Managing glycogen stores or how to enjoy all the benefits of high carbohydrate diet without fat gain.

The human body can store 5-700g carbohydrates in the muscle and 50-100g in the liver but can’t store protein and we don’t want to store fat.
Low-carb diet is not a solution long term ,it’s more like choosing gastric bypass other than eating less… 

You probably saying now. “but carbs make you fat” well this can be true and not ,why?

Carbohydrates causing insulin secretion in the body. Originally this insulin is designed to trigger the body cells to use ,also muscles and the liver to store it as glycogen ,this is called carb loading. Insulin don’t make you fat!

then when we fast eg. sleeping or between meals the body releases glucagon to use the stored carbohydrates ,this balance keep the brain and organs always fed with enough glucose.
Glucose is the no.1 source of energy for every cell in the body! Fat is only used in emergency or starvation! Low-carb diet benefits are always short term ,causing cravings and extra stress.

So the most important thing in high carb diet to keep the glycogen stores always under 60% to avoid overfilling.

How to lower glycogen

– Low carb dinner or less calories after 4PM.  “eat breakfast like a king ,lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper!”
– Resistant training or any form of high intensity exercise.
– Overnight fasting. 

more carbs you want to eat, lower the glycogen stores must be. eg. after 16 hours fasting ,even 3-400g carbs won’t cause any form of fat gain.
If the exercise is very hard eg. weight training ,power lifting ,your glycogen never go over 60% because the constant energy use for muscle repair. in this case carbs are important any time of the day ,even 1-2hours before bedtime.

how do you know when you overfill? Is there any sign? How can you loose weight?
I’ll write about this in my next post…

How cooking methods affect AGEs (Advanced Glycation End products)

AGEs are proteins permanently cross-linked with sugars. The research is controversial ,some data show low absorption of these substances ,others show increased oxidative stress if someone eat a lot of it. these substances aren’t necessary for the body. avoiding completely is impossible but reducing AGEs intake spares antioxidants in the body for other tasks. improves skin quality ,better regeneration etc.

Glycated protein content of foods can be very different depends on the cooking techniques and other processing like aging cheese. Steaming ,cooking in water or pressure cooking don’t increase the AGE content significantly. Pressure cooking is the best method because the food don’t reach oxygen while cooking.
Cheese is very high in AGEs. the glycation happens over time even in room temperature from the air 

and some numbers… mg/100g 

Cheese, American   16,790
Chicken, grilled        14,440
Chicken, raw              4,170
Egg, fried                 13,670
French fries             13,130
Salmon, broiled with olive oil 14,950
Salmon, raw                            6,820
Steak, pan fried in olive oil    18,150
Steak, raw                               5,860
Butter                                    26,480
Margarine, tub                       17,520
Oil, sesame (Asian Gourmet) 21,680

source : 

Advanced Glycation End Products in Foods and a
Practical Guide to Their Reduction in the Diet
JAIME URIBARRI, MD; SANDRA WOODRUFF, RD; SUSAN GOODMAN, RD; WEIJING CAI, MD; XUE CHEN, MD; RENATA PYZIK, MA, MS;
ANGIE YONG, MPH; GARY E. STRIKER, MD; HELEN VLASSARA, MD

5 Most important advices…. The don’ts

NSDiet is a lacto-ovo-pescetarian diet. Studies on Blue zone diets ,Japanese Mediterranean diet etc. shows that this type of diet gives most of the health benefits and longevity.

most important 5 modifications for make free of disease promoting factors and working long term. these have massive scientific data or evidence from the last 30-40 years.

1. Use Cooking temperature below 100 Celsius (or 120 in pressure cooker) and cook everything in the presence of water. The main method of cooking in NSdiet is Steaming.
Baking ,Deep frying promote the formation of heterocyclic amines in protein foods and ”acrylamide” in carbohydrates, croslink and oxidize proteins. These chemicals are unstable ,not usable for the body and promotes cancer.
If you cook legumes ,soak overnight and cook in pressure cooker. Lentils ,Beans contain lectins. Lectins can trigger allergies and autoimmune reactions.There is evidence that only pressure cooking can deactivate these proteins 100%

2. Don’t consume refined sugar and fructose or maximize in 20g a day.
Fructose need conversion in the liver ,using valuable enzyme capacity. The chance of fructose to form cross-links with proteins ,form AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-products) in the body is 10 times higher than with glucose.
Evidences also show that fructose causes unbalance in appetite suppressing hormones.
Fructose is not essential in any way ,starches contain enough carbohydrates.
Don’t eat high sugar fruits or consume fruit juices in excess. Eat fruits for nutrition eg. berries.

3. Don’t eat gliadin containing grains or gluten, wheat and barley.
There is more and more evidence shows that gluten is too hard to digest and if undigested , capable to damage the intestinal lining. Wheat also contains WGA ,Wheat germ agglutinin which linked to many digestion issues and allergies.

4. Eat only fish as meat. Try to stick with wild ,low mercury fish like salmon and sardines.
Fish don’t contain any human analogue hormones and proteins. highly bio-available and easy to digest compared to other meats. contains all the beneficial meat substances like carnosine ,creatine ,taurine etc.
Eating mammals ,beef ,pigs can lead to serious autoimmune disease like Hashimoto from processed meat or hormone unbalances from lean meats.
There are evidences that in the case of any kind of intestinal infection these proteins can enter the bloodstream and induce immune reaction ,then because these animal proteins are very similar , autoimmune reaction. eg. pig pancreas in processed meat -> type 1 diabetes.
Chicken contains high level of pesticide residues ,Arsenic and heavy metals from the feed. Eat chicken only if available from small natural farm.

5. Don’t use seed oils. only oil used in NSDiet are Olive and Coconut.
Nuts ,nut butters have enough omega-6 to meet the requirements and balance high omega-3 intake from fish. Seed oils are unstable, easily turn rancid and inflammation promoting.

… I’ll be back with more details ,cooking advice and sample meals soon! Thanks for reading!

My Diet Journey!

Age 26-30-34

Diet: SAD ,Vegetarian-Vegan ,NSDiet

Nsdiet?

nsdiet? what is this about?
in the last 10 years many diets came ,became mainstream and disappeared.
Atkins is the best example from the best way of weight loss became the unhealthiest diet ever existed with even short term damages on health.
New extremes raw vegan ,paleo are getting more and more popularity but there is no scientific proof ,long time dieters ,large number groups.
Many people out there want to loose weight ,tone up or feel more energy adopting these diets and at the end it’s a Russian roulette with their health without the science behind dieting.

what you want from a diet

– Balance of macro and micro-nutrients ,vitamins
– Antioxidants or precursors
– High bio-availability
– Smallest possible amount of toxins
– Free from known common allergens or allergy causing proteins
– Anti-inflammatory properties
– Balance Glycemic index for weight loss or keeping weight.