Niacin, heart disease, liver toxicity, and diabetes

Niacin therapy is effective at reduce heart disease risk due to lowering LDL particle numbers and triglyceride levels, not due to increasing HDL. The risk of diabetes can be minimized by eating within 2 hours of taking niacin and avoiding digestible carbohydrates 3–6 hours after, unless another dose of niacin is taken. Liver toxicity can be minimized by eating a diet rich in methyl donors like folate, vitamin B12, methionine, betaine (trimethylglycine), and choline.

Is healthy obesity a thing?

There is no such thing as “healthy” obesity. Sure, you can be obese and free of metabolic abnormalities, but you still have a markedly increased risk of developing obesity-related diseases in comparison with normal weight individuals.

Not only are your ever-expanding fat cells giving out more and more stress signals as they fill up, providing a beautiful setting of low-grade, chronic inflammation, but if things don’t change, you’re going to pass your personal fat threshold at some point. Hello diabetes, fatty liver, and heart disease! 

Foods matter, not just macros

Calories and macronutrients matter, but so do the foods we eat. We need to appreciate the role that the food matrix plays in health and disease. To ignore it is ignorance.