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Recommended Reading
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eat breakfast ... get fat!
more than coincidence
Is it more than coincidence that here in America, where the necessity of breakfast is repeated ad nauseum as well as three squares a day and snacks, that we have an epidemic of obesity?
metabolic fantasies
three meals a day ... at least one too many!
The following paragraph is from the website: weightcontrolforever.com
"To start with make sure breakfast is eaten every day and a healthy breakfast at that. Skipping breakfast is not what anyone looking for weight loss fast tips should be doing. Eating a healthy breakfast will kick start the metabolism when you wake, after it has slowed down at night time. Think of it this way, your metabolism is like a furnace, it has to be fed with fuel so as to work at its optimum best. So get your metabolism working once you wake with some fruit, cereals and a glass of water and it'll begin burning fat straight away."
end of rubbish from "weightcontrolforever.com"
metabolic fantasies
wishful pseudoscience
Just another in the plethora of mis-information on the web. Note the complete lack of any "science." There are no references for these nefarious statements -mainly because there is "No Science" to support them. This is simply "wishful pseudoscience and metabolic fantasy." People looking for any reason real or imagined that justifies their "appetite out of control." Probably one of the biggest reasons today for the "epidemic of obesity" is this type of self-schooled pseudoscience. People speak of "metabolism" with virtually no understanding of what they are talking about.
metabolism 101
which metabolism are we talking about
The human body has many "metabolisms." In Stryer "Biochemistry" there are 344 pages on metabolism including twenty-eight pages devoted to Biosynthesis of Membrane Lipids and Steroids, twenty-six pages devoted to the "metabolism" of amino acids, twenty-four pages devoted to the biosynthesis of nucleotides and another twenty-three pages devoted to integration and regulation of metabolism.
Let's take a look at some real metabolisms. I took biochemistry back in 1964 so I will take the liberty of using a more recent standard reference book:
Stryer Biochemistry 4th Edition
page 773 Hormonal Regulation of Fuel Metabolism
Lubert Stryer is professor of biochemistry at Stanford. I think that this should serve as a reasonably accurate reference. We will begin with a brief discussion of the metabolism of energy utilization (weight loss glucagon weight gain insulin). Energy utilization or what your body does with food when you eat it and when you don't comes under hormonal regulation by two pancreatic proteins insulin and glucagon.
what happens when you eat
As the ingested food is assimilated your blood sugar goes up. This is followed by a rise in your serum insulin level. Insulin is the hormone that is responsible for entry of the glucose into your cells and conversion (storage) of any excess into fats. This is part of the rather elegant biochemical system that allowed man to survive famine. This is what happens when we eat -period. If you eat human digestible foods (not cellulose) your insulin levels will rise no matter what any pseudoscientific gurus try to tell you otherwise. The only metabolism that increases when you eat is the metabolism of energy storage (makes fat!).
straight away ... to storing more fat -not burning it
Insulin levels will go up whether you eat in the morning, afternoon or evening. This is human biochemistry -you can't change it nor can I. The only thing that will happen straight away after your breakfast of fruits, cereal and water is that you will start storing fat -just the opposite of burning fat.
what happens when you don't eat
Two to three hours after you have eaten, the insulin level should return to the normal fasting level. As the insulin level is coming down, the glucagon level is starting to go up. Insulin is the storage mechanism for the human, glucagon is the biochemical path to utilize this stored energy. The human species has evolved because of these two hormones, insulin and glucagon. Insulin is the gas pipe from the fuel tank in your car to the filler pipe opening on the outside. Insulin stores energy and fills your tanks (liver, muscle and fat cells) with energy.
glucagon is your motor
Glugacon is the motor that takes all this stored fuel (energy) and burns it to move the car (your body) or any number of other fuel (energy) requiring tasks. Each of these are independant reactions (metabolisms). Thus we have the metabolism of energy storage (insulin) and the metabolism of energy utilization (glucagon).
warning: rubbish ahead
Now it is clear that the above paragraph from the website weightcontrolforever.com is at best wishful thinking about "metabolic fantasies." Note that they address only your "metabolism." They do not state which metabolism this is. Is this the metabolism of insulin or is this the metabolism of glucagon? You now can understand that they are talking about two different metabolisms. The metabolism while you are sleeping (glucagon) and the metabolism that allows you to store your recently ingested meal as energy (insulin). It sounds good though ... "your metabolism is like a furnace" when what they mean to say is that your glucagon metabolism is like a "furnace." This furnace they talk about will "never" have a fire in it if you eat all the time. You won't burn "calorie one" since you will always be in an insulin "fed" state storing all your recently ingested energy. It is impossible to burn calories when the body (insulin) is busy storing them.
tiny motors
enzymatic induction
use it perfuse it or lose it!
Continuing with the automobile analogy most of us never utilize the engine in our car (glucagon). We fill up our tanks with three meals a day and snacks until there is no more room in our car. We never turn on the engine (glucagon) because we never go without food long enough for this motor to start. What happens is that over time our motor becomes smaller and smaller so that when we finally do need to use it, it is barely able to start. This is enzymatic induction, one of the priciples of human biochemistry. Human biochemistry is catalyzed by enzymes and in most cases it is not substrate dependant.
