It is important to use the right fuel… both for cars and for people. For instance, one could put aviation fuel or diesel fuel into a gas burning automobile engine and it would burn for a while the wrong fuel… but the engine would be damaged because it would be damaged by excess heat and/or byproducts of inefficient combustion. Similarly, the human body needs correct food to run run correctly. The body obtains water, fiber, nutrients and fuel from the food we eat. Each of these is critically important. But, of prime importance is the “fuel” portion of food. The body can only burn two types of fuel: Sugar or fat. Although either fuel will work, FAT is the best energy source. It is the the fuel we should primarily utilize in our bodies because it does far less damage to our bodies than does burning sugar/carbohydrates.
FAT BURNING KEY CONCEPTS:
1. Creating energy, by burning fuel, is necessary, but it is destructive to our bodies, just like burning gasoline or diesel is necessary, but destructive to the engine of the automobile.
2. Fat is a more efficient energy source (releasing more than twice as much energy than is released by burning sugar).
3. Along with containing a greater density of energy, fat, when burned for energy, releases far fewer free radicals (damaging elements) than does burning sugar (for the same amount of energy)
4. Summary of fat versus sugar:
■ Sugar burns very fast and produces a lot of wasted energy in the form of damaging free radicals.
■ That’s why our cells were designed to burn sugar only temporarily in times of great exigency, when the damage from free radicals is not as important as dealing with the emergency.
■ If our bodies had been designed to primarily burn sugar as a fuel, then we would store sugar cubes within our bodies, but we don’t, we store fat. We store only minor amounts of sugar (in the form of glycogen) – enough to last for 30 to 60 minutes of exertion.
■ Sugar causes glycation (alteration of our proteins)
■ Fat – greater energy is furnished for the amount of material burned
■ The amount of free radicals released as byproducts of energy creation is less.
■ Fat can come directly from food eaten or the body can get fat from our stored fat. This is very important, because we need to be able to be active even if we haven’t been able to eat in the last few hours.
Unfortunately, most people’s cells have been ‘conditioned’ to burn SUGAR, with a whole host of resulting bad consequences.
■ The bodies of sugar burning people (the majority of people over the age of 35) have large pantries of stored fat, but the cells of their bodies ignore that fat and look only for sugar. If there is no sugar available, such as when a person is sleeping, then the body will dismantle bones and muscles and convert those proteins in sugar to be burned for energy. This is the major cause of loss of muscle and osteoporosis as we get older.
■ This unhealthy situation is the result of the hypothalamus (energy controlling gland in the brain) signaling the cells of our bodies to ONLY burn sugar, instead of fat.
■ This is the result of leptin levels that have gone so high (above 9.0 ng/ml) that the hypothalamus has become unable to understand the leptin signals.
■ Leptin is a messenger molecule made in fat cells that communications to the hypothalamus how much fat is stored in the body to the hypothalamus.
■ Unless leptin levels go lower and stay between 4.0 ng/ml and 9.0 ng/ml, people will find that they continue gaining fat over the years until their fat cells become resistant to leptin and insulin. Then they will become diabetic because they will no longer convert excess sugar to fat. Leptin levels are THE KEY to everything regarding body fat management.
■ When leptin levels are above 9.0 and the cells of the body ultimately do become leptin and insulin resistant, that person will then find it difficult to keep their blood sugars at normal levels and will begin to age much more quickly and soon become diseased.
Changing Back Into a Fat Burner One of the wisest health habits anyone can adopt is to lower the leptin levels and repair the damage done to the hypothalamus so that it will instruct the cells of the body to burn fat instead of sugar. In simple terms, the way to do this is as follows:
1. Eat generous amounts of good fats
2. Eat sufficient amounts of protein
3. Eat high amounts of vegetables
4. Eat less than customary amounts of carbohydrates
5. Eat very little sugar
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