing the damage that is bad. I covered this in my articles “Reducing Carbohydrates Will Decrease Liver Fat” and “Or Keep Your Liver Healthy By Removing The Worst Offenders.”
- “Participants in the high-caloric vs regular diet group showed significantly higher insulin activity in the right insular cortex, left rolandic operculum, and right midbrain/pons regions during the first follow-up visit (whole-brain corrected P < .05).”
Of course, more toxic glucose in the blood wreaking havoc on all soft tissues and organs will of course force the body to produce and release more insulin to try and limit the damage and keep the glucose from killing you. Hence, a lot more “insulin activity” in the areas that regulate insulin production and release. That is simply common sense.
- “After 1 week of resuming a regular diet, the high-caloric diet group demonstrated significantly lower brain insulin activity in the right hippocampus and bilateral fusiform gyrus than the regular diet group (whole-brain corrected P < .05); the reduced insulin responsiveness in the fusiform gyrus was linked to reported changes in carbohydrate intake, and changes in hippocampal insulin responsiveness correlated with variations in fat and saturated fatty acid intake.”
And this could be from adaptation, damage, or both.
- “Compared with participants in the control group, those in the high-caloric diet group showed reduced reward sensitivity (Pboot < .001) and increased punishment sensitivity (Pboot = .002) after just 5 days of consuming calorie-rich, ultraprocessed snacks.”
Not really relevant as this is theoretical, a part of the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST.)
What really drives us to consume food, even if it’s not species-appropriate, is nutrient deficiencies as our bodies desperately try to get you to eat anything that might provide what is lacking, and that is the real reason behind hunger pangs and cravings, as well as snacking and consuming foods that we know are not really good for us — simply because our survival instinct, as in fixing those nutrient deficiencies, are stronger than our common sense.
However, if you actually eat according to our species, as in consuming animal-based foods, you will be fully nourished and your body will never have to force you to eat. You will never have hunger pangs or cravings.
IN PRACTICE:
“We show that short-term overeating with commonly used ultra-processed high-caloric snacks can trigger liver fat accumulation and short-term disrupted brain insulin action that outlast the timeframe of the HCD [high-caloric diet] in men, the study authors wrote.”
Well, we already know that consuming processed food, as in food that contains a lot of carbohydrates and seed/vegetable oils will damage the liver and thus increase liver fat to mitigate the damage and assist in healing. That is common knowledge and common sense.
As for a short-term disrupted brain insulin action — and no matter the mechanics behind this brain alteration — the important takeaway is that only a few days of consuming a lot of highly toxic plant-based and processed food, as in a lot of carbohydrates/sugars and some seed oils will alter the chemistry and functionality of the brain, altering insulin production and release, as well as damage your organs. All this contributes to the likelihood of gaining fat weight even when consuming less food, likely due to a protective mechanism of storing toxins in fat cells, initiated by this binge of toxic crap.
This is simply yet a testament to the incredibly toxicity and damage of processed foods and why you should never touch them. It also shows that damage and perhaps “adaptations” can take place quickly when overeating and consuming high carbohydrate foods. This is likely why so many people develop eating disorders and have extreme weight-rebounds after idiotic “calorie-restricted” diets that allow for cheat days or even cheat weekends (where they tend to overeat and binge on all the crap they felt deprived off during the diet.)
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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