Washington State Economics Professor Dr. Trent G. Smith
Because of the quality content about diet, health, and low-carb living that I provide at my blog and podcast show, I have been blessed to have quite an eclectic and highly-educated group of people who follow my work. And interestingly enough, some of them are interested in aspects of obesity and disease that go outside the realm of nutrition and medicine. Today I’d like to share about one of these readers and invite you to participate in an investigation he is conducting on the topic of the glycemic impact of consuming certain foods.
His name is Trent G. Smith, Ph.D. and he is an assistant professor of economic sciences at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Dr. Smith recently wrote to me after reading my blog interview with Good Calories, Bad Calories author Gary Taubes (and listen to my podcast interview with Taubes here, here, and here) and he wanted to share with me about a lecture he recently posted about this whole issue of blood sugar, insulin, and the connection certain foods have on them. It may seem odd to think an economics professor would care about such things, but there are certainly economic consequences to making poor dietary choices and especially when those choices are heavily promoted as “healthy” by governmental and nutritional health authorities.
I’d like to point you to Dr. Smith’s lecture entitled “Lunch Science: A Personal Dietary Investigation” (keep in mind this is a very large file, but WELL worth the time to download) where he quotes Taubes discussing the negative impact of refined carbohydrates on blood sugar and insulin. He thoroughly explains the blood sugar/insulin connection focusing in on the glycemic index of foods for determining their effect on the body. From the economics perspective, Dr. Smith adds that most high-GI foods are very inexpensive which is why the marketplace is flooded with them. He adds that since food marketers of these high-GI foods don’t want the consumer to know about their deleterious effects, they get away with producing products that aren’t exactly the best.
Since food companies have been unwilling to discuss the glycemic effect of eating certain foods, Dr. Smith believes consumers need to test for themselves how their blood sugar responds through the use of inexpensive blood glucose monitors. By personally measuring his own results after eating a variety of foods, he graphed his blood sugar response after consuming fruit and carrots, beans, buttered bread, macaroni & cheese, beer and brats, vending machine junk food, a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder meal, Jack In The Box meal, a hamburger without the bun and eggs, 6 hamburger buns, ice cream, Pizza Hut, and a Subway low-fat meal. He simply asks, “Which will cause biggest ’spike’ in blood sugar?”
Interestingly, Pizza Hut spiked his blood sugar the most, but guess what came in second place? It was a shocker…Subway low-fat! So despite all the best efforts by the clever marketing team at the popular national sandwich chain, all that bread they are serving people in the name of health is actually doing more harm than good. Oh, guess which meal had the lowest effect on blood sugar (do I even need to tell you?). Of course it was the burger and eggs meal that was the lowest in total carbohydrates.
Last year I started experimenting with measuring my blood sugar to see what would happen and it netted some very peculiar results for me. Now Dr. Smith wants you to join him in this fun yet revealing social experiment on blood sugar. He says there isn’t any good solid data out there on the glycemic effects of eating full meals or even specific brand name foods. Would you like to help him gather this information on yourself and share your results with Dr. Smith? He believes a “decentralized investigation” of this phenomena will “generate more insights than would a single, focused study.”
Note that measures should be taken in half-hour increments (i.e. 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 1/2 hours, 2 hours, 2 1/2 hours, 3 hours, 3 1/2 hours, 4 hours, 4 1/2 hours, 5 hours) after consuming the food you are measuring. Blood glucose monitors can be purchased inexpensively at your local drugstore or Wal-Mart, so how about helping out this economics professor collect some useful data for his investigation? E-mail Dr. Trenton Smith your results at trentsmith@wsu.edu.
I was slightly amused by Dr. Smith’s “tentative observations” based on his own personal results after doing this experiment:
- At best, standard 2-hour GI misses a lot.
He’s right. If you don’t measure what is going on at 30-, 60-, and 90-minute intervals, then you’re not really finding out what’s going on with your blood sugar after a given meal. That’s the point of checking it, so don’t miss this critical data.
- Fast food is hard to beat if you’re looking for a (blood) sugar high.
Amen to that! We seen in studies that fast food makes you fatter and it’s because of all the insulin your body produces in response to consuming it.
- Be skeptical of health claims.
ALWAYS be very skeptical of any health claims. At Subway, you may “eat fresh,” but that doesn’t mean you’re eating healthy. Be smart about what you put in your mouth and the ramifications of knowingly consuming foods that will spike blood sugar levels.
- Would the market outcome be different if information about glycemic effects were more widely available?
I still don’t think the American public gets the glycemic index yet, so I’m not sure what the result would be in providing this information. I do wish food manufacturers were REQUIRED to put the fat, protein, and carb content of their food products on the FRONT of the packaging in big bold letters. Yes, it is on the back but seeing it there up close and personal may give people pause.
Let’s help Dr. Smith continue his fascinating investigation!
What’s with all the glucose testing? I just started testing mine 11 days ago to report on an experiment at my blog.
