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Okay, I have spent all morning agonizing about the Zone.
Image by Malingering
The Zone and diets and Ultrametabolism and weight loss and insulin levels and fats as fuel and carbs as fuel and glycogen and eicosanoids and calories and exercise.
I am getting nowhere.
I’ve spent all morning on damn PubMed and I still don’t know anything. Low carb diets work, but apparently not for the insulin regulation reasons that people initially thought, and they can sensitize people so they produce more insulin in relation to the sugars they eat. Some studies show low carb diets to be more effective than high carb diets, and some show the opposite. One study suggests cognitive slowing with low carb diets. One shows an increase in C-reactive protein with low carb diets. One shows a decrease in inflammation with low carb diets. One showed that carb consumption is directly correlated to the expression of a fatty acid desaturase. One study shows that in a comparison of diets over 1 year, the Zone diet fared less favorably in terms of weight loss than the high carb diet. One showed that low carb diets don’t provide sufficient energy for endurance athletes. One showed that a high carb diet was beneficial in people with insulin resistance. Another showed that increasing whole grains (hard to do on a low carb diet) decreases metabolic syndrome by 32% and cardiovascular disease by 25%. A big 12-year study in Sweden showed low carb diets increased mortality by 6%. Then a study in the US showed there was no difference. A 10-year study in Greece backed up the Sweden study and showed a 22% increase in cardiovascular mortality.
All of the studies have flaws, of course. And I don’t know how to apply them to ME. The only consistent thing throughout all of these articles is that weight loss = lower blood sugar, lower cholesterol and all that. No shit. So what do I eat? Tofu, spinach and oatmeal? And what about all of the anti-soy people?
Thing is, I’m not particularly trying to lose weight. I’m okay where I am. I just want to live a healthier lifestyle. And I can’t even figure out how to do this.
So I ate this brownie sundae. Now I feel much better.