Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> What happens if you feast, and we certainly do,
when you eat in excess of your energy needs,
the body will store each of the nutrients in their own ways.
The direct line, if you have too much fat,
then that means you've got a lot of fatty acids.
And the best way to store those fatty acids is
to make triglycerides and put those triglycerides
into body fat, adipose cells.
So it's a direct line.
It's very little work.
Now, a carbohydrate, on the other hand, when we eat a lot
of carbohydrates, we are given a lot of glucose.
What does that glucose become but liver and muscle glycogen.
Now, after we fill the glycogen, glucose becomes fat.
But we first have glycogen.
What about protein?
If we have a lot of protein in our diet, we digest it,
break it down to amino acids.
Amino acids, there's no place to store amino acids.
So we will have to make body protein.
After we have made all that we need,
we then have all these extra amino acids we have
to deaminate.
We're going to have to deal with the ammonia that becomes urea,
and we have the carbon skeleton, and it could become body fat.
So yes, ultimately if we feast,
we do end up with more fat on the body.
But if you are concerned about your body weight,
then the first thing you should be concerned
about is how much dietary fat am I consuming?
What about fasting?
A lot of people think, well,
if it's food that's the problem, I'll just not eat.
Well, you know, that can't happen because we have hunger.
We're inbuilt, we're wired to be hungry.
So in the first 12, 14 hours of a fast,
we will go through our liver and muscle glycogen stores
to get the glucose, because the body and the brain cells,
the red blood cells need predominantly only glucose
for energy.
So we've got to give it to it.
And we have, we have the store.
But after about those 12, 14 hours,
most people have no more glycogen left.
They still have a lot of body fat.
And so the body fat will be helping
out for energy for the other cells.
But remember that fat has to burn in a sea of carbohydrate.
And after a good day of fasting, we have no more glycogen,
so therefore, we have no more glucose.
And so the body has to get more glucose.
You cannot make glucose from body fat.
So what you have to do is break down body protein.
We get the individual amino acids.
Most of the amino acids are glucogenic.
That is, you can make glucose out of them.
But first you've got to handle the ammonia, which becomes urea.
So therefore, there's extra work for the kidneys.
But you do get your glucose.
So the glucose with the fat can be used for the brain
and the nervous system.
But there's not enough glucose.
And when you break down fat without the glucose,
you build up ketone bodies.
And ketone bodies, not good things to build up a lot of.
And you force your body to put
up with this alternative energy source.
And you do that so you can slow down the breakdown
of your own body protein.
So by day two and three,
you're really pretty much using body protein and ketones
from the use of body fat.
So the best thing to do is not to feast and not to fast,
but to have an adequate diet with ample calories
for the lifestyle that you're leading.
So that's the end of Chapter