Dr Chalmers Path to Pro - Why I Don’t Support Perfect Aminos
Some supplement companies make bold claims that can be a little misleading. One example is the idea that “protein turns to sugar, and sugar turns to fat,” which may sound simple but doesn’t reflect how the body actually works. This kind of messaging can create confusion around how protein is processed and used for energy.
In truth, the body has natural checks and balances. When blood sugar drops, it can convert protein into glucose for fuel but only as needed, and not in a way that directly leads to fat gain. Understanding how these processes work helps cut through the noise and make smarter choices about what to take.
Highlights of the Podcast
00:04 - False advertising concerns
01:22 - How protein actually turns to sugar
02:47 - Sugar storage hierarchy: glycogen before fat
04:07 - Pathological scenario is unrealistic
05:37 - Final stance and conditions for change
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] So I've been asked several times, people ask me all the time about, you know, perfect amino and they should take them if I think they're great. I haven't really looked at their product that much because their entire ad campaign is a lie. And that irritates me. So, and they shouldn't know, especially guys like Gary Breck have to know. So their ad campaign is just two sentences. It's protein turns to sugar, sugar turns to fat or sugar makes you fat. Um both are true however when you put them side by side like that uh the inference is that protein will make you fat which is not chemically going to happen um Brecker knows that the perfect amino guys know that um but that's still their ad campaign because we're hoping that nobody else knows that um and if they're willing to lie about something that can you know it's as obvious as that and as fundamental as the biochemistry that they're selling everything on They're probably willing to lie on anything else and cut corners and use inferior products and do all sorts of stuff in it that's not, I wouldn't consider beneficial. Understand how that all functionally works. You have to kind of go through the chemistry and which is kind of funny because this is the whole chemistry that you know fixes diabetes and you know, fixes dementia.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:22] So you know it's a pretty important pathway but what happens as far as the sugar protein turning to sugar what happens is that if your body is running on sugar so when your blood always does. But as the levels of sugar that can be converted into energy start to dip, or as the text says, as glycolytic ATP levels start to fall, what ends up happening is it puts pressure on the alpha cells of the pancreas. The beta cells are where it produce insulin. The alpha cells produce a hormone called glucagon. Glucagon's job is to raise sugar levels in the blood. Insulin's job was to lower sugar levels. So glucagan is produced. The production of glucagon tells your liver to start grabbing some protein, whether it's from whatever you ate or muscle tissue in your body, and break it down and turn it into sugar through a process called gluconeogenesis. That process is pretty cool, but I get ready to call the chemistry that that's irrelevant for today. What ends up happening is that it starts making sugar out of protein. So yeah, protein does turn into sugar. However, as the sugar levels start to rise in your blood, what ends up happening is that as they get to a certain point, they start kicking off insulin. As insulin starts to come up, it immediately shuts off glucagon. And so the production of protein to sugar immediately stops.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:47] And so what ends of happening is that you never have enough sugar in the blood for the insulin to store as fat. Because what has to happen is that First, the sugar goes in the muscles as glycogen, that's where it's stored first. Sugar is then stored in the liver as glycogen. Then whatever's left over is turned to fat. Well, if your blood levels of glucose start to drop to the point where they're low, that means that you've kind of exhausted the rest of the body. So this usually happens after an intense workout or a long fasting period. So what ends up happening is that as the sugars start coming back up, your blood goes, that's good. We have enough for us because your blood has to run on sugar. Then what ends up happening is it shuts off the production of sugar because there's no reason to continually tear down your muscle tissues and overload the blood with sugar because sugar is toxic to your body after a certain point. So that's what's going on. So the idea that your body will take protein, tear it apart, turn it into sugar, to the point where you have so much in your blood, that you have this giant insulin spike that then pushes all that sugar into the muscle tissues until the muscles are full, then goes and fills the liver up until it's full, then still has enough sugar continually make sugar to the point where your body then has to turn into fat is never going to happen. It's highly pathological. You would be dead if that happened.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:07] So it's never gonna happen. And so when the company comes out and they utilize obviously biochemically false narratives to drive and sell their product, I have to assume that they're willing to lie about anything else and anybody else around it. So that's why I'm not a big fan of perfect amino. Plus the thing is that it is hyper critical that your body be able to do that. If it doesn't, you die. So if you've made a product, if you chemically altered the protein or amino acid structure to the point where it won't allow that, I would never take that product. Now, if it's just amino acids, so your body uses the protein spine from proteins to do this, it doesn't necessarily just use the amino acids. But amino acids have been known to kick off the process. So if they've chemically alter their amino acids so that will not kick off gluconeogenesis, I definitely don't want that product in my body, but I don't think that's what they did. I think it's just normal collagen, or just collagen aminos, and they're just hoping that nobody knows the chemistry and no one's going to figure out their lie and people will get scared and not take whey protein and take their stuff instead. That's especially because I got Gary Brecker to come out and be like, yeah, I support this message. So That's my issue with Perfect Amino. If you guys are taking it, you're getting great results. Fantastic. I just don't want to support a company that's willing to lie to you.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:37] That's kind of where I am. I'll take a look at it. If they drop that ad campaign, I'll look at and if it's still great, then maybe. If they're willing to come out and be like, okay, we shouldn't have done that. We'll move on. I don't have a problem with it. It really makes mistakes. But that's the reason. So many of you guys have asked. That's the reasons why I'm not a big fan. You definitely want your body to be able to turn proteins into sugars. Otherwise your eyes are going to rip apart your muscle tissue. So like the whole idea of taking college in or bone broth or something like that, instead of, you know, before you do fasting exercise or after you do fasting exercise to ensure that your body doesn't tear apart your muscle tissues to make the sugar at half the half of your blood. Um, so apparently pure amino doesn't satisfy that function. Uh, so I wouldn't. There's a really important thing that you need to do so you save your muscle tissue. I'm not super concerned about that, but at the end of the day, that's why I'm not a big fan of Pyramino. If you guys have any questions, drop them in the comments or send them to questions@chalmerswellness.com. You guys have a great day. Thanks for your time.
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