The Hibernation® Diet

[rawlion]

"Lots of animals feed themselves up over the summer, sleep through the winter and come out slim and famished," the diet's creator Stuart McInnes said.

"Why? Obviously, they live off stored fat. What we're forgetting is that, though we don't hibernate, we do the same thing when we sleep. We live off our fat stores.

"Or we should do but, because of our confused and often incorrect information about how, what and when to eat, we actually stop our bodies from using up those fat stores at night, so we deny ourselves the benefits that hibernating animals get."

But there is a difference between hibernation and sleep. Hibernating animals eat special foods in preparation for their big sleep -- foods that keep their hormones in a delicate balance and allow their body to survive on stored fat alone, without affecting their bone or muscle mass.

With a few changes to your diet and fitness regime, you can balance your hormones to make the most of your sleep -- and wake up refreshed and slim.

"Those first hours are when you sleep the most deeply and when your overnight repair systems are at their busiest," McInnes explains.

WHAT TO DO

According to the diet's creator, your blood sugar levels are just as important for a good night's sleep as they are during the day.

Your brain uses energy while you sleep and, if your blood sugar levels are off-balance, it will release stress hormones into your system, degrading the quality of your sleep and preventing your body from carrying out its essential repairs. When your body is healthy and carries out these repairs while you sleep, it uses energy from stored fat.

Well, I don't care about the diet itself, but it is interesting to know your opinion on the concept of Liver Fueling.

Here are 95 Theses regarding this principle:

http://www.isoactive.com/hd/95thesis.htm

[goodsamaritan]

95. Can you sum this up in one sentence?

Honey optimizes liver glycogen storage via fructose and glucose uptake, honey activates sleep via the insulin – melatonin (HYMN) cycle, honey promotes optimal body recovery (fat burning) during the night fast and honey promotes good health via prevention of overproduction of the adrenal stress hormones.

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It makes sense.

A few weeks ago when I tried my calamansi juice plain in the morning to try my zero carb experiment I got instant pain in my gut.  But lately I've been having calamansi juice + raw honey to quench my thirst in place of coconut juice and my gut prefers the calamansi juice + honey combination.

The past 2 weeks since I loaded up on raw organic honey from a trusted source in the province, we've been having cool calamansi juice + honey.  Calamansi is our equivalent to your lemons.  Been giving this cool drink to my 8 year old boy before bed time.

I think I'll do an experiment with him and see if he sleeps better at night with the honey or without the honey.

I'll do an experiment with myself as well.

I'll do an expermint with my sick and weak grandmother... who knows?

Honey must be raw... the difference in taste and desirability is just evident... when I brought home the raw honey, boom... people went straight for it and we are at our last bottle, while the heated honeys remain.

Thanks for sharing!

[carnivore]

Is-it possible that on a ZC diet, one does not produce enough glucose by gluconeogenesis and from the glycerol in fat, and thus suffers from poor liver glycogen replenishment, with all the consequences including chronic release of stress hormones ?
That would explain why some don't do well with ZC and better on LC.

[TylerDurden]

Is-it possible that on a ZC diet, one does not produce enough glucose by gluconeogenesis and from the glycerol in fat, and thus suffers from poor liver glycogen replenishment, with all the consequences including chronic release of stress hormones ?
That would explain why some don't do well with ZC and better on LC.

That might be an explanation.Certainly, some people have been talking about fasting stressing the thyroid, and ketosis, as I understand it, is very similiar to fasting in some ways.

[rawlion]

In fact, certainly in the short term, ketosis elevates blood cortisol thus stimulating the adrenals. Eventually, over stimulation may lead to fatigue and exhaustion.

[carnivore]

Honey could be a good source of carbs without the disadvantages of the fibers, antinutrients, toxins, etc. found in fruits and veggies. It contains also some valuable nutrients, probably more available than in plant materials.

What a piti it tastes way too sweet and hurts my teeth!

Has anybody tried honey as a substantial source of carbs ?

[goodsamaritan]

Has anybody tried honey as a substantial source of carbs ?

That would sound strange.  Honey is expensive.  It's more like a luxury treat.  

But I'm also curious same as Carnivore here.

[carnivore]

That would sound strange.  Honey is expensive.  It's more like a luxury treat.  

But I'm also curious same as Carnivore here.

