Personal transformation and diet

• In my mid-20s I was clinically obese, insulin resistant, and dealing with daily debilitating migraines, chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, arthritic pain, high blood pressure, IBS, dental problems, acne, three daily medications, and anxiety severe enough that I could barely leave my house.
• Diet is the most powerful lever we can pull; within about 12 months of changing what I ate I lost 107 lb, moved out of the diabetic range, became migraine-free and energetic, and saw my IBS and acne disappear.
• Acne and spots are intestinal permeability, mainly from grains, and removing bread was the biggest first lever I pulled.
• I then built substantial muscle while eating almost zero carbohydrate, became British champion and number one in Europe as a professional bodybuilder in my category, and later moved into endurance sport.
• My obese father showed where my genetics were taking me, but diet and lifestyle changed how my body received its genetic information through epigenetics; animal proteins and natural fats are powerful enough to change that trajectory.
• Growing older does not inherently mean progressive aches, pains, and decline; the body does not degrade in the way mainstream media and pharmaceutical companies say, and lifestyle gives us control over how long and well we live.

Sugar as an addictive reward

• Fed rats given choices involving sugar, cocaine, and heroin chose the sweet option in the majority of cases; sugar is a drug and is more addictive than heroin. [1]
• In another rodent maze experiment, rats preferred Oreos over rice cakes, especially the sugary center, and lab testing found a higher brain response to the high-fat/high-sugar food than to morphine, cocaine, and heroin. [2]

Glycation and glucose requirements

• Excess glucose in its reactive linear form binds through a Schiff base and Amadori reaction to form advanced glycation end products; fruit-derived sugar reaches the same endpoint through a Heyns reaction.
• AGEs activate NOX and NF-kB pathways, generating reactive oxygen species and inflammatory cytokines that damage cells and DNA, dysregulate LDL, and drive inflammation and aging.
• We need glucose, but we do not need dietary carbohydrate: a 150 g/day glucose-use figure attributed to Dr. James DiNicolantonio is far above my calculations during full ketogenic adaptation.
• My calculations put red-blood-cell glucose use at about 4.3-13.5 g/day and total glucose need at roughly 15-37 g/day, while prolonged ketosis upregulates monocarboxylate transporters and allows ketones to supply at least 95% of brain energy.
• The body makes about 20 teaspoons of glucose each day through gluconeogenesis, so the usual exogenous carbohydrate requirement is zero; glucose is required, carbohydrate is not.

Stress, cortisol, and addiction

• Cortisol is essential for energy, insulin and metabolic regulation, cardiovascular function, blood pressure, gluconeogenesis, memory, immune function, and survival, and the HPA axis normally shuts its production down through negative feedback.
• Modern life creates many repeated smaller stresses; general adaptation syndrome moves from alarm to resistance to exhaustion when that load becomes continuous.
• Persistently abnormal cortisol disrupts sleep, muscle, fat distribution, skin, libido, immunity, pituitary function, blood pressure, thyroid and reproductive hormones, energy, mood, and other downstream systems.
• Elevated cortisol lowers dopamine and serotonin, linking chronic stress directly to addictive eating; when I was depressed or anxious I used pizza, chocolate, grains, seed oils, and other high-carbohydrate foods to change how I felt.

Dopamine, carbohydrate, and impaired control

• Sugar releases dopamine through the mesolimbic reward pathway, but repeated intake downregulates that pathway, requiring progressively more sugar to obtain the same reward.
• All carbohydrates break down into sugar, so this includes pizza, rice, pasta, muesli, bananas, brown rice, sweet potato, and other foods commonly regarded as healthy.
• More sugar damages or blocks the prefrontal cortex, reducing sensible decision-making, and adversely affects the hippocampus, weakening memory of the previous negative consequences.
• This is why repeated sugar exposure makes it easier to rationalize another binge and harder to act on the decision to stop.

Grains, glyphosate, and neurotransmitter production

• Most grains and vegetables are sprayed with herbicides such as glyphosate, which blocks the shikimate pathway used to make tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine, the aromatic amino acids needed for dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, and other neurotransmitters.
• Glyphosate can block neurotransmitter production by as much as 95%; if bread, pasta, and rice are eaten every day alongside depression, that is probably the main cause.
• Even unsprayed grains remain high in lectins and phytic acid, and phytic acid can block absorption of zinc, iron, and magnesium by as much as 100%.
• Those minerals are required cofactors for neurotransmitter production and many other functions, so losing them further suppresses dopamine and serotonin production.
• Sugar and seed oils then give a short dopamine and serotonin bump while further downregulating those pathways, producing a vicious cycle of cravings, anxiety, depression, and escalating intake.

