The Perils of Carb Loading and the Power of Fat Adaptation for Athletic Excellence

You likely know people who engage in strenuous exercise—a marathon, triathlon, long-distance biking, even just day-to-day exercise—or perhaps you do so yourself. In anticipation of the need for a great deal of energy to engage in such an effort and to increase endurance and performance, many people follow a practice called carb loading. While there are number of protocols for doing so, for most people carb loading typically consists of a large serving of pasta consumed the day before, followed by liberal consumption of sugary soft drinks and sugary energy bars, all designed to maximize liver and muscle glycogen stores that can be burned for energy. 

Is carb loading safe? Is it necessary? In this episode of Defiant Health, let’s discuss how and why carb loading is an unhealthy process with some effects that are irreversible. I’ll also discuss how you can maintain or increase performance without relying on this unhealthy practice.

I also want you to consider supporting the sponsors of this Defiant Health podcast, Paleovalley and BiotiQuest. Choosing high-quality products to support your health journey is important. This is why Paleovalley is a supporter of my Defiant Health podcast. Their grass-fed pasture-raised beef sticks, for instance, are fermented, unlike nearly all other beef sticks. If you haven’t tried their pasture-raised pork sticks, you are in for a real treat, as they are irresistibly delicious. And BiotiQuest, also a sponsor of this podcast, provide unique probiotic products that, in my experience and the experience of the followers of my program, are unlike all other probiotics, as they are crafted using the scientific insights of academic microbiologist, Dr. Raul Cano, an innnovator in the concept of collaborative effects among microbes. 

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For BiotiQuest probiotics including Sugar Shift, go here.

A 15% discount is available for Defiant Health podcast listeners by entering discount code UNDOC15 (case-sensitive) at checkout.*
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Get your 15% Paleovalley discount on fermented grass-fed beef sticks, Bone Broth Collagen, low-carb snack bars and other high-quality organic foods here.*

For 12% off every order of grass-fed and pasture-raised meats from Wild Pastures, go here.

*Dr. Davis and his staff are financially compensated for promoting BiotiQuest and Paleovalley products.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

You likely know people who engage in strenuous exercise marathons, triathlons, long-distance biking, even just day-to-day exercise or perhaps you do so yourself in anticipation of the need for a great deal of energy to engage in such an effort and to increase endurance and performance. Many people follow a practice called carb loading. While there are a number of protocols for doing so, for most people carb loading typically consists of having a large serving of pasta the day before, followed by liberal consumption of sugary soft drinks and sugary energy bars, all designed to maximize liver and muscle glycogen stores that can be burned for energy. Is carb loading safe? Is it necessary? In this episode of Defiant Health, let's discuss how and why carb loading is an unhealthy process with some effects that are irreversible. I'll also discuss how you can maintain or increase performance without relying on this unhealthy practice. I also want you to consider supporting the sponsors of this Defiant Health podcast Paleo Valley and BiodaQuest. Choosing high-quality products to support your health journey is important. This is why Paleo Valley is a supporter of my Defiant Health podcast. Their grass-fed, pasture-raised beef sticks, for instance, are fermented, unlike nearly all other beef sticks. If you haven't tried their pasture-raised pork sticks, you're in for a treat, as they are irresistibly delicious. And BiodaQuest, also a sponsor of this podcast, provides unique probiotic products that in my experience, in the experience of the followers of my program, are unlike all other probiotics as they are crafted using the scientific insights of academic microbiologist Dr Raul Kennel, an innovator in the concept of collaborative effects among microbes.

Speaker 1: 1:59

So the whole notion of carb loading got its start around 60 to 70 years ago when studies were performed very small studies were performed, looking at elite athletes mostly, who were deprived of carbohydrates for typically three to four days, and they were tested before and then after this experience of limiting carbs, and they saw that the athlete's performance declined. They couldn't go as hard, they couldn't go as far, and so they added back carbs and performance was restored. And more recently there have been studies where there have been muscle biopsies performed and it was clear that carb loading, or restoration of carb intake, increases muscle glycogen. And so this was the birth of the notion that if you want to have high performance, both in endurance as well as speed or intensity, you carb load. And so modern people who engage in such things as marathons, triathlons, long distance biking, long distance swimming and some people who do it routinely just for their regular workouts. So people typically do something like have a large serving of pasta the night before with lots of bread and perhaps other sugary foods, and then, on the day of the event or prior to their workout, they'll engage in drinking lots of soft drinks with a lot of sugar in them, or have so-called energy bars, also rich in sugar and carbohydrates, all in the hopes of loading up both their liver and muscle with glycogen to draw from for energy, for endurance and for performance.

