Amazing "Croissant Diet" Experiment Results (Stearic Acid/Saturated Fat)

[ecstatichamster]

Are you eating it on its own? It might be too much stearic acid.

The post about the diet does mention starch as a great vehicle for SFA. It might be necessary.

I've eaten it quite frequently but probably am eating too much.

I am also eating a bit of starch and plenty of sugar.

 

[Blossom]

Ironically I had added cocoa butter to my coffee one night before work last week and ended up burping up the cocoa butter all night and then having diarrhea. The next time I tried cocoa butter in my coffee I had it with a meal and everything was fine. @Xisca & @Lollipop2 can vouch for my story because we discussed it at the time. I believe it was on 12/8/19.

 

[Lollipop2]

Lecithin can't be isolated totally from PUFAs. It's comes from plant seeds such as soy and sunflower, which are. high in PUFAs.

+1 and also @Ivysaur it is a cheap excipient that companies use to help the chocolate flow easier. Rather than using skill they add this to make it easier.

 

[Lollipop2]

Ironically I had added cocoa butter to my coffee one night before work last week and ended up burping up the cocoa butter all night and then having diarrhea. The next time I tried cocoa butter in my coffee I had it with a meal and everything was fine. @Xisca & @Lollipop2 can vouch for my story because we discussed it at the time. I believe it was on 12/8/19.

Actually it was your story @Blossom that made me want to try it sometime - so I definitely remember it, you made it sound delicious.

 

[Blossom]

Actually it was your story @Blossom that made me want to try it sometime - so I definitely remember it, you made it sound delicious.

Yes, it was delicious especially when you miss having chocolate.

 

[yerrag]

This may be a reason why this works:
Dietary stearic acid regulates mitochondria in vivo in humans

Since modern foods are unnaturally enriched in single metabolites, it is important to understand which metabolites are sensed by the human body and which are not.

We previously showed that the fatty acid stearic acid (C18:0) signals via a dedicated pathway to regulate mitofusin activity and thereby mitochondrial morphology and function in cell culture. Whether this pathway is poised to sense changes in dietary intake of C18:0 in humans is not known. We show here that C18:0 ingestion rapidly and robustly causes mitochondrial fusion in people within 3 h after ingestion. C18:0 intake also causes a drop in circulating long-chain acylcarnitines, suggesting increased fatty acid beta-oxidation in vivo. This work thereby identifies C18:0 as a dietary metabolite that is sensed by our bodies to control our mitochondria. This could explain part of the epidemiological differences between C16:0 and C18:0, whereby C16:0 increases cardiovascular and cancer risk whereas C18:0 decreases both

This study shows that stearic acid requires l-carnitine for stearic acid to be metabolized, as opposed to palmitic acid, which does not require l-carnitine to be metabolized. It merely says longer chain fats require l-carnitine for metabolism. Nothing else can be concluded.

It also shows that stearic acid enables mitochondrial fusion, but I'm not sure what the significance of this is. How this relates to metabolic implications that lead to weight loss still needs to be explained.

Lastly, this study subscribes to the idea that palmitic acid increases cardiovascular and cancer risk. If you do a title search on 'palmitic' with haidut as poster in our forum, you will see the opposite characterization of palmitic acid. I have to be wary of the conclusions of this study, as it miscasts a beneficial substance as carcinogenic, and makes a distinction between palmitic acid and stearic acid, as demonstrated in the study, as contributory to the putative characterization of palmitic acid as a fatty acid that "increases cardiovascular and cancer risk."

And this:
Insulin Stimulates Mitochondrial Fusion and Function in Cardiomyocytes via the Akt-mTOR-NFκB-Opa-1 Signaling Pathway

Insulin regulates heart metabolism through the regulation of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. Studies have indicated that insulin can also regulate mitochondrial function.

Relevant to this idea, mitochondrial function is impaired in diabetic individuals.

Furthermore, the expression of Opa-1 and mitofusins, proteins of the mitochondrial fusion machinery, is dramatically altered in obese and insulin-resistant patients.

Given the role of insulin in the control of cardiac energetics, the goal of this study was to investigate whether insulin affects mitochondrial dynamics in cardiomyocytes.

Confocal microscopy and the mitochondrial dye MitoTracker Green were used to obtain three-dimensional images of the mitochondrial network in cardiomyocytes and L6 skeletal muscle cells in culture.

Three hours of insulin treatment increased Opa-1 protein levels, promoted mitochondrial fusion, increased mitochondrial membrane potential, and elevated both intracellular ATP levels and oxygen consumption in cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo.

