Pot Bellies and Insulin Resistance
I love Dr. Mike Eades blog, and he gave permission to quote an excerpt from his recent post about his Seattle trip. I knew that all of you, my reader friends, would like this story…
We started each day with a quick breakfast at Louisa’s, a little restaurant close to the office where we spent our days. One of the menu selections, fittingly enough, was called Mike’s Special, so how could I resist. Especially when it was such a great low-carb option: two poached eggs on a bowl of sautéed spinach, red and green peppers and onions. Good, good, good. It came, of course, with a giant piece of toast that was at least an inch thick, which I ate a couple of bites of just to try.
As we were eating breakfast on the last morning, a man was eating alone while reading the paper at the table next to us. He looked to be about 70 or so and was fairly thin with a pot belly. He had on two pressure stockings on his lower legs and bruising in the crook of one of his arms from where, obviously, blood had recently been taken.
Watching him eat, I created an entire story about him that I’ll bet is not too far from the mark. Even if it is not accurate in this man’s case, it is totally (and sadly) accurate in many thousands of others.
The man was eating a bowl of oatmeal. He had a glass of skim milk so fat free it was almost blue that he poured little bits of into his cereal from time to time. Along with his oatmeal, he was eating one of the giant pieces of toast the restaurant serves. He took one pat of butter (I assume there was no margarine available) and cut it in half. He carefully spread one half pat on one half of his toast then loaded it with an entire individual serving of jelly. After eating the first half piece of toast, he prepared the second half the same way and ate it. The only fat he got from his entire meal was that that came from that one pat of butter. Based on the size of the bowl of oatmeal and the size of the toast (and the skim milk), I calculated that this guy consumed about 100 grams of carbohydrate. (Thirty grams in the oatmeal; at least 30 in the toast; 15 in each container of jelly; and about 10 in the skim milk.)
I imagine (here is where I’m speculating) that he has elevated cholesterol and has been told by his doctor to watch his fat. And he is complying. He got a whopping 4 grams of fat in his one pat of butter (36 calories-worth) while getting 100 grams of carb in the rest of his meal (400 calories-worth). The tiny bit of fat he got contained short-chain fatty acids that are immune enhancing whereas the 100 grams of carb he got provided really no health benefit. Since the 100 grams represents 20 times the amount of sugar circulating in his blood, his pancreas had to release a large amount of insulin to deal with it. His pot belly indicates that he is already insulin resistant with an abdomen full of visceral fat, so he no doubt secreted a lot more insulin than a person without insulin resistance. This excess insulin helps him store fat in his liver, increase his level of visceral fat, ratchet up the inflammatory process, injure his blood vessels even more and increase his risk for heart disease, the very thing his doctor was trying to prevent by putting him on a low-fat diet.
How much better off this guy would have been had he joined me in the Mike’s Special. But, his cardiologist, I’m sure, would have been apoplectic. A sad state of affairs indeed.
I imagine (here is where I’m speculating) that he has elevated cholesterol and has been told by his doctor to watch his fat. And he is complying. He got a whopping 4 grams of fat in his one pat of butter (36 calories-worth) while getting 100 grams of carb in the rest of his meal (400 calories-worth). The tiny bit of fat he got contained short-chain fatty acids that are immune enhancing whereas the 100 grams of carb he got provided really no health benefit. Since the 100 grams represents - How to lower the glycemic index of the foods you love
- Get the bad fats out of your kitchen!
- Healthy Milk – Find out why you should NEVER drink anything but WHOLE milk!
- Does fat make you fat? Part 1: Saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease issues (and one little tid-bit about the role of fats related to sexuality)
- Does fat make you fat? Part 2: Specific principles related to fats & dieting
KitchenKop says
Allyson, wow, you’ve been through a lot. Hopefully everything will get better from here!
Kelly
Allyson Bossie says
I have tried to get husband on board with the real eating for at least 6 years. He would try it a couple of weeks and deem it too hard. Back at the old food. I have eaten as healthy as possible in a house that does not support that. Anyways, quick truth: We are sitting here with 19k in debt and climbing because husband’s body just shut down. He doesn’t have high blood pressure, he doesn’t have blood sugar issues, but his immune system was so defunct that when he was required to sit with a sick person on his job, his entire system shut down. They had him listed as failure for over a month. Two months in he is at 45% compared to other men his age. He is out of work until at least June 7 praying his body regenerates faster. He of his own volition while in the hospital deemed we would all eat right. He has lost 30 pounds, (still sick, unfortunately and on 10 meds, one of which costs 1k a month), my 6 year old has lost 8 pounds, my other kids are slimming way down, and I have lost 11 pounds. The weight isn’t the issue. The how great we feel is. Other’s should take note and eat right because it WILL land home eventually.
Sarah Farris Manry says
“skim milk so fat free it was almost blue ” This reminded me something my 84 yr. old father told me this past weekend. We were eating breakfast and the jar of raw milk from our cows was still on the table. I said that I had skimmed the cream off to make butter. He replied that he could tell and that growing up they called skimmed milk “blue john milk” because as it was being skimmed through the machine and cold water that it appeared blue. That was something I never knew! Anyway….back to your regular scheduled program. 🙂
Jill-David Boman says
Exactly. Our “prudent” dietary recommendations are a veritable prescription for diabetes in this country. Flip the food pyramid/USDA recommendations upside down and you have a great blood sugar regulating diet (emphasizing healthy fat, high quality protein, and vegetables and minimizing all grains and starches). If I were to eat that “healthy” breakfast of skim milk and oatmeal I’d probably drop unconscious of a blood sugar crash coma 2 hours later (an exaggeration, but surely I’d be incredibly sick)!
Carla says
Wow, I totally understand how you all feel. I have fraught insulin resistance (with PCOS) in my late teens to mid 20’s and finally found out how I should be eating.
It kills me when I still hear people try to follow low-fat diets!
Bethany says
That is so sad!
Cathy Payne says
How sad that the gentleman you observed probably thought he was eating a nutritious breakfast. My mother-in-law observed her skirts loosening after two weeks with us eating bacon, fish roe, eggs, and sausage for breakfast instead of her usual oatmeal, toast, or special K with skim milk. She lost 5 pounds eating well three times a day. I am looking forward to the Eades’ new book with their 6 week plan.
Catherine @ Healthy Fit Mom says
That is why I LOVE low carb. The insulin resistant guy who ate the oatmeal with skim milk was probably starving in about a couple hours after eating that meal. Insulin resistance makes food cravings really hard to control. Low carbing you can easily go hours without thinking of food.
Jessie says
That is so depressing. This is why I should really stop looking at what other people put on the check out conveyor belt at the grocery store. It will eventually drive me crazy!