Saturday, June 23, 2012

High carbohydrate diets significantly activate SNS, while proteins and fats don't

Many studies are suggesting that high-carbohydrate diets, particularly in the form of high-glycemic index load, may activate the sympathetic nervous system with deleterious effects to human health (1). On the other side protein or fat ingestion have no significant sympathoexcitatory effect (2,3,4).

Also, the sympathetic activation have been linked in several studies to obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, diabetes, and even atherosclerosis (5, 6, 7)

If the above studies are right, continuing to give support to high carbohydrate diets is both a wrong choice as well a bad advice.

Carlos Monteiro

References:
1) Koop W. Chronically increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system: our diet-relatedevolutionary inheritance. The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging Volume 13, Number 1, 2009
2) Welle S, Ulavivat U, Campell G. Thermic effect of feeding in men: Increased plasma norepinephrine levels following glucose but not protein or fat consumption. Metabolism 1981; 30: 953-958
3) Welle SL, Lilavivathana U,Campell RG. Increased plasma nor epinephrine concentrations and metabolic rates following glucose ingestion in man. Metabolism 1980; 29: 806-09
4) Tentolouris N, Tsigos D, Perea E et al. Differential effect of high-fat and high carbohydrate isoenergetic meals on cardiac autonomic nervous system activity in lean and obese women. Metabolism 2003; 52: 1426-32
5)Troisi RJ, Weiss ST, Parker DR, Sparrow D, Young JB and Landsberg L. Relation of obesity and diet to sympathetic nervous system activity.  Hypertension. 1991;17:669-677 at http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/17/5/669.full.pdf
6) Carlos ETB Monteiro, Acidic environment evoked by chronic stress: A novel mechanism to explain atherogenesis. Available from Infarct Combat Project, January 28, 2008 at http://www.infarctcombat.org/AcidityTheory.pdf  
7) Book "Acidity Theory of Atherosclerosis: New Evidences", 2012, Amazon.com http://tinyurl.com/7KK4a78