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Liver Flushes
I'm obviously guided by what I know but I don't force myself to eat something I don't like and I don't try to fight how much sugar and fat I want to eat.
Protein requirements aren't high when calorically well nourished. Eating surplus to requirements can stress the liver unnecessarily.
The idea of a high fruit high dairy diet isn't enticing to me.
After over five years of eating low vitamin A I still avoid butter, cream, cheese and ice cream but I now enjoy moderate amounts of soft serve which has less fat and vitamin A than ice cream and is also more delicious in my opinion. I'm ok with small amounts of yoghurt too.
I'm not opposed to sugary drinks.
I think the main factor that causes over consumption of sugar is under consumption of starch and fat.
To put sugar in perspective, the only source of energy that is healthier than sugar is starch.
Glucose is the primary endogenous mammalian sugar.
Fructose is metabolized in the liver to glucose, other energy substrates and triglycerides. It's the triglyceride end product that is the most problematic for liver function. In that light claims that fat is healthier than sugar look ridiculous especially when the data clearly shows that increased fat intake decreases insulin sensitivity more than increased sugar intake.
My general perspective is this:
Recognise that starch > sugar > fat but don't take this understanding to an extreme. It doesn't mean that a very low fat low sugar diet is the healthiest.
White flour contains micronutrients and protein, it's not a pure calorie source like sugar is. We are also well equipped to rapidly digest starch into glucose. So I don't see much benefit in substituting refined starch with glucose powder.
Is it a good idea to substitute sugar with glucose powder? Maybe partially. I don't use it much but I do make a post exercise drink sometimes with glucose powder, lemon juice, salt, magnesium chloride and potassium chloride. It hits the spot.
I agree protein requirements aren't high when calorically well fed. When I was eating fairly low protein I didn't have much energy for activity though, so I guess with all the fat and sugar I was just sluggish I don't know! Carbs and fats are great at calming stress!
Someone posted this graph on the raypeatforum I don't know what study it is but thought you'd like it. It shows that high protein actually decreases testosterone.
I tried telling my husband that a few yrs ago, but he never listened and continued to have very low testosterone. He did build muscle easily though. But who cares if you can lift 500 lbs if you die of a heart attack at age 55? Sometimes it's very hard to change our dietary preferences.
I do think once the liver gets fattened up and insulin sensitivity sucks it can be very hard to reverse that with a normal diet. So I think that's why you see so many people with raving reviews on carnivore. Because at least their blood glucose is coming down vs staying really high. I wish we had more examples of people reversing insulin resistance with carbs.
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Interesting chart. Yeah protein and linoleic acid have significant metabolic downsides as energy sources.
When you were eating low protein was your diet also high in dairy?
With low protein intake comes low intake of micronutrients like zinc and choline of course.
I'm not suggesting a low protein diet is optimal, I just said protein surplus to requirements can stress the liver.
Men wanting to gain muscle often eat more protein but what is optimal is simply sufficient protein and a slight energy surplus especially a chronic glucose surplus while maintaining optimal organ function with a focus on liver function.
Yes my diet was high fat dairy and sugary foods. Yes too low in micros. I guess I had high calorie (though only like 1800 or less) malnutrition. But Dr. Stephens thinks with enough glucose to the brain micronutrients are utilized and absorbed better. He really believes the brain is limiting glucose coming in due to trauma.