Insulin resistance and the kynurenine pathway

• Sugar raises insulin, which clears glucose and many amino acids from the blood while leaving tryptophan relatively available; tryptophan then makes serotonin and melatonin, producing the short-term good feeling after sugar.
• Repeated exposure eventually causes insulin resistance, which can take up to 15 years but now occurs much earlier, including in children as young as seven or nine with type 2 diabetes.
• In insulin resistance, tryptophan is diverted through the kynurenine pathway, glutamate rises, GABA falls, and glutamate excitotoxicity develops.
• This glutamate toxicity underlies ALS or motor-neuron disease, MS, Parkinson's disease, hypoglycemia, seizures, DNA damage, depression, and anxiety.
• Sugar therefore creates depression and anxiety that drive another search for sugar, locking the same biochemical cycle in place.

Breaking the cycle with food

• The first step is to stop sugar and seed oils so aromatic amino acids can again make neurotransmitters naturally; every exposure further fuels the addiction.
• Predominate animal proteins and natural fats. On a low-carbohydrate diet, low-carbohydrate vegetables can occupy about one-quarter of the plate, with the rest filled by animal proteins and natural fats.
• Broccoli, spinach, and kale are more damaging because of oxalates and sulforaphane, but early in a low-carbohydrate transition they can be the lesser evil when kept to a small portion.
• Saturated fat, omega-3s, vitamin D, amino acids, and ketosis increase BDNF and inhibitory control, so fatty steak, pork, chicken with skin, fish, lamb, eggs, cheese, Greek yogurt, and similar foods help suppress cravings.
• CCK signals fullness; if cheese or another protein-and-fat food is unappealing while sweets remain attractive, that is a craving, not genuine hunger.
• Falling off the wagon does not end the process: the rule matters more than the exception, and the response is to return to animal proteins and natural fats and keep the pattern consistent.

Light, insulin, and ketones

• UVA exposure to the eyes increases melanocyte-stimulating hormone and nitric oxide, blunts cravings, and improves how we feel; take glasses off, do not look directly at the sun, open a window, and get whatever sunlight is available.
• Carbohydrate raises insulin, insulin raises lipoprotein lipase, and that sends fatty acids into fat cells; if you want to store fat, eat carbohydrate.
• Increasing protein and fat shifts metabolism toward fatty-acid beta oxidation and ketone production, using fat from food or body stores.
• Ketones reduce inflammation and hunger, reverse aging, and become increasingly effective as ketogenic adaptation develops over months or even years.
• Ketones, MCTs, or exogenous ketones increase adenosine signaling, lower glutamate, restore the glutamate-GABA balance, and help block depression and anxiety.
• A man who was suicidal stopped eating and drinking to end his life; after several days, rising ketones restored the glutamate-GABA balance, he felt happy, and he was no longer suicidal.
• Ketones are the magic elixir, whether produced through ketogenic eating, fasting, MCTs, or supplementation.
• Carb and carb-associated products are the root cause of all anxiety and depression, with chronic cortisol overload, HPA-axis damage, insulin resistance, and neurotransmitter disruption driving the cycle.

Coffee, DNA, carbohydrate caveats, and consistency

• Coffee blocks the adenosine receptor and raises glutamate; major anxiety or depression requires removing coffee, including decaffeinated coffee, because mycotoxins and acrylamides remain involved.
• Caffeine can contribute, but it is far less problematic than coffee, and isolated caffeine can allow someone to maintain caffeine use without the same glutamate increase.
• Broccoli quite literally damages DNA; this is connected to epigenetics and was left for another session.
• We are predominantly water, protein, and fat, with only about 1-2% sugar or polysaccharide, so under normal circumstances there is no need for dietary carbohydrate.
• Warmer weather and high-UV environments are caveats where some exogenous form may be required, but generally the requirement remains zero because gluconeogenesis supplies the glucose still needed.
• MCT or C8 oil and exogenous ketones are daily tools for raising ketones and suppressing anxiety and depression; glycine and citrulline malate are sweet amino acids that can help blunt a sweet craving.
• A slide of compounds essential for life is used to make the point that plants contain zero of those compounds, that over half of the compounds needed for optimal health are not found in plants, and that only one is found in high quantities in vegetables.
• Every vitamin and mineral needed is available in abundance in animal proteins together with protein and natural fats, so animal proteins and natural fats are the default.
• There is no magic formula for sugar addiction beyond consistency: every day without sugar weakens the craving cycle, and after a lapse the answer is to return to animal proteins and natural fats.

References

1. [08:28] Drug versus sweet reward: greater attraction to and preference for sweet versus drug cues — https://doi.org/10.1111/adb.12134
2. [09:26] Are Oreos Addictive? Nucleus Accumbens C-Fos Expression Is Correlated with Conditioned Place Preference to Cocaine, Morphine and High Fat/Sugar Food Consumption — https://www.conncoll.edu/academics/internships-student-research/student-research-projects/are-oreos-addictive-nucleus-accumbens-c-fos-expression-is-correlated-with-conditioned-place-preference-to-cocaine-morphine-and-high-fatsugar-food-consumption.html