Fueling the body on fat

Cellular Energy Depletion Resets Whole-Body Energy by Promoting Coactivator-Mediated Dietary Fuel Absorption

That's sort of a given. All energy depletion is at the cellular level. No wonder that it would trigger many different mechanisms both to signal (via hunger) the need for more fuel as well as to prime the organism to absorb it. For instance, simply the taste, but not ingestion of fat, is enough to result in the activation of lipoprotein lipase in fat cells to start releasing stored fat. Also, the way the gut absorbs fats is through the formation of micelles using bile salts. This explains why just the smell of fat is often enough to trigger a gall bladder attack. The pain comes from the contractions of the gall bladder to push out bile for fat solubilization. Unfortunately, if you have a stone in that biliary duct--YOWIE!

"Obesity is all about fat absorption and storage," O'Malley said. "If you could turn that down, you could have a major effect on a disease that is slowly killing the population." He says his team is now conducting studies in search of SRC-2 inhibitors that might do exactly that.

"slowly killing the population" ha ha ha. Hmmm, let's see what would have the bigger health impact on population, current levels of overfeeding or underfeeding by the same amounts. Oh wait, we don't have to wait to see this, all we have to do is look at human history. You're going to die no matter what. The question is which has a more immediate impact on health and longevity, underfeeding or overfeeding? Underfeeding from in utero times through the period of growth and development results in smaller birth size and inadequate tissue and organ development. This has important consequences on longevity and the development of degenerative diseases.

Some may say, well, it doesn't have to be either underfeeding or overfeeding, we could have just the right amount of food to avoid the negative consequences of either. Not without a police state that is able to measure the actual energy needs, both for growth and activity levels, of every person and then mandate the amount of food just sufficient to meet the needs as well as to force its consumption (gee, sounds like Michelle Obama). The body can function over a wide range of conditions, doing better in some directions, worse in others, with benefits and disadvantages either way. It's made to absorb as much food as is available as easily as possible and store it against the day of want. This day of want used to come much more frequently and more often in past millennia. The only way to make everyone achieve a arbitrarily-defined level of leanness is by the imposition of external force. The question is why anyone would want to do that. To help people or to help themselves indulge their need to control others? With the socialists, the latter is inevitably the reason.

Today, many of us who enjoy a Western diet loaded with fat might do better if we could find a way to turn the activity of the so-called AMPK-SRC-2 pathway down.

Leading, then, to an increase in greasy stools, an increase in using carbohydrates and proteins for fuel, an increase in hunger (because the body's not getting enough of its primary fuel, fat), an increase in a need for the body to use its limited ability for de novo lipogenesis to generate fats needed for basic metabolic activity and the consequences of this on liver function, an increase in food costs (because the most dense energy source, fats, is getting crapped away). If, for instance, you were able to block fat absorption, you would, if not compensated for by greatly increased protein consumption, increase catabolism of skeletal muscles to provide the ketogenic amino acids needed to make up for the lack of dietary fat.

When SRC-2 springs into action, it controls genes that lead to the secretion of bile from the gall bladder into the intestine. "You need bile to emulsify and absorb fat," O'Malley explained.

Sorry. Overlooked this. I have to wonder what will happen by blocking bile secretion. Increase in gall bladder disease? Increase in cholesterol levels? The main way the body has of getting rid of excess cholesterol is through bile salts.

May I assume that you would be less than favoring this procedure?

Most of what is called disease comes from normal physiological processes getting disrupted either by genetic damage or infection or infestation or blunt trauma. It's a good thing to use medicine and surgery to restore those normal physiological processes. I think it's a bad idea to deliberately disrupt them for what is basically a consequence of a combination of living in rich society with material abundance, a love of eating, and an aversion to higher levels of physical activity. We could probably bioengineer common intestinal bacteria to produce fragrances like gardenia, roses, or Philly steak hoagies, but would that be a good idea?

For instance, simply the taste, but not ingestion of fat, is enough to result in the activation of lipoprotein lipase in fat cells to start releasing stored fat.

So, if this is true, if I swish and spit out grapeseed oil, olive oil, or flaxseed oil 3x / day, I will lose fat? /wishful-thinking mode>

If not, please correct me...this is of personal import as I have put on some weight due to lotsa stress in the last year.

I am doing heavy exercise but need a little more of a push towards loss, given that I am no longer a teenager ;-)

Cheers!

So, if there were a chewing gum that tasted like bacon grease, it would cause the body to release stored fat?

It wouldn't have any effect on losing fat. That's controlled by total energy usage. If your meal didn't have the promised fat, the mobilized fat in excess of energy use would be put back into storage. There is a constant influx and efflux of fatty acids from storage anyway.

Also, it isn't that it tastes like fat. Just the taste isn't sufficient to trigger the effect. It has to actually be fat. The experiment I remember consisted of subjects chewing crackers with either fat free or regular cream cheese for a certain length of time and spitting it out. The increase in serum free fatty acids happened only with those chewing the real fat. The amount of increase couldn't be accounted for by the tiny amount of cream cheese that was accidentally swallowed.

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