Carbohydrates, Insulin and Your Health

By Terrance Franklin

So far, we have gone over the two different types of metabolism, fat or carb based. What is the distinction between the two of these and why is it crucial to survival?

The fate of hungry cells

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At any part of the day, the body is in a state of carb or fat metabolism. It will take days to switch into ketosis, and normally more than a week for people who have never been in it before. Due to this, carbs are a fantastic supply of fuel when they are plentiful, but leave you in the cold when you lose access, as you might in a survival situation.

Let us imagine that you had two twins, one who was in a state of carbohydrate metabolism and one who was in a state of fat metabolic process. Just imagine your tragedy of choice wipes out commercial infrastructure and in three days, there isn't any access to survival foods. Both of them are now in a state of starvation. Let us even say for the sake of the discussion that they are in a state of physical activity, going over land, defending themselves and porting supplies with them.They are expending energy, which has to come from somewhere. In this case, the body.

Lipid metabolism

Twin #1 is in a state of fat metabolism. His cells are ready to take ketones as a fuel supply. In a state of starvation with energy to expend, his cells will demand ketones. Thankfully, he will have an enormous source of ketones in his body fat. Fat will be transformed into useful calories at 9 calories per gram. For the average person, this is a lot of energy. Taking a standard weight of 175 lbs along with a balanced bodyfat percentage of 15%, this twin can lose 10% of his weight in fat, or 17.5 lbs before it gets unhealthy. This results in close to 8000 grams of usable fat, that translates into a tremendous 72000 calories just before twin#1 starts losing more vital tissue.

The carbohydrate metabolic process

Twin #2 is used to using glucose as an energy source. With no carbohydrates to consume, his cells will need to get accustomed to ketosis. For the time being, it will be a hard move. A few signs well-known to low carbohydrate dieters include forgetfulness, tiredness, lack of energy and headaches. During my time with keto diets I even experienced a few terrible migraines too. This will last for some days, but could be as long as 7 days depending upon the dietary history. At the same time, the world may be falling apart and valuable time has been wasted.

Among the most scary outcomes is the loss of muscle tissue. As you may remember, proteins are quite close to carbohydrates and whenever required, can be converted. Due to this, people in a state of carbohydrate metabolic process lose more muscle compared to those in fat metabolism. The protein is scavenged and separated into the desired fuel supply, carbohydrate. In a state of physical exertion, this is even more likely.

The x factor

Although calories may be available, there are critical vitamins and minerals to be considered for survival. Remain updated for the next write-up in the sequence for the important nutrients to supplement calories in a starvation state.

About the Author:

Thank you for reading! Terrance Franklin writes about survival and nutrition on a variety of sites on the web. For more information on survival foods, be sure to check out survival foods. And for even deeper reading, follow the link at http://mysurvivalfoods.tumblr.com/