Honey is not expensive everywhere. And less expensive than fruits and veggies.

[TylerDurden]

Honey could be a good source of carbs without the disadvantages of the fibers, antinutrients, toxins, etc. found in fruits and veggies. It contains also some valuable nutrients, probably more available than in plant materials.

What a piti it tastes way too sweet and hurts my teeth!

Has anybody tried honey as a substantial source of carbs ?

I found most of the so-called raw honey in UK shops gave me a frightening sugar-high. I've since found out that UK law allows honey to be sold as raw as long as the manufacturers only heat the honey to 80 degrees Celsius for a short while - so, I strongly suspect that the honey wasn't truly raw. I did go in for large amounts of heather honeycomb at one time(the wax in the comb offsets the sweetness of the honey to some extent), though also eating raw fruit, and have had to give up the practice as I, these days, get too much of a reaction re sugar-high(well I still have 1 or 2 honeycombs once ina  great while, but I don't buy it in the vast amounts I used to.

[rawlion]

Has anybody tried honey as a substantial source of carbs ?

If you are talking about low-carb approach, then yes. When I was eating Primal Diet honey was my main source of carbs. I consumed around 4 tbsp or so daily. I felt great back then.

If you meant conventional high carb diet, then I have no idea.

[rawlion]

What a piti it tastes way too sweet and hurts my teeth!

I'm surprised to hear that. Fruits do hurt my teeth badly. If I held honey in my mouth for any significant length of time it would have probably done the same. However, the main convenience of honey is that you don't have to chew it and can swallow it rather quickly, thus minimizing the contact with teeth...

[carnivore]

If you are talking about low-carb approach, then yes. When I was eating Primal Diet honey was my main source of carbs. I consumed around 4 tbsp or so daily. I felt great back then.

If you meant conventional high carb diet, then I have no idea.

I meant low carbs of course. 100g of honey =  82g of sugar !!!!

[rawlion]

I meant low carbs of course. 100g of honey =  82g of sugar !!!!

But this sugar is of a completely different nature.

[carnivore]

But this sugar is of a completely different nature.

Isn't it half fructose and half glucose ?

[rawlion]

Isn't it half fructose and half glucose ?

RAW honey (and not just raw, but UNheated and UNfiltered honey) is an INVERT sugar. And invert sugars do not ferment in the stomach/intestines.

Honey may promote better blood sugar control. Proper fueling of the liver is central to optimal glucose metabolism during sleep and exercise. Honey is the ideal liver fuel because it contains a nearly 1:1 ratio of fructose to glucose. Fructose "unlocks" the enzyme from the liver cell's nucleus that is necessary for the incorporation of glucose into glycogen (the form in which sugar is stored in the liver and muscle cells). An adequate glycogen store in the liver is essential to supply the brain with fuel when we are sleeping and during prolonged exercise. When glycogen stores are insufficient, the brain triggers the release of stress hormones - adrenalin and cortisol - in order to convert muscle protein into glucose. Repeated metabolic stress from cortisol produced when less than optimal liver glycogen stores are available during sleep, leads over time, to impaired glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, diabetes, and increased risk for cardiovascular disease and obesity.

[goodsamaritan]

If you are talking about low-carb approach, then yes. When I was eating Primal Diet honey was my main source of carbs. I consumed around 4 tbsp or so daily. I felt great back then.

Sounds good.  Aajonus said good things about honey.  But 4 tablespoons a day seems a lot to me.

[rawlion]

Sounds good.  Aajonus said good things about honey.  But 4 tablespoons a day seems a lot to me.

You are right. For some even 1 tsp is too much. When I'm back home I will see how honey before bed improves my sleep.

[pfw]

RAW honey (and not just raw, but UNheated and UNfiltered honey) is an INVERT sugar. And invert sugars do not ferment in the stomach/intestines.

...?

Invert sugar is sucrose broken down into its constituent glucose and fructose molecules. The bacteria in your intestine will readily ferment glucose and fructose. Raw, heated, it doesn't matter: honey is just sugar with some added stuff. But by the time the honey you eat makes it to your large intestine, it is indistinguishable from any other sugar and will be gobbled up by bacteria.

As for nonsense about it being the ideal liver fuel, well, table sugar (sucrose) is 1:1 fructose and glucose too. Your body very easily breaks it down into fructose and glucose, so all honey does is save you a metabolically trivial step in getting to the same result.

