Have you heard of the latest fad – the Sugar Diet or Sugar Fasting?

If you have, you may not have heard the Sugar Diet issues that go along with it!

In a Ray Peat inspired Pro Metabolic Diet, we are encouraged to eat fruit for carbs and even sugar for optimal health –  so that lines up with our beliefs so far – sugar is not the problem.

If you have already been following my ZEN Beach Diet version of a pro metabolic diet, you would already have lost weight, improved your health and wouldn’t need to search for other alternatives. You can find the guidebook here.

In these two different versions of a sugar diet though, critical changes and omissions are made. This demonstrates a lack of understanding of how the body works to raise metabolism without harm, and what is required to gain and maintain health, while losing weight for the long term.

Let me explain:

A few people on YouTube are claiming the Sugar Diet, Honey Diet or Sugar Fasting is the best thing ever & helps you drop weight quickly.

There should already be a huge red flag waving with the claim of “drop weight quickly” as this is code for using a stress mechanism, which ultimately undermines your health long term.

So the basic premise of this Sugar Diet is to:

1. Eat as much fruit, juice, sugar, candies like gummy bears & marshmallows as you like during the day.
2. Have a 3 hour gap between say 4pm & 7pm for sugars to exit the bloodstream.
3. Then have a protein heavy meal at night—but it is to be lean protein.
4. Avoid most fat
5. Eat carbohydrates only or protein/fats together only—i.e. separating macros

In Sugar Fasting you are doing extended days of step 1 & 4 and not eating any protein or fat at all.

So it’s basically:

Low fat— nothing wrong with that with reason,

High carb—nothing wrong with that either, as long as it’s the right sugar carbs supported with all the nutrients it needs to be correctly processed in the body and give the body all the nutrients it needs to operate at the higher metabolic rate.

Low to no protein—everything wrong with this.

Eating protein/fats alone—everything wrong with this.

The claim is that unlike normal fasting because you are eating carbs, you are increasing your metabolic rate along the way.

Kind of true in the short term but with massive downsides long term &  a lack of understanding how the body works for optimal health. And remember, women’s bodies are more sensitive to stress in a wrong diet, and will show signs of damage quicker than men.

Here are the Sugar Diet issues I can see & questions I have…

From the lack of protein, this diet activates STRESS hormone FGF21 which is Fibroblast Growth Factor 21

• Any diet that relies on stress to lose weight, leads to negative health outcomes long term. Those who have experienced this through starvation diets, fasting issues, excessive cardio exercise etc and then turned to Ray Peat’s wisdom to find answers, know all too well.
• Jay Feldman Wellness expands on FGF21—what it does and how it may not be as great as the Sugar Diet proponents believe. See his video here.

A lack of protein also impairs liver health.

• The healthy liver you will need to process all the fructose you are eating.

Liver health is also critical for correct thyroid function.

• As the liver is the site where thyroid hormone T4 is converted to T3.

The thyroid controls the metabolic rate of the body.

• So skimp on protein wreck the liver, stopping thyroid hormone conversion which will ultimately slow down the metabolic rate long term.
• This is probably why I’ve seen comments from people (mostly women) saying “I’ve been doing this sugar fast for about a week & it’s been great but now weight loss has stalled.”

A lack of protein also eventually leads to a decrease in protein synthesis in the body.

• Affecting skin, muscles, bone, cell creation, hormones, & more. Protein is also necessary to stop FGF21 stress hormone and return the body to regular functioning.

Instruction to eat carbs away from protein & fat

• Why? This is supposedly to ensure sugar processing is not impaired by fat or slowed down by protein.
• However do they understand how long chain triglyceride fat is digested? It takes a long time for fat to be digested. Articles say fats can continue entering the blood stream for 14-30 hours after a meal. So even if you have eaten your fat at night say at 6pm, it is still entering your bloodstream from 8am the next morning right through the whole day and night. Right when you are eating your sugar again! So from the fat digestion point of view, this instruction doesn’t make sense.
• This is why those who understand more about how the body works, advise to just keep fats low-moderate overall, if weight loss is necessary. This is enough to improve carb processing & insulin sensitivity.
• MCT oils are a different story though, as these are processed in the liver and only take 1-2 hours to reach the bloodstream. We still don’t need to eat this oil away from carbs, but it is the quicker digestion I am pointing out here.

