From the Wikipedia “krill is also used for human consumption and known as okiami (オキアミ)1 in Japan.”

http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/japan.html

Rice is the main carbohydrate food in Japan, consumed with every meal. For the poor, it is the chief source of calories. However, the real basis of the Japanese diet is not rice but fish, consumed at more than 154 pounds per person per year,almost one-half pound per day. This is about the same amount by weight as rice, but in terms of calories, fish provides a greater amount for most of the Japanese. Thanks for the time and space to comment.

Hi Mark–

The one item your forgetting to factor in (actually there are two) is the caloric content.  If you consume a fairly low-calorie diet, as I think the Japanese do, then you can get by with more carbs.  If you fast every other day, you can eat a bunch of carbs and not pay the price.  (The other factor with the Japanese is their genetic homogeneity, which might be one that doesn’t have problems with excess carbs.) 

Cheers–

MRE 

Bees collect pollen as a protein source to raise their brood

Dry pollen, is a food source for bees, which contains 16 – 30% protein, 1 – 10% fat, 1 – 7% starch, many vitamins, but little sugar
Protein 23 parts to Fat 5.5 parts to Carbs 4 parts
71% 17% 12%

The overall composition of royal jelly is 67% water, 12.5% crude protein (including small amounts of many different amino acids),and 11% simple sugars, also including a relatively high amount (5%) of fatty acids

Ratio
Protein 12.5 parts:Fat 5 parts:Carb 11 parts
44% 18% 39%

From the Blog

pollen, which is about 10 percent fat, mostly polyunsaturated royal jelly, which contains about the same proportion of fat as pollen, but a more saturated fat. About half the fat in royal jelly is a naturally occurring trans fat that is monounsaturated; the rest of the fats are medium chain fatty acids that are either saturated or monounsaturated.

I read your post a while back. Notwithstanding your previous cautions about applying the results from animal studies to humans (a rule which you bend if not violate in this case), it occurred to me that the other major source of saturated fat is from excess carbohydrates converted by the
body to saturated fat. Reviewing the above data taken from Wikipedia, Royal Jelly has more carbohydrates which would seem to support the proposition that queens get some of their saturated fat from excess carbs. The queen bees convert their excess carbohydrates to fat some of which
finds its way into cellular membranes improving their longevity. My question is why can’t humans just eat excess carbs to increase the saturation of membranes. It seems likes a logical contradiction that the body would care about the source of saturated fats. I’d appreciate your
thoughts.

Note that your data, which is in italics is different in protein and carb percentages which may be due to use of different references, however does confirm your statement that royal jelly and pollen have about the same fat content. Thanks for the time and space.

Hi Mark–

Interesting question.  If excess carbs convert to saturated fat (which they indeed do; they convert to a 16 carbon-chain fat: palmitic acid), why don’t excess carbs lead to an increase in saturation of the cell and mitochondrial membranes making them less prone to free radical attack?

First, although excess carbs do convert to a saturated fat, it takes a lot of excess carbs to do so.  First, they’re burned as much as possible, then converted to and stored as glycogen, and only then converted to fat.  And the conversion consumes some energy so you end up with less than half the calories as fat compared to what you started with as carbs.

Second, consuming excess carbs – as everyone knows – increases insulin levels.  Insulin activates the desaturatase and elongase enzymes that end up increasing the number of carbon-carbon double bonds in fatty acids, leading to an increase in polyunsaturated fats in the cell membranes.

The second process would vastly outweigh the first process in terms of final product. 

Cheers–

MRE 

I have always loved fats. I plan to be a queen bee for a long time, now that I no longer fear fats. I better load up on butter and coconut oil.

I wanted to let you know that I answered a question on Yahoo regarding cholesterol. I explained what cholesterol is and how to consider ratios when determining if cholesterol is high or low. I said that I learned this through Protein Power. What is significant is that I won 2 points because my answer was voted best.

That’s all for now,
Mary

Hi Mary aka Queen Bee–

Glad that Protein Power came through for you.  Keep on eating fat!

