So, again, step 1 is to remove all the REFINED carbohydrates from your diet.
Although our culture is (literally!) addicted to all the added sugars and flours in all the refined-carbohydrate junk foods we eat and their presence is UBIQUITOUS—from the cafeterias in elite prep schools and hospitals to Fortune 100 break rooms—no one serious about Optimizing is going to argue that these refined carbs should be a part of our diet.
Yet… As Emerson says, it will take something truly heroic in you (godlike he says!) to do what you feel is right. As he says: “And truly it demands something godlike in him who cast off the common motives of humanity and ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster.”
<- Yep. That’s about right.
So… We take that first step and remove all REFINED carbohydrates from our lives. (APPLAUSE!!)
Now… The question is, what quantity of NATURAL carbohydrates can you tolerate?
This is part of Maffetone’s “Two-Week Test” which a) we’ve talked about in our other Notes and b) I REALLY like because c) it accounts for the fact that we’re all individuals.
Maffetone isn’t saying that ALL carbs are bad and that EVERYONE needs to be on a ketogenic diet tomorrow. (Hah.)
He is saying, however, that we’d be wise to TEST OURSELVES and see what our personal level of tolerance for carbohydrates looks like.
Check out The Two-Week Test on Maff’s site here.
Basic idea: Start by making a note of how you feel on Day 1. Then eliminate all refined carbs AND all natural carbs for the two-week test. That means none of the obvious junk food stuff like donuts and Cheetos. AND… None of the other highly refined carb products like breads and pasta. THEN, for the two-week test period, you’ll also eliminate things like potatoes and corn and rice.
(Note: Is that a moderately-challenging project? Yes. But, I might be shouting, PLEASE REMEMBER: It’s a LOT EASIER to PREVENT chronic diseases than it is to RECOVER from them. So… If you’re feeling it, get your motivation up to 212° and crush it.)
What will you eat instead? Check out the site for the details. Two weeks. Test it.
How will you feel after that test? Odds are, you’re going to feel a LOT better.
Then, you begin the next phase and start adding back NATURAL carbs. Note: There’s a big difference between “natural” carbs and “refined carbs.” The refined carbs? Those are (at least should be!) 100% gone forever. As in, non-negotiable, “I care about my health and the health of my family way too much to go back!” style.
Maffetone says that there are really only two distinct cuisines: Healthy food and junk food. Healthy food is “real, naturally occurring, unadulterated and unprocessed, and nutrient-rich. If you can grow or raise it, it’s real. Included are fresh fruits and vegetables, lentils and beans, eggs, real cheese, whole pieces of meat (such as fish, beef, chicken), nuts, seeds, and similar items.”
As you add back some natural carbs like berries and other low-glycemic foods (again, check out the book or his site for the details), ask yourself, “How do I feel when I eat this?”
That’s how you identify your level of carbohydrate intolerance. Yours will be different than mine (which happens to be high—carbs and I don’t get along particularly well) and different than Maffetone’s. The question is: What is it? Then, we simply tailor our lives to Optimize.
Essentially, maintaining our optimal lean body weight (and the energy levels that go with that!) is all about controlling our insulin levels. Sugar and refined, high-glycemic carbs tend to jack our insulin up (then down!), leading to fluctuations in our energy levels and weight and mood. Get insulin under control and the rest follows.
Let’s go back to Robert Lustig for some more wisdom from Fat Chance before wrapping it up. He tells us: “Insulin, in common parlance, is known as the diabetes hormone. Diabetics inject insulin to lower their blood glucose. But where does the glucose go? To the fat. Insulin’s actual job is to be your energy storage hormone. When you eat something (usually containing some form of carbohydrate), your blood glucose rises, signaling the pancreas to release insulin commensurate with the rise in blood glucose. … Insulin then tops off the liver’s energy reserve by making liver starch (called glycogen), and shunts any amino acids from the blood into muscle cells. Excess fatty acids, or blood lipids, are cleared into fat cells for storage for a ‘rainy day,’ where they get turned into greasy triglycerides (such as the fat surrounding your steak). There is no energy storage without insulin—it is the key that unlocks the door to the fat cell to let energy enter and subsequently be stored as fat. Insulin makes fat—the more insulin, the more fat. And there it sits . . . and sits . . . for as long as there is insulin around. When the insulin levels drop, the process goes in reverse: the triglycerides get broken down, causing the fat cells to shrink—when it happens, that’s weight loss!—and the fatty acids reenter the bloodstream and travel back to the liver, where they are burned by the liver or other organs. In this way, by cycling our insulin up and down, we burn what we need, and store the rest.”
And: “There is no fat accumulation without insulin. Insulin shunts sugar to fat. It makes your fat cells grow. The more insulin, the more fat, period. While there are many causes of obesity, excess insulin in some form is the ‘final common pathway’ for the overwhelming majority of them. Block it, and the fat cells remain empty.”
In short, one more time: Want to be optimalfat instead of overfat? Optimize your insulin.
How will YOU Optimize *your* insulin just a little more today? Here’s to being the change, Optimizing our lives and the lives of our families, communities and world as we heroically meet the myriad of challenges facing our world today,
