Obesity Causation v 2.0

Over the last few decades there’s been a lot of competing theories as to the root cause of obesity. The most common one promoted by the mainstream medical establishment is the simplistic notion of excess calories. Basically, it’s the claim that: Weight gain / loss = calories in – calories out. Of course, calorie restriction diets never work because they are simply not sustainable. In most cases they are just yo-yo diets that ultimately lead to even more weight gain over the long term. Many people have concluded that the calorie theory of weight gain is complete garbage science. To add my own $0.02 to it, in my recent blog post on Niacin I discussed that even though I consumed a huge amount of extra calories, and for nine consecutive months, I didn’t gain a single pound. So, yes, the calories in minus calories out theory is rubbish.

Then there are a bunch of other prevailing theories such as: “it’s low quality carbs”, “it’s mutant wheat”,” it’s the x, y or z fats”, ”it’s the x/y/z fat ratios”, “it’s fructose”, “it’s sedentary lifestyles”, etc, etc. I’m not going to discuss any of those. Although there may be some amount of truth to those theories, I think they are mostly not at all the root cause. However, there is another somewhat popular theory that the increased consumption of seed oils is at the root cause of the obesity epidemic. I do think that theory is indeed quite correct, but it’s not for the reason most people think it is. More on that topic later.

Ozempic – an outrageous scam

Naturally, with the mainstream dietary advice and strategies having colossally failed us the pharmaceutical industry has come up with creative “medicines” for the condition. These so-called novel “medicines” appear to somewhat “work” and are reaping massive blockbuster profits for the industry. However, they are neither novel nor are they “medicines”. They are simply old and well-known poisons disguised as “novel medicines”. You can read more about my take on Ozempic et al in this blog post. After reading that article someone would have to be completely insane to consider taking these highly toxic, and potentially lethal, drugs.

The vitamin A obesity causation theory

Then about ten years ago, and almost out of nowhere, I came up with my own admittedly crazy sounding theory that chronic vitamin A toxicity is causing weight gain and obesity. But it’s not just a theory anymore because many people have eye witnessed a low vA diet yielding significant and sustained weight loss. When something happens in nature then it’s simply a scientific fact. The only theoretical aspect to it is the how and why: understanding the underlying mechanism and reason for it happening.

Back in 2018 I wrote this blog post adding to my vitamin A based theory of Obesity Causation. That blog post was a follow-up to the Obesity chapter in my eBook. Both those two sources of information are still relevant and are probably still worthwhile reading. Here’s a summary of the first part of the story.

Like with so many other people, throughout my adult life I was gaining a few pounds with each additional year. Although I thought I was following a healthy diet and exercising regularly, the yearly weight gain was just inevitable, and it was mostly out of my control to do much about it. After about 25 years of progressive weight gain, I ended up being about 50 pounds overweight. I say about 50 pounds because I don’t know for sure how much exactly because once I had crossed over the 200 lbs line, I simply stopped weighing myself. But a realistic guess is that I probably maxed out at about 205 or 210 lbs.

Of course, fifty pounds of extra weight on my small frame was not too pleasant looking. But I just resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to be able to lose that extra weight. Just accepting my situation was partly due to seeing that so many other men at my age were in much the same condition. Secondly it was due to my recognition that almost nobody was able to lose weight and keep it off for an extended period. I also knew that going on some extreme low-calorie diet was never sustainable in the long term. There was a lot of press around the yo-yo diets causing many people to just gain even more weight in the long term as well. So, it appeared that the forces of time and nature were just too powerful and there was no point in fighting against them. Additionally, although I didn’t like the shape I was in, I wasn’t especially bothered by it either. I’m not a particularly vain person.

Then after being on my low vA diet for a few years, in addition to reversing a bunch of more serious health conditions, something quite amazing and completely unexpected happened. I lost that extra weight. I had dropped about 50 pounds and was back down to about 160 lbs. Here’s the thing, I didn’t at all try to make that happen. I didn’t even think that was even a possibility. I hadn’t increased my level of exercise, and more importantly I was still consuming a huge number of daily calories. It was just effortless weight loss. Most importantly, I have just as effortlessly maintained that weight loss for the last eight years now. The other very important bit of information is that other men that I know, and of my vintage, on a low vA diet have experienced the same phenomenon. Effortless weight loss, and they too have maintained that weight loss for 5+ years now. But here’s the kicker, we accomplished that significant and long-term weight loss on a high carbohydrate diet that included a lot of white rice.

So, the question was why had we lost this weight? Obviously, it was related to our low vA consumption, but how and why? I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that it took me many hours to see the obvious. It was partly due to the well documented functional action of vitamin A driving up stem cell proliferation. In my eBooks I had too narrowly focused on vitamin A driving up, the so-called “regulation” of, stem cell proliferation within the epithelial and endothelial tissues. The epiphany for me was like: “Oh I see now, the adipose tissues contain stem cells as well, and vitamin A overload is going to have a similar effect on them.” This was the focus of my 2018 Obesity Causation blog post. And, not surprising, there is indeed research collaborating and supporting this theory. Okay, good, the obesity causation case has been cracked, and now we know, right? Well, no, not entirely. The last paragraph from my 2018 blog post was:

Nonetheless, I don’t want to put the entire blame for obesity on vitamin A either. Like with so many other aspects of the autoimmune diseases and the psychiatric disorders, there is no single cause. The root-causes and mechanisms are more complicated and multi-factored. For example, let’s consider the combined effects of retinoic acid and sugar. As that retinoic acid drives up the rate of adipose genesis, those new cells will in turn demand more energy. That then drives up the appetite and the craving for sugar or other sources of glucose. It’s all very subtly and yet directly interconnected. I’m also quite sure that there are vitamin A free diets that could still induce the obesity effect if regularly over-consumed. But at least you now know the identity of one of the most significant hidden factors. It’s a poison “vitamin” that’s making many of us fat and sick.

