Some ideas I was throwing around a while back:-

the concept of the "Thrifty Gene" makes a lot of sense in the
causation of Type 2, that in famine conditions it is a survival trait
to pack on weight when food is available.

However this doesn't explain the beneficial effects of exercise on BG
and all other factors of "Metabolic Syndrome"

In the UK and Europe many birds migrate here to breed in summer, and
actually cross the Sahara to and from their wintering grounds. Mostly
they are insect-eaters, such as warblers and swallows. Some may even
*double* their weight prior to the migration.

Even predominantly seed-eating birds such as finches tend to feed
their young on insects (high-protein, relatively high fat) for maximal
growth and development rates.

Every livestock farmer knows that feeding excessive Healthy Whole
Grains leads to fattening - to achieve quality lean meat the diet
needs to have more protein and roughage.

The ultimate use of Healthy Whole Grains is to produce Pate de Foi
Gras - geese with fatty liver.

Soooo, I started thinking maybe the "thrifty" gene set is designed not
to make us fat so we can survive a famine by sitting it out, maybe the
point is to make us fit for a migratory trip to where more food may be
found.

The non sequiter of course is that birds fatten themselves for the
migration on insects, which as everyone knows are low carb.

WRONG!

The Sedge Warbler, which lives in reedbeds and damp scrubland, is a
species which can double its weight for the migration surprisingly
quickly after the breeding season ends. Other birds will also use
reedbeds as a fuel stop before leaving the country.

What do they fatten up on?

Plum Reed Aphids.

These actually turn out to be *high carb* insects. Makes sense when
you cosnider how they work, basically they plug into a plant stem and
the sap is pushed through their bodies, they remove what nutrients
they can and let the rest emerge as that "honeydew" which drips onto
new cars, laundry and sleeping cats and makes them all sticky. So they
are actually full of sugar solution.

So here we go, birds before migrating put on weight using a high carb
diet, then use the fat reserves to drive them through a long journey
with no food availability.

This leads me to think, what we are mostly doing here is eating a
non-migratory level of food and carrying out non-migratory levels of
exercise.

What the ADA/DUK is suggesting is that we eat migratory levels of
carbs and do migratory levels of exercise *all the time*. Not just
twice a year like most species.