Sugar, Protein and Our Brain

"Our brain wants to run exclusively on sugar (glucose). It is the preferred fuel."

We know this to be true or. . . do we?

Our brains want to run on ketones produced from burning your own body fat, not sugar. When carbohydrates are minimized, the brain naturally gets its energy from our own fat. It is only when big doses of carbs are in the system does this sequence get short-circuited.

From Medical News Today, "Human Brain Feeds On Lactate Not Glucose During Exercise.*" Here are some of the comments from the article:

- Researches in Denmark and The Netherlands have discovered that during exercise, the brain shifts into a higher gear and uses "alternative energy". It does not feed on glucose but on lactate.

- ". . . above a certain level of exercise, as it becomes more strenuous, the muscles shift to another way of making energy, using anerobic respirations, which involves lactate production and not oxygen."

- "Researchers showed not only that the brain runs on lactate during exercise, but it actually shifts into a higher gear in terms of activity."

- "The findings challenge a long held view that the brain is strictly a glucose fuel burner. . . . "


These findings may alter the way we think about pre- and post-exercise nutrition, as well as possibility nutrition during events or training.




Dr. David Orman
www.hghplus.net
www.OrmanInstitute.com


* Ref.: Oct. 2008 issue of The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Bjorn Quistorff, et al., "Lactate fuels the human brain during exercise." The FASEB Journal. 2008, 22: 3443-3449. doi: 10.1096/fj.08-106104.
 

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