Why we want to avoid fat and carb combos
Aw man I really feel like the bad guy when I tell people to avoid doing this if health and fat loss is their goal but in my defense, I say it to help people. 🙂
I have spoken about this before but it’s time to help you really understand WHY, a bit more in depth.
So for us to first look at this topic we must first understand what ‘lipopolysaccharides’ are.
Lipopolysaccharides or LPS are bacterial toxins that can cause inflammation and a host of other health issues, and they’re normally housed in the gut, but they can become toxic if they enter the blood through infection or through a leaky gut. LPS’s are also found on the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria, including things like E. coli and Salmonella. We all have some amount of LPS in us but how healthy you are can depend on the amounts you have.
So, you can get a ton of LPS’s if you are infected with a bacteria or parasite or have a terrible diet. And these LPS’s can really induce a host of inflammation, damage cells and drive dis-ease in the body. Studies have found is that a high saturated fat diet can significantly increase LPS levels. And in addition to that, if the saturated fats are consumed in the presence of a high amount of carbohydrates, particularly starchy or sugary carbohydrates, a so-called high-fat, high-carb meal, LPS levels can skyrocket.
Studies have also compared high-fat, high-carbohydrate meals that are derived more of plant origins, like monounsaturated fats from extra virgin olive oil. And we don’t see that elevation in LPS’s anywhere near to the extent that we would see them after a meal rich in saturated fats and carbs. There is still an elevation but not as much. 🧐
So now we know what lipopolysaccarhides are and how their levels increase with the combination of fat and carbs…why else should we avoid this combination of foods?
Also when you process carbohydrates in your gut in the presence of fats —> the fat creates a coating around the carbs and they both travel around the body delivering inflammation, oxidation and glycation (which causes aging and tissue damage). So the fat gets used as a delivery system for the carbs which become inflammatory in your bloodstream 🤓
So, based on the research, we can categorize which high-fat, high-sugar meals would probably be most deleterious to you. Just from a pure inflammatory and lipopolysaccharide standpoint — we know that any high-fat, high-sugar/carb meal is bad news if you’re trying to lose weight, specifically body fat. It induces storage of most of those calories as fat. And these LPS’s damage the gut and drive up illness and disease.
All is not lost though… let’s say you’re at your normal stabilized weight, your lean or have a nice amount of muscle and you’re not concerned about weight loss, you’re relatively insulin sensitive, you exercise on a frequent basis, you have moderate to low-level physical activity during the day, your health biomarkers are excellent…well if you’re were going to have fat and carbohydrates at the same meal (which makes that meal very enjoyable because we know you get the dopamine production from that)…you would choose a monounsaturated fat source like extra virgin olive oil or olives, in a small amount, paired with more of a healthy kind of Mediterranean or Paleo type carb source.
With all this taken into consideration — we now understand why we keep things like cream cakes, pizza, ice cream and ice caps etc to once a week or less. 👍
I hope that makes sense and aids you on your health journey xo