Testing the carb-insulin model (CIM) in mice

or, the biggest mouse study that’s ever been done (Hu, Speakman, et al., 2019)

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Background rant: 20 years ago I thought I had a firm understanding of CIM. 10 years ago things got a little dicey here and there. Since then, the goalposts have been shifted so far and so frequently it’s a mess… we’ve come a long way from Atkins (for better or worse)

I disavow.

That said, regardless of where the goalposts were set, everyone should bookmark this study. They varied every macronutrient in nearly every possible way and took a variety of metabolic assessments (insulin sensitivity, body weight, food intake, etc.).

So whether or not their study tested the CIM to which you subscribe, there is still a ton of information here. My comments are mainly on CIM here lol

Speakman’s CIM is broken down into 5 somewhat overlapping parts.

  1. Increased dietary carbs increases fasting insulin which decreases fasting glucose

-In the context of any CIM, the postprandial state seems more relevant here; as in, ‘carbs increase insulin which reduces glucose and you get fat storage from the insulin and hangry from the hypo.’

These pork rinds are the bomb 🙂

2. Carbs and insulin induce de novo lipogenesis which makes you fat

-My only qualms here are: DNL is quantitatively more of a liver thing, and anyway, most of the fat that gets stored came straight from the diet, not DNL.

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calories proper