Giraffe
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I resume:Derek said:post 113778Giraffe said:post 113771Cortisol functions to increase blood sugar through gluconeogenesis (= generation of glucose from non-carbohydrate carbon substrates). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CortisolDerek said:post 113649Daimyo said:post 113603Derek said:post 113465 [highlight=yellow]Taking sugar lowers cortisol, basically making you hypothyroid, and even more zinc deficient.[/highlight] So over time this can cause serious issues. I have seen this with fruitarians and high carb vegan/vegetarians. Now, you are probably much better off seeing as you eat meat routinely, I was just explaining the relationship between cortisol/sugar/thyroid/zinc.
Can you elaborate on that please?
When you have high cortisol it's an adaptive/protective response by the body. It happens when you are zinc deficient/hypothyroid, cortisol temporarily can increase temps, pulse and metabolic rate; that's why high cortisol can make you warm/hot, have high heart rate, etc... So if high cortisol is adaptive to a zinc deficient/hypo metabolic state, taking sugar to lower it; without correcting the initial cause of the high cortisol, is going to cause issues long term. Sugar does lower cortisol, so does zinc. I'm just saying it's better to eat zinc and lower it, than to take a chemical which lowers it, but makes the initial cause (zinc deficiency) worse!
So ingesting carbs looks like a promising way to prevent cortisol raising in the first place. Don't you think so? And since fructose inhibits the stimulation of insulin by glucose, fruits and table sugar are preferable over starch. (see Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context)
I already said I agree sugar lowers cortisol. But it doesn't address the reason you had high cortisol in the first place. No I don't think fruit/sugar are better than starch because you need insulin to tolerate/handle carbohydrate. So something that lowers insulin is going to make it harder to tolerate the carbs. That's why most people I know tolerate starch better than sugar, more insulin to process it. I have applied this to real people in the real world.
1. The diet should provide adequate amounts of nutrients including zinc.
2. Your claim that sugar depletes zinc via raised insulin in unsubstantiated.
I would like to add that Ray Peat recommends to have carbs, protein and fat together.
RP: The amino acids in the protein themselves are strong stimulants of the insulin secretion and when you don't take in sugar, the insulin to dispose of the protein will lower your blood sugar and to prevent the blood sugar going down you tend to produce either adrenalin or cortisol or both. And if your liver didn't have the glycogen stored to release glucose under the influence of adrenalin, then you depend on cortisol to keep your blood sugar steady and cortisol activates the conversion of protein to sugar and fat and so you've destroyed a big part of the protein that you've just eaten.
KMUD Interview: Sugar Myth 2 (2011)
Regarding starch vs. fructose, thyroid function
Question: Someone with hypothyroidism and low cholesterol, what can their link be there?
RP: Probably eating too much starch. That’s the commonest cause of that pattern. Fructose in particular acts very much like T3. Both glucose and fructose increase the conversion of the inactive thyroxine to the active T3. They do several things to increase the thyroid activity, lowering the stress hormone as well as increasing the active thyroid hormone and the energy provided by both the glucose and the T3 in the liver will give it the energy to produce the cholesterol that is needed if you are eating enough sugar and not producing toxins in the intestines, by eating hard to digest fibrous foods.
Int: So they can replace their starchy carbohydrates with fruit and honey in combination with protein, so it’s not just sugar on it’s own and that would help with their liver, increase thyroid hormone and increase their cholesterol.
RP: Yeah and all of the sugary fruits come with a very high concentration of potassium and other minerals that help to metabolise the sugar in a safe way so you don’t turn it into fat.
KMUD Interview: Sugar Myths 1 (2011)
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