The Carb-Sane Asylum

Soooo ... I've been following the #AHS12 hashtag on Twitter, and I'm not sure this came directly from there or from me clicking on an ID on one of the tweets and then checking out other tweets ... but anyway, I stumbled across this exchange between Aaron Blaisdell and Robb Wolf: 9 Aug Robb Wolf  ‏ @ robbwolf Ruminant fermentation converts cellulose to fats. Cows actually run on a 60-70% FAT diet. Expand   Reply     Retweet     Favorite 16h Aaron Blaisdell  ‏ @ AaronBlaisdell @ robbwolf  Paul Jaminet wrote the same thing in his book Perfect Health Diet Expand   Reply     Retweet     Favorite 7h Evelyn  ‏ @ CarbSane @ AaronBlaisdell   @ robbwolf  SCFA are not metabolized as "fats" . Ruminants convert the bulk of these via DNL to LCFA. http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-is-fat-fat.html FWIW, Robb retweeted this.  Now I'm pretty sur...

While finally finishing off my last post on short chain "fatty" acids, I was reminded of a whopper of a post on Dr. Eades' blog that I came across a long ago on resistant starch and butyrate.  This post, too, has been in my Drafts for a very long time waiting for some finishing touches. I came across this whilst I was looking into soluble fiber, low carbing and stalling and discovered that for all intent and purposes, SCFA's are carbohydrates metabolically, not fats at all.  On LC forums I was repeatedly told or reading that soluble fiber is not really a carb because it is converted to a fat therefore doesn't stimulate insulin (I've got a fair amount of info on this to summarize in a future post).  So this was one of the first things I began inquiring after. I had read several highly informative pieces by Eades through links in discussions, etc.  But when I found and read this one, it perked my "fact check" bunny ears right on up.   He seem...

I believe that, like sugar alcohols, soluble dietary fiber should be counted on a 0.5g carb/gram fiber basis.  However since most dietary fiber is not listed as to whether it is soluble or insoluble, this can be difficult to do.  Erring on the side of caution, a 1g for every 3g total dietary fiber would be a good compromise.  But many of the LC "fibers" such as polydextrose, inulin and glucomannan (shiritaki noodles) are essentially all soluble so 1g counted for 2g is a better count. In soluble dietary fiber, IDF, passes through the human digestive system unchanged so it is non-nutritive in all aspects. Further, since it adds bulk to food and assists in stool formation and "moving things along" IDF can reduce the nutrient absorbtion from the food we do eat.  This is essentially the rap of the "fiber is overrated" contingent. SDF may not be metabolized by the body, but it is fermented by intestinal bacteria to short chain fatty acids (SCFA...

On occasion I look up this type of info on www.nutritiondata.com -- it comes from the pull-down analysis of the fats.  This is for one ounce (28g) of butter.  (NOTE:  I suspect there is an error here on the serving size vs. fat content.  Normally 1T butter has ~11g total fat) Of note, a little more than 3% (~1/2 g) of the total fat is butyric acid, the short chain fatty acid product that is the byproduct of some soluble fiber metabolism.  Butter also contains 3.6% of capric and caprylic acids combined -- these are the 8 & 10 carbon medium chain triglycerides in "MCT oil".  Lauric acid (12C)  is 2.7% (this is the longest chain length characterized as medium chain, that is almost 50% of the fatty acid content of coconut oil).  All in all, the short and medium chain triglyceride content of butter is 11.6%, of which ~8.4% are classified as MCT's.  By contrast, coconut oil (source: wikipedia) is a little more than 60% MCT's. The PUFA's a...