Thread: nutrient combinations

Originally Posted by furion joe

A long post about food combinations and their effects on the body. I know it’s a bit tedious, but I would appreciate any info that is given. Thanks a lot in advance.

Can healthy fats and soluble fiber (together or separately) in conjunction with a protein/carb meal, stabilize an insulin response?

Yes, by all means. Always try to eat some healthy fats with your carb meal but keep your real high fatty meals for a protein/fat/veggie meal only.

Is it true that they both delay the release of carbohydrates from the stomach? Meaning that the delayed action modifies the rise in insulin levels? Thereby negating the propensity for fat storage and increasing the probability that the nutrients will be used for building muscle?

Yes, fat will do 2 things: 1. It will slow down the digestion of the food. 2: It will lower the insulin reponse from the carbs but again don't over do it.

The reason I ask this: I have read that eating a meal of protein, carbohydrate, healthy fat, and vegetable together, that the fat in the meal has the ability/greater chance (by way of insulin) to be stored as excess body fat.

And eating a protein, healthy fat, and vegetable together will be used more for building muscle and burning fat – granted that the fat is from a healthy source such as flax, olive oil, or nat pb; it’s used as an alternate fuel source.

For instance:

Eating a pro/carb/healthy fat/veg meal = greater elevated blood sugar level + the possibility for fat storage.

(i.e. turkey breast, brown rice, extra virgin olive oil, and broccoli)

Eating a pro/fat/veg meal = minimal elevated blood sugar level – the possibility for fat storage.

(i.e. chicken breast, green beans, and flax seed oil)

It’s the idea of separating carbs and fat.

I have no scientific data to support this claim. Does anyone have any information to support this theory/claim?

I'll see what I can pull up for you

All of my meals are pretty balanced, meaning that they each contain protein, carbohydrate, fat, and fiber, except for pwo of course, which is basically carbs and protein.

I’d like to know if my pattern of eating is correct, the combination aspect of it.

I made some comments in bold.

Originally Posted by furion joe

Can healthy fats and soluble fiber (together or separately) in conjunction with a protein/carb meal, stabilize an insulin response?

Yes.

Is it true that they both delay the release of carbohydrates from the stomach?

Yes.

Meaning that the delayed action modifies the rise in insulin levels?

It will slow the release of carbohydrate from the stomach - which will slow carbohydrate release into the blood... Which will delay the release of insulin. The lower rate of absorption will also decrease the degree of insulin release at any given time.

Thereby negating the propensity for fat storage and increasing the probability that the nutrients will be used for building muscle?

This bit is somewhat questionable. There are many things that detemine if energy will be used for organs, muscle etc or if it will be converted/stored as fat.

These include your calorie intake, your insulin sensivity, your activity level (and what type of exercise it is), your hormone levels (growth hormone, thyroid hormone, sex hormones), your lean mass, muscle energy stores, total glood glucose levels....

Also - remember that the storage of fatty acids is insulin independant. So you don't need insulin to store fat.

At the end of the day - calorie intake is what counts.