Metabolic and intake are both mutually inclusive. If you overeat to the point where you are severely obese, then your metabolic pathways will not function properly and there will be an excess amount of ROS that the cytosol can handle. If this happens to enough cells, then you have insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is not just a "you have it" or "you don't" thing. There are various levels of insulin resistance, from mild insulin resistance to severe, which is why when somebody adopts a lifestyle that allows him to lose weight and get weight-stable, he can slowly come off of insulin therapy, irrespective of diet. The weight loss itself does this. So "excess energy" as reductionist as it sounds, is exactly what's happening at the cell level. This is not my opinion, it's biochemistry. Refined sugars and liquid calories have nothing to do with it. These things make it easier for somebody to gain weight and become insulin resistant, but if one follows a calorie-reduced diet including lots of refined sugar and liquid calories (in the context of a calorie deficit), and loses weight, the result will remain the same, improved insulin sensitivity.
I don't really know what else I can say about this topic other than read biochemistry.
Here is a good video that describes this process in more detail:
You're confusing correlation with causation, as if often the problem when people become zealots to science (I'm not saying you're one of those people!).
People do not want to be obese - it isn't a choice. It's a reflection of their metabolic health. Appetite and hunger signals are not arbitrary things, they're signals from the body that are there for a reason, though these signals can absolutely be influenced by food choices (especially drink choices just from my observation!). So, often people are left with a choice between becoming insulin resistant and "overeating" via easily digestible and "quick" energy sources (that are providing energy and function at the cost of mineral status), or staying at a metabolic deficit which means the body shuts down various systems leaving you as a human being without real function. Anti social, poor sleep, stressed, elevated prolactin and lowered dopamine. Basically unable to function in life. People MUST function to keep going at times, so I can completely understand the choice. They're gravitating towards certain foods and drinks not because they're stupid but because they're EFFECTIVE metabolic stimulants - they provide function at a cost.
Back to the correlation vs causation point - minerals are IMPERATIVE in proper insulin production and response (though so are lifestyle issues like chewing, salivating and proper food combinations). Just a few examples via the first links on google...
Zinc, insulin and diabetes. - PubMed - NCBI
Since Zn plays a clear role in the synthesis, storage and secretion of insulin as well as conformational integrity of insulin in the hexameric form, the decreased Zn, which affects the ability of the islet cell to produce and secrete insulin, might then compound the problem, particularly in Type 2 diabetes.
Intracellular magnesium and insulin resistance. - PubMed - NCBI
Intracellular magnesium and insulin resistance. Magnesium, the second most abundant intracellular divalent cation, is a cofactor of many enzymes involved in glucose metabolism. Magnesium has an important role in insulin action, and insulin stimulates magnesium uptake in insulin-sensitive tissues.
So when you have bastardised mineral metabolism (via vitamin D deficiency, for example) you have an innate insulin resistance that has nothing to do with intake. You can MANAGE this insulin resistance via forced exercise, as people like me and @Cirion have in the past, but it comes at the cost of HPA axis dysfuction which, again, lowers your capacity to function as a human being to meet your innate needs. It drastically lowers your capacity to thrive. In an ideal world we would all have the time and space to recover and get sunshine with a support network and an understanding employer, but that's simply not the real world. Things are further complicated in that these states leave people more susceptile to bacterial imbalances or immune challenges that can overburden the liver and reduce capacity for sleep, exercise and recovery.
If you do not have the mineral status/uptake capacity to correctly respond to food inputs and produce energy via ATP, then forcing exercise will mean running on stress hormones and eventually severely impaired adrenals - you might trivialise this state as preferable to obesity (which could be argued), but it really does depend on a person's life situation and their freedom (and time to sift through information and find their own path!) to move towards recovery. I do not know if you've lived this situation, but it can be crippling.
Thank you for the video.
I think you're trivialising something that's far more complex than just stating biochemistry. Even beyond all that stuff I've written above, the assumption that our knowledge of physiology and biochemistry is even remotely complete is a dangerous one, especially when it is used to push an authoritarian understanding to a person in a position you've likely never been in. To condemn a person for their sickness.
I'm not saying personal responsibility and food choices aren't important, of course they are, I'm saying that it's a far more complex picture than you're painting. These trends we see in society aren't just people being greedy or lazy, they're people INTUITIVELY finding function as best they can in light of inaccurate information, overwhelming life stress, or lots of other factors like having too many distractions and poor access to information. People are coping as best they can in the circumstances, obesity is NOT a simple choice.
IF a person has insulin resistance and they're also overweight with decent HPA axis and general adrenal function then some forced exercise MIGHT give them the ability and clarity of mind to move towards a more balanced path, absolutely, but if a person is overweight and very very stressed (beyond the innate stress of insulin resistance) then you HAVE TO solve their mineral metabolism issues before pursuing any other path.
I so often see simple correlation in science used as a tool to condemn people in complex health situations and I'm really passionate about making sure these views are challenged. I know plenty of people that haven't once in their life thought about alcohol intake or the foods they eat. They're all from privileged backgrounds with low stress lives and they don't face obesity.
"Over" eating is not simply greed, it's an intuitive coping mechanism to find function to survive and thrive in a challenging environment - mineral metabolism is key.
I understand the point you're making and I'm not refuting that PIECE of the puzzle, but you're using a very slim piece of a very complex puzzle and using it to effectively condemn people to worse health. Looking at insulin resistance in a vacuum is not often helpful to a person's health, although in very very specific cases it might be a temporary tool, but it has to be used in the understanding it's just a coping mechanism and not a path to health!
PS: I am not obese, I'm far closer to recovery than I have been in the past but I have chosen the "lack of function" side of things as I have the time and space to do so. I'm extremely fortunate! Finding such a balance is not easy and has taken years of reflection on my experiences and reactions and sifting through information. I just wanted to assert that this isn't a defensive response and I have no vested interest in the argument - it's merely my own reflection and a very very passionate fight back against what I'm observing in the world.
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