No good reason to eat Protein & Fat away from carbs

• Eating Protein & Fat only in a meal trigger stress hormones to release glucose for energy from stores or to create it from protein or fat. The body needs energy for digestion, assimilation, elimination of the foods you are eating, but also to run the body the whole time while it is doing this.
• No matter when you are eating each macro, the body is doing it’s own thing sourcing what it needs, when it needs it, often all at the same time. So you can’t outsmart your body. It just does it via stress hormones (if you don’t eat the quick digesting carbs at the same time.), We know too, if you activate this system for too long, negative health outcomes are the result.

More Sugar Diet issues that are likely to crop up if you do it for too long:

• Eating large amounts of protein at night when your digestion is slowest will likely result in digestion issues & sleep issues
• Certain nutrients are needed for sugar to be processed into energy—which you are likely not getting when you restrict your diet like this
• Nutrient deficiencies because we are increasing metabolic rate initially & burning through all this fuel which requires higher level of nutrients not only to convert sugar to energy but also to just run the body faster – creating hair, skin, nails, muscles, running the digestion, assimilation & elimination systems, creating hormones etc

Hungry all the time

• You will be hungry all the time, even if you eat unlimited carbs because the body is looking for protein. Short term it burns it all off, so you will keep eating to find that protein, but long term it can’t keep compensating & you will regain fat
• There were better health outcomes doing a sugar diet/sugar fast instead of “no food at all” fasting such as insulin sensitivity, good glucose metabolism, increased lifespan, better blood pressure, better lipid profiles, improvement in mitochondrial function but it still increased fat long term & still had the negatives of low protein issues. So not at all optimal but less bad than straight out fasting. (Which you wouldn’t be doing either, if you understood how a proper pro metabolic diet works for health.)
• If low protein is eaten along with low calories the effects were catabolism – reduction in muscle, bones, organs, hormones & fertility were reduced & metabolism declined, and basically it turned on fatty acid oxidation which is Keto.
• Burns off extra energy by uncoupling, not by ATP production (energy)

(This means: Uncoupling primarily refers to the disruption of the normal coupling between the electron transport chain and ATP synthesis in mitochondria. This can lead to a variety of side effects, including increased respiration and temperature, as well as potential damage to cells and tissues. )

Hormone & Digestion Issues

• Fgf21 hormone issues:

1. induces a form of hibernation eventually- ie lowers metabolic rate for survival, slows cell growth
   2. Raises cortisol too – hammering the stress system when raising fgf21
   3. When fgf21 is high carb driven, it goes hand in hand with fat production in the liver.
2. Reduces bile flow (see more on implications of this below.)

• Too low in fat results in less bile flow, which creates inability to digest fats. Bile also has anti bacterial effects in the small intestine & so stops SIBO developing. Bile also helps clear out toxins in the liver. Saturated fat is anti microbial & anti fungal which helps with digestion, safe endotoxin clearance in the gut. So we need a certain level of fats in the diet for the body to function properly.

(In my ZEN Beach Diet I have found that 40g of fat a day is my optimal amount for insulin sensitivity & all of the above to function properly.)

• Blood sugar instability
• Sex hormone issues
• Using stress system, so it will downgrade metabolic function long term
• Prone to weight/fat regain long term just like other stress induced diets
• Your teeth will suffer on this diet from two angles:

1. A) Having to eat carbs frequently which creates the environment for bad bacteria that form cavities
2. B) Lack of the wide range of nutrients required by the teeth for remineralisation & repair

Bottom line

While I applaud the open minded approach to sugar & the right carbs no longer considered to be the boogie man to health, the Sugar Diet/Sugar Fast is not the best vehicle to optimal health & long lasting weight loss.

Bottom line this diet is just another stress based method that will negatively impact your health and increase your likelihood of gaining the weight back long term.

Some say it’s only a short term thing until you lose the weight. But then what? Go back to your original poor diet that made you overweight?

If you understood, and were eating a proper Ray Peat inspired Pro Metabolic Diet to start with, then there is zero need to do this.

Learn how to get started on a Ray Peat Inspired Pro Metabolic Diet via my books—The ZEN Beach Diet, 3 Day Summer RESTART & One Ten Toned pro metabolic exercise program are the best 3 to get started.

And if you want to know more scientific detail about Sugar Diet issues and how it interferes with good health, then watch the three videos on this by Jay Feldman Wellness. Jay has a deep scientific understanding of optimal health from a pro metabolic angle and shows clearly how the Sugar Diet doesn’t measure up.  See his videos here.

Always learning,

 

Kristy x