 Much of the low carb and paleo-reasoning revolves around insulin. To quote one random blogger, carbohydrates increase insulin, the root of all evil, when it comes to dieting and health. So the reasoning goes, because carbs increase insulin, we should stick mostly to meat, which is fat and protein. No carbs, so no increase in insulin, right? Wrong. We've known for half a century that if you give someone just a steak, no carbs, no sugar, no starch, their insulin goes up. Carbs make your insulin go up, but so does protein. In 1997, an insulin index of foods was published, ranking 38 foods on which stimulates insulin levels the most. What do you think causes a larger insulin spike? A large apple and all its sugar? A cup of oatmeal packed with carbs? A cup and a half of white flour pasta? A big bunless burger, no carbs at all? Or half a salmon filet? What do you think? The answer is the meat. Now they only looked at beef and fish, but subsequent data showed that there's no significant difference between the insulin spike from beef versus chicken or pork. They're all just as high. Thus protein and fat-rich foods may induce substantial insulin secretion. In fact, meat protein causes as much insulin release as pure sugar. So, based on their own framework, if they really believe insulin is the root of all evil, then low carbers and paleo folks would be eating big bowls of white spaghetti day in, day out, before they'd ever touch meat. Yes, having hyperinsulinemia, too high levels of insulin in the blood, like type 2 diabetics have, is not a good thing. It may increase cancer by like 10%, but if low carb and paleo people stuck to their own theory, if it's all about insulin, then they would be telling everyone to eat vegetarian. It's vegetarians have significantly lower insulin levels, even at the same weight. It's true for oval lacto vegetarians. It's true for lacto vegetarians and vegans. Those who eat meat have up to 50% higher insulin levels. Put someone on a strictly plant-based diet, man, woman, young, old, skinnier fat, and you can significantly bring their insulin levels down within just three weeks on this kind of healthy vegan diet. And then, just by adding egg whites back to their diet, you can increase evil insulin production 60% within four days. What if you take people and add carbohydrates? Double their carbohydrate intake? You can bring their insulin levels down. Why? Because they weren't feeding people jelly beans and sugar cookies. They were feeding people whole plant foods, lots of whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. What if you put someone on a very low carb diet, like an Atkins diet? Low carb advocates assumed that would lower insulin levels. Dr. Westman here is the new Dr. Atkins. After the old Dr. Atkins died overweight, according to the medical examiner with a history of heart attack, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. But Dr. Westman was wrong. No significant drop in insulin levels on very low carb diets. What they got is a significant rise in their LDL cholesterol levels, the number one risk factor for a number one killer heart disease. Now, Atkins is an easy target, though, right? No matter how many new, new extra-new Atkins diets that come out, it's still old news. What about paleo? The paleo movement gets a lot of things right. They tell people to ditch dairy and donuts, eat lots of fruits, nuts, and vegetables, cut out a lot of processed junk. But this new study is pretty concerning. Take a bunch of young, healthy folks. Put them on a paleolithic diet, along with a CrossFit-based, high-intensity circuit training exercise program. Now, if you lose enough weight exercise, and you can temporarily drop your cholesterol levels, no matter what you eat. I mean, you can see that with stomach-stapling surgery, tuberculosis, chemo, a good cocaine habit. I mean, just losing weight, by any means, can lower cholesterol, which makes these results all the more troubling. Ten weeks of hardcore workouts and weight loss, and LDL cholesterol still went up. And it was even worse for those that started out the healthiest. Those starting out with really good LDLs, under 70, had a 20% elevation in LDL, and their HDL dropped. Exercise is supposed to boost your good cholesterol, not lower it. The paleo diet's deleterious impact on blood fats was not only significant, but substantial enough to counteract the improvements commonly seen with improved fitness and body composition. Exercise is supposed to make things better. Put people instead on a plant-based diet, and a modest exercise program, mostly just walking-based, and within three weeks, can drop their bad cholesterol 20%, and their insulin levels 30%, despite the 75% to 80% carbohydrate diet, whereas the paleo diets appear to negate the positive effects of exercise.