The BIG question that few have considered is how to improve the glucose response. That’s the answer we need to seek. If a normal person eats a subway sandwich and blood glucose peaks at 110 mg/dl, while an overweight person’s peaks at 160 mg/dl, and a type 2 diabetic’s peaks at 340 mg/dl – all after eating the same exact sandwich, then clearly the sandwich is not the only variable. You are not what you eat, but what your body does with what you eat. A more ambitious goal is to improve the health of the diabetic to the point where he or she has a normal glucose response to such a sandwich.
Since I’ve gotten my fasting levels to 80 mg/dl, and my glucose levels peak at a much lower level in response to carbohydrates now, I have no choice but to believe that such a thing can be achieved.
I’m losing more weight now on 600 grams of carbs per day without exercise than I did exercising 7 hours per day for the last 4 1/2 months.
Matt.,
600 grams of carbs a day is a ridiculous amount. How are you eating all that food? I did not eat that much when I was obese. You would have to eat like a whole loaf of bread. On that I would be severly obese. I do not eat 600 grams of carbs in a week. If you can do this and you are still losing weight then you might need to get a checkup.
HELLO: I have a question about protein and strength. I am on a weight-loss, fat-loss diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates. My only carbohydrate sources are a plate of green cooked vegetables at lunch.
My question is, is this diet ok to maintain muscle-mass while losing fat? or do I need more protein?
BREAKFAST:
Protein-pancake made with:
8 oz of egg-whites
1 1/2 scoop of whey protein
LUNCH:
9 oz of baked chicken or turkey
A plate of cooked green-vegetables made with brocoli and green cabbage
DINNER:
A protein pancake made with:
8 oz. of egg whites
4 oz of egg-beaters
2 1/3 scoops of whey protein
Is this diet regimen ok or do i need more protein in it?
Thanx
Your diet needs a LOT more fat!
–Jimmy
Jimmy, has he read Dr Rob Thompson’s book on the Glycemic Load? It is a far better predictor of the effects of food on the GI system. Using simple GI as the underlying hypothesis misses the boat.
Because he is still a novice at low-carb and has not done the reading he needs to do to extend his experiment of one to a broader base, I do not intend to prick myself 6 times after a meal for his research.
He has a good idea but his underlying science is still too simplistic. Thanks for sharing.
I agree glycemic load is a much better indicator of blood sugar impact than the glycemic index. But I think he’s on to something beneficial here. I don’t blame you for not wanting to prick yourself that much for his data, but he does shine a light on the carb connection to blood sugar that is unfortunately missed by most in academia…and the general public. He’s monitoring these comments, so I appreciate you sharing yours.
–Jimmy
Dr. Smith may be interested in the Insulin Index study that was done only once. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/66/5/1264 They also measured glucose response.
Taubes did not like this study as the proteins were very lean.
I agree that Glycemic Load is a better test of blood sugar impact. However, one would have to eat these foods individually as once you start combining foods you start getting different results.
It also would be nice if one could measure insulin levels along with glucose levels. But that is not possible these days.
When they come up with a way for average, everyday people to measure insulin levels at home, a whole new world will open up. THANKS JD! I’ll pass your info along to Dr. Smith.
–Jimmy
Shannon,
I eat far more food than an obese person. My normal caloric intake is over 4,000 calories per day. Over the past several years I’ve been eating between 200-300 grams of fat per day on a predominantly fat-based diet with varying carbohydrate amounts…
And you’d have to eat at least 2 loaves of bread per day, not just 1 (hint: supermarket bread is not bread – it is HFCS, rancid white flour, synthetic vitamins and rancid whole wheat flour that they call “whole grain bread’… it has nothing to do with the kind of carbohydrates I’m eating).
Don’t limit what is and is not possible. Hundreds of grams of unrefined carbohdyrate food can cause weight loss in anyone who does it correctly. Unrefined carbohydrates are the antidote to the damage that is done by their refined counterparts.
If you don’t believe that, you should research T.L. Cleave, whom Gary Taubes bases a large percentage of his conclusions upon, but who found Zulu tribes that ate 90% carbohydrate diets but had no problems with weight, diabetes, or any other insulin-related disorder. He also found Zulu tribes on 81% carb diets with all kinds of health problems. There was only 1 difference: refined vs. unrefined…
“In that table it was shown that although 90 per cent of the calorific intake in the rural Zulu is provided by carbohydrates (which are generally regarded as the fattening foods), as against only 81 per cent of the intake in the urban Zulu, the crucial point is that, in the case of the rural Zulu, of the 90 per cent figure 89 is derived from unrefined carbohydrates, whereas, in the case of the urban Zulu, of the 81 per cent figure 71 is derived from refined carbohydrates. An explanation, therefore, based on the argument advanced in this work, fits the facts as a glove to its hand.”
Cleave, T.L. and G.D. Campbell. Diabetes, Coronary Thrombosis, and the Saccharine
Disease. John Wright & Sons LTD.: Bristol, UK, 1969.
Quote found on page 65
A naturopath handed me Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution, because I was insulin resistant. Bernstein does a good job of explaining the connections of carbs to blood sugar levels. His suggested diet has less than 30 grams of carbs a day, and that is tough to maintain! However it did produce weight loss with a small amount of metformin daily.