I watched the presentation “Causes of Leptin Resistance” by Stephan Guyenet at the Ancestral Health Symposium, and found it very interesting.
And a bit depressing. One thing he mentioned was if you get very fat, your body vigorously resists loosing weight. (Don’t I know it!)
One of the more interesting things he said was that inflammation has many of the same effects of leptin resistance. And can cause leptin resistance.
Another tidbit was some information on fermentable fiber (aka “resistance starch”). He didn’t expand on that, but I’m setting up a n=1 (*) experiment on that.
Oh, and excess fat mass is in itself inflammatory! Vicious cycle…
I was a bit disappointed by the discussion of HFHC and ALA diets (with the AHA diet shown to cause less inflammation). There was no mention of a LCHF diet and how that might compare.
Some paradoxical effects of leptin level and fattening/inflammatory diet — leptin can accelerate weight gain in the presence of an inflammatory diet, for which there is currently no definitive explanation.
I noticed that he mentioned healthy and unhealthy diet several times, but never defined either term, although he *did* mention sweets. When he was called out on that subject in the Q&A, he admitted that he had been deliberately vague. Or maybe just Politically Correct.
Two other topics that he basically glossed over in the Q&A:
- Carbohydrate restriction.
- Cold thermogenesis.
My biggest disappointments were that he didn’t really make any specific recommendations to reduce leptin resistance, other than physical activity, and that he deliberately avoided mentioning low-carb. I’m wondering if he’s worried about where his next grant money is coming from…
Here’s a link to the video below.
