Excess Carbohydrates Triggers New Body Fat To Accumulate, Researchers Learn

Dr. James Ntambi says some obesity attributed to high-carb diet

Although his September 2007 release Good Calories, Bad Calories has been met with much skepticism and criticism by those deeply entrenched in the conventional wisdom about diet and health who have interviewed him over the past couple of months since its release, New York Times science journalist Gary Taubes is adamant that the more than five years of research he conducted is merely the BEGINNING regarding the hypothesis that it is carbohydrates that is the root cause of obesity and other health-related diseases in people with a certain genetic disorder making them highly susceptible to rapid weight gain when they consume carbs of any kind. And he's definitely not alone now in this assertion within the medical community.

Dr. Andrew Weil understood it right away after reading Taubes' bestselling book as does Dr. David Ludwig who shared his own study recently on the ill effects of carbohydrates on the condition known as "fatty liver" disease. Now brand new research on the negative impact of carbs on weight and health sanctioned by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is adding yet another layer of scientific truth and confirmation to what most of us who are livin' la vida low-carb already knew.

Lead researcher James M. Ntambi, PhD, Katherine Berns Von Donk Steenbock Professor of Biochemistry and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his team of researchers have discovered a specific gene in the liver known as SCD-1, short for stearoyl-Coenzyme A desaturase 1. I like SCD-1 better, don't you? :)

It turns out this SCD-1 gene may be the culprit in why some people who eat a high-carb diet keep gaining and gaining weight while others who consume the same diet don't. Apparently, this gene actually causes dietary carbs to be turned into stored body fat rather than being broken down for energy. Conversely, mice that did not have SCD-1 in their liver were able to use the carbohydrates instead of having it turn to fat. Hmmmmmm...

Dr. Ntambi even fed a starchy, sugary diet to mice without SCD-1 in their liver and the excessive carbohydrates were used up and not stored. In other words, the carbs were not a contributing factor to any weight gain in the mice without SCD-1. But normal functioning livers in the control mice with the presence of SCD-1 saw just the opposite happen--the high-carb diet they consumed quickly poured on body fat by eating the exact same food.

In the battle against the bulge, Dr. Ntambi said his study shows that genetic liver function seems to play a more critical role than thought that may react differently in people with varying levels of the SCD-1 gene.

"It looks like the SCD gene in the liver is responsible for causing weight gain in response to a high-carbohydrate diet, because when we take away the gene's activity the animals no longer gain the weight," he said. "These findings are telling us that the liver is a key tissue in mediating weight gain induced by excess carbohydrates."

The results of this study were published in the December 5, 2007 issue of Cell Metabolism.

Well, look what we have here. As much as the so-called health "experts" like Glenn Gaesser go around ignorantly spouting off their mouth about how consuming a high-carb, sugary diet is perfectly fine for people to manage their weight, along comes a monkey wrench in that theory that is invariably tied to genetics. It makes you wonder just how many people are walking around and have this SCD-1 factor going on in their liver. While I don't know for sure, I'd be willing to bet with high probability that this explains how I got to 410 pounds back in 2004 and why carbohydrate restriction worked so well for me to shed over 180 pounds.

And the eye-opening results of this study are not lost on Dr. Ntambi who believes this study should open the door for even more research into the damning role of carbohydrates in weight gain and producing excessive stored fat. He sees this as a solid first step in bringing about major changes in how obesity is treated in the future.

If it can be determined that SCD-1 exists in a more concentrated form among the overweight and obese, then the golden opportunity to offer a natural, dietary solution like livin' la vida low-carb to them exists and should be actively promoted to them.

"We think that obese individuals, in general, may have higher SCD activity in both the liver and in adipose tissue," Dr. Ntambi explained. "So, they may have a higher capability of converting carbohydrate into fat."