Cheers–

MRE 

Hi Hellistile–

Lower the fat intake is Dean’s answer to everything, so maybe you’re right.

Cheers–

MRE 

Another idea is that whey protein is more potent than sugars.

Inconsistency between glycemic and insulinemic responses to regular and fermented milk products.

Ostman EM, Liljeberg Elmstahl HG, Bjorck IM.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2001 Jul;74(1):96-100.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/74/1/96

Effect of whey on blood glucose and insulin responses to composite breakfast and lunch meals in type 2 diabetic subjects

Frid AH, Nilsson M, Holst JJ, Bjorck IM.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jul;82(1):69-75.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/82/1/69

Hi Seamus–

Both of these studies show that whey has a fairly low glycemic index.  The reason the glycemic index is low is that the whey stimulates a pretty robust insulin response, keeping the blood sugar from going high.  I don’t think there is a real problem with a robust insulin response as long as it is acute and the insulin levels rapidly fall.  It’s the chronic elevation of insulin due to insulin resistance that is the problem.  Even more problematic in my view is elevated blood sugar.  Even a brief elevation of blood sugar is not a totally benign event, whereas a brief elevation of insulin is fairly inconsequential.

I don’t think the blood sugar effects of milk are any more than their sugar levels would imply, and maybe even a little less.  I would still recommend that people count the sugar in milk as part of their daily carb count and adjust accordingly.  So, if someone wants to drink a glass of whole milk and take out the 9 or 10 grams of carbs contained therein from somewhere else, I say go for it.

Having said all that, I can say that I’m not a particularly big fan of milk for some of the other reasons Dr. Cordain espouses, but it doesn’t have to do with the carb count.

Cheers–

MRE 

What we need is a chump. Someone desperate to prove that sat-fat is evil despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. Somebody deep in the pockets of industry, widely regarded as an expert by the nutritional orthodoxy.

Anyone have Dean Ornish’s number?

Dave

Hi Dave–

I don’t think membranes stay stable for long after death, so I doubt the study could be done postmortem. But it should be easy enough to do on living centenarians. Or you could check membrane saturation on a group of people who are 60 then wait around until they all die and correlate their age at death with the saturation index at age 60.

You get the grant; I’ll help with the study.

Cheers–

MRE

Hi antnagir–

As far as I know there have been no such studies.  It would make a great research project, though.

Cheers–

MRE 

and
“Saturated fats are protective against free radical damage and can reverse liver fibrosis.” both are from “Leakiness, aging, and cancer” from raypeat.com.

He talks about when using coconut oil instead of pufa’s, our need for vitamin E goes down. Stuff we already knew pretty much but good to here. That and the statement by the gentlemen above about being able to tan reminded me of an old nutrition book I have. The writer, an optometrist talks about using vitamin E before going out in the sun for the first time in the spring. He said when he would use vit E for a few weeks before going outside he would not burn as he normally did. Sooo, if we eat more saturated fats and less pufa’s, we would need less vitamin E and maybe be less prone to burning.

Hey, I had to do something to occupy my mind so I wouldn’t have that image of Hillary from above in my mind!

Hi Robert–

Interesting thought on the vitamin E/saturated fat connection.  It’s probably valid since saturated fats aren’t prone to oxidation since they have no carbon-carbon double bonds, the sites at which free radicals attack.  Vitamin E protects against oxidation, so an increased intake of polyunsaturated fats (a lot of the vulnerable carbon-carbon double bonds) would require more vitamin E to protect.

As far as I can tell there are no good pictures of Hillary.

Cheers–

MRE 

Heh heh, MD must find you a treasure to live with given how modest you are… Seriously, though, she’s probably glad to have you to look at across the dining room table instead of ol’ Dean.

Eating saturated fats has done great things for my skin, too.

Hi Esther–

A treasure to live with…?  Probably more like a real pain in the a**.  I can truthfully say, however, that I would much rather look at her across the dining room table than I would at ol’ Dean. 

Cheers–

MRE