Can Your Diet Cause Metabolic Problems?

Have you wondered if your diet can cause metabolic problems? A diet which contains high levels of protein and low levels of methyl groups (which are provided by vitamin B6, folic acid, choline and betaine - a nutrient found in sugar beet, sugar cane, prawns, shrimps and eggs), drives up levels of homocysteine in the blood. Excess levels of homocysteine are linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, possibly because this may exacerbate endothelial dysfunction.8 Taking B vitamins to lower plasma homocysteine levels is not enough on its own to reduce the risk of heart problems - but is a very logical additional ingredient in the flavonoid-based programme.

A more heavily weighted risk factor is homocysteine glyco­sylated haemoglobin (HbAlc for short). In simple terms, this means that molecules in red blood cells have become chemically linked to glucose. While HbAlc is not itself dangerous, the extent to which hemoglobin is glycosylated reflects long-term levels of glucose in the bloodstream, which is in turn a measure of how well blood glucose is controlled. A diet with too high a gly­caemic load (GL) (too reliant on digestible carbohydrates), com­bined with an inactive lifestyle, generally leads to glucose intolerance and Type 2 diabetes, excessive levels of glucose in the blood, and excessive rates of protein glycosylation, where glucose molecules react with and stick to proteins.

When this happens to a protein, its structure changes, gener­ally leading to a loss of that protein's function. If the protein thus affected is in the lens of the eye, the crystalline structure of the lens is disrupted and the lens becomes opaque, forming a cataract. If the protein is in the filtration units in the kidney, the ability of the kidney to filter urine is impaired, a factor contrib­uting to renal disease. And if the protein is in the walls of an artery it becomes less elastic, the artery becomes less able to dilate, and blood pressure starts to increase.

Logically, therefore, a diet with a lower GL is indicated, together with physical exercise. But to this we can add, again, the flavonoids, which have an additional trick up their sleeve, namely their ability to inhibit glycosylation reactions.

To this regime add the classic antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E and the mineral selenium. They are ineffective on their own, but are an invaluable addition to the pharmaco-nutritional regime if you wish to reduce the risk of vascular disease still further. To this very substantial support programme you can legitimately add the other antioxidant co-factors copper, zinc and manganese, with iron generally only useful in women of child-bearing age, and a little fish oil.

If the blood pressure remains high, salt substitutes such as PanSalt have been shown to be as effective as anti-hypertensive medication - with the advantage that PanSalt is cheaper and does not cause side-effects.

When you understand how many links there are in the complex sequence of events that starts with a fatty streak in the artery wall and ends with a heart attack or stroke, the clinical trials that attempted to reduce the risk of heart attacks with limited and arbi­trary combinations of micronutrients (such as vitamins C and E) appear simplistic and misguided. Those trials represent the phar­maceutical approach to disease, and are based on a 'magic bullet' model which is narrowly focused on single enzymes, receptors or hormones. In contrast, the pharmaco-nutritional strategy provides a comprehensive support program, designed to undo the harm caused by our contemporary lifestyles and to provide the elements that our innate healing mechanisms need in order to do their job properly.

Mark Hyman, "Ultra-Metabolism." Amazon