This is some of the most amazing research in favor of low-carb as a viable option for people struggling with weight issues to come out over the past few years because it lends credibility to the idea that lowering your carbohydrates is a very good thing for a whole lot of people. We already know from this Harvard study that people with high insulin levels don't do well on a high-carb, low-fat diet. Perhaps they have this SCD-1 gene, too. It's an exciting development for people like me who found merit in this way of eating independent from what my doctor and common societal knowledge told me was right. I believe this study could be a godsend for others who struggle being overweight, too, because it could convince them to take charge of their own weight and health like I did.

Sadly, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is chock full of carbohydrates galore no thanks in part to ridiculous food ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that shows up in just about everything nowadays, especially soft drinks and candy. It's disgusting how little outrage there is over the presence of HFCS in so much of what we eat while people go around getting their panties in a wad over seeing a little bit of saturated fat on a food label (scaremongering by the American Heart Association and their "Bad Fat Brothers" campaign hasn't helped matters either). UGH! Are we bassackwards regarding nutrition nowadays or what?

Perhaps this is the kind of research that will FINALLY get the traditionalists to think outside the box and realize there is something more to the idea that consuming sugar is unhealthy and not conducive to weight management because of a genetic predisposition. Whether that has ever been clearly articulated before, it certainly has now with this study.

"This is a very good example of a diet-gene interaction," Dr. Ntambi noted.

In fact, this latest research is part of an ongoing look at other parts of the body where SCD-1 may exist, such as the liver, muscles, brain, pancreas and adipose tissue to see what would happen. When SCD-1 was nonexistent, it didn't matter how many carbohydrates the researchers fed the mice--THEY DIDN'T GAIN A POUND! It makes me wonder if my wife Christine is fortunate enough to have a low amount of SCD-1 in her body since she can get away with eating A LOT MORE CARBS than I can and maintain her weight (ya know, it makes me sick!). :D

Interestingly, Dr. Ntambi found a rather peculiar and distinctive dichotomy among those mice that lacked the SCD-1 gene--they GAINED weight on a diet higher in fat versus a diet high in sugary carbs and low in fat which protected their health as well. In other words, a low-carb diet provided no weight management benefit to them which lends credence to my philosophy that people need to find the nutritional plan that works for THEM and follow that individualized program to properly take care of their own weight and health.

So what does all this mean? The first thing that pops in my mind is how utterly meaningless and ridiculous it is to have universal health recommendations for the general population. While a low-fat diet has long been trumpeted as "healthy" for everyone, that's obviously just not true. Now more than ever we need to see the low-carb diet promoted alongside the low-fat diet as another option for those people with this SCD-1 condition. Otherwise, you're destined to keep those people fat for the rest of their lives because they'll constantly get frustrated when their weight fails to stabilize on a fat-restricted diet.

I'm thinking out loud here, but there ought to be a test where people can determine what the level of SCD-1 in their liver is. I'm not a doctor, but it doesn't seem like this would be very hard if you did a biopsy or blood test of the liver to see. Those who have a strong presence of the gene should be placed on a strict low-carb diet regimen and those with little to no SCD-1 (ostensibly thinner by default) would be placed on a strict high-carb, low-fat diet.

In the mice that did not have any SCD-1, glucose production was basically shut down which prevented excessive insulin to be created in the body but subsequently led to an increased risk of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar (which is why a high-carb diet is necessary for blood sugar management for them). Additionally, glycogen stores are not able to be created because the oleic acid, which helps with the breakdown of carbs, is rendered useless since the body converts them into energy.

"It looks to us that if you don't have enough oleic acid - which the SCD enzyme makes - then the carbohydrate does not proceed through normal glucose metabolism," Dr. Ntambi concluded.

To confirm this, the researchers added oleic acid supplements to the diet of these SCD-1 lacking mice and their metabolism returned to normal function. But it looks like the more carbs consumed, the higher amount of SCD-1 is present which can produce an overflow of oleic acid which then leads to stored fat and thus obesity. So it's never a good idea to go too overboard on the carbohydrates, simple or otherwise, as has been previously suggested and encouraged many times before by supposedly educated health "experts."

