Eat Fat, Grow Thin

What’s the primary regulator of lipoprotein-lipase activity? It’s insulin. In fat tissue, insulin increases lipoprotein-lipase activity, while in muscle tissue, it decreases activity. As a result, when insulin is secreted, fat is deposited in the fat tissue, and the muscles have to burn glucose for energy. When insulin levels drop, the lipoprotein-lipase activity on the fat cells decreases and the lipoprotein-lipase activity on the muscle cells increases. The fat cells release fatty acids, and the muscle cells take them up and burn them.

There’s still another way of looking at the carb problem, which seems to me to be an especially damning conclusion. “As long as we respond to the carbohydrates by secreting more insulin,” Taubes writes, “we continue to remove nutrients from our bloodstream in expectation of the arrival of more, so we remain hungry, or at least absent any feeling of satiation. It’s not so much that fat fills us up as that carbohydrates prevent satiety, and so we remain hungry.”

Now that I understand both the theory and practice of eating a low-carb diet, I relish the freedom that it gives me to eat the fats I love. Will the last 10 pounds that I want to lose just melt away? I will let you know here.