Higher Fat Meal at Breakfast May Be Healthier !

From a mouse study on diet and metabolic syndrome characteristics. The
timing variable on diet and body effects. Carb consumption on awakening
is an important factor. Fat consumption upon awakening turns of fat
metabolism for much of the day. Study replicated 4 times. Effects need
to be verified in human trials. (Please send research money :-) )

Science News

Bacon or Bagels? Higher Fat at Breakfast May Be Healthier Than You Think

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.63

ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2010) — The age-old maxim "Eat breakfast like a
king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper" may in fact be the
best advice to follow to prevent metabolic syndrome, according to a new
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) study.

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by abdominal obesity, high
triglycerides, insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease-risk
factors.

The study, published online March 30 in the International Journal of
Obesity, examined the influence exerted by the type of foods and
specific timing of intake on the development of metabolic syndrome
characteristics in mice. The UAB research revealed that mice fed a meal
higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles. In contrast,
mice that ate a more carbohydrate-rich diet in the morning and consumed
a high-fat meal at the end of the day saw increased weight gain,
adiposity, glucose intolerance and other markers of the metabolic syndrome.

"Studies have looked at the type and quantity of food intake, but nobody
has undertaken the question of whether the timing of what you eat and
when you eat it influences body weight, even though we know sleep and
altered circadian rhythms influence body weight," said the study's lead
author Molly Bray, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in the UAB School of
Public Health.

Bray said the research team found that fat intake at the time of waking
seems to turn on fat metabolism very efficiently and also turns on the
animal's ability to respond to different types of food later in the day.
When the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking, carbohydrate
metabolism was turned on and seemed to stay on even when the animal was
eating different kinds of food later in the day.

"The first meal you have appears to program your metabolism for the rest
of the day," said study senior author Martin Young, Ph.D., associate
professor of medicine in the UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease.
"This study suggests that if you ate a carbohydrate-rich breakfast it
would promote carbohydrate utilization throughout the rest of the day,
whereas, if you have a fat-rich breakfast, you have metabolic plasticity
to transfer your energy utilization between carbohydrate and fat."

Bray and Young said the implications of this research are important for
human dietary recommendations. Humans rarely eat a uniform diet
throughout the day and need the ability to respond to alterations in
diet quality. Adjusting dietary composition of a given meal is an
important component in energy balance, and they said their findings
suggest that recommendations for weight reduction and/or maintenance
should include information about the timing of dietary intake plus the
quality and quantity of intake.

"Humans eat a mixed diet, and our study, which we have repeated four
times in animals, seems to show that if you really want to be able to
efficiently respond to mixed meals across a day then a meal in higher
fat content in the morning is a good thing," Bray said. "Another
important component of our study is that, at the end of the day, the
mice ate a low-caloric density meal, and we think that combination is
key to the health benefits we've seen."

Bray and Young said further research needs to test whether similar
observations are made with different types of dietary fats and
carbohydrates, and it needs to be tested in humans to see if the
findings are similar between rodents and humans.

"We're also working on a study right now to determine if these feeding
regimens adversely affect heart function," Young said.
Email or share this story:
| More

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Journal Reference:

1. Bray et al. Time-of-day-dependent dietary fat consumption
influences multiple cardiometabolic syndrome parameters in mice.
International Journal of Obesity, 2010; DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2010.63

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.63

Susan wrote:

Rat studies have much more transferable validity to humans.
Rats eat everything and metabolism is more like humans.

This is one reason why rat studies work so well.

Mice are different from rats; mice are herbivores, rats aren't.

research team found that fat intake at the time of waking seems to turn on fat metabolism very efficiently and also turns on the animal's ability to respond to different types of food later in the day. When the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking, carbohydrate metabolism was turned on and seemed to stay on even when the animal was eating different kinds of food later in the day.

I started low-carb (approx 10% carb, 10% protein, 80%-fat) diet two
months back. Even if the strip show ketones in the morning, there is
no metallic taste until about 11 AM. If I go for a walk, the metallic
taste comes earlier.

I wonder if the liver is providing extra glucose upon waking to fuel
activity. If so, wouldn't extra fuel, even in the form of fat be
undesirable? Or does a high-fat breakfast shut down the liver's
production of glucose? Is it better to have a high-fat meal upon
waking or after the morning glucose has been depleted? Is it good to
do exercise in the morning to help deplete the extra glucose?

In article
,
jay wrote:

research team found that fat intake at the time of waking seems to turn on
fat metabolism very efficiently and also turns on the animal's ability to
respond to different types of food later in the day. When the animals were
fed carbohydrates upon waking, carbohydrate metabolism was turned on and
seemed to stay on even when the animal was eating different kinds of food
later in the day.

I started low-carb (approx 10% carb, 10% protein, 80%-fat) diet two
months back. Even if the strip show ketones in the morning, there is
no metallic taste until about 11 AM. If I go for a walk, the metallic
taste comes earlier.

I wonder if the liver is providing extra glucose upon waking to fuel
activity. If so, wouldn't extra fuel, even in the form of fat be
undesirable? Or does a high-fat breakfast shut down the liver's
production of glucose? Is it better to have a high-fat meal upon
waking or after the morning glucose has been depleted? Is it good to
do exercise in the morning to help deplete the extra glucose?

