The Thin Pill: How Big Pharma Turned Obesity into a Disease

[Magnolia]

Another hypothesis on obesity. It’s the Insulin. It supports what is already stated in a number of threads: no need for expensive and harmful drugs; simply consume animal proteins and fats, cut carbs, and fast. [As an aside: I have a relative with diabetes 1. Decades ago, a doctor told him that he would not need lifelong insulin shots if he would only cut carbs from his diet. I've puzzled over that for years. Is that all it takes? Really? Maybe the doctor was right. But my relative opted for the insulin and is still on it. Said he couldn't live without carbs. (?)]

From the article: The pattern: Aggressive calorie restriction is followed by regain = first you cut calories, lose weight, lose muscle, reduce metabolic rate, and then you regain weight as fat. When people regain weight after calorie restriction, they regain mostly fat, not the muscle they lost. Forty pounds lost can mean losing 30 pounds of fat and 10 pounds of muscle. Regain brings back 32-34 pounds of fat and almost no muscle, plus one becomes more insulin resistant and metabolically sicker.

• Insulin—not calories—is the master regulator of fat storage.
• Insulin, produced by the pancreas, moves glucose from the blood into cells, where it can be burned for energy or stored.
• If you eat carbohydrates frequently, insulin remains elevated throughout the day.
• When insulin is high, the body stores energy. When insulin is low, the body releases stored energy.
• If insulin is always high, you are always in storage mode. You cannot access your fat stores while insulin is elevated.
• When you cut calories without lowering insulin, the body doesn’t release fat stores. Instead, it reduces energy expenditure. You get colder, more tired, less active; your metabolic rate drops.
• Without insulin there can be no weight gain. People who lose the ability to make insulin will never gain weight no matter how much food they eat unless they are supplemented with insulin.
• Fructose is uniquely harmful. Unlike glucose, which can be metabolized by any cell in the body, fructose overwhelms the liver and gets converted directly to fat.
• Fasting works because it lowers insulin. When you don’t eat, insulin falls. When insulin falls, the body can access stored fat. Patients on insulin for 20 years got off all insulin within one month using three 24-hour fasts per week
• How you break a fast matters more than how long you fast—bingeing on junk food after a fast undoes the benefit.

Recommendations:

1. Keep insulin low via carbohydrate restriction (especially fructose), fasting, exercise, eliminating fructose.
2. Add fasting. The baseline should be at least 14 hours overnight—which was normal eating in the 1970s. For therapeutic effect, extend to fasting 16 hrs, and eating only within an 8 hr period, or eat just one meal a day. How you break the fast matters. Don’t spike insulin immediately with carbohydrates. Break with protein and fat.
3. Change breakfast. Insulin has finally come down over the night. A high-carb breakfast creates a roller coaster that keeps insulin elevated all day.
4. Move after eating. Walking after meals significantly reduces glucose spikes. Muscle contraction pulls glucose from the blood without requiring insulin.
5. Prioritize protein and fat. In nature, protein always comes with fat—never isolated. The modern invention of fat-free protein (protein shakes, lean chicken breast) is unnatural and potentially counterproductive. The absence of fat drives hunger and leads to carbohydrate consumption.
6. Fix the gut. Adults should not consume unfermented dairy at all. Only fermented dairy (yogurt, kefir, aged cheese) is appropriate for adult digestion.