C.C.: The Energizer

I shall bid adieu to my pet peeve, the high-protein diets as trumpeted by the false prophets with a final remark about fatigue.
My point will be illustrated by a study that was done with respect to a low-carbohydrate diet on some troops in the Canadian Army during World War II. In that study, the predictable effects of ketosis were made immediately apparent. An unsoldierly group of weary, listless men with sunken eyes emerged from four days of this diet. In their dehydrated and exhausted condition they showed dramatically the results of a regimen free from Complex Carbohydrates.
In the experiment the troops had been given pemmican to eat. The idea was that pemmican—a high-protein dried beef with suet—might be used as a highly-concentrated, high-energy source. With the pemmican they were given tea to drink.
The distressing results surprised the Army medics. Within three days the men were unable to function nor¬mally. They were nauseous, some vomited, all were in¬capacitated by fatigue. They had no appetite.and because of great water loss they had the appearance of having lost considerable weight.
Only when the men were returned to rations with sufficient carbohydrate did the fatigue and nausea disappear.
The same symptomatic lack of physical energy was reported in another experiment with low-carbohydrate diets conducted in the United States. Again, the fatigue vanished miraculously after carbohydrate was restored to the diet.
Today we know that the fatigue, dizziness and headaches experienced by people on the popular but perilous high-protein prescriptions are caused by the "af- ter-burn" of excessive protein. Unable to synthesize adequate amounts of glucose (blood sugar) on high- protein regimens, the body is forced to break down its own muscle and tissue proteins to get glucose. The slug¬gishness, dizziness and fatigue occur because due to in¬sufficient C.C., not enough glucose (the brain's main fuel) reaches the brain

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