Consequently, the silencing of Opa-1 or Mfn2 prevented all the metabolic effects triggered by insulin. We also provide evidence indicating that insulin increases mitochondrial function in cardiomyocytes through the Akt-mTOR-NFκB signaling pathway. These data demonstrate for the first time in our knowledge that insulin acutely regulates mitochondrial metabolism in cardiomyocytes through a mechanism that depends on increased mitochondrial fusion, Opa-1, and the Akt-mTOR-NFκB pathway.

I question the statement that "insulin regulates heart metabolism through the regulation of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake."

Insulin, as the attached review states, is miscast as needed for glucose uptake by peripheral tissues. What insulin does is that it is an inhibitor of glycogenolysis, liposis, proteolysis, gluconeogenesis, and ketogenesis. We don't need insulin for glucose uptake (For glucose uptake, we need potassium.)

If a faulty predicate is used as a building block for investigation, it just makes the entire study a case of rationalizing the data to fit the conclusions, imho.

It is entirely possible that insulin helps regulate all metabolic activity such that there is order instead of mayhem, and that the increased mitochondrial function is the result of such order.

What,s wrong if we ingest some palmitic bingo-bongo along with the stearic one?

A lot, only if the intent is to get 100% stearic acid. If the presence of palmitic acid negates the beneficial activity of stearic acid, it would be a concern.

 

[yerrag]

I am just lost with the theme of ROS.... so that is a real question I was asking!

This is a vexing question.

As far as I know, ROS is a by-product of oxidation metabolism. It is also used in killing pathogens, as during phagocytosis. I don't know what else ROS does.

Being a by-product of oxidative metabolism, it is a necessary evil. In this context, it's not good but this evil comes with the good - oxidative metabolism, which we need for energy. So it can be confused as a good thing, but only by association. It is really bad, and as such, has to be neutralized by our body's store of anti-oxidants such as glutathione, vitamin E, uric acid, albumin etc.

But as far as its use in killing pathogens, it is a good thing. Yet the bad is that ROS escapes into surrounding tissues, after killing pathogens, and it can destroy adjacent useful tissues. So it still needs to be quelled by anti-oxidants.

So, it confuses me when the link in the original post talks about saturated fats producing ROS and unsaturated fats not doing that. And in the way it's described, producing ROS is seen as a good thing. It doesn't explain why, and leaves the reader to accept the premise. It does not even bother to explain that statement, a sign of a poor writer, or a sign of intentional obfuscation.

 

[KTownSatfats]

Hi People! I’ve been reading here for a few years, trying to be Peatish as best I can, as well as using Haidut’s supplements.
I’ve been following this thread closely due to the fact that I’ve been failing in my efforts to avoid a fattish belly while still trying to eat enough to not ruin my metabolism. Probably too late on that one, the metabolism that is. But anyway, the stearic acid thing does seem interesting to me. A day or two ago I went and got a bar of white chocolate for starters. I’ve always felt that white chocolate is lame, fairly tasteless, and why not go for the real thing? However, suddenly, (just a little bit at a time, mind you) I’m loving it. I have some of my favorite Peatish dark chocolate around (Alter Eco, organic no lecithin, and extremely tasty), but am not bothering with it, for the first time in years. I’m finding dramatically less appetite in general, even for my favorites. I don’t understand it. I know from experience that losing weight by cutting calories is not cool, but like some others here, I’ve got to make myself eat when consuming the white chocolate. I’m trying the new ruby chocolate too, which I just discovered. It seems much like the white.
So besides the preliminary report, I have a question. I couldn’t get a straight answer googling. Is it actually important that if we’re getting the stearic acid from a chocolate source it needs to be white? Darker chocolate seems like it would have its share of cocoa butter too, no? Just wondering, though, as I didn’t have these effects from my habitual dark chocolate intake.

 

[JohnA]

I read the whole thread and blog post... Why is this much better than just eating white rice with a half stick of butter melted in? The rice is a better starch than bread, and that much butter has a decent amount of stearic acid?

 

[yerrag]

I read the whole thread and blog post... Why is this much better than just eating white rice with a half stick of butter melted in? The rice is a better starch than bread, and that much butter has a decent amount of stearic acid?

If you can find a tabular breakdown of the fatty acids in butter and compare it to tallow and to cocoa butter, you may make a good case.

 

[tankasnowgod]

I read the whole thread and blog post... Why is this much better than just eating white rice with a half stick of butter melted in? The rice is a better starch than bread, and that much butter has a decent amount of stearic acid?

More fun maybe. If you look at the FAQ on Brad's website, he basically says you can adapt the diet however you see fit, with the primary goal being maximizing SFA and minimizing UFA. Adding in stearic acid helps to replicate the diet of the mouse study.

