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posted by Hibernation Diet Blogger @ 2:24 PM
4 Comments:
I am very keen on nutrition and have read many books including the optimum nutrition bible by Patrick Holford, which I think is a great book from a very knowledgeable man. My question is all these nutritionists understand the concept of your body using liver glycogen while you sleep, why have methods similar to the hibernation diet never been mentioned/reccomended before in book's from professional nutritionists?
In answer to the question by anonymous:
I agree with your comments re. Patrick Holford's Optimum Nutrition Bible. It is excellent.
However as in all these books the critical biological role of liver glycogen and how to optimise it is missed, both in terms of exercise and in terms of the night biology.
I include below a reply to an article in BUPA news by a state registered Dietician.
It contains the usual knee jerk response about honey being the same as refined sucrose.
This is the same tired old nonsense that will be repeated by every dietician from Sydney to Southampton.
If the biology of honey and refined sucrose were the same, they would score the same on any GI index.
On any GI score honey consistently is lower than sucrose.
Why?
Well this involves differential absorption through the gut wall, fructose uptake from the portal vein, ((via fructokinase, translocation of glucokinase from the liver cell nucleus via fructose 1, phosphate, optimal uptake of glucose via this translocation, (The Fructose Paradox))) and both the fructose, via conversion to glucose, and the glucose conversion to, and storage as, liver glycogen.
In a word honey prevents a rise in blood glucose.
Thus no large glucose spike in the circulation, no insulin spike, and no reactive hypoglycaemia.
Since none of this is taught to dieticians, here or anywhere else on the planet, they remain blissfully unaware of the role of liver glycogen in stabilising blood glucose.
They are 'liver blind', with respect to this fundamental biology and to the role of fructose in regulating fuel supply to the brain via the Fructose Paradox.
We meet this from within the honey industry itself, where the fear of the anti-sugar lobby has in some cases, prevented them from recognising the potential benefits of their own wonderful natural product.
Equating honey with the manufactured sugars, refined sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, is similar to equating a vaccine with the disease it opposes.
I have been reading only this morning a book on sport nutrition by one of the UK leading experts on the subject.
In her references to fuelling with carbohydrates she consistently refers to 'glycogen stores', with no distinction between muscle and liver stores, two very different storage systems with two very different roles, with differential uptake, differential rates of depletion and very different outcomes if underfuelled, one (muscle) limiting performance, the other (liver) life threatening, with respect to brain metabolism.
This otherwise excellent book leaves athletes 'liver blind', with respect to the critical system, the liver/brain axis, and prevents them from optimising their exercise training and their recovery biology, subjects them to adrenal overdrive and renders them at risk of long term ill health.
Which is where we came in, some 8-10 years ago, when we looked at what was going on in the liver in relation to exercise.
Recovery biology soon followed: hence the Hibernation Diet.
Hello, have read the book from cover to cover and thought there was a lot of good sense within. I have read lots of nutrition books and am very interested in the subject. Unlike other books, yours does not say HAVE NO ALCHOHOL, NO COFFEE, ETC. I am wondering what you think is an acceptable amount to drink and still lose weight. How much coffee stresses the liver?There has been much in the press lately saying moderate coffee/red wine/dark chocolate consumption has actual health benefits. What is true? I do feel much better when I have eaten more fruit and veg, but I find the honey keeps me awake. Could be my husbands snoring though!! Does it take awhile for the body to get used to being fed in the night?
I see no problem with coffee or alcohol or indeed wine and chocolate in moderate amounts.
Some recent wotk on the liver suggests that coffee has a protective effect in liver cells when alcohol is taken.
Also fructose in honey recycles the alcohol detoxifying enzyme, so honey before and after alcohol is useful.
Also alcohol is a hypoglycaemic and drives down blood glucose (which is why after drinking alcohol memory loss is common), so again refuelling the liver prior to bed after alcohol is beneficial.
I have seen a very interesting study on bees which showed fructose (as opposed to glucose) improving learning in bees.
I do not think this has been done in humans but am confident that similar results would ocurr. Jamie Oliver brought fruit and vegetables into the schools and within a few days the teachers reported improved concetration.
i am sure this was because the fructose was providing the brain with fuel via the liver.
Your comment about honey keeping you awake is interesting and contrary to what we would expect.
Honey before bed activates insulin, which in turn activates serotonin and melatonin.
Melatonin activates sleep and therefore honey should avtivate sleep and does so for most people.
However you are not the first to report this effect so ot might be worth trying your honey a little earlier for the activation of melatonin to work fully.
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