Newly-Discovered Hormone Produced By High-Fat, Low-Carb Diet 'Breaks Down Fat'

Drs. Maratos-Flier and Kliewer found the hormone behind Atkins diet

We have seen some truly remarkable research come out in favor of the Atkins low-carb diet this year, most notably the Stanford JAMA study from March 2007 showing it as the superior diet for weight and health.

People who are livin' la vida low-carb already naturally accept the physiology behind this way of eating as an excellent way to burn stored fat through the use of ketosis and that those ketone bodies become our source of energy rather than carbohydrates. We've even had studies showing a low-carb diet burns twice as much stored fat as a low-fat diet.

But now we read in this MedPage Today column that two different researcher teams have stumbled upon what one of them describe as a "serendipitous" discovery of a hormone in their studies that actually works as the very mechanism behind why fat-burning is so functional on a low-carb diet.

The lead researcher on the first team, led by Dr. Eleftheria Maratos-Flier who serves as an investigator in the department of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as well as an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, saw something peculiar happen to mice over a 30-day period that she fed a high-fat, low-carb diet--their lipid profile remained constant and didn't go up!

This coincides with a study conducted by Dr. Jeff Volek and Dr. Stephen Phinney that found people who ate a diet higher in saturated fat did not have an elevated presence of saturated fat in their blood--as has been previously theorized. This is why fat consumed does not make you fat.

Dr. Maratos-Flier says this seemingly contradictory finding has to do with a hormone called FGF21, or fibroblast growth factor 21. It is found in the liver and is responsible for producing ketones when people consume a low-carb diet. These ketone bodies are then used to provide as much as 70 percent of the energy needs of someone eating this way.

This discovery did not go unnoticed by the researchers. Unfortunately, instead of promoting the Atkins diet as a means for lowering body fat, they instead turned to the possibilities this discovery could have on future pharmaceutical opportunities.

"We think these findings would increase the desirability of a drug that (might work through this mechanism) to increase fat oxidation in the liver," Dr. Maratos-Flier said.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?! Why try to make a pill that will replicate what the Atkins diet has already been shown to do a beautiful job of doing, Dr. Maratos-Flier? This is just more irresponsible extrapolations pulled from an excellent study showing a high-fat, low-carb diet is beneficial. Get your head out of the sand already!

She does acknowledge that this switch to fat-burning mode in the mice only happened when FGF21 was found in higher concentration--on either a low-carb diet or during starvation. Contrary to what the naysayers say, these two are NOT the same.

The lead researcher on the second team, Dr. Steven Kliewer who is a professor of molecular biology at the Dallas, TX-based University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, also found FGF21 breaks down stored fat in animals consuming a high-fat, low-carb diet as well as fasting.

"[A high-fat, low-carb diet] turned on a starvation response, even when the animals were feeding," Dr. Kliewer noticed. "They switched from using carbohydrates to fat stores as an energy supply."

Dr. Kliewer said this is a natural reaction in animals to a shortage of food which causes them to move less and sleep more in order to store up energy.

He was surprised that a single hormone could literally "flip the whole metabolic profile" and that it can actually serve as a balancing mechanism for consuming too many calories.

"What's really exciting is that mice with excess FGF21--even when they are fed--look like they are fasted," Dr. Kliewer found.

Somewhere up in heaven today, Dr. Atkins has got to be smiling from ear to ear. This exactly what he was talking about when he described his diet as giving people a "metabolic advantage." The fact that science is just now catching up to what the late great Dr. Robert C. Atkins was sharing decades ago proves he was a man long before his time.

Dr. Kliewer admitted that this fat-burning process "makes sense" when you stop and think about it.

"During fasting, the liver hormone communicates with adipose tissue to send fat to the liver," he said. "It turns on the metabolism of fat into ketone bodies--and at the same time, it sensitizes the animals to going into torpor to conserve energy."

He added that there is an "obvious possibility that FGF21 accounts for the proposed positive effect of the Atkins diet—including weight loss and an increase in [HDL] ‘good’ cholesterol."

While Dr. Kliewer states that FGF21 might explain why the Atkins diet works, Dr. Maratos-Flier brought up the ridiculous argument that this is only true in mice right now and it is unclear of the impact on humans.

Good grief, lady! Can't you even put out the notion that it is even POSSIBLE the same results could be true in humans as well? Sheeez! To her credit, Dr. Maratos-Flier is planning on study FGF21 levels in human subjects next over just a few days. How about long-term studies of weeks, months, and years, too, Dr. Maratos-Flier?

Both of these studies were funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as Takeda Pharmaceuticals, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Betty Van Andel Foundation, the Smith Family Foundation Pinnacle Program Project Award from the American Diabetes Association, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The results of these studies were published in the June 2007 issue of the scientific journal Cell Metabolism. Check out the abstract for both studies by Dr. Maratos-Flier and Dr. Kliewer.