Speaker 1: 3:28

What they failed to recognize in these very short, three or four day long studies is that had they deprived the elite athletes of carbohydrates for a longer time period of more like four to six weeks, they would see that performance returned to that experience prior to reducing carbs and sometimes even exceeded their prior performance. In some studies, there was actually a greater endurance and higher intensity after that obligatory four to six weeks of not having carbs. That's the time period required for your body to adjust so-called fat adaptation. In other words, it's the time required for your body to convert from drawing on glycogen from muscle and liver and to be more effective, more efficient, at mobilizing energy from fat cells. So when you reduce carbohydrate intake, performance returns after that obligatory period required to convert to fat adaptation, of course eliminating the need for carbohydrate loading.

Speaker 1: 4:24

So what is wrong with this? What is wrong with loading up on carbohydrates to increase glycogen stores? Well, there's plenty wrong beyond being unnecessary and being due to a misinterpretation of the evidence short term evidence but it has nothing to do with glycogen. So one of the problems that develops when you load up on carbs to a high degree is that you glycate proteins. What that means is that glucose, because blood glucose goes really high after carb loading. After the pasta, there's a sustained high blood sugar, high blood glucose. After those drinks and energy bars, there's once again high blood glucose. The high intake of sugar and other solutes also cause an osmotic diarrhea. So it's not uncommon to see people having to stop during their event in those porta-potties on the side of the road because the osmotic effect of so many electrolytes or solutes in the stuff they're eating and drinking causes an osmotic diarrhea. But the real danger here is that the high blood glucose. So it's not uncommon to have a blood glucose, say, of 140, 190, really high.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Whenever blood glucose exceeds 100 milligrams per deciliter, you provoke an irreversible reaction called glycation or endogenous glycation, and what that means is there's an irreversible change in the proteins of the body. If you glycate, for instance, the proteins and the lenses of your eyes, you accelerate the development of cataracts, opacities in the lenses. If you glycate collagen, collagen is all throughout the body, especially in the skin and in joint. The joint cartilage collagen is unusually glycation prone and when collagen becomes glycated it becomes very brittle and stiff and gets degraded by enzymes. In the skin, for instance, glycated collagen causes thinned, brittle skin, aging and wrinkles and crepey skin In joints. It causes joint cartilage to become very brittle and less able to deal with wear and tear and it erodes and breaks down, leading to bone on bone arthritis. Other tissues are glycation prone, such as kidney tissue, and you can cause long term kidney impairment, kidney damage over time from glycation. So every time blood glucose goes above 100 milligrams per deciliter, as it does with an energy bar or those sugary soft drinks or pasta, you glycate proteins throughout the body and that accelerates all these processes, including accelerates all the phenomena of aging.

Speaker 1: 6:54

One of the other proteins that is very prone to glycation are the proteins in lipo, proteins, that is, these are the things in the bloodstream fat carrying proteins that are glycation prone, especially small LDL particles. Think about this for a moment Small LDL particles, the real cause for coronary disease, not LDL cholesterol. Ldl cholesterol is meant to be a very crude and indirect way to guesstimate the number of LDL particles. But we can measure those LDL particles and specifically we can measure the small proportion of small LDL particles. So you eat pasta or you have a sugary drink or energy bar and your liver converts the sugars into triglycerides or fats. That process is called liver de novo lipogenesis. All that means is your liver is very good at converting carbohydrates or sugars to triglycerides, making new fats, de novo lipogenesis. When your liver makes those triglycerides, those triglycerides enter the bloodstream as very low density lipo proteins, vldl. They're low density because they're rich in triglycerides or fats and you, as you likely know, when you have salad dressing, for instance, the fat or the oil always goes to the top and the water or the aqueous part goes to the bottom. Same thing here. Lipoprotein particles rich in fat are very low in density.

