Getting insulin sensitive when you don't want it

Peter over at Hyperlipid has a go at why consumption of seed oil (with a high linoleic acid content, aka omega 6 PUFA) is a stupid idea – excellently written, as always.

Protons: Physiological insulin resistance:

… Under full starvation a rat lives off of its fat. If linoleic acid is what is being released from the adipocytes under fasting conditions it provides significantly less FADH2 relative to NADH in to the electron transport chain of all fat burning cells than the mix of fatty acids from the adipocytes of lard fed rats. ie there is less physiological insulin resistance. This failure means you fail to keep glucose levels normal during starvation. Let's rub that in: Failure to develop physiological insulin resistance during starvation results in hypoglycaemia and hunger.

Exactly the same will happen in any soy oil fed USA citizen. The end result will still be the failure to develop the essential physiological insulin resistance which is needed to keep blood glucose normal during fasting.

When the average soy oil fattened American is asleep they HAVE to, finally, stop snacking on carbohydrate crap, which is the only way they can maintain a decent blood glucose level. At this time blood glucose falls, simply because their muscles stay insulin sensitive and glucose falls in to them. The brain will not accept hypoglycaemia. Some time, in the middle of the night, there has to be a Refrigerator Raid.

And, OMG, they eat calories! And calories count! Did I ever mention gluttony? Or, perhaps, is the Refrigerator Raid simple physiology?

The 22h daily fasted rats have a locked refrigerator. However hungry they feel due to hypoglycaemia, they are not getting any extra food. But why is there extra weight loss under starvation? Insulin was tricky to measure from a rat in the 1970s, but I know that the safflower loaded then starved rats had the lowest insulin as they are both insulin sensitive and hypoglycaemic. Low insulin = more lipolysis = more ketones and more weight loss. Logical.

Now let's go a step further. Blood glucose is low. It's low because the F:N ratio of linoleic acid is low and that's what is being released from adipocytes. This is metabolism. Individual cell by individual cell, it's a metabolic phenomenon. Picked up by the brain as hypoglycaemia. …

Protons: Physiological insulin resistance addendum:

… The whole point of a ketogenic diet (epilepsy excepted) is to induce starvation-appropriate physiological insulin resistance. What is the point of setting up a ketogenic diet which does not have the ability to convert from running on glucose to running on fat? …