Translation: you can have a whole body full of energy (fat) and not be able to burn any of it for fuel in your motor (glucagon).
two things at one time
Human biochemistry does not like to do two things at the same time. It does not like to be storing energy while it is trying to utilize it. Thus experienced runners know not to eat before a marathon despite the current media blitz on how you should eat one of the myriad "bars" of some variety before the start. Eating before the start of an event puts you into an insulin (fed) state which is exactly the opposite of where you want your biochemistry to be when asking it to support your locomotion efficiently. No small wonder that the last American runner to win the Olympic marathon was Frank Shorter at Munich in 1972 (BG)(before gator aid).
thirty days to starvation
The human will not really begin to starve until some thirty days after his or her last meal. The biochemistry of the human will keep you going for a long time without food. This is the main reason why man did evolve. Without this ability I wouldn't be writing this, nor would you be reading this. However, man's internal drive to feed himself does not translate well into this age of "technological adolescence." With fast food on every corner and the idiotic notion that we need "three squares and snacks" to survive -it is no wonder we have this epidemic of obesity. You won't starve for thirty days -much less if you miss one or even two of your three meals a day.
gastronomic incompetence
The first thing we have to realize is that our culture has arrived at its own level of "gastronomic incompetence." When in earlier evolution we might be days or even weeks without a solid meal, we were pretty well adjusted and doing well. Now, however, our culture has arrived at a point of total incompetence. We desire food all the time, so we bend rules, create imaginary metabolic schemes that defy all rules of human biochemistry and preach ideas that are "pure rubbish" to satisfy this gluttony.
don't become "insulinated"
reduce insulin increase glucagon
You have to take your ego out of the equation and realize that this is all very simple, and it is us who have made it complicated. Most people cannot feed their faces all day keeping them in an insulin state, and not get fat. Life in the insulin state is not fun. You don't have to look very far to see this. People completely encased in fat. Life seems to me to difficult enough without having to contend with your body being completely packed with fat. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think it would make anyone "happy."
the scales won't lie
Don't believe this? Try this. Don't eat before noon and not after 1:00pm or at the latest 2:00pm. This gives you one hour (2 hours) to eat whatever you want. You will be in an insulin state only once every twenty-four hours. Do this for thirty days. You will be amazed at how much weight you will have lost and how much better you feel. The human is simply not meant to bathe his or her cells in insulin all the time and never call on our glucagon to utilize this stored energy (mostly stored as fat).
so what about breakfast
Almost all people will be healthier and slimmer if they enter into a state of glucagon metabolism. It is after all our "furnace" where we do actually burn fat. But if we never light that furnace by going without food for at least three or four hours, we will never burn any fat. Not that there is not the occasional person that seemingly can eat all the time and not gain weight. I used to know two of these types, but one had a heart attack at age 62 and died in December of 2008. He was always thin and ate a lot of highly sugared "healthy" snacks. Now, I only know one.
health weight loss
Most people I think may be more concerned with weight loss than health. But, if you eat to be healthy -your weight will drop to what it should be. When I became vegan in 1977 I lost weight and ate what I wanted. Former President Clinton experienced the same when he went to a plant based diet because of his coronary (arterial) heart disease.
productive mornings
One optimal time to burn some fat is when your glucagon metabolism is already burning -in the morning when you wake up. I get up, run and then work until noon. That gives me at least fourteen glucagon hours (I don't eat after 10:00pm). Often times I will get to two or three in the afternoon before I even think about food. It is easily the most productive time of the day for me. I guess if you could eat breakfast and lunch and then not eat until the next morning you could get 14-16 glucagon hours.
eat a light breakfast -skip dinner
eat a light dinner -skip breakfast
Whichever way you choose the basic three meals a day is at least one meal too many and certainly you will not fall off of the edge of the earth if you don't eat breakfast. I would also like to emphasize that your main meal of the day either way, should be your noon time meal. If you can skip dinner then eat a light breakfast and if you skip breakfast, eat a very light dinner. The bulk of your calories should be consumed at noontime. Whatever your approach, try to get at least 12-14 glucagon hours every 24 hours.
remember -weight loss is easy
For more on this see Metabolism101.comThanks for your time and your attention.
Copyright © John Mericle M.D. D.A.B.R. 2000-2011 All Rights Reserved
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glucagon and weight loss ...page 6
- from starvation to obesity
- energy metabolism
- order of energy utilization
- fallacy of multiple feedings
- proper nutrition
- hunger control
- eat breakfast get fat parts I & II
- exercise myth
- fuel selection
- glucagon and aging
where the sugar freeway ends ...page 38
- high fructose corn syrup
- aspartame(Nutrasweet)
- honey and meli maenomenon
- brown sugar is not brown rice
- avoiding hypoglycemia
- stevia the safe sweetener
- angina doesn't care
- diabetes heart disease Monckeberg
- reduce your risk for diabetes
the MericleDiet ...page 65
- introduction
- MericleDiet kitchen
- medical basis
- carbohydrate confusion
- energy metabolism101
- role of exercise
- The Dangers of Sports Non-nutrition
Seven Days of Great Tasting Vegan Meals
- a different kind of potato salad
- a different kind of pasta salad
- organic green salad with black beans and tofu
- golden bowls
- brown rice salad
- hot and cold bowls
- a quick primer on tofu
- draining and marinating tofu
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- Tempeh Cutlet
- MericleDiet stir fry
- scalloped potatoes
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- vegetable soup
- gazpacho
- burritos and refried beans
- Mexican brown rice
- mock chicken salad sandwich
- eggless egg salad sandwich
- tofu rueben sandwich
- fakin Canadian bacon sandwich
select articles ...page 125
- Complications of Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
- Chunky Cole Slaw
- coconut oil good or bad?
- eleven dangerous food additives
- Fifteen Secrets of Safe and Easy Permanent Weight Loss
- Fats (triacylglycerols) and Essential Fatty Acids
- He Shou Wu
- Hypertension
- Hypertension II
- 14 Simple Things To Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer
- Osteoporosis
- What Really Causes Osteoporosis
- Macular Degeneration
- olive oil chest pain in a bottle
- Why Organic
- rugrat ... Lymphoma -The Dangers of New Carpet
- Your Stomach Knows Best The Dangers of Sports Nutrition
- Vitamin C
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