Speaker 1: 8:17

So those VLDL particles are direct causes of heart disease, coronary heart disease, and those VLDL particles like to interact with LDL particles. Now, when VLDL particles rich in triglycerides interact with LDL particles, the VLDL particles contribute or transfer triglycerides to that LDL particle. Then that LDL particle goes through a series of what are called remodeling reactions that reduces the size of the LDL particle, making it a small LDL particle. So consumption of carbs and sugars causes a rise in VLDL. That in turn leads to the formation of small LDL particles. Now that small LDL particle is now very prone to glycation and that activates it to be able to cause coronary heart disease. So consumption of the carbs causes VLDL. That in turn causes small LDL, and that small LDL particle is in turn very glycation prone and much more capable of forming atherosclerotic plaque in your coronary arteries.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Small LDL particles also persist for an extended period. So a large LDL particle formed by consumption of fat is recognized by the liver and cleared within 24 hours. Small LDL particles, in contrast, are poorly recognized by the liver. That's because the recognition protein on that particle on the small LDL particle, it's called apoprotein B is partially concealed and the liver cannot see it easily. And so that small LDL particle persists for five to seven days not the 24 hours of a large and benign LDL particle, but five to seven days, giving it plenty of opportunity to circulate around and around and around and eventually gain access to the walls of arteries, especially the coronary arteries, the heart's arteries, where it triggers formation of atherosclerotic plaque. It triggers inflammation and over time accumulates this plaque that can rupture and cause heart attack and other kinds of cardiovascular events. So when someone carb loads, whether it's past the evening before, or those energy drinks or bars, you provoke formation of tons of small LDL particles that give you at least a week of increase, markedly increased cardiovascular risks. You can imagine, if you do this repeatedly, provoking formation of small LDL particles, you are exposing yourself to a big rise in cardiovascular risk and heart attack, sudden cardiac death or the development of symptoms that require some like bypass surgery or stent implantation.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Now let me pause for a moment to tell you something about Defiant Health Podcast sponsors Paleo Valley and Biodquest. The Defiant Health Podcast is sponsored by Paleo Valley, makers of delicious grass-fed beef sticks, healthy snack bars and other products. We're very picky around here and insist that any product we consider has no junk ingredients like carrageenan, carboxymethylcellulose, sucralose and, of course, no added sugars. All Paleo Valley products contain no gluten nor grains. In fact, I find Paleo Valley products among the cleanest in their category. One of the habits I urge everyone to get into is to include at least one, if not several, servings of fermented foods per day in their lifestyles. Unlike nearly all other beef sticks available, paleo Valley grass-fed beef sticks are all naturally fermented, meaning they contain probiotic bacterial species. And now Paleo Valley is expanding their Wild Pastures program that provides 100% grass-fed, grass-finished, pastured beef and pastured chicken and pork raised without herbicides or pesticides. And they just added wild-cut seafood caught from the waters of Bristol Bay, alaska. Among their other new products are pasture-raised fermented pork sticks, chocolate-flavored grass-fed bone broth protein and grass-fed organ complex in capsule form. And new essentially electrolytes in powder form to add to potassium and magnesium intake, available in orange, lemon and melon flavors. And for the fall and winter season they've brought back pumpkin spice superfood bars. Listeners to the Defiant Health podcast receive a 15% discount by going to paleo valley dot com.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Backwards slash defiant health and I'd like to welcome Defiant Health's newest sponsor, biodicuest. I've had numerous conversations with Biodicuest founders Martha Carlin, an academic microbiologist, dr Raul Kenno. They have formulated unique synergistic probiotic products that incorporate what are called collaborative or guild effects, that is, groups of microbes that collaborate with each other via specific metabolites, potentially providing synergistic benefits. They have designed their sugar shift probiotic to support healthy blood sugars. Simple slumber to support sleep. Ideal immunity to support a healthy immune response. Heart centered that supports several aspects of heart health. And antibiotic antidote designed to support recovery of the gastrointestinal microbiome after a course of antibiotics. The Biodicuest probiotics are, I believe, among the most effective of all probiotic choices for specific health effects. Enter the discount code undock15, undoc all caps 15, for 15% discount for Defiant Health listeners.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Another problem that develops as a consequence of carb loading is that you introduce changes into the gastrointestinal microbiome. That is, the flood of sugars provokes changes. One thing that happens is that you cause proliferation of fecal microbes in the colon. These are species like E coli and Seminella and Campylobacter, so they over-proliferate in the colon. That has health implications. But even worse, when you have an overgrowth of fecal species in the colon, you give them the opportunity to ascend into the 24 feet of small intestine up to the ileum, jejunum, duodenum and even stomach and what happens is that you have now 24 feet of over-proliferate fecal microbes in the small intestine.

