QuestionI follow the Atkins method for food intake. For me it works very
fine. I always have a lot of negative remarks from people
arround me, mostly from my collegues, who are biological
medical researchers. They believe if you eat as much or more fat
than with the average diet, the uptake of fat is much higher,
your veins will get clogged etc. I have read the Atkins book and I
understand that when there is not a excess of glucose in the
blood and therefor no excess of insulin, the fat molecules will go
out of the body (only the essential fatty acids and minerals etc
will be taken out of the fat food). This is maybe a simple way to
explain.
My question is; how does fat exactly go about in our body and
what is the effect of a very low to moderate carb diet on the fat
uptake?
AnswerWell, put simply, all the fat that you eat is always taken up in your digestive tract-that's not how Atkins helps. To understand how Atkins works, you have to understand what happens when you eat sugar.
As sugar is taken up from your digestive system, the concentration of sugar in your blood increases. As any diabetic will tell you, having increased blood sugar is toxic and can cause coma and death. Sugar molecules attach to many proteins in the body (called glycosylation) and prevents them from functioning normally. Therefore, your body works to lower your blood sugar back to fasting levels. There are a few ways of doing this:
1. Your brain and other organs will use sugar for fuel, and not use ANY fat or protein for energy until all of the sugar is used up. This will help to clear the sugar from the blood. This is also why some people mistakenly believe that you need to eat sugar and carbs-because if the brain is presented with sugar, fat, and protein, it will use only sugar. Actually, though, when sugar is not available, the brain uses fat for energy.
2. Your pancreas will secrete insulin. Insulin helps to lower blood sugar in a few ways. It stimulates fat cells to take up sugar and convert it to fat, and prevents fat cells from releasing any fat. It also stops your muscles from using fat for energy.
So you can see, when you eat sugar, you absolutely can't lose weight! There is no way to get your fat out of your fat cells, and even if you could move it to the blood, you couldn't burn it. I'm sure you've noticed that if you eat a very high-sugar meal (like waffles and syrup) you feel good at first, but a couple of hours later, you feel weak, dizzy, and you get a headache. This happens because your body is literally starving. You already used up all of the sugar you ate, but yet your body is still prevented from using fat for fuel. In fact, your body can't start burning fat until all of the insulin is cleared from your blood, which can take 24 hours. So even one cup of rice once a day will keep you fat forever!
Good luck with your diet, and ignore what people say. Many times, people will criticize your diet because in their hearts, they don't want you to succeed. Don't let them bring you down-you are low carb for yourself and your health. Stick with it!
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