So, back then I knew that my vitamin A explanation was in no way complete. Naturally, there’s more to the story, and isn’t there always? If it was just vitamin A overload causing obesity, then almost everyone taking on a low vA diet (and who’s overweight) should experience the same weight loss effect. Although that’s indeed happened for some people, there are others who have reported the opposite, and have gained weight. So, how do we explain it and what’s really going on here?

The Insulin resistance obesity causation theory

There’s now another hugely popular competing theory that weight gain and obesity are being caused by chronic Insulin Resistance. There’s absolutely no doubt that this theory is correct as well. The reason there’s no doubt about it is because when people bring down their insulin levels then weight loss is pretty much always the response. Once again, when something happens in nature then it’s simply a scientific fact. And there’s not much of a theoretical aspect to this theory either since the mechanism and reason for it happening are quite well understood.

A few years after I had written my 2018 Obesity Causation blog post I came across a few YT videos by Prof. Tim Noakes:

‘It’s The Insulin Resistance, Stupid!’ (Part One)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJf8e2E5TsM

I knew I was completely new to the health space, but geez, he didn’t have to be so snarky about it. Anyway, Prof. Noakes’ key claim is that it’s the insulin resistance causing metabolic disease and the obesity crisis. Back then I didn’t know what to make of that claim. I knew it was obviously an important topic, and it was somehow related. Except all that I knew about insulin at the time was that it is the key hormone that regulates glucose uptake into the cell. It’s the hormone that’s either not present in causing Type 1 diabetes and doesn’t work well enough in Type 2 diabetes. Also, there’s no question that Type 2 diabetes is closely linked to obesity. Conversely, there’s no question that the lack of insulin causes wasting experienced in Type 1 diabetes. So, yes, clearly insulin is somehow directly linked to regulating fat gain / loss, and more. In my 2020 Diabetes – the pandemic of the 21st century blog post I wrote about how vitamin A was one of the primary drivers of the diabetes epidemic. So, there’s absolutely a close interconnection between vitamin A, diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance.

Prof. Noakes’ two videos are very well done and are very much worth watching. Tim Noakes is one of the good guys in the health space. A bit surprisingly, in his video he comments that one of the early researcher’s was well on his way to winning a Nobel Prize for this work on insulin resistance but stopped short. My silent response to that statement was like: “wow, Prof. Noakes doesn’t understand how completely corrupt and rigged the system is; nobody is going to win a Nobel Prize in the health sciences unless it benefits the pharmaceutical industry.”

Anyway, now four years later I’ve finally found the time to look more closely into the topic of insulin and insulin resistance. How could I not come back to it? Insulin Resistance is now like a mainstream topic, and so many people in the on-line health space, and particularly in the Keto and Carnivore diet communities, are talking about it. Similarly to the prior messages from Prof. Noakes regarding Insulin resistance, there’s a huge amount of excellent information being provided online from Prof. Ben Bikman at BYU. I must say that Prof. Ben Bikman is exceptional in multiple ways. One is that he had clearly decided to take his important message directly to the general public. This strategy very much resonated with my thinking. Soon after sharing my eBooks back in 2015 I had a few academic types contact me asking if I would collaborate in writing a hypothesis paper and trying to get it published. I was also contacted by a well-known author in the health space with a similar request. I turned down these offers because I saw how futile, and almost (but not entirely) useless it was to publish a paper. Maybe I’m too cynical, but I had quickly concluded that the system is rigged, and nothing meaningful is ever going to come from publishing a paper via the regular channels. Rather, I too felt the message needed to get out to people directly to have any hope of it gaining traction.

The other aspect of Prof. Ben Bikman’s work that I find exceptional is that his information is super well thought out, very well organised and logical. I find his presentation style to be just excellent and a pleasure to listen to. His students are very lucky indeed. I highly recommend watching his videos. As with Tim Noakes, Prof. Ben Bikman is also clearly one of the good guys in the health space. (Oh, yes, there are many unscrupulous and bad actors in this space.)

If I could summarise Prof. Ben Bikman’s message down to a few statements, it would be that Insulin resistance is at the root cause of the metabolic disease crises. And, that insulin resistance is also the primary factor driving obesity. So, Prof. Ben Bikman’s message is very much in alignment with that of Prof. Noakes. However, Prof. Ben Bikman presents a lot more detail on the how and why of it. Describing the all-important functional mechanisms.

If I understand it correctly, insulin is the key hormone regulating fat storage and burning. It’s like this binary directional switch: if insulin is too high then fat moves into storage in the adipose tissue, whereas if insulin is too low, then fat is going to be released from the adipose cells and then it’s used for energy.

The very important next question is what causes insulin to be too high? Well, it’s insulin resistance. Here’s what’s happening, over time, in the pre-diabetes state, and in Type 2 diabetes, insulin is becoming less and less effective. For some reason it’s just not working as well as it should. In response to that condition the pancreas is releasing more and more insulin, leading to hyperinsulinemia. The downstream consequence of the hyperinsulinemia is the elevated directional storage of fat in the adipose tissue, and a bunch of other horrible long-term issues and complications.

When I saw this slide in one of Ben’s presentations blaming Insulin resistance as the root cause of the chronic diseases

I was like, hey, that looks a bit familiar. Here’s my version of it from my first eBook.

