redsun
Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2018
- Messages
- 3,013
Although I think McDougall's diet is somewhat flawed, I definitely agree with him here. Randle et al. showed this quite nicely in the 60's and others have shown in the decades since. Fat is the problem, not sugar.
My issue with McDougall is the heavy starch consumption and relative protein deficiency. He has age spots now and has prematurely aged skin. He looks about 10 years older than his age to me which makes me think the heavy starch consumption is leading to elevated insulin (despite insulin resistance being low since his fat intake is very low) and the lack of adequate protein may be leading to premature wrinkles due to insufficient collagen production. It's speculation but it's a likely possibility. So basically, I think his insulin is high but he isn't insulin resistant so his blood sugar is normal.
I think Peat is right about getting adequate protein (80-100 grams per day). McDougall claims we only need about 28-30 grams per day but I get ravenously hungry and my brain gets foggy if I don't eat a lot of protein consistently throughout the day no matter how much sugar I get. I'm at about 120 grams per day now with 2ish quarts of milk and lots of shrimp/lean chicken breast.
Lack of animal fat and especially cholesterol is also the problem in aging not just the lack of protein. Dietary Fat (not including PUFA oils) is not the problem causing insulin resistance, body fat is the problem raising FFA very high in the blood and reducing the ability to use glucose like you are supposed to. Of course there is much more to what affects IR (such as liver health) but thats the main issue imo. Clearly Mcdougall's aging problem is primarily a protein thing because he eats almost none, but fat is also necessary just like protein to reduce and prevent aging.
Eating almost entirely starch leaves the body with very little raw material for cell membranes (choline, cholesterol, fatty acids, amino acids etc.) and bodily tissues. Plant based diet is also incredibly low in zinc not too mention its bioavailability is already low and this lack of zinc (which is required for protein synthesis) is not helping the cause.
A lack of carbs will cause aging in its own way, just like a lack of protein or fat. Extreme macro ratios cause the most aging.
Mcdougall diet if I recall correctly is a very low fat, low palatability diet which causes the body to burn through its body fat to provide energy from fatty acids in cells that primarily use fat (which is most cells). So insulin sensitivity is improved by loss of body fat.