Quotes from The Obesity Code - Part 4

From The Obesity Code, by Jason Fung, MD

Chapter 17: Protein
Page 189: “High-protein diets are not recommended for those with chronic kidney disease, since the ability to deal with the breakdown products of proteins is impaired. However, in people with normal kidney function, there are no concerns. Several recent studies have concluded that a high-protein diet was not associated with any noticeable harmful effects on kidney function. The concerns about kidney damage were overblown.”

Page 193: “The surprise here is dietary protein. The insulin response is highly variable. While vegetable proteins raise insulin minimally, whey protein and meat (including seafood) cause significant insulin secretion. But are dairy and meat fattening? That question is complicated. The incretin hormones have multiple effects, only one of which is to stimulate insulin. Incretins also have a major effect on satiety.”

Page 194: “Animal proteins tend to cause you to feel fuller for longer, with whey having the greatest effect. Compare two calorically equal portions of food: a small steak versus a large sugared soda. Which keeps you full longer? The clear winner is steak. It creates more satiety. The steak just ‘sits’ in your stomach. You are feeling the incretin effect of slowing the emptying of stomach contents. The soda, however, does not ‘sit’ in your stomach for long, and you quickly become hungry again.”

Page 195: “First, most beef is now raised in a feedlot and fed grain. Cows are ruminants that naturally eat grass. This change in their diet may change the character of the meat. Wild-animal meat is similar to grass-fed beef, but not to grain-fed beef. Feedlot cattle require large doses of antibiotics. Farm-raised fish also have little in common with wild fish. Farm-raised fish eat pellets that often contain grains and other cheap substitutes for a fish’s natural diet.”

Page 196: “Second, while we understand the benefits of eating ‘whole’ foods, we do not apply this knowledge to meat. We eat only muscle meats rather than the entire animal, thereby risking overconsumption of the muscle meats. We generally discard most of the organ meats, cartilage[,] and bones—which is analogous to drinking the juice of a fruit but discarding the pulp. Yet bone broth, liver, kidney[,] and blood are all parts of the traditional human diets. Traditional staples like steak-and-kidney pie, blood sausage[,] and liver have disappeared. Ethnic foods such as tripe, pork bung, congealed pig’s blood, oxtail[,] and beef tongue still survive.
The organ meats tend to be the fattiest parts of the animal. By focusing almost exclusively on the muscles of animals for food, we are preferentially eating protein rather than fat.”

Page 197: “By eating large amounts of skim milk, lean meat[,] and protein bars, Atkins enthusiasts were unintentionally stimulating their insulin to the same degree as before. Substituting large amounts of lean, often processed meat for carbohydrates was not a winning strategy. Reducing sugar and white bread was good advice. But replacing them with luncheon meats was not. Furthermore, with increased meal frequency, the protection of the incretin effect was diminished.”

Page 198: “Here’s a small tip for weight loss, one that should be obvious, but is not. If you are not hungry, don’t eat. Your body is telling you that you should not be eating. After indulging in a large meal, such as we do at Thanksgiving, we feel paranoid about skipping the next meal because of an irrational fear that missing even a single meal will wreck our metabolism. So we circumvent the protective effect of incretins by rigidly scheduling three meals a day with snacks, come hell or high water.”

Page 199: “But the calorie was the wrong unit. Calories do not cause obesity. Instead, insulin is responsible. Without a framework for understanding insulin, it was impossible to understand the inconsistencies of epidemiological evidence. The low-fat caloric-reduction approach was a proven failure. The high-protein approach was subsequently proved a failure. And so many returned to the failed caloric-reduction approach.”

Page 200: “There are no intrinsically bad foods, only processed ones. The further you stray from real food, the more danger you are in. Should you eat protein bars? No. Should you eat meal replacements? No. Should you drink meal replacement shakes? Absolutely not. Should you eat processed meats, processed fats[,] or processed carbohydrates? No, no[,] and no.”