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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jason Fung
Read between
December 29, 2023 - January 11, 2024
Highly refined and processed foods somehow do not trigger the release of satiety hormones,
Refined carbohydrates are easy to become addicted to and overeat precisely because there are no natural satiety hormones for refined carbs. The reason, of course, is that refined carbohydrates are not natural foods but are instead highly processed. Their toxicity lies in that processing.
much of the benefits of a low-carbohydrate approach evaporated after one year.
Food is a celebration, and feasting has accompanied celebration throughout human history. This is as true in year 2015 AD as it was in year 2015 BC. Birthdays, weddings and holiday celebrations—what do we eat? Cake. Ice cream. Pie. Not whey powder shakes and lean pork. Why? Because we want to indulge. The Atkins diet does not allow for this simple fact, and that doomed it to failure.
Those who have been obese their entire lives find it extremely difficult to lose weight. In contrast, people with recent weight gain have a much, much easier time dropping the excess pounds.
But we are missing yet another pathway that increases insulin, one that is both time dependent and independent of diet: insulin resistance.
As we develop insulin resistance, our bodies increase our insulin levels to get the same result—glucose in the cell. However, we pay the price in constantly elevated insulin levels.
insulin resistance leads to high insulin levels, and as we’ve seen, high insulin levels cause obesity.
Insulin causes insulin resistance.
So reversing the high insulin levels reverses insulin resistance.
Not only does insulin cause insulin resistance, it also causes weight gain.
The longer the cycle continues, the worse it becomes—that’s why obesity is so time dependent.
People who are stuck in this vicious cycle for decades develop significant insulin resistance. That resistance leads to high insulin levels that are independent of that person’s diet.
A long-standing obesity cycle is extremely difficult to break, and dietary changes alone may not be sufficient.
The longer you are obese, the more insulin resistance you have.
Persistent high insulin levels lead gradually and eventually to insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is compartmentalized.
The brain is not resistant to insulin. When high insulin levels reach the brain, the insulin retains its full effect to raise body set weight.
High levels alone do not lead to resistance. There are two requirements for resistance—high hormonal levels and constant stimulus.
In the case of insulin resistance, it comes down to both meal composition and meal timing—
The average time between meals has dropped 30 percent, from 271 minutes to 208 minutes. The balance between the fed state (insulin dominant) and the fasted state (insulin deficient) has been completely destroyed. (See Figure 10.2.) We now spend most of our time in the fed state. Is it any great mystery that we’re gaining weight?
But in the development of obesity, the increase in meals is almost twice as important as the change in diet.
Against all common sense, weight-loss advice usually involves eating more. Just take a look at Table 11.1.
Why would anybody give such completely asinine advice? Because nobody makes any money when you eat less.
It is simply not necessary to eat the minute we wake up.
Morning hunger is often a behavior learned over decades, starting in childhood.
logically follows that deliberately eating more of a healthy food is not beneficial unless it replaces something else in your diet that is less healthy.
not only does insulin causes obesity, but also that insulin causes type 2 diabetes.
both diseases are beginning to be observed as a syndrome, aptly termed diabesity.
So what drives obesity in the poor? It is the same thing that drives obesity everywhere else: refined carbohydrates.
The government is subsidizing, with our own tax dollars, the very foods that are making us obese. Obesity is effectively the result of government policy.
Refined grains and corn products soon became affordable by all. Obesity followed like the grim reaper.
The origins of both infant obesity and adult obesity are the same: insulin.
“Cut back sugars and starchy foods. No snacking.” If only we had listened to Grandma instead of Big Brother.
Whereas almost every cell in the body can use glucose for energy, no cell has the ability to use fructose. Where glucose requires insulin for maximal absorption, fructose does not. Once inside the body, only the liver can metabolize fructose. Where glucose can be dispersed throughout the body for use as energy, fructose is targeted like a guided missile to the liver.
Fructose overconsumption leads directly to insulin resistance.
YOU WANT to avoid weight gain, remove all added sugars from your diet. On this, at least, everybody can agree. Don’t replace them with artificial sweeteners—as we’ll see in the next chapter, those are equally bad.
She found that instead of reducing the obesity, diet beverages substantially increased the risk of it by a mind-bending 47 percent.
Do artificial sweeteners increase insulin levels?
Despite having a minimal effect on blood sugars, both aspartame and stevia raised insulin levels higher even than table sugar.
Carbohydrates are not inherently fattening. Their toxicity lies in the way they are processed.
Today’s wheat is simply not as nutritious as in previous generations.
observational studies consistently demonstrate that whole grains are protective against obesity and diabetes. Where is the disconnection? The answer, here is fiber.
The key to understanding fiber’s effect is to realize that it is not as a nutrient, but as an anti-nutrient—where its benefit lies.
Fiber and fat, key ingredients, are removed in the refining process:
And so we ingest the “poison” without the “antidote”—the protective effects of fiber is removed from much of our food.
vinegar may help reduce insulin resistance.
Blood glucose does not drive weight gain. But hormones—particularly insulin and cortisol—do. Insulin causes obesity. The goal should therefore be to lower insulin levels—not glucose levels.
there are no essential carbohydrates and no essential sugars. Those are not required for survival.
The biggest problem with high-protein diets was that they didn’t really work for weight loss.
