@Jon
If I’m not mistaken soluble fibers, cellulose and quite a few other fibers can be fermented into scfa’s. I know starch has helped many people but I also know it has hurt many people. The difference is gut flora. I think most people should be able to digest starch overall but I think many people have dysbiotic bowels. As an example I have a klebsiella overgrowth in my bowel and if I eat any starch at all I get pain throughout my spine, rashes on my body and pain in my eyes. I have been surviving without starch and doing well for years now (I continue to lift on a no starch diet and make progress and my body fat percentage has stayed around 10% [visible abs all year round] despite eating 300g of sugar and 160-200g of fat). Also, I still had short chain fatty acids in my stool at normal levels despite the lack of starch in my diet. Do I think the starch is the culprit? Nah. It’s the dysbiosis, which I plan to treat. With this in mind I dont think starch is neccesary, carbohydrate and some fiber is definetly neccesary tho.
Also sugar, especially sugar from fruits can reliably increase insulin sensitivity. My hemoglobin A1c was below the reference range on a diet that had no starch but had alot of fruit sugar from juice and fruits. The diet was not low fat either. I’m pretty sure insulin insensitivity is a function of inflammation and an issue with the liver and/ or damage to the cells ability to oxidize the sugar most likely an effect from PUFA, bacterial end products and other toxins (heavy metals etc). Fats can induce a transient insulin insensitivty due to the randle effect but I dont think this is a bad thing, I actually think this is a good thing as it allows the blood sugar to be elevated longer thus keeping stress hormones down longer and allowing people to last longer between meals. I dont think the randle effect impairs insulin sensitivity overall, I have a sneaky suspicion that some tissues get shuttled fat to oxidize such as the muscles while others get shuttled glucose such as the nervous system and the organs, in an intelligent partitioning effect thus sparing the sugars for “higher order tissues and functions”.
Without the dysbiosis, I think that using a combination of starch from yams and potatoes, sugars from fruits and juice, and fats from mufa/ safa sources would probably be beneficial overall, especially for someone exercising (its really hard to gain weight on just fruits, juices and fats).
If I’m not mistaken soluble fibers, cellulose and quite a few other fibers can be fermented into scfa’s. I know starch has helped many people but I also know it has hurt many people. The difference is gut flora. I think most people should be able to digest starch overall but I think many people have dysbiotic bowels. As an example I have a klebsiella overgrowth in my bowel and if I eat any starch at all I get pain throughout my spine, rashes on my body and pain in my eyes. I have been surviving without starch and doing well for years now (I continue to lift on a no starch diet and make progress and my body fat percentage has stayed around 10% [visible abs all year round] despite eating 300g of sugar and 160-200g of fat). Also, I still had short chain fatty acids in my stool at normal levels despite the lack of starch in my diet. Do I think the starch is the culprit? Nah. It’s the dysbiosis, which I plan to treat. With this in mind I dont think starch is neccesary, carbohydrate and some fiber is definetly neccesary tho.
Also sugar, especially sugar from fruits can reliably increase insulin sensitivity. My hemoglobin A1c was below the reference range on a diet that had no starch but had alot of fruit sugar from juice and fruits. The diet was not low fat either. I’m pretty sure insulin insensitivity is a function of inflammation and an issue with the liver and/ or damage to the cells ability to oxidize the sugar most likely an effect from PUFA, bacterial end products and other toxins (heavy metals etc). Fats can induce a transient insulin insensitivty due to the randle effect but I dont think this is a bad thing, I actually think this is a good thing as it allows the blood sugar to be elevated longer thus keeping stress hormones down longer and allowing people to last longer between meals. I dont think the randle effect impairs insulin sensitivity overall, I have a sneaky suspicion that some tissues get shuttled fat to oxidize such as the muscles while others get shuttled glucose such as the nervous system and the organs, in an intelligent partitioning effect thus sparing the sugars for “higher order tissues and functions”.
Without the dysbiosis, I think that using a combination of starch from yams and potatoes, sugars from fruits and juice, and fats from mufa/ safa sources would probably be beneficial overall, especially for someone exercising (its really hard to gain weight on just fruits, juices and fats).