Hi penquin and Cinque. Penquin, just to complicate matters the BBC have two food sites. BBCGoodFood and BBC-Food. the latter mentions the low carb programme but both concentrate on recipes in various ways. Cinque, yes you found the correct link, sorry for any confusion hope the site helps.
Good luck out there.

On one of these forums we were discussing how much energy is stored in the liver and how/when it is accessed. I can’t remember the forum, so here is a really interesting summary of something I read since about where our energy is stored and what organs use which energy source:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22436/

In summary, the liver stores about 1200 calories, in equal amount of fats, sugars, and proteins. Muscles store much more energy, both fats and sugars but lots of protein. Fat cells store enormous amounts of energy as fats but we all know that. See Table 30.1

Very simplistic summary of energy use:
The brain and red blood cells primarily use sugars for energy.
Muscles use fats when resting and sugars when active.
The heart mostly runs on fats. And the liver on protein.
Apologies if the summary is a bit off, but its quite complex and I need to read it again!

No idea how this generalised data applies to individual people, as presumably athletes and couch-potatoes have very different profiles!

Good find CJ. I wouldn’t describe 2 days of fasting as “prolonged starvation”. Starvation has a very specific meaning and in my opinion it is not two days worth of fasting. Starvation cuts in when you are bouncing on the minimum levels of fat reserves, about 2-4%. At this level you are unable to access any more fat (easily). This is when your body starts consuming protein as its primary energy source as it has no other option. That is starvation mode. Your brain will swap over to ketones quite readily after about 2-3 days. Or a lot sooner in fact if you are keto adapted. Ketone bodies are able to cross the blood brain barrier and supply the brain with energy.

I think real starvation can start well before the 2-4% level of body fat, especially for women. Even in men the brain and nervous system is mostly fat and makes up around 4% of the body weight, with the brain accounting for about 1/2 of that. Still even men often take their body fat below 10% without any real issues. I’m roughly 16% body fat and I have a lot I could lose before real starvation kicked in.

The brain never fully swaps over to ketones but the amount of glucose required drops to around 1/3 of what is required if no ketones are available. Some parts of the body don’t have microconidia and therefore have to use glucose like red blood cells, parts of the brain and kidneys. However muscles can also consume fatty acids and this probably also leads to elevated glucose levels. I’ve been thinking about this because I often have a higher fasting blood glucose that goes down after eating. Where does the glucose come from? Most likely it is more about the glucose not being used as much. However, I haven’t seen any studies to back that up. Still a higher fasting blood glucose and losing body fat seems like a contradiction.

Interesting article on salt. I had read somewhere that humans tend to control their salt intake to a very similar amount if unrestricted, something like 7 grams a day (but I can’t remember the number) and we seem to have a natural cut off. If you don’t eat processed foods, then you can add a lot of salt to your food before you get to that level.

I know its just anecdote, but my blood pressure has reduced from the 130s/80s to 110s/70s in about a year, and I add salt to my food (and feel very guilty about it!). Fasting, weight loss and a plant-based diet worked well for me. Actually, thinking about it, I only saw a big improvement in blood pressure when I changed my diet to plant-based. Maybe it was because I am probably eating more magnesium and potassium, which may help control blood pressure, according to the article. Who knows, as long as it works!

Could be interesting, but also LOL at this:

“The findings come with some hefty caveats. Based on the researchers’ own manipulation check that involved asking participants to say which of several statements best described their thought processes during the runs, the participants did not actually engage in cognitive reappraisal during the cognitive reappraisal run. That said, the researchers reconsidered the statements they’d previously identified as reflecting cognitive reappraisal and decided they weren’t really appropriate – at least not to in relation to how they’d framed cognitive reappraisal in their instructions. On further reflection, they felt the runners’ choice of descriptive statements did suggest they had practiced the strategy adequately after all. They may be right, but these post-hoc gymnastics make the study findings feel less convincing.”

Coffee drinkers in UK study found to have 10% to 15% lower death rate over 10 years.
https://amp.9news.com.au/article/20ef3899-24e9-42dc-a828-d925acaa2692

Could probiotics cause ‘brain fog’ and bloating?

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/amp/322712

Have been recently making and devouring my own greek yoghurt (far creamier and tastier than sold in shops) and was just about to buy some kefir grains. Doh! Will keep making the yoghurt because it is just too tasty with nuts, seeds and frozen berries. And tread warily with the kefir.

Thanks guys. Hardly a random sample, and the implied conclusions are an over-reach. I did research more after posting and came to similar conclusions.

In general it does make more intuitive sense to me to trust and prefer simple methods that humans have successfully used for thousands of years (like kefir) – over the standard array of ultra-processed products on our supermarket shelves.

Study on weight loss through habit-based interventions. Two approaches – habit forming and habit breaking – both succeeded in clinically significant weight loss after 12 months. Interestingly there was not only weight loss for both during the 12 week intervention period, but further weight loss over the remaining period until the 12 month measure.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0067-4

https://theconversation.com/ten-habits-of-people-who-lose-weight-and-keep-it-off-101387

And here are 12 month results of a different study of fasting/calorie restriction diets:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28459931

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/food-plans-that-replace-carbohydrates-with-protein-and-fat-are-giving-wrong-advice-says-new-study
Unfortunately doesn’t have link to actual study.
25 year study Suggests that a strict low carb diet, which uses high amounts of animal protein & fat may shorten your life span. Using vegetable products to replace animal ones may be healthier.
Study may be influenced by selection bias (i.e. people embarking on the diet may have health issues driving that choice). Other factors may be prevalent as well.

It is really interesting that those getting around 50% to 55% of calories from carbs had the lowest death rates. Clearly a long ways from the ketogenic diets or vegan diets. It would be very interesting to know more about what people with various diets actually were dying from.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/7119922/cheese-red-meat-good-for-heart/

Those who reported eating the highest levels of unprocessed meat (including red meat) (120g) and dairy (3 serves) were observed to have a 25% lower levels of early death – and similarly lower levels of fatal heart attacks.

Suggested that warning people off these foods is unsupported, and also counterproductive because it causes people to eat more white bread and sugar, which is seen as harmful.

Not sure how to take that study Cinque,

The primary measures used in that study to judge whether healthy or unhealthy were LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides. Other studies challenge whether LDL cholesterol is a valid measure of healthiness. e.g.:

https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/18/doctors-find-no-evidence-linking-high-levels-of-bad-cholesterol-to-heart-disease-7954636/