How to increase sugar consumption?

Hey Dutchie,

Definitely my diet is influenced by the recommendations set forth by RayPeat, Danny Roddy, and Andrew Kim. But instead of placing myself firmly within any camp, what I like to do is steal the best ideas from all who blog about health and diets. I would probably put more emphasis on food combinations than most. I think good sources of fiber are beneficial. I also stay away from dairy (it messes with my vocal cords, and I need those to stay in top shape).

I think that starches are perfectly fine and healthy as long as you are healthy first. They do put stress on the system though. But the tradeoff is a very dense source of calories. It’s probably best to stick to the absolute best starch source if it is a major part of your diet – to my knowledge that would be the regular white potatoes (other high sugar starch sources have either worse nutrient loads or have other potential harmful substances for people who are susceptible). That said, I know people who lived to their 90’s very healthy eating bread every day with every meal (along with a diet of meat, dairy, fruits, veggies, etc).

Most of RayPeat’s recommendations seem to be aimed at completely optimizing the diet in terms of allowing a person to heal from a potentially life threatening illness. Although he says certain starches are bad, it’s all relative. I think you can find cultures that live primally on whichever starch source you pick.

I also tend to believe that the best diet is one that includes all foods possible. It’s usually best to blame your body first, before blaming the food. Following your cravings is usually a good choice (usually).

That said, good sources of sugar seem to work much better for me than starches. If I eat primally sugar, I can be warm with pale urine, and my skin glows/radiates. If I eat only starch (tried it before), my urine has to be medium dark yellow in order for me to be warm, and my skin just looks ‘normal’.

Today I have gotten all of my carbohydrates so far from orange juice and dates (around 300g). I have potatoes waiting for me on the stove, but if I end up not craving them, I will just eat more dates.

I used to worry that I was eating too little of a variety for carbs, but then I remembered that I used to just eat rice with every meal for my carbs growing up. Definitely put my mind at ease.

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The refined coconut oil is less allergenic than the extra virgin coconut oil. I currently have both sitting in front of me at 78 F: The refined oil is completely liquid and clear (slight yellow tinge though), and the extra virgin is cloudy with white substances in it still. Some people will have inflammation from the extra virgin oil, but not from the refined one.

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I rambled slightly. I guess I think its better if you know how I feel about a subject instead of just giving a dry answer so that you can make your own conclusion on it.

Yes I am a musician. Or at least I like to pretend to be.

As far as being scared of starch, one has to be very careful when looking at studies involving starch because

1) There are many types of starch (legumes, tubers, grains) etc
2) The way in which they are cooked and eaten changes how harmful they might be

I have looked into this in a very limited manner myself, and it seems like potatoes/tubers are in a completely different class of food than other ‘starches’.

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The one idea that gets thrown around the most as far as himalayan salt goes is the high levels of iron and heavy metals it contains. That may be giving you the negative reactions. I’m currently in the middle of testing between canning salt and ‘real salt’ (brand name). What kind of negative reactions are you seeing?

It doesn’t make sense to me that a healthier body would actively seek to be irritated by previously tolerated foods. But your scenario could be possible if it were caused by some sort of ‘overload’ (iron for example).

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Here’s the part of the post where I start guessing.

As far as sugar vs starch , and not knowing what to eat: It actually seems to me like your digestion is weaker now (trouble digesting pizza?). I think it would be best to focus on eating clean, good foods in high volumes until your body is healed.

A healthy body should have no problems digesting any foods that are given to it.

Once healthy, figuring out what to eat won’t matter as much, since everything you eat will make you feel better (within reason).

Just focus on calories, carbs, salt, clean foods. A great post to read over and read the comments on is the ‘eating disorder recovery update’ post on this site.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by AteForHate.

I think that we are going too far into hypotheticals now.

You really just need to find what works for you, one food at a time. When reading about this health stuff, you can only go so far before you start going in circles.

You already have all the knowledge you need in order to live a healthy life. No more amount of reading is going to get you to your goal. In fact, the more you read, the more unhealthy you might become due to stress.

I think the best course of action is to eat meals containing just a single food until you make a log of foods you know are completely positive for you.

For example today I sat down and ate 8 pears in order to see if I like them and it turns out I really don’t, and my body doesn’t either.

Having a bad metabolism/diet/digestive system can be the cause of a lot of stress. Your anxiety might clear up as you take control of your health. Those reactions you listed seem pretty severe. One of the main things I learned during my journey so far is to never ignore a signal that the body gives.

For now though, things I have found that really help with any bad feelings are bag breathing, light exercise, being outdoors, sunlight, carrot salad with vinegar, tons of salt, and having a set routine.

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As far as starches being fattening, I think that the potato hack fad pretty clearly showed a lot of promise for allowing the potato to be cleared of any false charges held against it as a fattening source of carbohydrates. I don’t even think it matters if it is paired with something or not (for weight gain). The pairing is usually to help with digestion (to the best of my knowledge).

I have my own n=1 experiment that makes me think that rice is fattening though. Of course, most people say that Asia as a whole is pretty skinny, but I have seen that it is more of a skinny-fat. Most asians I have seen in my life are pretty ‘soft’ in the belly.

Yea I think that is a good idea. My username on RPforum is Ari

send me a pm anytime