[carnivore]

and honey also triggers insulin like sucrose.

[rawlion]

...?

Invert sugar is sucrose broken down into its constituent glucose and fructose molecules. The bacteria in your intestine will readily ferment glucose and fructose. Raw, heated, it doesn't matter: honey is just sugar with some added stuff. But by the time the honey you eat makes it to your large intestine, it is indistinguishable from any other sugar and will be gobbled up by bacteria.

As for nonsense about it being the ideal liver fuel, well, table sugar (sucrose) is 1:1 fructose and glucose too. Your body very easily breaks it down into fructose and glucose, so all honey does is save you a metabolically trivial step in getting to the same result.

Honey, which contains two invert sugars, levulose and dextrose, has many advantages as a food substance. While cane-sugar and starches, as already intimated, must undergo during digestion a process of inversion which changes them into grape and fruit-sugars, in honey this is already accomplished because it has been predigested by the bees, inverted and concentrated. This saves the stomach additional labor. For a healthy human body, which is capable of digesting sugar, the actuality that honey is an already predigested sugar has less importance, but in a case of weak digestion, especially in those who lack invertase and amylase and depend on monosaccarides, it is a different matter and deserves consideration.

The consummation of this predigestive act is accomplished by the enzymes invertase, amylase and catalase, which are produced by the worker bee in such large quantities that they can be found in every part of their bodies. However, there is plenty of it left in honey for our benefit. The remarkable convertive power of these enzymes can be pif oven by a simple experiment. If we add one or two tablespoonful of raw honey to a pint of concentrated solution of sucrose, the mixture will soon be changed into invert sugar. The addition of boiled honey, in which the enzymes have been destroyed, will not accomplish such a change.

[rawlion]

Invert sugar is sucrose broken down into its constituent glucose and fructose molecules. The bacteria in your intestine will readily ferment glucose and fructose. Raw, heated, it doesn't matter: honey is just sugar with some added stuff. But by the time the honey you eat makes it to your large intestine, it is indistinguishable from any other sugar and will be gobbled up by bacteria.

More complex sugars must be broken down into simpler sugars by digestive enzymes before they can be absorbed into the bloodstream, but raw honey has pre-digested sugar (pre-digested by the honey bees) and requires very little or no enzyme action. Honey creates speedy absorption within a short while after consumption. There is no time for fermentation.

[pfw]

Breaking down a disaccharide molecule is one of the simplest digestive things your body does. If you eat a tablespoon of table sugar, you will end up with "honey" in your small intestine ready for absorption just as if you eat a tablespoon of honey. The difference is negligible unless you have some sort of issue with your pancreas producing sucrase, or some other severe digestive issue. The fact that honey is pre-digested is only a distinguishing factor if you are consuming massive quantities of honey versus massive quantities of table sugar.

Bacteria in the small intestine and in the large intestine will readily ferment glucose and fructose. The source does not matter. If you are leaking table sugar into your large intestines due to damage to your digestive system, it's very likely you'll do the same with honey, which will have the same effect. Of course, if you have personal experience and evidence to present, that would be interesting to hear.

It'd be much more interesting than reading your exact matching copy/paste responses taken from http://www.honey-health.com/. Right now I don't think you're actually thinking about what you're saying. You're just copy/pasting something that sounds good.

[rawlion]

It'd be much more interesting than reading your exact matching copy/paste responses taken from http://www.honey-health.com/. Right now I don't think you're actually thinking about what you're saying. You're just copy/pasting something that sounds good.

Yeah, thanks for the reminder, I forgot to provide a link. Here it is: http://www.stephentvedten.com/40_Detoxification.pdf

[rawlion]

It'd be much more interesting than reading your exact matching copy/paste responses taken from http://www.honey-health.com/. Right now I don't think you're actually thinking about what you're saying. You're just copy/pasting something that sounds good.

I have some experience in this regard. Once I ate the meal consisting of raw muscle meats, raw adrenal and raw honey. I've got a bad reaction from the adrenal and belched half an hour or so after that meal. Well, the vomit didn't have the sweet taste. Maybe because the honey had already been absorbed by that time... However, in order to have more conclusive results I think I should repeat such experiment with sugar though...