On Tue, 7 Nov 2000 19:38:05 -0800, Mary <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Eat lots of meat and you will not be sick!!!!
>
>This dr did research showing that a meat based diet, very low carb, keeps
>blood sugar stable and prevents disease. His theory is that disease comes
>from low blood sugar due to a high carb diet. A person with low blood sugar
>is susceptible to viruses and disease, he says.

Low blood sugar is really a deadly threat.
After minutes of low blood sugar brain cells begin to suffer and may  even
die. Many other body tissues stop or slow working without energy supply.
But what is a proper way to ensure constand blood sugar?
The body is *very* keen to keep blood sugar within tight limits, so
how can it be that blood sugar drops?
And what is a proper way to keep our power supply constant?

Blood sugar dropping below a healthy line *is* a disease.
Anyone who frequently feels a craving for sweet has it. And is in danger of
low blood sugar.

The body has a variety of provisions:
- use glycogen stores in liver and muscles (fuel for 4 days)
  (lack of vitamin b6 may slow this)
- downgrade protein
   (delivers between 25% and 100% of all glucose, and too requires vit b6)
- eat and digest new carbohydrates
  (lack of vitamin b1,b2,b3 hinders its usage)
- release fat stores (this only slows down glucose usage)
Quite a good selection of provision which provides a nearly constand blood
sugar even after weeks of fasting.

Mary, you, and your Dr suggested a diet high in meat to cure low glucose.
This sounds kind of strange since meat contains zero glucose, and protein is
a darned bad source of glucose.
However *fat* can replace glucose in most cases, it makes glucose dropping
slower.  And meat protein *is* a glucose source (for the rest) because if
consumed in very big amounts it brings the proper vitamins with it to
properly burn the glucose derived out of it. In addition it's release of
glucose into the blood is slow, as desired.

I'm sure this works *only* in a paleo-diet  context with is high in fat
forbids industry carbohydrates and requires very much meat
(i mean upper paleolithicum northern diet).

"ordinary" meat consumption like in the standard western diet (or SAD) leads
to the opposite: even higher blood sugar oscillations.
My reasoning in short: meat alone is low energy, it needs a lot of
additional energy of eather fat or carbohydrate, while a certain
carbohydrate part is required. This leads to consumation of much pure
carbohydrate like sweets or "white" starch - the *real* culprits.
Why does it lead to unhealthy "pure" carbohydrates (sugar)?
Healthy carbohydrates (with plant energy vitamins) are associated with plant
protein. This is not easily mixed with meat.
-it contontains antinutrients which are better digested one protein per time
-it's protein  is superflous, since it all already came from the meat

So, the sweets are intrudoced into the SAD.

I tried to point out several time on the list in which way processed
carbohydrate sources render their energy unusable and as a cause for
obesity. (missing coenzymes at the stage of pyruvate dehydrogenase, the
citric acid cycle and in mitochondria).

The way out, as your Dr points out is a paleo-style diet
 (carbos from gluconeogenesis plus fat)
or are old neolithic diet with complete plants
  (carbs and vitamins directly from plants plus some fat)
or a plant paleo diet as i strive for.

regards

Amadeus S.
Reading about body fuels: http://www.zonehome.com/met/metfuel.htm