 

[paulwalkerrip]

@KTownSatfats I had a similar experience with white chocolate after reading his post!

Had a huge craving for it and when I got my hands on it it really hit the spot. My friend even offered me pizza and I declined because I was full!

 

[JohnA]

He has a table in his blog post.

OK. Butter is much lower than cocoa butter or beef tallow. But still 4x coconut oil.

 

[yerrag]

He has a table in his blog post.

OK. Butter is much lower than cocoa butter or beef tallow. But still 4x coconut oil.

Thanks. I didn't get that far reading the article.

I used beef tallow over steamed rice. Tastes good. I wouldn't even know it's there, unlike better, as butter has a more distinctive taste. I make my own beef tallow from beef fat that I get from my butcher. I don't know if I'll put cocoa butter over rice though. It doesn't seem to go well, but I could be wrong. You have to enjoy what you're eating, otherwise it would be hard to make it a lifestyle.

 

[Blossom]

This site has a good breakdown of the fatty acids in various foods.

Nutrition calculator: computes nutrition value of a meal

 

[Blossom]

This is a screenshot for butter. Octadecanoic is stearic acid.

 

[yerrag]

View attachment 15984 This is a screenshot for butter. Octadecanoic is stearic acid.

Thanks Blossom. This is ad-free as well!

 

[MigFon]

Hello everybody. I just wanted to report the following for consideration:

Yesterday I experimented melting 2 x 80g tablets of 90% Cacao in 1 liter of whole milk, with 2 tablespoons of honey and some cinnamon to taste, and I drank half in the morning and half at lunch time. Essentially 2 low carb/low protein/High fat meals.
Latter I had a social event and I forced myself to eat about 100g of sirloin plus a little rice.
At nighttime I ate 220g of toasted bread + a 80 something grams of kerrygold.

I noticed an unbelivable satiation during the day, my temperature rose to 37-37.2ºC during the morning and remained somewhat stable until lunchtime, which is a first for me.
After lunchtime it rose to 37.4ºC and remained that way until about 20H00 when I ate the bread with butter. I could not believe each reading so I just kept repeating them and temps seemed stable as a rock.

Now the bad part is, I literally felt like I had taken too much T3 or too much cyproheptadine, which I don't take regularly anymore by the way.
I felt a weird feeling in my chest, somewhat of a pounding heart (unfortunately I haven't measured pulse, I wish I had done so...), sweaty hands, dizziness and felt like I was about to faint sometimes. Weird stuff...

All the effects stopped as soon as I ate the high carb/high fat meal at night.

Today my temperature was below normal in the morning upon waking.
As someone has already said in this thread, this seems like uncharted territory... Be careful.

Today I am experimenting with 3 square meals of sirloin + rice/potatoes and eating a 90% cacao tablet after each meal, and, so far, temps have remained between 36,8ºC and 37ºC, as usual for me. No weird effects.

I don't know what to make of all of this but, I will keep experimenting with this stuff.

 

[tankasnowgod]

Hello everybody. I just wanted to report the following for consideration:

Yesterday I experimented melting 2 x 80g tablets of 90% Cacao in 1 liter of whole milk, with 2 tablespoons of honey and some cinnamon to taste, and I drank half in the morning and half at lunch time. Essentially 2 low carb/low protein/High fat meals.
Latter I had a social event and I forced myself to eat about 100g of sirloin plus a little rice.
At nighttime I ate 220g of toasted bread + a 80 something grams of kerrygold.

Sounds delicious. How did the Cacao stay in solution in milk? Did you refrigerate it afterwards?

Now the bad part is, I literally felt like I had taken too much T3 or too much cyproheptadine, which I don't take regularly anymore by the way.
I felt a weird feeling in my chest, somewhat of a pounding heart (unfortunately I haven't measured pulse, I wish I had done so...), sweaty hands, dizziness and felt like I was about to faint sometimes. Weird stuff...

All the effects stopped as soon as I ate the high carb/high fat meal at night.

Today my temperature was below normal in the morning upon waking.
As someone has already said in this thread, this seems like uncharted territory... Be careful.

Also good advice. I've actually been doing some minor adaptations this week, and its treated me well so far, though no dramatic results, either.

 

[MigFon]

Sounds delicious. How did the Cacao stay in solution in milk? Did you refrigerate it afterwards?




Also good advice. I've actually been doing some minor adaptations this week, and its treated me well so far, though no dramatic results, either.

Everything remained homogenous, more or less... The cacao did had some soy lecithin, which probably helped.

I drank the first half while it was still warm and just let the second half remain at room temperature, so it was pretty cold (it's winter here) when I drank it. Amazingly, it was still able to make heat up further….