Monday links

Monday morning links

Published 11.7.2016
A list of interesting items and short commentary on this bright Autumn Monday morning:

Not sure why the concept is so hard to accept, but it's not when you eat or what you eat (low carb, high carb, whatever) it's how much you eat. Eating within a specific time window alters rodent metabolism and fat content, but it does not in humans. We are not rodents… so don't eat like one. On the other hand, if for you limiting your eating to certain hours in the day results in either a calorie deficit (if you're trying to lose weight) or limiting calories to maintenance (if you're not) and enjoy doing it, then have at it. Just don't ascribe magical effects to your eating pattern— at least not to me, because I will tell you it's bogus.

Fatty acid and triglyceride (trig) levels may play a role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Researchers have noted a correlation between elevated fatty acid and trig levels and RA. I suppose this will open a new front for the cholesterol skeptics. Cholesterol levels are markers, and as with all markers in the human body there is a range that is considered "normal." Absolute values matter less than the trend in the numbers. If the numbers are changing, it indicates "inflammation" in the body. It does seem to me that cholesterol markers indicate much more than cardio-vascular health.

There are gender differences in how patients' bodies react to bariatric surgery. It's not clear though if these differences are related to sex, or to differences in disease status at the time of surgery. Women tend to get the surgery earlier in their disease progression (and they don't mean the disease of obesity), whereas men wait until they have no choice. Earlier surgery seems to lower the risk of cardio-vascular disease more. I've known people who've had the surgery, I think I'd try just about anything else first.

Did the Dietary Guidelines cause the obesity epidemic? No of course not. Americans never lowered their fat intake. People in the US do not eat a low fat diet and never did. A diet with 30% fat calories is not a low fat diet. What is a low fat diet? That's not easy to answer precisely. Some claim 10% or less calories from fat, but others say 15% or less from fat. The protein sparing shakes used in the Newcastle protocol to reverse type two diabetes have 20% of calories as fat. So perhaps 20% and lower can be considered "low fat." That statement requires more explanation, but this presentation format doesn't allow for lengthy discourse. Suffice to say that I am becoming convinced that to improve insulin resistance, successful treatment by dietary intervention must be low fat. Notice I said treatment. I am not convinced that once insulin sensitivity is re-established that maintenance requires strict low fat adherence.

Movement is important for health, but how to make it part of your routine? One way to do would be to walk rather than drive to work. Obviously, this won't work for many— or even most— people. At the end of the article, the author notes that she's also begun using a standing desk during the day, which is, as I've written over and over again, a wonderful way to reduce your sitting time. Indeed, she stands, as I do, for the entire work day.

Short bouts of movement make a difference throughout the day in terms of insulin and blood glucose, but not triglycerides. The study was conducted in 70 healthy people, and included both male and female subjects.
To do this we conducted a randomized cross over study in which 70 healthy, normal weight men and women participated in three intervention days, one in which they sat continuously for 9 h (except then they had to get up to use the bathroom), one in which they walked briskly uphill on the treadmill for 30 min and then sat for the remainder of the 9 h, and one in which they performed regular activity breaks (1 min and 40 sec walks on the treadmill every half an hour – giving us a total of 30 min on the treadmill over the 9 h) sitting in between each break.
Subjects were fed three times during the test period, which the graphs of the glucose and insulin levels plainly show. No differences in response due to sex was noted. Sit less; Move more!

This is only an abstract and all subjects were male, but the conclusions indicate that exercise works for weight loss and makes you less miserable than calorie restriction. It may be true that you "can't outrun your fork" or you "can't outrun a bad diet," but moving more DOES affect the energy balance and can help you lose weight. Ignore obesity doctors (Freedhoff) and cardiologists (Malhotra) who spew anti-exercise pablum. Sit less; Move more!

But wait— could Aseem Malhotra be changing his tune on movement? In the clip of his movie touting fat (though those fats are plant based), now he claims that movement is essential to health.

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