In my eBooks, and follow on blog posts, I also linked vitamin A toxicity to obesity, dementia (and especially so Alzheimer’s), diabetes, infertility, heart disease, fatty liver, cancer etc. Of course, so-called vitamin A is a well-known, and proven, fertility toxin.

So, Prof. Bikman and I are in very close alignment there. It’s also good to know that other people are thinking that most of the chronic diseases are closely interconnected and share a common root cause. But who’s correct? Is it Insulin resistance or chronic vitamin A toxicity at the root cause? Well, I think both Prof. Bikman and me are correct. These two theories are not mutually exclusive, but quite complementary. However, with total respect for Prof. Bikman, I think I’m just slightly more correct. Let’s see if we can find the interconnections as we dig a little deeper into insulin resistance.

The obvious next question we need to ask is: what’s causing the insulin resistance? Prof. Ben Bikman’s position is that it’s the prolonged elevated insulin itself that causes it. In some of his presentations he talks about being able to directly induce the insulin resistance condition in his lab by just using elevated levels of insulin. Moving along to the next logical question then: what causes prolonged elevated levels of insulin? Well, there’s no question that the prolonged and overconsumption of carbohydrates can do it. There’s also no question that insulin resistance itself will cause prolonged elevated levels of insulin too. So, there’s almost a circular dependency here. The vicious cycle looks something like this:

But there’s a middle player in the circular dependency process and that’s elevated glucose. The fundamental root cause of the problem is that glucose is remaining in circulation too long, and yet paradoxically at the same time not meeting the body’s demand for glucose.

Breaking the cycle is rather straightforward: just stop eating carbs. Unfortunately, that’s a lot easier said than done for most of the world’s population. Anyway, this Insulin resistance theory aligns almost perfectly with what we see in the real world with the usual results from adopting a carnivore style diet. One of the key aspects, and primary goals, of the carnivore diet is that it’s a very low carb diet. So much so that carbs are almost vilified. By adopting a low-carb diet insulin levels are maintained in a low state and then people can lose a remarkable amount of weight rather quickly. Okay, case closed. Simple enough, people with the means can just adopt a carnivore, or keto style diet, and the problem is solved. And, damn, it looks like I was wrong in thinking elevated vitamin A was one of the, if not the key, causal factors driving obesity. Right?

Well, maybe not so fast. Let’s go back to Prof. Ben Bikman’s position that it’s the prolonged elevated insulin that causes insulin resistance. Although that sure appears to be the case, it might not be entirely true. I’ll show a bit later that it does not align with the real-world data. Secondly, what about Prof. Bikman’s lab work showing that elevated insulin levels quickly lead to insulin resistance? Well, I have no doubt that his observations are correct. However, what he might be seeing is that cells are just reaching their threshold and have satisfied their need for insulin. Afterall, there’s no reason for most cells to just endlessly keep consuming insulin and thus glucose when it’s not needed. Therefore, it may be that the cells just temporarily appear to have become insulin resistant. By way of analogy, imagine that you are very thirsty, and you drink say three large glasses of water. And then a few minutes later someone offers you another glass of water, your reaction is likely going to be: “No thank you, I’m no longer thirsty.”

Anyway, let’s investigate the theory that long term carb consumption, and therefore elevated insulin, is at the root cause of the insulin resistance problem. First let’s revisit my 2020 blog post on diabetes and the crazy rice and sugar diet study by Walter Kempner. Kempner had his diabetic patients follow this diet for a period of up to 10 years and they had great results in reversing diabetes, obesity, and diabetic retinopathy.

Walter Kempner’s Rice and Sugar diet of 1958

• 100 consecutive patients
• Over an 11 year period
• ~ 100% carbs – yet great results – go figure??

So, 100 consecutive cases of people reversing their obesity and Type 2 diabetes by following this insanely high carbohydrate diet sounds quite impressive. But it wasn’t a resounding success either because I think a few people also died. Naturally, I think Kempner’s all rice and sugar diet is ridiculous and very dangerous. However, it significantly contradicts the current thinking on the role carbohydrates and sugar play in causing diabetes.

Next, there’s another extreme diet from about the same era that had similar great results in reversing diabetes.

Blake Donaldson’s Strong Medicine – “big fat steak” diet – 1961

• Steak 3 meals per day, 7 days per week
• Over multi year period
• ~ 100% meat – yet good results – go figure??

Blake Donaldson’s diet is the complete opposite of Kempner’s rice and sugar diet, yet it yields the same results with regards to reversing metabolic disease and diabetes. Of course, this “big fat steak” diet has had a huge resurgence in popularity today. It’s now called the “carnivore” diet. Why has the carnivore diet become so popular? Because it works, and also easily reverses type 2 diabetes.

How can we explain these two diametrically opposed diets yielding effectively the same results in reversing obesity and diabetes? The common factor is that they are both inadvertently extremely low vitamin A diets. Of course, I think the carnivore diet is vastly superior to Kempner’s rice and sugar diet. But, in a way, when you combine these two dietary intervention studies they mutually exclude macro nutrients as being a major causative factor in diabetes. So, with that we need to go one level deeper and look at molecules.

Next, let’s consider some rather massive amounts of real-world data from Asia. For thousands of years people from this region of the world have subsisted on high carbohydrate diets. With rice being the mainstay and providing most of their calories. Yet, prior to the 1960s obesity and diabetes were pretty much non-existent in these regions. This is no small dataset. We are talking about 100s of millions of people. Let’s consider Vietnam just for an example. In the 1980s I had friends from Vietnam and had met their families and parents. Even back then I was struck by how healthy and lean they all were. They also ate rice like three meals per day. You can search up photos from the 1960s from any region of Southeast Asia and see it for yourself. Here are a few example photos from Vietnam that I’ve picked at random.

