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Could your diet be turning you into a couch potato ?

Being sedentary i.e. not moving enough, is a big health issue. TV remotes, cars, obesity are all blamed, but the real culprit, might be what you ate for dinner

You know you should MOVE MORE.

The benefits of moving are profound………….. and being thinner, is just the cherry on the top. Moving more gives you

• Better bones
• Better moods
• Better gene expression
• Better sugar levels
• Lower blood pressure
• Better thinking
• More muscles
• Less trips to the bathroom in the wee hours of the night (if you’re a gentleman)
• A healthier baby (if you’re an about-2-be Mom)

Moving more really is the elixir for BETTER HEALTH.

You want to move more, but…

Unfortunately, you just don’t seem to be able to get motivated enough to MOVE MORE.

You’re a couch potato at heart.

Despite your good intentions, you seem to default to extended periods of sitting on the couch,   on more days than you care to admit.

You can hear those voices, some in your head, some in the media, admonishing you to…

JUST EAT LESS & MOVE MORE

You would, if you could.

What if your tendency to slothfulness is not your fault ?

Blame your “healthy” diet

If all you’re eating is lettuce leaves, you won’t be moving much. You do need fuel to fire up the power stations (mitochondria) so that you have enough energy, to actually MOVE.

Starving is not a “healthy” diet. EVER !

But that’s not the “healthy” diet I’m talking about, the “healthy diet” I’m talking about, is a diet in which saturated fats are replaced by polyunsaturated fats, PUFA’s for short. It’s supposed to be good for your heart and recommended by most health gurus.

It includes lots of margarine and vegetable oils. And not so much, meat, eggs and cream.

It is very much part of the modern way of doing things.

As is couch potatoe living.

The moving story

Is there a connection ?   Could the composition of our diet, determine how much we move ?

This is the question that a group of researchers from the University of British Columbia asked.

Since there are a thousand reasons why humans don’t move as much as they should, which makes answering the question rather complicated, the team decided to test out their theory on a group of lab mice.

Mousing around

They kicked off their study, by feeding three groups of female mice, different diets for a period of 6 weeks.

• Group 1 – ate standard mouse food. This is considered a low fat, high carb diet.
• Group 2 – ate a special diet, with lots of olive oil. This is considered a high MUFA diet.
• Group 3 – ate a special diet, with lots of corn oil. This is considered a high PUFA diet.

The compositions of the diets were quite different, but the animals were all consuming the same amount of calories and the researchers ensured that all three groups of mice got similar levels of vitamins and minerals.

After 6 weeks of mousing around, each mouse spent three days in a high tech cage. The technology in the cage, allowed the researchers, to keep tabs on mouse metabolism, without the mouse knowing. (This is important because a big smelly human poking and prodding you at intermittent intervals, has the potential to disrupt mouse metabolism).

Weight, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, food consumption, water consumption and spontaneous locomotor activity (how much they moved), were all monitored in the background.

So what happened ?

A mouse on the couch

When the team compared mice eating corn oil with mice eating olive oil, the found

• They didn’t eat more or less
• They didn’t drink more or less
• They didn’t weigh more or less

But they did move less !

And biochemically speaking, they became insulin resistant, their respiratory exchange ratio (RER) decreased and their skeletal muscles were less inclined to burn fats.

In short…………….. the PUFA eating mice had become couch potatoes.

Could this be happening to you ?

The human couch potato

Maybe.

What happens in mice, often also happens in humans – not always, but often enough to raise a red flag or two.

This research certainly suggests it is time to ask some serious questions about the benefits and risks of eating lots and lots of PUFAs.

The good fats gone bad

If you find yourself lounging about, more than you should, reducing your consumption of PUFA’s might just get you out of that chair. Moving more, even a little, is one of the best ways to create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY and better health.

NOTE : Home made fats, not dietary fats are to blame for health troubles.

Further reading

Interested in learning more about the chemistry behind those extra fat layers ?

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