Don’t you hate it when you are rushing out of the house, running late to an appointment and you get in your car and your gas tank is on E!
CRAP!!!
You frantically pull up to the nearest gas station and start fueling your car. Unbeknownst to you, because you’re rushing and not paying attention, you are putting DIESEL into your GASOLINE car.
Now, you may not notice a difference at first, but over time you may notice that your engine may be damaged.
This is because the way that an automobile is designed to burn DIESEL versus GASOLINE is different. Thus, your engine would be damaged by the excess heat and/or byproducts of inefficient combustion.
Similarly, the human body (which has trillions of little engines) needs the correct food to run efficiently/correctly.
Let’s go ahead and take a trip back down memory lane to high school biology class where we were first taught about these little powerful engines – MITOCHONDRIA.
Remember what these bad boys do?
They basically are there to convert the fuel that we obtain from our food (fat, carbohydrates and protein) into energy. This process happens to allow our cells to do what they were designed to do.
The majority of the cells in our body contain mitochondria, alas some cells are more heavily concentrated because of the demands for energy. For example, your brain cells contain way more mitochondria than your bone cells – muscles require MORE ENERGY!
Like all engines, your mitochondria function best when provided with the appropriate fuel.
The body can only burn two types of fuel: Sugar or Fat.
You can probably recall as a youth that you carb-loaded (pasta night) before the big game or was given some sort of “-ade” filled with sugar to replenish you during the game.
Reason being, is that sugar is an immediate source of energy. And the more we feed our bodies sugar (glucose) the more adapted our body becomes to burning it.
What’s the big deal? You just said my body is using it for energy.
What you may not realize, is that your body can only store a small amount of sugar in your liver and muscles. When our mitochondria are conditioned to burn glucose, you are constantly in need for more of it (ie. If you crave sugar morning, noon and night – you’re dependent on sugar for fuel)
Unfortunately, when you’re a sugar burner your brain has been conditioned to eat more sugar – but if we don’t use up that sugar (say through exercise) then it needs to stored somewhere.
Womp womp…guess where?
Yup – excess sugar gets converted into fatty acids by the liver and deposited in the tissues – typically gathering at the midsection.
So what you are trying to tell me is that I need to eat FAT? But doesn’t fat make you fat?
One of the many myths we have been fed and we have accepted it…hook, line, and sinker. What makes us fat is an overconsumption of carbs, but that’s for another day…
See sugar works as fuel, but it doesn’t work efficiently as the primary fuel and causes a lot of damage (free radicals which can genetic damage, etc) – similarly as to put DIESEL fuel into a GASOLINE ONLY automobile.
Don’t get me wrong, your cells ARE designed to burn sugar – frankly it’s a super important fuel source under certain circumstances (like high intensity training or a WOD) – but it is not designed to be your primary fuel.
Since your body can only store a small amount of it, wouldn’t you rather save it for when you need to take your performance to the next level?
You probably know where I am about to go next…we briefly touched about it earlier…So what’s the ideal fuel source?
FAT
It was hard for me to wrap my head around this idea as well. But, as human beings your body is genetically hard-wired to work best as burning fat. Those mitochondria are capable of burning fatty acids much more cleanly with a considerable less amount of damage to your little engine.
But WHY?!?! I LOVE CARBS (Bread, Pasta, Scones). I WANT THEM ALL!
I know you all are sick of hearing it, but evolutionally, fat and protein were the dominant macros (when food was even available) as we evolved as humans. Due to a lack of regular access to food and scarcity of carbs for much of that time caused that humans to adapt efficient ways to store and access body fat for energy if they were to survive day-to-day and generation-to-generation.
Unfortunately, over the past hundred years that has all changed and so has our health. American adults are and becoming obese at staggering rates and our youth increasingly being affected as well.
GOOD NEWS! We have plenty of fat available for energy. Bad News…we aren’t well adapted to using it yet.
TIME TO SWITCH IT UP…
Lucky for you, your body is an amazing adapting machine and you can get your body back to its By Design, fat-burning, state by changing a few things.
The exciting part is that with this comes a better use of stored fat as fuel (which translates into FAT LOSS) and improved regulation of your blood sugar for your body no longer depends on sugar as it main fuel source. The byproduct is better sleep, more available energy, better focus and hundreds of other known effects.
How do you do it?
Eat By Design!
The first week or two can be tough as your body gets accustomed to this new way of eating and your rain wraps itself around going without all those sweet tastes and sugar-driven energy spikes. Switching from burning sugar as your main fuel source to fat (keto-adaption) can take several weeks so it’s important you stick to your plan. During this time, you may not feel great, just like an alcoholic doesn’t feel great in those first few weeks of rehab. Trust your body and support it by staying focused on animal sources of protein and plenty of good fats along with your fruits and veggies.
To jump start the process, check out the Eat By Design 30 Day Challenge (it’s FREE!) to receive daily videos and resources walking you through the process one step at a time!
Did you like this article? Feel free to share it with the people you care about and see if a Complimentary Consultation is the next step to regain their health.
Dr. Harris is a Life By Design Chiropractor practicing in Annapolis, MD.