Do those look like obese people to you? I think you’d be hard pressed to find many pictures of obese Vietnamese from this era. Now let’s look at the current day data. The obesity rate in Vietnam is ~2.0 % whereas in the USA it’s ~ 50%, a whopping 25 times higher. Anyway, so much for that theory that long term carb consumption is leading to insulin resistance and obesity. Obviously, there’s something else contributing to it.

Likewise for India. I spent time in India during the 1990s. The primary staple food in the diet was rice; most people usually ate it with three meals a day. Yet I saw very little obesity. However, now just a mere 30 years later that situation has significantly changed in India.

So, no, it’s not the carbs alone. However, don’t get too alarmed by that exponential growth rate of obesity in India because the incidence rate is still very low at ~4% as compared to the USA at about 50%

Seriously, how can this be possible? By comparison, people in Southeast Asia consume a high percentage of their calories from rice and other carbohydrates and yet have about 1/10th the rate of obesity as us here in North America. Clearly, there’s something not adding up here with the theory that long term carb consumption is causing insulin resistance, and subsequently obesity and diabetes. Like, it’s not at all aligning with the real-world data.

Another great example is Okinawa. Before WWII the Chinese regarded Okinawa as the land of the immortals. Okinawans were well known for their longevity and long health spans. They also had the best health of all the Japanese islands. What were the staple foods in their diet: primarily rice and fish. Once again, that completely demolishes the theory that long term carb consumption is causing insulin resistance and the follow-on obesity. Sadly, like with India, the health situation in Okinawa has now completely changed. Okinawans now have the very worst health in all of Japan. What really changed there? Well, a million things have changed over the last 70 years. But one key factor is that they’ve mostly changed out the rice for sweet potatoes. How could having just changed out one carbohydrate for another one have such a dramatic negative impact on their health? Well, one super important point is that it wasn’t just a change in the plant source of the carbohydrate. Rather it was a change in the colour of the carbohydrate. Going from a (white) carbohydrate that was extremely low in vitamin A to a (yellow orange) carbohydrate that’s very high in vitamin A.

Let’s consider one more example from the 1970ish era, and look at the carb consumption and diabetes rate difference between the USSR and America.

During this era Soviet citizens were consuming a diet that had a much higher percentage (57%) of their daily calories from carbs than were Americans (43%). Yet, the death rate (and presumably so the incidence rate) from diabetes was 10 times lower than in America. BTW, in both countries people were consuming about the same number of calories (~3500) per day.

So, I think it is pretty darn clear that carbs, and long-term carb consumption, aren’t the real villain here.

Now, I’m not at all saying that insulin resistance isn’t a key and contributing factor in causing diabetes and obesity. It clearly is. What I am saying is that carb consumption and the follow-on insulin resistance is not the ultimate root cause. Moreover, I’m taking the position that even prolonged elevated insulin is not the root cause of insulin resistance. Rather it’s that insulin resistance is another consequence of prolonged excess levels of so-called vitamin A. And that’s the fundamental root cause of it.

Let’s backup a bit and think about the phenomenon of insulin becoming less and less effective with the onset of prediabetes and diabetes. For some reason it’s just not working as well as it should. I think Prof. Ben Bikman and others would agree that carbs wouldn’t present much of a concern if we are insulin sensitive (insulin is working efficiently and effectively) AND we could maintain that insulin sensitivity over our lifetime. Meaning, the system continues to work as designed. I think we’ve all seen this well working system in teenagers where they can seemingly eat almost all they want and not gain weight. Whereas, when us older adults eat say a few slices of bread we quickly gain 5 pounds. The difference of course is that the teenager is still insulin sensitive and can quickly and correctly deal with the extra glucose without having it being converted into fat. Okay, so why is insulin becoming less and less effective as we get older (and oddly much more so here in North America, but not in Asia)? We’ll answer that question a bit later in this article.

Chronic Hunger

Another very important factor is hunger. The crazy and ironic thing is that many people are just overeating and yet perpetually hungry. This is almost paradoxical because many people are not just overeating, they are also continuously snacking too, and yet apparently never quite satisfied. How can we explain this situation? Naturally, this insatiable hunger is why almost all traditional diets fail. People require near superhuman dedication and willpower to resist.

Except, of course, it’s not true hunger because they’ve usually just stuffed themselves full of food. It’s more like a weird constant urge to eat. So, are people just confused, or have they just been tricked and emotionally conditioned to eat like this? Well, partially yes. But it’s mostly because they do indeed have a truly insatiable need for carbs, not just any food, but for carbs. Except, how can that be when they’ve just chowed down on a ton of carbs? I think we can easily explain it once we have a better understanding of the differential and anatomically regional nature of insulin resistance. This is a critical aspect of the condition to understand. I’ll fill in the details a bit further down in this article.

Direct evidence of vitamin A causing fat gain

I provided some decent evidence in my earlier 2018 blog post that vitamin A was a key causal factor in fat gain. Some of that evidence was based on studies, but one of my favourite pieces of evidence was this correlation:

Serum Retinol level and BMI in USA

Source: Serum retinol distributions in residents of the United States: third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988–19941,2 Carol Ballew, Barbara A Bowman, Anne L Sowell, and Cathleen Gillespie

And, yes, of course I know that correlation does not mean causation. However, I included other studies showing both the reduction in dietary vitamin A resulting in significant weight loss and correspondingly other studies showing that an increase in dietary vitamin A (even in the form of carotenoids) resulted in significant weight gain. Thus, meeting one of the key requirements for proving causation.

Of no surprise at all, the progression of insulin resistance follows a very similar pattern.

