Amadeus Schmidt wrote:

> On the Blumberg book:
> > He says if a human had access to abundant sources of low protein/
> >high fat food -- he would store the fat, raise his leptin levels and
> >then stop eating.
>
> Sounds good, the "stop eating".
> Unfortunately few humans have and had access to abundant sources of low
> protein/high fat food.
> Actually only in the arctic - for Inuit,
> or with abundant nuts in the environment.
> Stephansson ate 18% protein, I recall.

I agree that it is almost impossible, using natural foods, to eat as
little as 12% protein and almost all the rest fat.  But keep in mind
that Blumberg is concerned not with paleo diet but with diet-induced
thermogenesis (DIT).  This means that DIT would be a very rare
condition, with one exception: starvation.  When there's little food
available at all, protein intake would be low, and fat storage would not
be happening, so it makes sense that two processes would be initiated to
make minimum use of  glucose and maximum use of fat.  One is ketosis,
the other is DIT.  In ketosis, the body's demand for glucose is reduced
to its lowest possible level, so that most or all of that needed glucose
can come from the glycerol molecules in fat, keeping gluconeogenesis to
a minimum.  DIT maximizes fat utilization.

Out of curiosity, I'm going to try to induce DIT using Blumberg's method
for a few days or a week.  It occurred to me that in the past, even when
I have followed a high-fat diet, my protein intake has probably never
fallen below 20-25%.  But today I went out and bought some of the
fattiest sausage I could find, and some macademias.  I will also
continue taking dessicated liver, which will also be my main carb
source.  If Blumberg is right, DIT should commence as soon as my
glycogen is tapped out, which won't take more than a day or so.

I believe the other well-known way to stimulate brown adipose tissue
(BAT) to burn fat is to use amphetamines or other stimulants.

Todd Moody
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