Re: To sugar or not to sugar, that is the question!




George Cherry wrote:
> > COMMENT:
> > Well, no. The body can't convert fat to glucose. If the body wants
> > glucose and it isn't in the diet as carbohydrate, the body is forced to
> > make glucose wastefully from protein, causing muscle breakdown.
>
> How does the body use fat? What does fat do
> for us (besides pad our bones)? I always thought
> was for long-term energy storage.
>
> George


Oh, it is. Fat can be burned for energy directly through the TCA/Krebs
cycle. But you just can't go back and make sugar from it. And since
your brain can only adapt to about 50% fat energy use even during
starvation (the rest must be sugar) that means you have to make some
sugar all the time from protein in a fast, to feed your brain.

Thus, protein-sparing fasts, which provide just enough carbs to feed
the brain (300 kcal a day or so), and no more.

SBH

.



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