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The Rate of Glucose Phosphorylation as a Cause of Insulin Resistance?

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Once again, insulin resistance. I have already discussed this phenomenon several times here — a phenomenon many scientists consider the cause of civilization diseases, especially obesity and type 2 diabetes. We have shown that insulin resistance (IR) is an overly general term that does not capture the various mechanisms of its formation — that IR has its own causes and is therefore a reaction to some condition, an evolutionarily developed defense mechanism, generally beneficial and thus cannot be the root cause . Since then, I have discussed several other potential root causes of IR on this blog. In the previous post , I was intrigued by the issue of glucose phosphorylation. Although it seems like a simple process, it hides many complexities. I’ll show you a paper in which the author examines this problem in detail . It demonstrates the relationship between glucose transporters GLUT4 and hexokinase HK2 and insulin. In the resting state, with low insulin levels, glucose transporters GLU...
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Does the Umami Taste Activate a Signal of Essential Amino Acid Deficiency?

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Let’s continue searching for the source of obesity and metabolic disorders. In the series “ Who will tell us we have eaten enough food ”. I explored the mechanisms by which the body regulates food intake. What determines that the food we’ve eaten isn’t enough and we need to eat more? My conclusions are fairly simple. During the day, we collect food to have enough energy for sleep. Control is carried out through liver glycogen — during the day, we burn and store different forms of food in various tissues, and in the end, there has to be something left. This leftover of carbohydrates and amino acids is converted into liver glycogen. After a day’s consumption, there must be enough glycogen for rest and sleep. I think this is the basic energy regulation. But sufficient energy is not enough for survival. A lack of essential amino acids leads to premature death in mice . That’s probably why there are auxiliary mechanisms — for example, one that ensures sufficient essential amino acids, worki...
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A Fatty Diet Slows Down Metabolism Even Without Sugar Via Fructose!

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That sugar isn’t healthy is something almost everyone knows today, even if they don’t really care or restrict themselves. But that sugar could be harmful even without sugar in food? That sounds strange, doesn’t it? Do we have evidence, studies, results? Yes, I think we do. I found a nice PhD dissertation that tries to answer exactly this question. And the results are very interesting. I’ll try to summarize them briefly here. In discussions on X, I came across a great experimenter in the field of nutrition. He runs his blog at exfatloss.com . Recently, he raised an interesting point about the low-carb keto diet . For some people, it simply doesn’t work, and no one knows why. He observed this himself and shares his findings with others on his blog. The idea came to him while listening to lectures by Rick Johnson, M.D., on fructose research. Specifically, that the body produces fructose on its own, for example, with too much salty food and a lack of water, or when consuming food containin...
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Is Taurine the Amino Acid of Longevity?

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Let’s continue considering whether some level of protein restriction, even occasional, might lead to better metabolism and longer life. Although it may seem obvious that restricting food intake should prolong life, in the previous post this was not the case . The longest lifespan was observed in mice that consumed the most essential amino acids as their protein source (20% cal in the diet). Overall, this was not a deficient diet at all. On the contrary, a very rich diet that excluded unnecessary amino acids—which the body can synthesize as needed—ensured the mice’s health. This could serve as a warning for us: restricting these indispensable nutrients might not be such a good idea, as it may not lead to better health or longer life. Still, in some cases, it might appear that way. Let’s try a different approach. We know of one amino acid that has a proven effect on cellular aging. It’s called taurine. We’ve already come across it once before when I discussed the effects of restricting s...
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Could we get by with only essential amino acids in food?

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The content of individual specific amino acids in proteins seems to be key to maintaining a healthy metabolism. A change in composition by restricting certain amino acids leads to overeating, but also to greater wasting of energy as heat, so weight gain does not occur . Recent studies in mouse models clearly show that branched-chain (BCAA) and sulfur amino acids (SAA) play an interesting role here. While the mechanism for branched-chain ones is still very unclear, for sulfur amino acids the most likely mechanism of action appears to be S-sulfhydration of enzymes . For branched-chain acids, I would guess that the mechanism could be transamination to glutamate, which is metabolized in the TCA cycle in two different ways depending on the metabolic state. Either it is further processed via oxaloacetate into glucose, and then everything works normally, or it is processed by reverse run of IDH2 into citrate and then into fat . And that is the essential difference, which however is not descr...
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A fatty diet with sugar produces hydrogen sulfide in the intestines—is it good or not?

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This post will once again be dedicated to hydrogen sulfide (H2S). The studies mentioned in previous posts have shown quite clearly how beneficial hydrogen sulfide produced in liver cells by the enzyme CSE can be. It can even be transported further into the whole body through S-sulfhydration of blood albumin . But will this also apply to hydrogen sulfide produced in the large intestine? Let’s take a look at what the authors of a study examining the influence of hydrogen sulfide on intestinal epithelial cell metabolism found. They also studied this in connection with obesity and a diet rich in fats and sugars. The basic idea is that the effect of a diet high in saturated fats on the development of obesity could be either supported or, conversely, blocked by hydrogen sulfide. We first need to clarify the conditions under which this research was conducted. It was done on obese mice, where obesity was induced by a fatty diet high in coconut oil and sugar, together with a low content of pol...
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