Excellent post! Should be required reading for any medical or dietetics/nutrition professional whose only advice for weight loss is to "eat less, move more." What an insult that is.
And don't even get me started on how thyroid hormones respond to caloric reduction. It seems to be assumed that you can just eat less and your body will automatically respond to that by mobilizing its stored fat ... without any adjustment at all downward in the metabolic rate as a protective mechanism to *hold onto* that fat. I see this *so often* in clients who are struggling with weight loss, even on a low-carb or ketogenic diet. Often enough, in fact - and it can affect so much quality of life beyond weight management - that I'm actually writing a book about thyroid, co-authoring with a nurse practitioner with decades of experience in this particular area (the adaptation of thyroid hormones in response to caloric restriction).
Wow, I only had a vague idea semi-starvation could wreak havoc on thyroid hormones. It makes sense. Seems to parallel the problems of athletes who over train. It's like a logical error along the lines of "if some stimulus is good, then more must be better." The problem is that being belligerent with your metabolism can have all sorts of unintended long term boomerang impacts.
Anyway, good luck with the book. Would love to check it out when it's ready!
Besides the exquisite torture of little critters (Fauci's beagles, etc.), there's also the question of applicability to humans, since in biology "similar" could mean entire enzymatic chains difference (e.g., nitrigen disposal in mammals urea vs bird urate.) There's >4,000 mice variants & rats? Well IMHO, we're closer to them than bonobos or chimps.
The CICO fallacy is well-exposed by everyone except it's kept well covered by the kibble manufacturers (& the drug manufacturers!) The hormonal complexity of metabolism gets looked at deeper & deeper each decade as the public gets shilled more & more junk food & pills.¹ ² ³ ⁴
Here are some of my thoughts on fat (edible & human):
1. Grass-fed or Grain-fed, Free-ranging or Caged-living, is.gd/GhT5JL
3. Skepticism is Part of a Healthy Diet, is.gd/nn4a60
𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 & 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠!
¹ Lustig, R. H., & Fennoy, I. (2022) The History of Obesity Research. Hormone research in paediatrics, 95(6), 638–48. https://doi.org/10.1159/000526520
² Flier J. S. (2019) Starvation in the Midst of Plenty: Reflections on the History and Biology of Insulin and Leptin. Endocrine reviews, 40(1), 1–16. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6270967/
³ Taïb, B., Bouyakdan, K., Hryhorczuk, C., Rodaros, D., Fulton, S., & Alquier, T. (2013). Glucose regulates hypothalamic long-chain fatty acid metabolism via AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) in neurons and astrocytes. The Journal of biological chemistry, 288(52), 37216–29. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M113.506238
⁴ Danielli, M., Perne, L., Jarc Jovičić, E., & Petan, T. (2023) Lipid droplets and polyunsaturated fatty acid trafficking: Balancing life and death. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 11, 1104725. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1104725
Thank you, Captain Mani. Appreciate the kind words, and thanks for the links to your research/journalism. Funny re: your Mercola post--when I first checked it out, my thought was "Dr. Eades just wrote about this in The Arrow"--and then you referenced Eades' exact takedown. Great minds. :)
Although it is scary how Mercola could so completely throw LC under the bus like that. He has to have read at least some of the same literature you and I have.
I'm not certain as to the exact reason, but suspect Mercola threw LoCarb under the bus due to personal health reasons. That being said, if you're a proponent of bioindividuality (i.e., each of us is potentially a speciation branch for another human type or viewed from another direction, 8 blood types with 4 categories is just the start in how one human differs from another, and why 20% of "modern human" couples are infertile) then there's no 1-size-fits-all nutritional formula, —there will be many outliers (especially in a population with 90% metabolic dysfunction.
There can be general guidelines, e.g., N•E•W-▪︎-ST•A•R•T (the non-Adventist "8 Health Guidelines")
● Antal, B. B., van Nieuwenhuizen, H., Chesebro, A. G., Strey, H. H., Jones, D. T., Clarke, K., Weistuch, C., Ratai, E. M., Dill, K. A., & Mujica-Parodi, L. R. (2025) Brain aging shows nonlinear transitions, suggesting a midlife "critical window" for metabolic intervention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(10), https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2416433122
■ Tan, D. X., Reiter, R. J., Zimmerman, S., & Hardeland, R. (2023). Melatonin: Both a Messenger of Darkness and a Participant in the Cellular Actions of Non-Visible Solar Radiation of Near Infrared Light. Biology, 12(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12010089
Excellent post! Should be required reading for any medical or dietetics/nutrition professional whose only advice for weight loss is to "eat less, move more." What an insult that is.
And don't even get me started on how thyroid hormones respond to caloric reduction. It seems to be assumed that you can just eat less and your body will automatically respond to that by mobilizing its stored fat ... without any adjustment at all downward in the metabolic rate as a protective mechanism to *hold onto* that fat. I see this *so often* in clients who are struggling with weight loss, even on a low-carb or ketogenic diet. Often enough, in fact - and it can affect so much quality of life beyond weight management - that I'm actually writing a book about thyroid, co-authoring with a nurse practitioner with decades of experience in this particular area (the adaptation of thyroid hormones in response to caloric restriction).