Describing this research as "the most exciting" study he has ever worked on, Dr. Kliewer wants to continue looking at the role of FGF21 in increasing lifespan.

"Starvation and restricted diet are linked to some fascinating physiology including longevity," he noted. "In the long term, I would like to investigate the role of FGF21 in aging, since caloric restriction has been linked to an extended life span in many species."

I don't know about the "caloric restriction" aspect of his research, but it certainly sounds fascinating to see a low-carb diet being observed in this manner. Who knows what the implications could be. We'll be watching, Dr. Kliewer!

You can e-mail each of the researchers about their studies by writing to them directly: Dr. Eleftheria Maratos-Flier at emaratos@bidmc.harvard.edu and Dr. Steven Kliewer at steven.kliewer@utsouthwestern.edu.

Study: Low-Fat Dairy Can Lead To Infertility

You might want to reconsider that low-fat dairy if you want kids

We've all heard that we should eat an adequate amount of dairy in our diet, but that we should choose the low-fat or fat-free versions of milk, cheese, and yogurt to provide the most "healthy" food for our bodies. If I had a dime every time I've heard that in my life, then I'd be as wealthy as Bill Gates!

But if you are a woman in those precious few childbearing years, then that widely-accepted dietary advice is just about the most foolish thing you could ever follow if you want to have a baby, according to a new Harvard study discussed in this Medical News Today column.

Lead researcher Dr. Jorge Chavarro, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and his team observed 18,555 married, premenopausal women ages 24-42 with no history of infertility attempting to get pregnant over an eight-year period (1991-1999). This group of study participants was a subset of the larger group of 116,000 women that were part of The Nurses' Health Study II.

Dr. Chavarro monitored very closely the dietary intake of dairy foods by the women in the study, including the types and frequency of consumption, over the eight years. The women were also asked to provide information about the regularity of their period, if there were any problems with ovulation, and how their attempts to conceive a child were going.

A total of 438 women in the study experienced difficulty trying to have a baby during the study and Dr. Chavarro noticed that most of these women ate more than two portions of low-fat dairy foods daily. In fact, he quantified that women who eat that amount or higher of low-fat dairy every single day are 85 percent more likely to experience infertility compared with those women who eat it less often than once a week.

Interestingly, the researchers found something even more remarkable considering the dietary recommendations that rule the day in our society--those women who ate full-fat dairy foods, including whole milk and even ice cream, on a daily basis saw their risk of being infertile caused by ovulation problems drop by 25 percent compared to those who only ate full-fat dairy once a week. You read that right--CONSUMING FULL-FAT DAIRY DROPS THE RISK OF INFERTILITY BY TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT!

What does the lack of dietary fat from the dairy products consumed by women have to do with their risk for infertility? Plenty! The researchers believe there is a fat-soluble substance in the full-fat dairy foods that works to improve the function of the ovaries. Thus, when that fat-soluble substance gets taken out during the conversion to 2% or skim milk, the health benefits dissipate as well.

Additionally, the processing of full-fat milk to skimmed milk requires the addition of whey protein to the milk to give it a more "natural" taste and color. However, whey protein has been found to produce testosterone-like effects in lab rats and may be the culprit wit the infertility in women consuming low-fat dairy. Oops!

The results of this stunning Harvard study appeared in the February 28, 2007 issue of the scientific journal Reproductive Health.

Well how ya like them apples, hmmm? All this talk about cutting your fat intake way down low in everything you eat is one big crock of you know what and this study is more proof of that fact! Just for kicks, I decided to pay a visit to the Holy Grail of all things related to a healthy diet--MyPyramid.gov--just to see what the good ole health "experts" advising our government about what's really healthy had to say about dairy intake.

As Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond used to say, "Holy crap!" Under the "Milk Group" page you see that they highly recommend that the "milk group choices should be fat-free or low-fat." But if you click on the "Tips for making wise choices" link on the upper right-hand side of the page, the "Holy-crap-o-meter" goes off the charts!

Check this out (see if you can find the common theme):

- Include milk as a beverage...Choose fat-free or low-fat milk.
- If you usually drink whole milk, switch...to fat-free milk.
- Try reduced fat (2%), then low-fat (1%), and finally fat-free (skim).
- If you drink cappuccinos or lattes—ask for...fat-free (skim) milk.
- Add fat-free or low-fat milk...to oatmeal and hot cereals.
- Use fat-free or low-fat milk when making...cream soups.
- Have fat-free or low-fat yogurt as a snack.
- Make a dip for fruits or vegetables from yogurt.
- Make fruit-yogurt smoothies in the blender.
- Make chocolate...pudding with fat-free or low-fat milk.
- Top cut-up fruit with flavored yogurt for a quick dessert.
- Top casseroles...or vegetables with shredded low-fat cheese.
- Top a baked potato with fat-free or low-fat yogurt.

