I do not always accept nutritional advice because others say so. There are a few things I was always "told", but never really bought into. One of those things was to avoid diet soda and artificial sweeteners if you want to lose fat. I believed fat loss had to with creating a calorie deficit, burn more then you take in, your body will burn fat (and muscle, organs, etc). I did buy that control of diet quality will help your body burn fat instead of other things, when in a calorie deficit. I do agree with the ideal that controlling insulin levels and trying to keep insulin low and the hormone glucagon high will cause the mobilization of fat from adipose stores to being used for energy (lipolysis). I also thought the best way to keep insulin low was to eat a modest amount of carbs/sugar, therefore, keeping my blood sugar from getting too high. I still believe all this, but I thought "diet soda, does not increase blood sugar, how much could it affect insulin?". I do not know if this next thought is actually true, but it makes sense to me.
Artificial sweeteners "trick" our taste buds into thinking we are eating something sweet. I would bet they interact with "sweet" receptors on the tongue surface, these stimulate nerves that tell our brain we are eating sweets. We process these impulses and think "oh something sweet". Now, here is my leap, could not the brain then send a message to the pancreas to secrete insulin? So, based just off of the sensation of eating something sweet, the brain thinks something sweet is entering the body, so blood sugars will start to rise and in anticipation of this, the brain goes ahead and sends a message to the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin levels rise, blood sugars do not rise, and you can get the "low blood sugar crash" or just have high insulin levels and thus blunt any fat breakdown. Now, this may or may not be true, but it allows me to finally connect the dots and understand why diet soda and other things made with artificial sweaters may still be preventing fat loss even though these things to do not have an effect of blood sugar.
The next thing is fish oil. I admit I really do not understand fatty acids and it does seem like most of the people championing fish oil, sell fish oil. I have always heard about the need to take fish oil. Robb Wolf does talk about the need to take it, why we should take it. I am still not convinced it is the wonder cure many say it is. Also, the dose given seems very high. From experience with medication any time I am told I need to take 20 pills of something a day, I think "really, 20, why don't they make 1 pill that has the dose in 20". So, I am not convinced fish oil is the key to health. I still think it is a supplement, that is not tested by the FDA (for better or worse) and it (or any other supplement) is supposed to supplement a good diet. Taking 20 fish oil tabs a day, while still eating poor food choices is probably a waste of money on fish oil. Now, there does seem to be a lot of people swearing by it, so I decided to try it. I started 3 weeks ago. I started with 1pill 2x day for a week, then 1 pill 3x day for a week, then 2 pills 3xday/week. At this point, my "dose should be on". I also did not want to dive into 10 fish oils a day not knowing how my body would react. I will continue it and see "how do I look? how do I feel? how do I perform". If I think the fish oil is positively impacting these things, I will continue, if not, I will stop and save my money.
Finally, have been doing this for 3 weeks, so I am the middle of my 2 pills 3x week. I am also injured, sore back, sore groin and injured enough that I went to get care for the first time ever from a training related injury. I started the fish oil before I got injured. In fairness to fish oil, it did not cause me to get injured, rounding my lower back during the second pull of a 180lbs snatch attempt did, but the fish oil did not prevent the injury (inflammation in my L quadratis muscle and aggravation of a hydrocele) either.
3 comments:
Pat,
Do you just not agree with the hormonal imbalance created by eating too many n-6 EFA? I assume you read that fatty acid reading Rob gave us, and with your background, understood it. the damn thing took me 3 hours to translate.
I have geeked out on this stuff and I find the evidence and research pretty compelling that we need to eat more n-3 essential fatty acids. I think fish oil is just a easy way to supplement it.
I know aspirin blocks the break down of arachidonic acid (AA) to forming pro inflamitory eicosanoids such as prostaglandins and luekotriens.
So although fish oil will not help with your injury directly, i think a large dose with aspirin will help.
For the average individual I agree that it is a personal thing. I have felt great on it but others may not need it because they get enough n-3 in their diet and eat well
From what I have read I would say fish oil is a absolute MUST for pregnant and nursing women because of the fact that babies cannot produce DHA on their own and suck it out of their mother.
I know lack of DHA in both mother and child has been linked to a whole slew of diseases.
I am going to do a blog post on lack of EFA and disease. I have come across some fascinating stuff.
Pat your right there are lots of questions regarding fish oil. I would like to look at more detailed studies to try and answer some on my own. I think the fact that we are seeing omega three everyone is a sign that the research is overwhelming that it is good for you.
Regarding Pregnant and nursing moms I think there are lot of variables there that deal a lot with insulin sensitivity also. The fact that the baby cannot produce EPA means that the mother should increase her Omega-3 (in my mind). But Mothers that have these problems associated with lack of EPA/DHA may have other variables such as high insulin or insulin resistance. Or they may not be able to convert EFA's themselves. Maybe with the fact that our diets have got significantly worse since you were born shows the increase in baby books recommending supplementation. I bet a mom today could get away without supplementing if they did not eat grains or dairy and ate lots of fish and omega three eggs.
But you definitely have some valid points and questions. It does seem like a lot. I am going to try it for a while and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.
My next post on disease will be interesting. I am now going to do more research on it so it might be a while. I would like to find some counterarguments against taking fish oil and maybe negative effects. That will make things more interesting.
Debate and disagreement is the best way to learn and find the truth. By you bringing up these good questions I want to look into it more instead of just going with what some of the people are saying.
Hi Pat,
I like the nutrition posts you have been writing and the fact that you do not buy into something just because someone tells you it is true. I like to eally read about a topic and see both ends of the argument before I make my decision about it. That being said, I was taking 2 fish oil 2x/day and am now taking 9 pills a day. I have not done the math myself or factored in other sources of opega-3, but I know Sean has really been geeking out on this stuff and I am taking his advice for now. I have not had any ill effects from it but if I "start shitting like a goose for a month" I will know that I am taking too much haha.
I'm not sure if you have done a post on this, but do you remember when Robb told us that there was a protein in dairy that spiked insulin? Do you remember what that protein was? I was doing some reading and found out that casein accounts for 80% of the protein in dairy. Do you think that was the protein he was referring to?
Post a Comment