http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism...4131(09)00040-0

This is how it's being reported :

Diets high in fat and protein are most dangerous
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=48089

Too Much Protein, Eaten Along With Fat, May Lead to Insulin Resistance
http://www.animallab.com/News_Articles.asp?pid=522

Low-fat vegans unite!!

Yikes, I bet this will be an active thread, lol

Has been all day. See:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=394155

Lisa

I don't understand why rats are constantly used to research dietary issues for humans. Rats are grain eaters. Humans are omnivores. Omnivores are supposed to consume animal products, rats are not. How does something that leads to diabetes in rats therefore have a link to humans?

ETA: actually I just realized that rats are omnivorous, they eat insects and eggs in the wild. My bad.

Actually rats are a pretty good model. They're omniverous and have a wide diet, like humans do. That's why they make such great scavengers in human populated areas. I think you're thinking of mice, I believe they tend to be more vegetarian than rats, but I'm not certain how much so. They could eat insects in the wild.

Rats actually eat mice!

http://www.ratbehavior.org/RatsMice.htm

But don't rats normally have a fairly low fat diet naturally? So eating a high fat diet won't produce the same results in a rat that it would in a human.

--Melissa

I don't know. Are worms, grubs, insects and mice low fat?

I seem to remember that Dr. Eades, in a reply to a comment on his blog, has promised to do a post on this subject but has not gotten around to doing it. Maybe this will give him a nudge.

If you read the abstract, you will see that it's too much protein (BCAA) that's causing this, not the fat. They are feeding these rats a high-fat diet with lots of added BCAA to it. I bet the amount of BCAA is really high.

Also, they specifically say that the group fed only a standard high-fat diet did not develop insulin resistance. There is nothing to this story, other than saying a low-carb/high-protein diet may not be the best. A low-carb/high-fat is healthier. That's the conclusion anyone should read from this experiment.

Patrick

Sure it does!!!

My kids have pet rats and, yes, they do best on a diet that is 5% or less fat, 20% or less protein and the balance carbs.
Just because an animal can survive scavanging garbage that doesn't make it the ideal diet for it.

http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Cavener2-2007.htm

That's the about the study on mice losing most of their adipose tissue (and half of their livers) with leucine restriction.

If leucine is a rate-limiting factor for fat storage in mice, and if the same holds in rats, there might possibly be something about taking branched chains in a purified form that tends to promote fat storage more in the visceral area, or maybe in the liver. As a precaution, I'm going to stop eating corn oil and branched chain aminos poured over rat chow for breakfast.

LOL...

http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/2009...uch-protein-fat

Leucine prevents muscle breakdown.

rat study

That link is about leucine preventing muscle breakdown in aging rats. That's good, right?

What does that do to the availability of various other proteins? Less protein breakdown might mean less free amino acids are available to the liver. Which could mean less glycine or less of other proteins that might be raw material to make glycine. Glycine has been shown to reduce homocysteine, visceral fat, and liver fat, and even increase HDL cholesterol in sucrose-fed rats. And that's just one amino acid that might be in shorter supply if muscle breakdown is prevented in this way.
Does the muscle break down just to be mean? Or is it releasing nutrients needed by the rest of the body? Whatever it might do to overall body fat, exercise has been shown to reduce visceral fat. It also increases muscle protein breakdown. Does the one contribute to the other? The muscle might be paid back, in time, as lowering visceral fat could reduce insulin resistance and make it easier for the muscles to suck in replacement nutrients later.