What's wrong with this picture? Why all the intense focus on "fat-free or low-fat" options? Clearly these heavily-publicized dietary recommendations are creating a lot of unhappy young couples who are trying to bring a little bundle of joy into the world that they can call their own. On what basis are they pushing these nasty foods that are actually working against women who want to conceive all in the name of "better health?"

I remember from my personal low-fat diet experience in 1999 how utterly disgusting all those low-fat foods really are. The worst ones to me had to be the fat-free cheese and skim milk. The cheese was so gross and didn't even seem like real food. Describing it as a cardboard box texture is being MUCH too kind. And then the white water that passed for skim milk was about as useless and I never got used to drinking that stuff. Getting 2% was about as close as I could get to skim!

However, one thing I continued to do even after I stopped my low-fat diet and started gaining my weight back was to keep drinking 2% milk instead of whole thinking it was somehow a "healthy" alternative. When I started livin' la vida low-carb, I didn't drink regular milk anymore and switched to Hood's Carb Countdown (now called Calorie Countdown) milk instead.

Yet, I kept on buying 2% milk for my wife Christine. We will celebrate 12 years of marriage in August and have been desperately trying to have a baby since we said "I do" to each other in 1995. Unfortunately, the good Lord has not chosen to bless us with a little munchkin just yet and we trust in His perfect timing. But after reading this study, I can't help but think what role the 2% milk Christine has been consuming over the course of our marriage may have had on our inability to conceive. I don't know if it has anything to do with it or not, but you have to wonder.

We're working out the issues that could be the culprit by getting checked out to see if it's me or her preventing the conception, but I know one thing we're gonna start doing--BUYING WHOLE MILK FOR CHRISTINE AGAIN! It may not be the reason for our inability to have a baby at all, but it's certainly worth a try to see if we can get her ovulation to be more consistent and regular to set up a higher probability for a future pregnancy. Cross your fingers and wish us luck!

There have been previous studies that hinted at the possibility of problems with infertility linked to dairy foods, but hardly any of them have been on humans like this one was. That's why Dr. Chavarro wanted to see what impact the fat content in the dairy foods consumed in a woman's diet can play regarding the prospect for motherhood.

Their conclusion: "High intake of low-fat dairy foods may increase the risk of anovulatory infertility whereas intake of high-fat dairy foods may decrease this risk."

Did you get that all you Dr. Dean Ornish-loving low-fatties? Eating lots of low-fat dairy INCREASES infertility while eating lots of high-fat dairy DECREASES infertility. How much clearer can it be that that?! I'd love to hear what Ornish and his low-fat minions have to say about this Harvard study. Let the spinmeisters begin like they did following the Stanford study published in JAMA last month!

If you are a woman trying to have a baby, Dr. Chavarro recommended what I am going to do with Christine's dairy intake.

"Consider changing low-fat dairy foods for high-fat dairy foods; for instance, by swapping skimmed milk for whole milk and eating ice cream, not low fat yogurt," he stated.

HA! Now THAT'S a switch seeing a RECOMMENDATION to eat the high-fat version of a food INSTEAD of the low-fat one. It really makes you wonder what other unintended consequences of this low-fat diet LIE we have been told for decades has had on the health and well-being of our society. How many tens or even hundreds of thousands of women have been left without an answer to their infertility problem while our government has kept on peddling the very reason they never got to be a mother? How sad.

When you stop and think about it, you can't help but wonder out loud about what would have been or even still COULD be if our government would simply end their nonsensical endorsement of the biggest dietary failure of our generation. That's why I have been on the frontlines of the debate to have our government actively promote low-carb alongside low-fat as another healthy dietary option for people to consider for weight and health management.

But, as is the case with most researchers who come out with something positive regarding low-carb, high-fat consumption, Dr. Chavarro got right back on the government talking points in what he recommends after a woman is "with child."

"Once they have become pregnant, then they should probably switch back to low-fat dairy foods as it is easier to limit intake of saturated fat by consuming low-fat dairy foods," he explained.

And what exactly is wrong with saturated fat, Dr. Chavarro? Noted researcher Dr. Jeff Volek has found that consuming saturated fat in combination with a low-carbohydrate diet has no ill effect on your health. In fact, the so-called studies showing how "harmful" saturated fat is like this one are so ill-conceived that they are ripped to shreds by objective researchers like Anthony Colpo.

This continuous onslaught against saturated fat by people who are supposedly intellectuals regarding diet and health is needlessly causing alarm among the general public. The fact is eating saturated fat is good for you and it's high time we stop demonizing it in the same breath as trans fats. Those are indeed bad news for your health, but saturated fat is not even close. The studies about saturated fat are mounting quickly and all you "experts" can apologize to me later for being so ignorant about it now.

At this point, Dr. Chavarro would like to further his research on low-fat dairy as it relates to infertility so he can "confirm or refute the findings" from this study. We'll be watching for those results with great interest, Dr. Chavarro!

You can e-mail Dr. Jorge Chavarro at jchavarr@hsph.harvard.edu.