Speaker 1: 14:29

You may recall, the small intestine is very permeable by design because that's where you absorb nutrients like amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. So the small intestine is by design very permeable, but when it's occupied, when it's dominated by fecal microbes from the colon that live and die over short periods like several hours, they shed their toxins, specifically something called lipopolysaccharide or LPS endotoxin, and that LPS endotoxin is able to enter the bloodstream through the permeable wall of the small intestine and enter the bloodstream and that over time leads to all kinds of adverse effects such as rise in blood sugar, rise in insulin resistance, rise in blood pressure, increase potential for cognitive impairment, increase risk for coronary disease and heart attack, increase risk for stroke, increase risk for breast cancer and numerous other conditions. So that's in the world of bacteria in the gastrointestinal microbiome. But there's also proliferation of fungal species like candidate albicans. So candidate and other fungi thrive on sugars. When you feed yourself, when you feed your gastrointestinal tract large quantities of sugars, you promote the proliferation of fungal species and you can lead to fungal overgrowth in the colon. You can lead to fungal overgrowth in the small intestine, so-called CFO or small intestinal fungal overgrowth, and that has its own collection of concerns, including an increase in sugar cravings oddly Also irritable bowel syndrome type symptoms like bloating, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, and it's likely this is still being worked out it's likely that fungal overgrowth in the gastrointestinal tract likely allows fungi to translocate or export fungal species to other parts of the body, such as skin or sinuses, and there's emerging evidence that may even translocate fungi into the brain and that may be a player role in the development of Alzheimer's dementia, because fungi are recovered in many people's brains after death, of course, of people with Alzheimer's dementia and it doesn't take many bouts of increased exposure to sugars and carbs to cause these changes in the microbiome.

Speaker 1: 16:44

Now this is speculation, but I had a nice conversation with the founder of the company Bioticuest, the sponsor of this Defiant Health podcast and also a friend, martha Carlin. Martha's story is that her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at age 44. So she left her job in real estate and became devoted to exploring the microbiome as solutions for Parkinson's disease. One of the things she's observed over the years is because of her husband she has a large, she participates in a large Parkinson's disease community and she's noticed that many of the people who have Parkinson's most of the people in her community who have Parkinson's disease were former long distance athletes who carb loaded.

Speaker 1: 17:26

Now she speculates that because there's a marked increase in intestinal permeability, especially in the 24 hours after any kind of strenuous effort such as a marathon, that the combination of carb loading and the changes in the microbiome, coupled with the expected marked increase in intestinal permeability in the aftermath, the 24 hours after a strenuous event, that that combination may be lethal and may be the underlying process. This speculation has not yet been proven. It's a tough thing to prove. We'd have to have people run marathons right Carb load, run a marathon, measure intestinal permeability and then follow them for 20, 30, 40 years see if they become demented. So an impractical study to perform. So it's speculation, but it seems to make sense right Like that, this effort at long distance exercise, coupled with a terrible practice of carb loading and the expected increase in intestinal permeability that follows strenuous exercise and, by the way, it takes about 20 minutes to start an increase to provoke an increase in intestinal permeability of strenuous exercise. And the longer you go, the harder you go, the more intestinal permeability increases. So bear in mind with your exercise efforts Exercise is good for you.

Speaker 1: 18:33

It yields many positive changes. But just be careful. Exercise taken to extremes, such as a marathon or a triathlon, may actually have adverse effects, including we wonder if it has effects on central nervous system health, such as Parkinson's disease and other conditions. So I think you can surmise what I'm going to say you should do if you want to avoid all these consequences of car loading.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Don't car load, but give yourself the time minimum of four weeks as much as six weeks on a low carb effort, such as on my programs, and allow your body to become fat adapted and more effectively, more efficiently draw from energy in the fat stores. Of course, it's a better way to lose weight if you need to, also because you preferentially metabolize fats and not the glycogen stores in liver and muscle. By doing so, you stop glycating the proteins of your body and you remove a major disruptive factor on the composition of your gastrointestinal microbiome. Now, if you learned something from this episode of Defiant Health, I invite you to subscribe through your favorite podcast directory. Post a review. Post a comment. Help us build this community of like minded people interested in self empowerment and health to minimize your reliance on the healthcare system. Thanks for listening.