Guineapiggery

Surely most supplement-savvy adults have since grown wary of products touting extreme health benefits. It's never quite as easy as popping a pill and sprouting abs, or taking a swig of some vegan probiotic slurry and establishing rainforest-tier microbiomic diversity in your small intestine, right?

The FDA certainly makes an admirable attempt at regulating the supplement industry, but the burden of informed consumption mainly lies on the consumer, given that so many products manage to slip through the cracks. Purchasing supplements feels like a game of Russian Roulette. Except the bullet maybe comes months later when you've developed pathological serum levels of Vitamin E and you fainted at the wheel of your car (this didn't actually happen).

And yet, so many factors go into our personal response to any food, drug, or supplement - in fact, I would argue that these three substance categories are more alike than they are different (I'll save that argument for a later post). Environmental factors (e.g., sleep, activity level, etc.) interact with genetic factors (e.g., susceptibility to obesity, hypercholesterolemia, etc.) to influence the end result of your dietary habits or pill-popping adventures. Alas, I've a curious mind - I often can't resist the opportunity to experiment with my metabolic profile to understand how I respond to different foods and supplements.

The difficulty, of course, lies in parsing science from personal bias; how do I know if my expectations regarding the effects of a substance are influencing my reaction? The mind is a powerful thing, and might play a crucial role in our metabolic response. More on that later, too - I want to investigate the influence of meal dynamics on postprandial hormones.

In any event, I'll have access to a lot of cool nutritional research resources at Cornell University next year! Life on the hill will provide me with plenty of opportunities to explore the effects of different foods and supplements.

In the meantime, I shall engage in responsible guineapiggery. Er, what?

guineapiggery: self-experimentation with one's biological makeup

Join me as I get to know myself a little bit better! I should note that I do not participate in the consumption of illegal or even regulated substances, and I always do my homework in advance. I'll err on a conservative approach after doing a cost-benefit analysis for any supplement. I play it safe. I'll probably recruit my doctor in this adventure to monitor my health and blood profile, too. 

Stay tuned.

 

Metabolic Biology: A Growing Science and Powerful Tool

An inordinate amount of time was spent deciding on a punny title for this blog ("Alimentary School" was taken...ahem), which I will devote to the comprehensive review of scientific studies, articles, and news stories pertaining to a relatively new area of biological research with a growth rate supplanting even the most precocious toddler: Metabolic Biology.

There are several university departments around the world devoted to making advances within this novel field, such as the University of California, Berkeley, which defines it as such:

"Metabolic Biology integrates study of metabolism, functions and interactions of nutrients, phytochemicals and dietary toxins at molecular, cellular and model organism levels; fosters translation of knowledge generated in model systems to humans; and incorporates complex systems approaches to understand control dynamics of nutritional-metabolic systems."

My fascination with Molecular Biology (MB) owes to the immense difficulties (no pun intended) I faced as an overweight child and adolescent, eventually hacking my own physiology around the age of 15 through dietary modification, increased activity, and uncompromising discipline to lose over 80 lbs. 

Now, there's a gigantic (pun STILL not intended) industry focused on encouraging behavioral modification and the consumption of diet products - the so-called Diet Industry - to induce modest weight loss. And it works...sort of. According to a study from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (Skender, M.L., Goodrick, G.K., & Del Junco, D.J., 1996), a group of 127 adults engaged in diet; exercise; or both. Let's look at the results after two years:

+ : weight gained

- : weight lost

• Diet only - 2 lbs (+)
• Exercise only - 5 lbs (-)
• Both - 6 lbs (-)

All three groups lost substantial weight initially ( 15 lbs, 6 lbs, 20 lbs, respectively). Strikingly, the diet only group actually gained weight after two years, suggesting the apparent futility of mere dietary modification in the sustained reduction in weight. I strongly believe that the answer to sustained weight loss lies not in direct behavioral modification, but in addressing the underlying imbalance, the physiological drive to maintain a higher weight than is desirable. 


The modern environment contains a cornucopia of factors - many of which are delicious, like good ol' high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - that contribute to the disregulation of metabolic processes involved in weight maintenance. The imbalances brought on by sleep deprivation, a pro-inflammatory hypercaloric diet, and a sedentary lifestyle come together in a massive storm of metabolic disarray. 

The worst part is that the steps we're taking to solve the "modern health crisis" rely upon the willpower and determination of the afflicted. Alas, we are dealing with metabolic disease, not metabolic gluttony or sloth. You don't tell a cancer patient to suck it up and stop metastasizing, just as you shouldn't tell a morbidly obese patient to simply eat less and exercise more.

Biology wins almost every time. Instead of combating biology, work with it; change the underlying factors behind the disorder and the symptoms (e.g., obesity, diabetes, fatigue, atherosclerosis, gut dysbiosis, etc.) dissipate or even disappear. 

I will try to keep Green with MB (har har har) focused on metabolic biological studies in general, but my own bias toward addressing the modern health crisis far outweighs (LAST PUN I SWEAR) my desire to keep the blog general. I will focus a lot on metabolic disease and epidemiology, and I will cite my sources. Wikipedia will not be one of those sources, nor will Paleohacks, Low Carb Friends, or your Aunt Macy's dinner table discourse have any say in my reviews and analyses. 

Do not diet.

Do not become a caveman. 

Do not eat 30 bananas a day.  


Review the metabolic biology literature, stay informed, eat a diet that promotes hormonal health and gastrointestinal well-being, and loosen your belt buckle (AHHH I DID IT AGAIN) and relax; your hypercortisolism is showing. 


-Matthius