This morning I was lucky enough to catch a guest speaker who had come into my work to speak to us about nutrition.  Jeff, director of personal training studio Studio41, shared with us a snippet of what he believed to be ‘The Truth About Food’.

Admitting that I know very little about nutrition, I at least thought I knew the basics: consuming fat makes you fat, opt for fruit, trim milk keeps you trim, etc.

But about 5 minutes into this presentation I was questioning everything I thought I knew.  Even the ‘basics’  consuming fat makes you fat, opt for fruit, trim milk keeps you trim, etc.  I was stunned at how an educated young person such as myself had never stopped and thought about the ‘healthy’ things we are putting into our body.

Turns out my go-to healthy breakfast of museli, yogurt and fruit is a diabetes time-bomb waiting to happen, and a large contributor to my morning caffeine requirements.

Potatoes are like legal crack cocaine.

Okay, they are my words not his… but woah.  They pack a punch on your blood sugar levels.

Jeff shares the science behind his thoughts, too – he didn’t just throw about a bunch of opinions without any backing and expect us to believe them.  What he explained made sense.

The talk itself was only an hour long, so he wasn’t able to cover everything he wanted to talk about – or everything we should know as adult human beings responsible for our own (and young’uns) well being.  This morning he focussed on the impact of sugars and carbohydrates on our blood sugar levels, and what that means for our muscle and fat cells.

So what exactly did he talk about?

Our ability to process sugars and carbohydrates depends on our insulin sensitivity.  The more sensitive we are, the more easily we are able to move glucose (read: energy) from our blood stream to knock on the ‘doors’ of our muscle cells.  If it knocks and the door opens, it’s good – the glucose is used by the muscle cell and the energy is burned.  But when those ‘doors’ don’t open, the glucose (energy) is stored in our fat cells instead – making us fatter.

And the bigger we (and our fat cells) get, the greater our insulin resistance (the opposite of insulin sensitivity).  This makes it harder for the glucose to knock on the ‘doors’ of our muscle cells, and even more glucose ends up getting stored in our fat cells.

So being fat makes us fatter? 

Well, it sure doesn’t help.

The more the fat cells grow with the glucose stores, the bigger they get.  Similarly, the ‘doors’ to the fat cells get bigger as the ‘doors’ on the muscle cells are getting jammed in the hinges – or worse yet, have locked shut (cue type-2 diabetes).

To lose weight, we need to use the glucose (energy) stored in the fat cells.  Using what’s stored inside makes them shrink – like a balloon full of maple syrup:  if you tip half the syrup out of the balloon, it will shrink down in size.

How do you utilise those stores?  Consume less glucose than your body needs.  Exercise more and make your muscles hungry for more energy.  When you burn more energy than you consume, your body taps into its energy stores – the fat cells.  That’s what they’re there for.  They have a genuine (life saving) purpose.  We just abuse them.

And the real kicker?  Once we use up those stores, and lose the weight, the cells will shrink but the ‘doors’ to the fat cells will still be the size they were when we were much bigger.  That’s one reason why it’s easier to gain weight after losing it than to put it on the first time.  Thankfully, anecdotal evidence suggests that these doors do shrink slowly over time, as we maintain our healthy post-weight-loss weight (okay, it’s not science but I’m a sucker for a happy story).

So what CAN I eat?

Anything.  But you need to be aware of how it will affect your body.  The catch is knowing what the food you’re currently eating is doing for you, and making changes where it’s necessary.

For me, my whole mindset and view of food is up in the air – I haven’t had enough time to stop and really process what Jeff was sharing means for me and my body.  Do I even believe everything he said?  I don’t know.  Maybe.  It certainly makes more sense than a lot of what I  learned from Weight Watchers (which, in the end, didn’t help me with my weight loss).

Will I be trying some of his suggestions?  Probably.  He made a few good suggestions for how to loosely structure your meal plans – (red meat) protein for breakfast, salad and white meat protein for lunch and dinner.  I’ll no doubt try his approach to breakfast over the next couple of weeks given the time-bomb I’m currently consuming.  I’ll keep you in the loop as to how I go.

What about you?Have you been to similar talks and have taken something helpful away?
Are you a PT or nutritionist who would like to share your 2cents?

What’s your take on ‘The Truth About Food’?