From:

Abstract 4181: The Age and Gender Related Patterns of Insulin Resistance in UK Indian Asians and Northern Europeans: the London Life Sciences Population (LOLIPOP) Study

Feeding corn to pigs and humans

In my eBook I mentioned the well-known process of fattening pigs by feeding them corn. I knew this even as a young kid on a farm like 55 years ago. I’m sure every hog farmer in North America and from around the world knows it too. And it’s been known for at least a century or more. But here’s the curious little detail, feeding hogs grain, say wheat or barley is only moderately effective in fattening them up. Whereas, feeding them corn is hugely more effective. This is the standard practice in the industry.

Feeding Pigs for Maximum Weight Gain

As an energy source, choose a grain mix of barley, wheat, sorghum and corn for your pig’s diet. At least half the mix should be number two yellow corn. Though low in protein, it is considered a primary energy source in pig diets. It is also one of the most economical feedstuffs available for swine production. Apr 5, 2019

https://osbornelivestockequipment.com/feeding-pigs-for-maximum-weight-gain/

Another very important point to appreciate is that this process is used on relatively young animals, usually less than three years old. So, there’s no way these animals are insulin resistant, yet corn fattens them like crazy fast. Once again, it’s not just the volume of carbohydrates being consumed, oddly it’s also the colour of the carbohydrates that makes the huge difference in inducing rapid weight gain. Of course, the yellow colour of corn is due to its high carotenoid content. One more important point to appreciate is that the physiology of pigs and humans is very similar. Here’s something else I think you might find interesting. Even back in the 1960s we (farmers) knew that if we fed the hogs too much corn it would destroy their intestines. It’s a bit nasty to think about, but the standard use of small intestines from hogs was for the “natural casings” used for making sausages. That’s right, if we fed them too much corn, the small intestines would develop holes and couldn’t be used. Once again, this was happening in young and otherwise healthy animals. Now, in addition to obesity, just what do you suppose is causing Chron’s / colitis and celiacs in humans? Here’s a photo of the back of my hand after I had substantially recovered from the shit-show of vitamin A induced eczema.

Nice holes huh? Of course, the “medical experts” remain completely baffled as to the causes of eczema, Chron’s / colitis etc. Yet somehow, they know: “food didn’t cause your disease.” Adding insult to injury, nearly all the mainstream “nutrition experts” are parroting the same mantra of: “Eat the rainbow, eat the brightly coloured fruits and vegetables.”

Now you might be thinking, I’m not eating corn, and I don’t think many overweight or obese people are eating a lot of it either. Well, maybe not directly, and not knowingly, but yes, they probably are. There’s been a huge increase in the consumption of corn and corn-based products in North America since the 1970s. And especially so for the high fructose corn syrups used in so many products. With the per capita consumption of corn products in the U.S being 36.5 lbs.

What’s on your table? How America’s diet has changed over the decades

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/12/13/whats-on-your-table-how-americas-diet-has-changed-over-the-decades/

Why is human fat yellow?

With this information about yellow corn quickly fattening hogs have you ever wondered why so much of human fat is yellow? Well, it’s because it too is stuffed full of carotenoids.

Hmm, if only nature had provided us with some visual clues as to what’s making us fat and sick. Consider this little ditty:

“As of October 1, 2023/24, consumption of corn oil in the U.S. was forecast to be about 6.13 billion pounds. Sep 11, 2024”

U.S. corn oil consumption 2023/24 | Statista

Liquid death – the yellow seed oils.

Sadly, the corn products and corn oils are just the tip of the iceberg. Corn is most certainly not the only source of carotenoids and vitamin A in our foods. What about those other seed oils? Well, there are a ton of them, and nearly all of them originally contained high amounts of beta carotene and other carotenoids. However, the refining process removes most of it to achieve a longer shelf life and a lighter yellow colour that consumers expect, etc. Except, some of the carotenoid content is still retained. What makes these seed oils especially bad is that the beta carotene is naturally pre emulsified in it. This means that the digestive absorption of it is going to be very high.

As I described in my blog post on Niacin, it’s rather mind boggling to consider that white wheat flour in Canada is no longer truly safe. That’s due to it being both contaminated with glyphosate as well as being laced with niacinamide. That’s bad enough, but the situation is made hugely worse because a lot of the commercial bread and bread products in Canada (and in the USA) include canola and or other seed oils. Thus, the real reason why we can seemingly gain 5 lbs just by eating two slices of bread. So, yes, the folks claiming that it’s the seed oils causing the obesity epidemic are indeed also correct.

Okay, much of the above discussion has been about vitamin A in the form of those “safe and effective” carotenoids. What about vitamin A in the form of retinol? In addition to all the evidence I provided in my 2018 obesity blog post and in my 2020 diabetes blog post here’s another interesting little ditty from the Japanese beef industry. What they’ve known for quite a long time is that the serum retinol levels in their cattle directly correlates to the amount of visceral fat the animals put on. Too much visceral fat harms the animals and reduces the quality of the meat.

This knowledge is very much in alignment with the correlation chart I’ve shown a few pages above for the human experience. Except, Japanese beef producers know and have proven that it’s not just a correlation, but causative. With that knowledge they carefully monitor and control (via the feed) the serum retinol levels in their cattle and thereby directly control the amount of fat the animals accumulate. Weird that no one in the medical establishment has applied this common agricultural knowledge into the human health situation. No, of course they haven’t, as doing that would be extremely bad for business.

In addition to all the above information, Garrett Smith has recently put up a YT video on the topic of diabetes causation with a ton of additional evidence.

