Dietary Proteins Contribute Little To Glucose Production

[Westside PUFAs]

"Dietary proteins are believed to participate significantly in maintaining blood glucose levels, but their contribution to endogenous glucose production (EGP) remains unclear. We investigated this question using multiple stable isotopes. After overnight fasting, eight healthy volunteers received an intravenous infusion of [6,6-2H2]-glucose. Two hours later, they ingested four eggs containing 23 g of intrinsically, uniformly, and doubly [15N]-[13C]– labeled proteins. Gas exchanges, expired CO2, blood, and urine were collected over the 8 h following egg ingestion. The cumulative amount of dietary amino acids (AAs) deaminated over this 8-h period was 18.1 6 3.5%, 17.5% of them being oxidized. The EGP remained stable for 6 h but fell thereafter, concomitantly with blood glucose levels. During the 8 h after egg ingestion, 50.4 6 7.7 g of glucose was produced, but only 3.9 6 0.7 g orig- inated from dietary AA. Our results show that the total postprandial contribution of dietary AA to EGP was small in humans habituated to a diet medium-rich in proteins, even after an over- night fast and in the absence of carbohydrates from the meal. These findings question the respective roles of dietary proteins and endogenous sources in generating significant amounts of glucose in order to maintain blood glucose levels in healthy subjects."

http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/62/5/1435.full.pdf

 

[ecstatichamster]

Very interesting because low carb eating is suggested as causing catabolic loss of lean mass. A good reason to eat carbs.

 

[Strongbad]

The biggest elephant in the room is not the protein itself but all the amino acids that are included in that protein-based food. There're more to our nutrition than just calorie, carbs, fat and protein. I'm talking about cysteine, tyrosine, lysine, glycine, zinc, copper, iron etc.

 

[michael94]

I would think gluconeogenesis ramps up when you restrict carbs for a while and the transient brain-fog when removing carbs is due to that adaptation. Also, wouldn't we be more adapted to using muscle meats as a substrate rather than eggs? All animals use their own muscle in times of starvation so we are more optimized for using those sorts.

 

[Gl;itch.e]

I would think gluconeogenesis ramps up when you restrict carbs for a while and the transient brain-fog when removing carbs is due to that adaptation. Also, wouldn't we be more adapted to using muscle meats as a substrate rather than eggs? All animals use their own muscle in times of starvation so we are more optimized for using those sorts.

Autophagy? I'm pretty sure this only applies when fasted from protein. Otherwise food protein would get oxidised first. Also with Autophagy its supposedly damaged "junk" proteins that are used first before tearing into the good stuff