Dr. Ntambi agrees.

"Too much carbohydrate is not good," he remarked. "That's basically what we are saying."

Well, it's about time SOMEBODY in the medical research world said it and I hope this is merely the start of an exciting new trend. My desire is that this research will continue forward by Dr. Ntambi and other courageous researchers willing to let the data speak for itself without being dictated b any preconceived notions or low-fat dogma. And it looks like Dr. Mary C. Vernon's dream that the NIH would begin funding more low-carb studies is coming to fruition. The ball is now moving forward on the research, so I'm ready to see even more of it in the coming years! BRING IT ON!!!

You can e-mail Dr. James Ntambi about his remarkable research on the role of the SCD-1 gene in the liver and the negative role it plays when combined with a high-carb diet at ntambi@biochem.wisc.edu. We need to encourage MORE of these kind of studies to be conducted, so share your positive comments with him about this one.

12-7-07 UPDATE: Here is Regina Wilshire's take on Ntambi's study.

Study: Andipose Gene Stimulation Makes You Skinny And Lowers Blood Sugar, Insulin

Dr. Jonathan Graff says "skinny gene" needs to be turned on in obese

The head of the British Medical Association caught a lot of flack last month for suggesting overweight and obese people should stop looking for another pill to pop to do something about their weight problem. But his concerns have fallen on deaf ears from every obesity researcher in the world still trying to find the next great anti-obesity drug!

This Globe & Mail column highlights a new study on a gene researchers have found in the body that allegedly makes you skinny and reverses high blood sugar and insulin levels in the body. They are working feverishly on developing a prescription medication to stimulate this gene.

Lead researcher Dr. Jonathan Graff, associate professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and his fellow researchers observed the adipose (Adp) gene in obese mice, fruit flies, and worms over a 5-year period and found that less stimulation of this gene existed which led to fat formation and insulin resistance leading to Type 2 diabetes.

At the same time, when more stimulation of the Adp gene was present in the mice, flies, and worms, they were thinner and healthier.

This study was published in the September 5, 2007 issue of the scientific journal Cell Metabolism.

Dr. Graff said this proves anyone has the potential to be lean and healthy once this gene is properly regulated in the body.

"There's a 'skinny gene' out there, and when it's reduced in function, animals become fat," he explained. "It works in fat cells and not by changing appetite, and could account for what I would call this epidemic of obesity and diabetes."

Because human beings also have the Adp gene, Dr. Graff says further research will be needed to look into a possible new pharmaceutical treatment for obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related diseases.

"What we want to do now is to get a medicine to rev this thing up, to help you be skinny, to get your blood sugar down, to get your insulin down," he stated.

Bringing an oral medication to the market could take a decade.

I just have one thing to say about: OH BROTHER, NOT AGAIN!

You know, I see a regular trend happening here. Researchers find something in a study related to being fat, they justify continuing their research by claiming it can be turned into a drug for treating obesity, and then they keep pursuing it so the financial underwriting will continue. Is there no end to this hysteria?

Don't get me wrong, studying the culprits behind obesity and disease is wonderful, but the focus has all too often been on creating the next so-called "magic pill" for treating weight loss. Nevermind those outstanding researchers who are promoting natural and healthy dietary changes for reducing weight and improving health like livin' la vida low-carb (we even saw the researchers in this study published in Cell Metabolism last month regarding the TOR gene and the Atkins diet trying to push for a drug intervention--UGH!).

But there's no money in natural nutritional remedies, so those research studies are generally swept under the rug, ignored, and research dollars mysteriously shrivel up and disappear. Why? The cold hard reality is that obesity and disease have become BIG BUSINESS as Dr. William Davis so poignantly noted in my recent interview with him about heart healthcare.

