spankysalmon comments on Since the brain is made up of fat, lard is probably the closest possible thing to literal brain food

Strong statement. The brain can run on ketones just fine, it's constantly titrating energy consumption from different sources. You might say the brain uses glucose first as a priority, but that is also true for alcohol.

Fat can be broken down into glucose, though

Not really a complete statement, gluconeogenesis requires more inputs then just fat, so of the glucose produced only 15% of the energy is coming from fat.

There is a 1972 paper that demonstrates normal functioning after prolonged fat adaptation, it's a great read, but this specifically speaks to brain glucose utilization - https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI107095

permalink

fedilink

source

parent

hideshow 4 child comments

[–] spankysalmon@fedinsfw.app 0 points 2 weeks ago* (3 children)

Note how I said it can be converted to glucose. Note how all you did was describe how it can be converted to glucose. Nowhere did I say that process took nothing. Nowhere did I say it needs only glucose.

Just like your car doesn't only need gas to function, and can technically 'run' on other things like pure alcohol.

permalink

fedilink

source

parent

hideshow 3 child comments

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 0 points 2 weeks ago* (2 children)

Nowhere did I say it needs only glucose.

No it cannot run on fat.

can technically ‘run’ on other things

There is a 1972 paper that demonstrates normal functioning after prolonged fat adaptation, it’s a great read, but this specifically speaks to brain glucose utilization - https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI107095

permalink

fedilink

source

parent

hideshow 2 child comments