Extreme Low Carb To Address Metabolic Malfunctions
I have noticed that the internet fosters kind of a geekism. Some reasoanbly good idea will be floated, and soon 500 bloggers will be elaborating and complicating it with all kinds of unsupported extensions and modifications etc. I got a call from an old friend last night who told me she had gone over to low carb, after having been at one time a vegan. She is cute as can be, but always toward the dumpling side, in spite of liposuction x2 and a tummy tuck to clean up the post lipo bagginess. So she cares what she looks like, in clothes and out of them.
She said she was again losing weight, but she had read that she needed to include "resistant starches" in her diet, whatever vaporware these are supposed to be. Reminds of car forums peopled with young men who are not aquainted with wrenches, but "know" a whole lot about details of motor oils. Pure blogger and forum fantasy. Anyway, I asked how her weight was doing and she avoided answering, saying only that she "felt better".
But here is my focus in this post- extreme low carb to address metabolic issues. Above, Ron Boyd mentioned the New Atkins For A New You, by Dr Eric Westman et al. He is a legit metabolic Dr who runs the Duke University Lifestyle Medical Clinic. He quotes from a doc up north in Canada who cares for Amerindians and who is himself at least some part Amerindian. This guy figured out he was not doing too well, and took some blood samples and diagnosed himself as frankly diabetic. He fiddled around a while and eventually put himself on the 20gm/day Atkins Induction, as modified in Dr Westman's book. He did not become non-diabetic- a cookie will still send his BS over the roof, but on this very strict carb restriction I beleive he said he runs an A1C of 5.7- could be better, but still unlikely to land him in much trouble.
I have been knocking around this so called borderline area for a while, so in hopes I could make a big difference I decided to switch from my long standing low carb (likely 60 gm/day) to as close to 20 gm/day as I can get.
Today was craving a bit of Braeburn apple. I used to grow apples, and it would be nothing for me to eat 4 or 5 a day, and maybe a few pears and plums too.
So I cut a small wedge of apple and put it on my Swiss food scale. 20gm. I went to the USDA food database and saw that 100 gm of raw apple with skin gives 11.81 net carbs, so my 20 gms gave me roughly 2.4 net carbs.
That is about 1/8 of the 20 gm daily limit suggested by Dr. Eric Westman, director of the Duke Lifestyle Medical Clinic for those who hope to turn back established metabolic disturbances.
So while a low carb diet will not have a person getting hungry, it may have him/her craving a bit of fruit. I am committed though, as I see guys my age getting their butts kicked by Type 2 DM. So called "good control" is often not very good for the patient, as two guys I know who have never had an A1C over 7.0 have numb feet. One day I was downtown with one of them, and his shoelaces came untied. If I hadn’t bent down and tied them, he would have been out of luck. I am too polite to ask if it is affecting their potency, and they would be unlikely to mention it if it were, but that is another possible gotcha.
Those carbs are hiding everywhere!
Ha