Wow, I only had a vague idea semi-starvation could wreak havoc on thyroid hormones. It makes sense. Seems to parallel the problems of athletes who over train. It's like a logical error along the lines of "if some stimulus is good, then more must be better." The problem is that being belligerent with your metabolism can have all sorts of unintended long term boomerang impacts.
Anyway, good luck with the book. Would love to check it out when it's ready!
Great post!
Besides the exquisite torture of little critters (Fauci's beagles, etc.), there's also the question of applicability to humans, since in biology "similar" could mean entire enzymatic chains difference (e.g., nitrigen disposal in mammals urea vs bird urate.) There's >4,000 mice variants & rats? Well IMHO, we're closer to them than bonobos or chimps.
The CICO fallacy is well-exposed by everyone except it's kept well covered by the kibble manufacturers (& the drug manufacturers!) The hormonal complexity of metabolism gets looked at deeper & deeper each decade as the public gets shilled more & more junk food & pills.¹ ² ³ ⁴
Here are some of my thoughts on fat (edible & human):
1. Grass-fed or Grain-fed, Free-ranging or Caged-living, is.gd/GhT5JL
2. Fat Brains Are Made of Fat, is.gd/S4SAAA
3. Skepticism is Part of a Healthy Diet, is.gd/nn4a60
𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 & 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠!
¹ Lustig, R. H., & Fennoy, I. (2022) The History of Obesity Research. Hormone research in paediatrics, 95(6), 638–48. https://doi.org/10.1159/000526520
² Flier J. S. (2019) Starvation in the Midst of Plenty: Reflections on the History and Biology of Insulin and Leptin. Endocrine reviews, 40(1), 1–16. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6270967/
³ Taïb, B., Bouyakdan, K., Hryhorczuk, C., Rodaros, D., Fulton, S., & Alquier, T. (2013). Glucose regulates hypothalamic long-chain fatty acid metabolism via AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) in neurons and astrocytes. The Journal of biological chemistry, 288(52), 37216–29. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M113.506238
⁴ Danielli, M., Perne, L., Jarc Jovičić, E., & Petan, T. (2023) Lipid droplets and polyunsaturated fatty acid trafficking: Balancing life and death. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 11, 1104725. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1104725
Thank you, Captain Mani. Appreciate the kind words, and thanks for the links to your research/journalism. Funny re: your Mercola post--when I first checked it out, my thought was "Dr. Eades just wrote about this in The Arrow"--and then you referenced Eades' exact takedown. Great minds. :)
Although it is scary how Mercola could so completely throw LC under the bus like that. He has to have read at least some of the same literature you and I have.
I'm not certain as to the exact reason, but suspect Mercola threw LoCarb under the bus due to personal health reasons. That being said, if you're a proponent of bioindividuality (i.e., each of us is potentially a speciation branch for another human type or viewed from another direction, 8 blood types with 4 categories is just the start in how one human differs from another, and why 20% of "modern human" couples are infertile) then there's no 1-size-fits-all nutritional formula, —there will be many outliers (especially in a population with 90% metabolic dysfunction.
There can be general guidelines, e.g., N•E•W-▪︎-ST•A•R•T (the non-Adventist "8 Health Guidelines")
• 𝐍•𝙪𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. - M•E•D•S - animal protein & fats. Nutritional ketosis (βHOB). Protect brain & liver.
• 𝐄•𝙭𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙚. - Movement (body) & learning (mind)
• 𝐖•𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧. - Inner (metabolic) & external. Fluoride & deuterium avoidance. Salt.
• 𝐒•𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙚. - Full-spectrum & IR (melatonin). Circadian rhythms.
• 𝐓•𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚. - (HSP) & metabolism (mitochondria). Sauna & cold.
• 𝐀•𝙞𝙧. - Nose breathing. Time in woods & ocean.
• 𝐑•𝙚𝙨𝙩. - Sleep (glymphatic system) & fasting (autophagy & βHOB)
• 𝐓•𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩. - Love, attachment, —family, community.
● Antal, B. B., van Nieuwenhuizen, H., Chesebro, A. G., Strey, H. H., Jones, D. T., Clarke, K., Weistuch, C., Ratai, E. M., Dill, K. A., & Mujica-Parodi, L. R. (2025) Brain aging shows nonlinear transitions, suggesting a midlife "critical window" for metabolic intervention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(10), https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2416433122
■ Tan, D. X., Reiter, R. J., Zimmerman, S., & Hardeland, R. (2023). Melatonin: Both a Messenger of Darkness and a Participant in the Cellular Actions of Non-Visible Solar Radiation of Near Infrared Light. Biology, 12(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12010089
𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜!
Well spake and agree
This is so fascinating! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Megan--glad you enjoyed!