Love Your Liver Livestream #157: DIABETES ROOT CAUSES!!!

https://www.youtube.com/live/SY030TNxx0s?si=2nM2KK0xWUtUqHTa

The Insulin resistance Connection

Okay, I’ve just provided a lot of good information, pretty much confirming that vitamin A is a key driver in causing obesity. And just so that we don’t forget the other critical detail, vitamin A is also driving up the replication rate of the adipose stem cells at the same time. But this is not just a double whammy, it’s going to help us explain that weird phenomenon of insatiable hunger.

Yet, I’ve also stated that Prof. Ben Bikman’s position on Insulin resistance is correct as well. Oh yes, it is indeed. Here’s the connection. Earlier I stated that with Type 2 diabetes, and in general metabolic disorder, for some reason insulin is just not working as well as it should, and as once used to. We need to understand exactly why that’s happening.

I think there are at least three main possibilities or options:

1. Prof. Ben Bikman’s position that cells have become overwhelmed by continuous exposure to excessive insulin and just stop accepting it.
2. The insulin molecule is not properly structured and therefore less effectively binds with the insulin receptors. Meaning that the pancreas is not producing properly structured insulin.
3. The insulin receptors, and or the GLUT4 receptors, are not properly structured and therefore bind less effectively with the available insulin and glucose.

I think I’ve shown above that option #1 is not entirely correct. In an indirect way I can quickly show that option #2 is also not correct. That’s because insulin continues to work perfectly well for some tissues, and especially so for the younger adipose cells. That leaves us with option #3, defectively structured insulin receptors (and yes, I know there are still more options).

I’ve discussed this theory quite a lot in my eBooks. I think I’ve made a very strong case for defectively structured proteins as being the very root cause of so-called “autoimmunity” and its associated inflammation response. Then in my blog post on Protein Synthesis I added a lot more to the topic. Of course, there’s no doubt that the lovely vitamin A molecule is altering proteins because one of the key functional definitions of so-called vitamin A activity is to “regulate” protein synthesis. The important point is that since vitamin A (RA) is effectively attaching to DNA and RNA, it is thereafter altering all proteins that a cell produces. And that includes the Insulin and GLUT4 receptor proteins. But they are not altered proteins, nor “regulated” proteins, rather they are damaged and defective proteins. Damaged and defective proteins will not be properly functioning proteins. Thus, with time, the cell becomes more and more resistant to taking up both insulin and glucose.

Then there’s also all those mostly useless STRA6 etc. “receptors” plastering the cell’s membrane as well. Except, they may not be entirely useless, as they just may be the cells’ own version of antibodies defending against the highly toxic RA molecule and ejecting it from the cytoplasm. Either way, the building of all the STRA6 etc. “receptors” will not come for free and without consequences. This topic was the focus of my Autoimmunity with Claude.ai blog post. Just for a minute consider how devastating this condition is to cells. Not only are they not able to manufacture properly structured proteins of all types required for function and cell maintenance, but they are also at the same time being starved of glucose needed for energy. Except, it’s even worse. Because with the cell also producing errant and apparent foreign species sourced proteins it will be attacked by the immune system as well.

From a recent email:

“I survived chronic fatigue from 20-50 yrs of age. Awful exhaustion. Thyroid glandular helped somewhat for the past 17 years but now I’m barely using it and feel stronger than ever. When I first started low vit A, I could do 2 full body push ups and now I can do 25!”

My own experience is much the same. Fortunately for me I had chronic fatigue for only one year before taking on my vitamin A elimination diet. But back then I doubt I would have been able to do a single push up. Now today, at age 65, I can do 65 consecutively. I’d like to claim it’s the rice, but obviously it’s the reversal of insulin resistance.

Differential and anatomically regional Insulin resistance

It’s important to understand that the severity of insulin resistance is not uniformly the same throughout the body and tissue types. Rather it’s going to be differential, and highly variable. I’ve used the term anatomically regional as a way of saying for example that the severity of insulin resistance in muscle is going to be different than in the adipose tissue. More importantly it’s going to also be differential based on the age of cells. But this causes a perverse and unnatural situation and makes the body’s proper management of insulin levels rather impossible. It’s a perverse situation because some tissues and cells just can’t take up insulin and are therefore in a state of being constantly starved of glucose. Whereas, at the very same time there are other tissues and younger cells that are being effectively force-fed insulin and glucose. Now, with that understanding all the puzzle pieces fall into place.

Those greedy little fat cells

Where are all those young new fat cells coming from? It’s from the adipose stem cells being driven into a higher replication rate by exposure to excessive vitamin A. There’s absolutely no speculation about this statement since that’s the de facto functional definition of “vitamin A activity.” But it’s not just the new little fat cells taking up the glucose. Much of the older fat cells still have partially functional cell membranes and insulin receptors as well. So, these fat cells will just take up the seemingly excess circulating glucose and balloon up in size with more fat storage. We can’t blame them, it’s their job and purpose in life.

Here’s a sketch showing the differential Insulin resistance resulting in anatomically regional glucose insufficiency.

The dashed red arrows indicate the constant release of hunger hormones telling the brain that more and more glucose is needed. Yet, glucose physically can’t be delivered to the requesting cells due to their broken and blocked insulin uptake. At the same time newly created fat cells have cell membranes that are perfectly functional and insulin sensitive. They too are super hungry and sending out their own hunger hormones. Unless you’re related to David Goggins you will comply, and you will eat more. But this is where the situation becomes truly perverse. The overall hunger signals being sent to the brain can never be fully satisfied. Most of those additional carbs you are consuming attempting to satisfy the cravings are almost exclusively being gobbled up by those apparently greedy little younger and other insulin sensitive fat cells. So, not only are you preferentially feeding your fat cells, but you are also effectively force feeding them too. The more food you eat the more vitamin A you consume, and the more new fat cells are generated. The vicious cycle is almost endless.

