In this week’s podcast, we discuss the problems with relying on carbs as your primary fuel source. Compared to fat, carbs are simply too dirty as a fuel source to rely on every day. Topic of the podcast starts at the 7-minute mark.
Carbohydrates have to first be pre-processed in the cytosol of our cell to pyruvate before they can enter our mitochondria for aerobic respiration. This pre-processing produces potent toxins in our body, like methylglyoxal.
Methylglyoxal is a potent glycating agent that damages our DNA and mitochondria. This toxic compound is responsible for most of the ailments associated with diabetes like high blood pressure and poor wound healing.
The amount of carbs we eat directly increase the amount of methylglyoxal in our bodies and leads to more cellular damage. So a high carb diet is damaging in this way.
Ingesting fat has none of these pitfalls. Fats don’t cause glycation and don’t need to be pre-processed before entering our mitochondria. They can be directly taken into our mitochondria by L-Carnitine. This is one of the reasons that relying on fat for your primary fuel source is better. To learn more about the benefits of fat, listen to this week’s podcast.
Links To Studies Mentioned
Is Persistent Glycolysis The Problem
Energy metabolism, altered proteins, sirtuins and ageing: converging mechanisms