Dr. Graff maintains the reduced Adp gene function, which was discovered a half century ago in obese fruit flies, just needs to be turned on and up in fat people.

"It's a volume control," he contended. "We can just keep making you skinnier by turning the volume of this up."

Um, with all due respect, Dr. Graff, I disagree that the overwhelming cases of obesity that exist in modern time is necessarily tied to the Adp gene. Instead, it's about what happens in the body metabolically when overconsumption of carbohydrate is combined with fat and protein to pack on the pounds and cause insulin resistance.

Instead of working on a pill which may or may not work even after years of testing, how about looking at and embracing the studies that HAVE come out about controlling metabolic syndrome with a naturally healthy diet? It's livin' la vida low-carb in case you missed it!

The low-carb lifestyle has a proven track record for reducing body fat, lowering triglycerides, raising HDL "good" cholesterol, improving blood sugars, and so many other health markers. Let's urge people to implore this kind of natural anti-obesity strategy rather than constantly looking for that next great miracle pill. Who in the research community has the guts to stand up and declare this truth?

You can e-mail Dr. Jonathan Graff about his study at jon.graff@utsouthwestern.edu.

Holy Cow, A Low-Fat Milk-Making Bovine?!

Russell Snell found a mutated cow that makes low-fat milk naturally

Beam me up, Scotty, because I think this world has gone absolutely institutionalized on me now after reading this MSNBC story about a cow that has been found to make (get this!) low-fat milk. Sounds totally sci-fi freaky, doesn't it? Sadly, it's dead serious and coming to a milk carton near you!

It was one thing to create genetically-altered potatoes to make them lower in carbohydrates a couple of years back. But what they're doing to cows just to artificially lower the fat content of their milk takes weird science to a whole new level!

We have the New Zealand-based biotechnology company ViaLactia to thank for stumbling across almost by accident a cow they named Marge in 2001 which has a gene mutation allowing it to produce milk with 1% milk naturally rather than the 3.5% milk that traditional cows make for whole milk. This new low-fat milk produced by this one-of-a-kind cow supposedly has more omega-3 fats and the butter created from it is spreadable even when it's cold.

Ooooooh! Am I supposed to be jumping up and down? NOT!

Russell Snell, chief scientist at Vialactia which happens to be a major subsidiary of milk-producing giant Fonterra, said they paid a mere $218 for Marge to conduct research on why the Fresian cow makes low-fat milk. It looks just like a regular cow and the milk has the same "positive taste" of normal milk except it contains "other desirable benefits."

Interestingly, Snell said they decided to breed Marge to see if her calves would also make low-fat milk--they all have the same "dominant" mutated gene that produces low-fat milk as the mother. But they just don't know exactly why this is happening.

"Every now and then nature throws up these sorts of things, and it was simply a case of us being in the right place at the right time," Snell noted.

The results of Snell's research will appear in an upcoming issue of the UK-based scientific journal Chemistry & Industry.

Vialactia hopes to have this all-natural low-fat milk and softened butter available for retail sale on grocery store shelves within the next four years. But is this REALLY something we should all be clamoring for? Is low-fat dairy, created naturally or by machine, something that should be part of a "healthy" lifestyle? I think not based on the scientific evidence.

Although it is extremely high in carbs, most people get all super-sensitive upset over the fat content in their milk being the least healthy part of that beverage. Yet we've seen this study on how low-fat dairy leads to infertility as well as this study on milk's role in kidney cancer.

That's why you should find low-carb milk alternatives like Calorie Countdown if you are livin' la vida low-carb. So what's next? Gene mutation of sugar to negate the carbohydrates? Don't laugh, I bet they're working on it!

Also, I can't but wonder what this new all-natural low-fat milk is gonna cost--if you think gasoline is expensive, just wait'll you see what they'll charge for this stuff! I think I'll skip past the mutated milk and butter thank you very much!

You can e-mail your comments to Russell Snell at r.snell@auckland.ac.nz.