How is this theory aligning with reality?

I think this theory is in very good alignment with what we see happening with weight gain and metabolic disease. Additionally, as I had reporting n my 2020 Diabetes – the pandemic of the 21st century blog post there are reported cases of retinoic acid (the so-called active form of vitamin A) directly causing the disease. Turns out it’s a rather common “side effect” of taking RA.

Here’s another study showing that RA is directly inducing insulin resistance in people.

13-cis-Retinoic acid therapy induces insulin resistance, regulates inflammatory parameters, and paradoxically increases serum adiponectin concentration

Abstract

13-cis-Retinoic acid treatment causes insulin resistance and disturbances in lipid and glucose metabolism. …

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17512311/

So, there’s absolutely no question about it. Since we’ve all been slowly accumulating more and more vA via diet etc, there’s also no question we’ve all been slowly jacking up our daily dose of RA as well. It just can’t get much more straight forward than that.

I’ll add more to it based on my own experience. Leading up to my state of severe disease and excess weight I was indeed chronically hungry. Before I first started on my vitamin A elimination diet I was often ravenously hungry. Even though I was consuming a lot of food I was still chronically fatigued, and incredibly weak. Of course, after starting my vitamin A elimination diet I was still constantly hungry. There was no quick change, that’s for sure.

I was cooking my rice on a timer so that it was immediately available when I first woke up. I’d consume a large amount of rice (at least ½ cup measured dry) for breakfast, along with beef / bison roast. By around 11 am I was ravenously hungry again. For lunch I’d consume about the same amounts again. Then by 5 pm, I was once again starved and couldn’t wait to eat. That was my routine for about the first year. In that first year I was consuming about 2 cups (measured dry) of rice (that’s a large amount when cooked), and about 2 lbs of beef / bison and 10 oz of black beans per day. I’d estimate I was taking in about 3,000 calories per day.

Then, slowly, and gradually, I just found myself needing less and less calories throughout the day. And about the same time, I just found myself dropping weight too. By around the three year point I found that my daily calorie consumption had been cut down by at least 1/3rd. By year four or so, I was down to about one half the amount from when I started. I was cooking just one cup of rice per day, but I’d never eat all of it. Now, today, although I may still cook one cup of rice per day, I very rarely consume more than one third of it. More often I’ll cook rice only every second or third day. Somewhat likewise for my beef/bison consumption. I very rarely consume more than 1 lb per day. I’d estimate my overall current daily calorie intake to be about 1,500 – 2,000.

Here’s the thing, I’m almost never hungry. I often don’t even think about food in the mornings and only eat because I know I have a workday ahead. I hate to admit it, but I find myself eating more just because I think that I should, and not at all because I’m truly hungry. Along with this surprisingly low-calorie diet I find that I still have a good energy level throughout the day, and it’s vastly improved compared to when I first started. Likewise, for strength, I’m significantly stronger now than I was 10 years ago, and am the strongest I’ve been in my adult life. What can account for this dramatic change in metabolic health? And how could I have become progressively less and less hungry and yet at the same time have been eating less and less? Well, I think it’s because my muscles and other tissues are no longer insulin resistant. Why? It surely wasn’t due to a lack of carbs. Rather it is mostly likely due to once again having properly structured Insulin receptors and GLUT4 proteins. What could have caused that? Oh, how about by eliminating the molecules claimed to be essential for “regulating” protein synthesis? More specifically, over the years my cells have repaired themselves by shedding the STRA6 “receptors” and are once again able to generate properly structured insulin receptors. Now, my story might be just an interesting anecdote except for the fact that other people are now reporting a similar experience.

Weight rebound after Keto

I think we have even more interesting evidence from the real-world results of the ketogenic diet. The primary goal of taking on a keto diet is to “burn” fat by cutting carbs. Except the results are highly variable, and generally not sustainable over the long term. As with a lot of other diet strategies there’s a “rebound effect” when veering off the diet and adding back in more carbs.

“It is normal to gain back some weight after stopping a particular diet – sometimes as much as 5-10 pounds, immediately.”

Why does the weight come back so quickly when adding back in more carbs? It’s because the insulin resistance problem has not been reversed. Why hasn’t the low carb keto diet reversed the insulin resistance? It’s because the diet usually contains quite a lot of vitamin A. With that there’s still a bunch of the STRA6 “receptors” where there should be proper insulin receptors. So, yes, any carbs more than what can be immediately taken up by the remaining insulin sensitive muscle cells (etc) will be quickly stashed away into more fat storage.

The Keto Flu

There’s another important aspect to adopting the Keto diet, and that’s the so-called “Keto Flu” many people experience.

You’ll likely experience fatigue, headaches, and other flu-like symptoms during the first week of the diet. This is a normal part of the process as your body is getting used to using fats for energy rather than carbs. Expect your appetite to fluctuate.

Several people who have taken on a low vitamin A diet also encounter this phenomenon. Except, it’s been termed the “detox setback”. I’ve written about this effect in my Tackling the Detox Setback blog post. I’ve made a pretty big deal of it, and maybe too much so. But I think it is rather unacceptable to see people’s health worsen. Also, it’s very important that we share all results, both good and bad.

However, we also now know why this condition develops. Therefore, it’s not really a phenomenon any longer. It is simply due to an increase in serum retinyl esters (the second most toxic form of vitamin A), and other forms of vitamin A as the liver starts to more aggressively detoxify itself. But, with Keto diets it could be even more severe because of the low carb consumption will cause the liver to release more stored glycogen. That stored glycogen release is accompanied by more retinyl esters being released too. I’ve read a few posts where the same phenomenon is sometimes occurring when taking on a Carnivore style diet.

