blog, not block, lol... meh, I guess it works either way 🙂

I wonder if a major factor regarding individuation is the capacity and tendency of a specific person's liver to produce glucose from protein.

The unwritten assumption seems to be that this is similar among all people, but I've yet to see any evidence at all to support that position. Yet, it seems to be regarded as axiomatic.

Actually, it is now known that many type 2 diabetics tend to produce larger quantities of glucose from protein than normal people, but this is usually written off as some sort of defect, perhaps due to insulin resistance.

But what if it isn't simply a symptom of disease? What if this is just how that person's body is actually INTENDED to work? What if there's not actually anything wrong with that person's liver, or at least perhaps the state of insulin resistance is exaggerated?

This is important to consider because a major adaptation of carnivorous animals is the ability and tendency to process large quantities of protein into glucose, while at the same time being extremely intolerant of dietary carbohydrates.

A specific human being who has the biology more on the carnivorous side would tend to be viewed as "defective" and be instructed to continue consuming carbohydrates while then taking insulin and metformin to control blood sugar.

From just a brief google search, I found this:
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/129/10/1896.full
"Nonavian carnivores such as house cats (Kettelhut and Migliorini 1980), rainbow trout (Palmer and Ryman 1972), white sturgeon (Hung 1991) and American alligators (Coulson and Hernandez 1983) are also glucose intolerant as indicated by prolonged glucose tolerance curves relative to omnivorous species such as chickens, rats and humans. In alligators, glucose intolerance is especially pronounced, and several days are required for normal blood glucose levels to be obtained after an intravenous glucose challenge. Rainbow trout are glucose intolerant due in part to the lack of hepatic glucokinase (GK;3 hexokinase type IV, EC 2.7.1.1), which is responsible for phosphorylating glucose and facilitating its uptake into hepatocytes (Palmer and Ryman 1972). Cats also lack hepatic glucokinase and are poor at down-regulating amino acid catabolism and gluconeogenesis when fed low protein diets, indicating obligatory gluconeogenesis. For example, feeding cats a 17.5% protein diet resulted in little change in the activity of hepatic enzymes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK; EC 4.1.1.31), alanine aminotransferase (ALT; EC 2.6.1.2), aspartate aminotransferase (AST: EC 2.6.1.1), and fructose-bisphosphatase (FBP: EC 3.1.3.11) compared with cats fed a 70% protein diet (Rogers et al. 1977). Conversely, in the omnivorous rat (Eisenstein and Strack 1971, Kettelhut and Migliorini 1980, Peret et al. 1981) and Japanese quail (Featherston and Freedland 1973), PEPCK and amino acid transaminases are very adaptable to changes in dietary protein or glucose content."

This sounds similar to a person with Type 2 Diabetes!

But it's a discussion of actual carnivorous animals.

But what if the person isn't actually defective? What if the core assumption that all people are adapted to eating the same sort of omnivorous diet is incorrect?

Actually, this sounds EXACTLY like my own personal experiences with extended water fasting:
"Cats... are poor at down-regulating amino acid catabolism and gluconeogenesis when fed low protein diets, indicating obligatory gluconeogenesis."

I can water fast for several days, exercising every day, and if I ever don't exercise, my blood sugar rises even though I've consumed absolutely no dietary energy in several days, and long since burned through all of the glycogen I started with.

The only explanation I can think of is that my liver is continuing to produce significant quantities of glucose from muscle protein, at a rate which is perhaps "abnormally" high.

The solution for me thus far appears to be to eat a high fat, moderate protein diet, and watch out for any dietary carbohydrates. Nevertheless, I have absolutely no sign of any sort of "glucose deficiency" and actually my blood sugar is still a bit higher than "normal" people even though I am consuming almost no carbohydrates and exercising daily.

If I ever eat more than 150 grams of proten in a day, particularly if I don't exercise, sure enough my blood sugar skyrockets.

Perhaps my rate of gluconeogenesis will decline over time. But perhaps it won't.

Nevertheless, I find it interesting that while this topic is well-explored in other species, it hasn't been in humans. Any deviations from what is assumed to be proper are simply written off as being defects, rather than individuation worthy of further research.

After reading "Perfect Health Diet" by Drs. Jaminet, today I experimented by eating ~100 grams of carbohydrates from white rice.

My exercise performance cratered: both maximum and sustained power output on an elliptical machine declined by ~30%! No matter how hard I pushed myself, I simply could not exceed about 70% of my normal workout intensity on a HFVLC diet. To top it off, pushing myself was much more of a mental challenge and my form suffered as I tried to push harder, but couldn't.

This is quite different from what you talked about regarding metabolic inflexibility.

My blood sugar has been elevated all day by about 20mg/dL and there are no more ketones in my urine, despite consuming my usual ~8tbsp of coconut oil.

While I'm not certain of all the hormonal and biochemical changes which happened in my body today, my body is clearly telling me: "Don't do that!"

Well, considering that blood sugar control issues got me started down this path in the first place, I think I'll stick with a ketogenic diet for a while longer before I try experimenting with reintroducing carbs on a regular basis. To this point, being in a ketogenic state has done me nothing but good. However, life is change...

Yeah, I know about the whole physiological insulin resistance thing from Hyperlipid.

I was just surprised that my athletic performance went to crap so quickly after just one meal.

FWIW, my exercise routine consists of several strength training exercises to failure, followed by HIIT on an elliptical machine. I do this as frequently as my body feels up to the task, about 3x per week.

In addition to that, I use a Desk Cycle at low intensity for several hours per week while doing things like reading and commenting on blogs 🙂

I'm not sure to what extent any of these things really stresses the "keto" energy system... that would seem to be endurance exercise at significant "aerobic" exertion levels.

Come Spring, I will likely resume bicycling about 20 miles per day several days per week - that being perhaps more of a keto exercise than my current regimen.