Kelly Frankson DOT COM

Interesting question posed by Rosita: (response to come)

So, in my nutrition program, i hear over and over again about how
beneficial complex carbs CAN be.
Depending on each individual of course, etc etc…..

Top priority is of course eating “real” food which i know we ALL agree with. They don’t promote bread or pastas at all. But rather whole grains, legumes, seeds (but they need to be prepared properly which means soaked, sprouted or fermented so that the nutrients are bio-available). They also promote good proteins & healthy fats. You might be surprised to hear that my teacher loves things like Lard & Butter. Basically if it’s been processed or refined, don’t eat it. But if it comes from the earth or other animals – go for it.

I know that the zone and what a lot of the stuff Crossfit discusses is very much against eating grains. And I get the impression that eating ” a lot” of protein and fat is something that is “promoted” (although that’s probably the wrong word). anyways…… today in my Preventative Nutrition class, our teacher was talking about how many many diseases come about because of poor digestive systems. She went into how important it is to prepare your food properly so that it’s easier for your body to digest and absorb the nutrients. Chewing your food really well is hugely important in ensuring the food we eat actually gets broken down and digested and therefore absorbed into our bodies. A huge number of people have underactive stomachs where they don’t have enough HCL in their stomachs. So the proteins down get broken down in the stomach like
they’re supposed to and go into the duodenum only partially digested.

Then she explained how if our mouth and our stomach do not work properly, the pancreas needs to finish the job and work harder because the stomach didn’t do it’s full job… and as a double whammy… because the stomach didn’t do its job, the pancreas isn’t stimulated as much. On top of that, when the duodenum/pancreas (alkaline) digests protein rather than the stomach(acidic), there is slower digestion because food gets bogged down and the digestion ends up less complete. These 2 factors are the root cause of inhibition of the healing process, and thus the beginning of disease.

OK. um… i think i sort of got off track with my explanation above but i’m gonna leave it cause it’s good info and it does sort of show the flow of thought of what we were learning and where i’m going with this…..cause we were primarily talking about slowing digestion and why that’s bad. Low HCL is one way our digestion gets slowed.

Here is more my question…..
The pancreas’s 2 main jobs are aiding digestion by producing enzymes and an endocrine function of producing hormones – insulin & glucagon. Protein & fat take a long time to digest. So, if we eat a lot of protein/fat, we slow down our digestion and our pancreas stays busy dealing with that. Our pancreas tires out. So,if our pancreas is tired cause it’s always spending so much time digesting fats & proteins, it doesn’t have as much time or energy or resources i suppose to spend time regulating our blood sugar levels. And from what my understanding of zone and paleo is all about, it’s all about blood sugar levels. So to me, the 2 things seem to be conflicted or contradict each other.

The pancreas is what regulates our blood sugar. but by eating a lot of meat & fats, we tire out the pancreas by making it spend most of its time digesting our food and it can’t do as well of a job of
regulating our blood sugar.

So i guess i’m just hoping he can briefly give me his view on this.

(Note: A bit of a caveat for my instructors & school…. I might not be interpreting what my course is teaching me properly. so, if what I said above doesn’t make any sense or seems wrong to you
or Rob Wolfe, then it’s probably more me than the course that i’m taking….)

I’d be really interested in what he has to say.

OK. I think I’ve rambled on enough now.

Thanks so much for the nutritional info you guys provide. and have a great time in Reno…

rosita