There’s some tips and strategies I’ve shared in my Tackling the Detox Setback blog post for mitigating the risks. However, one point I want to reemphasize is not to take any supplements that cause more aggressive liver bile dumping. I’ve had multiple reports from people who have been seriously harmed by taking supplements.

Losing weight too quickly is dangerous

Although it might be someone’s primary goal, people need to be careful and not lose too much weight too quickly. As discussed above, fat also contains stored vitamin A (and other toxins) and having too much of it released too quickly is dangerous. Not only can that cause the “Keto Flu”, but the release of more vitamin A can also backfire on people and cause them to gain weight, via a bunch of new fat cells. Now, if you are on a very low carb diet, then that is less likely to happen. Otherwise, it could easily happen (and a few people have reported rapid weight gain after adopting a low vitamin A diet).

Based on what we now know, going slow and very importantly including more safe fat in the diet is probably a much better strategy.

Sick and tired of being sick and fat?

Well, there’s never been more actionable information that can help you reverse that situation. Here’s the great thing, you don’t need to take on some unsustainable calorie restriction diet. You don’t need to inject potentially lethal aqueous phenol @ $1,000 per month either. And you sure didn’t gain that weight due to some deficiency, so you don’t need to take some scammer’s expensive “awesome ingredient” supplement. You don’t need to buy a subscription to a program with “insider only secrets”. The internet is riddled with grifters and mountebanks of every stripe preying on sick and desperate people. We’ve been scammed enough by the self-proclaimed “experts”. It’s time to stop it and take matters into your own hands. Save your money and buy some steak. But I understand that some people just do better with a coach. If that’s you, that’s perfectly fine, just please be very careful.

Here’s the other great thing, we are talking about a long-term solution that is quite easily maintained for the rest of life. However, in no way is this a quick fix. People need to set realistic expectations. It’s going to take time, and potentially a long time.

Recovery Strategies:

It’s very important to understand that we are all different. There is never going to be one strategy that’s going to work the same and perfectly for everyone. You need to find what works best for you.

Grant’s rice, beef/bison and beans diet:

Although this vitamin A elimination diet has worked for myself and others, I now believe that it’s far from ideal. There are multiple problems with it. Firstly, it does not at all address the hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia issues. Rather clearly, it just makes them worse, at least in the short term. So, if one of your main goals is to lose weight, then this is clearly not the best strategy.

The other major issue with this diet is that it’s far too low in fat. Without adequate fat to sequester vitamin A and other toxins you’re going to end up with more of it in circulation. You’re also not going to be able to produce enough bile. Therefore, you will not be able to eliminate these toxins fast enough, nor safely enough. Also, I chose this diet purely due to its extremely low vitamin A content (~ 3 IU/day). But, as I stated before, nobody needs to go to this extreme, and going too low too quickly could cause a bit of a blowback effect. So, overall, I don’t recommend this approach.

Pure Carnivore (the big fat steak diet):

I’ve been quite impressed by the success rate of the Carnivore diet (when not including organs of course). Here’s the thing, real world results matter. Also, when done correctly, the Carnivore diet is also the near perfect vitamin A elimination diet as well. It obviously deals with the hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia issues (at least it bypasses them). It also has ample fat. Being low in fibre means that gut bacteria overgrowth is limited, thereby reducing a significant source of alcohol and other bio generated toxins.

As I mentioned in my Ten Year Update blog post, if I could go back in time and do it over again I would have adopted more of a carnivore style diet. However, from a more global perspective there’s a few concerns I have with it. One major one is that it is just not going to be an option for much of the world’s population. The second concern is that it’s too focused on eliminating all carbs and somewhat vilifying them. As I’ve shown above, carbs are only a problem when people are insulin resistant. Therefore, once people have restored their insulin sensitivity (say by year 3-5) then some carbohydrates can be safely added back into the diet. They just need to be very careful on what carbs, as there are very few plant-based foods that are truly safe. So, I think people might consider the Carnivore diet to be more of a near term (~3-5 year) healing diet. If a person has the desire, means and resources, etc to maintain it over the longer term, then great. Otherwise, people can adopt a mixed diet of meat, selected carbs, and of course with the minimal amount of vitamin A as possible. Naturally, this rules out the Keto style diets.

The role of exercise

I think it is important to not think about the above diet strategies as being diets at all, at least not in the traditional sense of the term. The great thing is that you can eat as much as you truly need too. Naturally, eating in moderation is most certainly going to help lose weight. Afterall, you must give your body some reason to reduce its fat storage. So, on one hand this is great news, and there’s no need to deprive yourself of food. Also, once again, this is a very long-term strategy that people should consider following for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, you shouldn’t rely on diet alone without exercise.

Exercise can be a great contributor for multiple reasons. Firstly, muscle use is a good consumer of insulin and glucose, basically using insulin for its intended purpose. Secondly, muscle cells are less adversely affected from exposure to vitamin A, because they are not an endothelial tissue, and don’t have stem cells. But do not take on strenuous exercise too soon, as that can easily stir up more retinoids out of liver storage and induce the “Keto flu” or ”detox setback”.

Bottom line, here’s the secret recipe to success:

• Very low vitamin A consumption
• Ample muscle meat and fat consumption
• Low carb until insulin sensitivity is restored
• Some carbs are fine, apples are a good choice
• Regular exercise
• Regular good quality sleep
• Don’t poison yourself with unneeded supplements, etc, etc.
• Time, give it lots and lots of time

If you made it this far, thank you for your time reading all this. Please share this far and wide.