Research may be misleading
There is a great post by Megan Choy on Alternative Medicine
Taking a closer look into alternative medicine research
Views about how research can be misleading.
When I heard about a research project that claimed “Fat rich foods make you fat” that was posted on sciencedaily.com, I was taken back because it goes against what we are taught about basic physiology. Fat doesn’t make you fat, carbs and sugars stimulate this.
Megan Choy took a closer look at the study that was done and posted in the article, “Insulin Action in the Brain Can Lead to Obesity: How Insulin in Hypothalamus Controls Body’s Energy Balance” ScienceDaily (June 6, 2011).
Here is her post, “Do fatty foods make you fat?” on Alternative Medicine Views. She contacted the researchers and got all of the details of the study. This is what she found out.
- The research claimed that mice that were fed a high fat diet with low carbohydrates gained more weight and mice that were fed a low fat diet with more carbohydrates didn’t gain weight.
- The “low fat” diet that the mice were being fed contained contained
- 19% protein,
- 6% fat
- 50% carbohydrate
- The “high fat” diet that the mice were fed
- 21% protein
- 35% fat
- 29% carbohydrate.
As Megan Choy looked into the dietary info of what the mice were fed there was some obvious problems.
- In the “low fat” food the 50% carbohydrate consisted of 45% complex carbs and 5% simple carbs.
- In the “high-fat” food the 29% carbohydrate consisted of 7% complex carbs and 22% simple carbs.
Simple carbs… that is sugar!
Did you get that?
- In the “high fat” food the carbohydrates consisted of mostly sugar (which would cause the mice to quickly put on fat).
- In the “low fat” food the carbohydrates were mostly complex (which will not cause the mice to put on as much fat).
The high fat food had more than four times the sugar content of the low fat food. Sugar causes insulin release and fat storage. Not fat.
Just because the diet is high or low fat doesn’t make nearly as much as a difference as to the sugar content of the food. You can see how misleading this is.
So to avoid fat mice or to improve you own health, eat healthy proteins, fats and some fruit may be ok if you are not trying to create a dramatic change in your health at this time. If you are trying to lose weight fast or turn around a health condition quickly, cut out the fruit.
And be wary of research studies that seem to go against basic knowledge.