I don't worry about the fat, but I don't try to load up on it either.
Breakfast for me, until I get into my work routine, is an omelet with
smoked turkey, a couple slices of cheese, tomato, onion, kalamata
olives, jalapeno, and salsa. When work starts, I skip breakfast and eat
my lunch at my 10 AM break, and siesta at noon, fruit and nuts at 2:30
PM. Works for me.
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

jay wrote:

I started low-carb (approx 10% carb, 10% protein, 80%-fat) diet two
months back.

You eat lower protein than most low carbers. This makes your reports
different and interesting.

Even if the strip show ketones in the morning, there is
no metallic taste until about 11 AM. If I go for a walk, the metallic
taste comes earlier.

For the purpose of dieting either is good enough. It is true that our
bodies burn fat before any of the tests show ketones but for dieting we
want the rate to be high. Any test that shows the body losing ketones
is enough to demonstrate that. It doesn't take accuracy because it
isn't about accuracy in that sense. It's a matter of knowing you're
well past the point of burning fat at all, compared to not having any
data at all on the rate of fat burning.

If your body is losing ketones some how then you know fat is being
burned more quickly than the slow pathway can supply. If your body is
not losing ketones some how then all you can really know is there is
the fat loss rate is below some level. There are a lot of other
variables that confuse the issue but it boils down to that - Fast
burning of unknown-but-not-fast burning. Once you get that it's easy to
see why folks want the sticks slightly pink or the garlicy/metalic
taste.

So breath and urine can show at different times but it really doesn't
matter. As long as either show at some point during the day you're
doing great for that marker.

I wonder if the liver is providing extra glucose upon waking to fuel
activity.

That can run away out of control in diabetics. For non-diabetics it is
a self limiting process. Once enough is in the blood up goes the
insulin to push it into the cells. Uhm, it in other words yes. ;^)

If so, wouldn't extra fuel, even in the form of fat be undesirable?

It's extremely easy to think that every gram of dietary fat equals a
gram of fat not drawn from storage, but the body chemistry does not work
that way. Obvious does *not* equal true.

Or does a high-fat breakfast shut down the liver's
production of glucose?

The fat burned by the liver comes from both storage and diet. The key
and anti-obvious bit is how dietary fat effects total metabolism.
Dietary fat indirectly triggers glucagon release and glucagon pulls fat
form storage. Lack of dietary fat indirectly reduces glucagon release
and reduces the flow of fat from storage. They add up to throttling
total metabolism based on intake and so on the one hand there's a
starvation mode that resists loss at the bottom end and there's enough
fat to move into storage in spite of the glucagon at the top end, but in
the middle at "reasonable total calories" fat intake levels it runs the
opposite of the obvious. More dietary fat triggers more stored fat to
be pulled form storage. To me this is why you have chosen such a high
fat percentage - Because it is more effective at pulling fat from
storage than the same total calories with more protein and lss fat.

But as the food is unpopular you need to be reminded of the chemistry on
a regular basis. It runs the opposite of the obvious.

Is it better to have a high-fat meal upon
waking or after the morning glucose has been depleted?

The timing isn't that important. Fat and protein both make hunger go
away but fat seems better at keeping the hunger from reappearing. To me
it's more about what your hunger levels are. Try the meal then the walk
and see if you're hungry at noon. Try the walk then the meal and see if
you're hungry at noon. The least hunger several hours later is your
best pick. Gather the data and go with the data and worry about the
theory once you have the data.

Is it good to
do exercise in the morning to help deplete the extra glucose?

I don't think the purpose of the morning exercise is that specific.
Exercise has all sorts of health benefits on its own. It increases
metabolism for hours. It improves the body's ability to resist regain.

Susan wrote:
Doug Freyburger wrote:

If your body is losing ketones some how then you know fat is being
burned more quickly than the slow pathway can supply ...

Those strips are worthless for telling you how intense your ketosis is;

The strips aren't about intensity. They are a yes/no detection of
enough excess ketones to spill and as such when they show positive they
give a one point datum on burn rate. But this is one of your blind
sides and I've long since stopped expecting that you will ever
appreciate that it is a useful data point when viewed as a binary test.
The sticks have never been accurate enough in the ranges we use to serve
as anything but binary.

they may just be measuring excess fat caloric intake.

This is true. It takes a lot of excess, though. Low carbers are often
in the 100+ gram range without issue. But too much is still too much
so get into the 200+ range and you'll gain steadily no matter the
ketosis.

I wonder if the liver is providing extra glucose upon waking to fuel
activity.

That can run away out of control in diabetics. For non-diabetics it is
a self limiting process. Once enough is in the blood up goes the
insulin to push it into the cells. Uhm, it in other words yes. ;^)

The liver provides the highest glucose of the day in the early morning
no matter whether you're diabetic or not. The only difference is that
diabetics don't produce enough insulin to keep the serum glucose level
normal. It's due to the healthy, normal diurnal cortisol rhythm.
Cortisol causes the liver to produce the highest levels of glucose for
the day in the early a.m. and the amount of cortisol produced drops
throughout the day until a midnight low close to or at zero.

Good material on cortisol.