The PaleoMom: The Case for More Carbs

PaleoMom (Sarah Ballantyne) just put up an article that will undoubtedly be a lightning rod.

The Case for More Carbs

Perhaps an alternate title could be "Why Insulin Is Important and Necessary." Sections include:

• Insulin and Thyroid Function
• Insulin and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism
• Insulin and Bone Health
• Insulin and the Central Nervous System
• Insulin and Hormone Regulation
• Insulin and Immune Health

Thanks for the link. I was a very interesting article. I have been following Sarah Ballantyne for a while now and always interested in her take on things. Below are some quoted parts of the article followed by my thoughts.

A variety of studies demonstrate that muscle mass is a better predictor of all-cause mortality than BMI, meaning, it’s more important to build muscle than to lose fat from a health and longevity standpoint.

I can see this. From a personal standpoint my family (especially the women), on my dad's side, are larger framed people with a lot of muscle mass. Even my grandmother, at 85 years old was a strong, stalky woman. And she did not die of disease but simply fell asleep one night and didn't wake up.

In the innate immune system, insulin signaling activates neutrophils (the first line of defense cells during infection or injury), regulates their migration from the blood in to tissues, and stimulates phagocytosis (the process of engulfing pathogens). Similarly, insulin signaling increases that phagocytic activity of macrophages (sentinel immune cells resident in all tissues in the body) and activates dendritic cells (sentinel immune cells found in barrier tissues). Insulin also enhances the cytotoxicity of natural killer cells (whose job it is to destroy virally-infected cells and cancerous cells). When insulin levels are elevated, these effects result in generalized inflammation; however, when insulin resistance becomes advanced, the activity of these innate immune system cells becomes impaired.

Interesting. This is certainly a different take than the old, "insulin increases inflammation" stance we most often hear.

Maintaining insulin sensitivity is essential for health, but avoiding or drastically reducing carbohydrate intake isn’t necessary. Keeping blood sugar levels within a healthy range is easy if we limit ourselves to whole-food sources of carbohydrates (like starchy root vegetables and whole fruits) and eat them as part of a meal that includes animal protein and nonstarchy high-fiber veggies (like kale or broccoli).

So, she's basically saying we should just stay paleo/primal and call it a day! I guess she IS the Paleo Mom.

Insulin sensitivity is also inextricably tied to how much sleep we get, how stressed we are and how active we are. In fact, studies show that one night of poor sleep causes higher insulin resistance than 6 months of bad diet.

If this is true I would interested to know how many people are on insulin or metformin simply because they had blood work done and ONE bad night of sleep, or a few bad nights have caused a false positive for increased blood glucose.

The majority of hunter-gatherer populations ate between 22 and 40% of their calories as carbohydrates, 19 to 35% protein, and 28 to 58% fat. That translates to 110 to 200 grams of total carbohydrates per day on a 2000-calorie diet.

Hmmm...that certainly argues against the 80/20 rule we have all come to understand and regard in our daily lives.

I haven't read the studies she is citing to back this up but from what I know of Sarah Ballantyne she is a very intelligent, academic, and well-researched doctor. I agree, Sharperhawk, that she likely has caused a stir with this article. It definitely threatens a few of the "experts" that now sell their ketogenic protocol. I am curious to read about the fall-out of this in the coming days/weeks.

As a side note....I really like listening to her but I rarely do because I can not STAND her podcast co-host. Gah! I just can't seem to find any level of affinity for Stacy Toth.