We have a winner. This dietary experiment will forever be known as the FUDA Diet. ?F.U. Dr. Atkins! Kinda harsh treatment for a dead guy, but political correctness isn’t exactly the theme here. Whaddya expect from a guy holding a pig’s head that shares the same first and last name with one of the co-creators of South Park?
?Page realized that the (dental) plaque, decay, and deterioration he saw were all related to other physical problems his patients might be having. To understand why this deterioration was taking place, he studied more than 2,000 hospital patients and his own dental patients? blood chemistries. His studies showed that no bone loss occurred and no cavities formed when blood tests registered the following:
1. There were approximately 10 mg/dl of calcium in the bloodstream and 4 mg/dl of phosphorous. In other words, there was approximately 2.5 times as much calcium as phosphorous in the bloodstream.
2. The fasting glucose was close to 85 mg/dl in the bloodstream.
Page was curious as to what caused the calcium to phosphorous ratio to change. He also wondered why the fasting blood glucose level would deviate from 85 mg/dl. He found that sugar was the main dietary offender in upsetting the calcium/phosphorous ratio, fasting blood glucose, and the body chemistry. Page found that in the presence of excessive sugar, the phosphorous would become depleted. Since minerals only work in relationship to each other, when the phosphorous became depleted, the calcium that was there couldn’t function. Therefore, not only was the phosphorous deficient, but the functioning calcium became deficient also?Page realized that the degree of tooth decay was in direct proportion to the amount of deviation from the normal fasting blood glucose of 85 mg and the normal 2.5 to 1 ratio of calcium to phosphorous.
-Nancy Appleton; Rethinking Pasteur’s Germ Theory: How to Maintain Your Optimal Health (2002)
Not much time to post this evening. I was in a car for nine hours today. Bleh.
Morning tests were 80 for the carbomaniac and 85 for the carbophobiac. Both excellent numbers.
I had a big boy appetite today. My food intake for the day included:
3 servings steel cut oats (80 grams carbs)
1 banana
5 pears
? large papaya
1T raw honey
2 Chappatis (90 grams carbs)
Grilled tofu bowl at a Vietnamese restaurant with rice noodles and vegetables
Rice noodles, fresh herbs, and bean sprouts wrapped in lettuce leaves at Vietnamese restaurant
Large spicy cucumber and red bell pepper salad
Huge bowl of vegetable soup (with corn, barley, beans, peas, and potatoes as starch)
I’d guess my totals on the day to be at least 500 grams of carbs, if not closer to 600 grams with well over 100 grams of protein and hardly any fat other than what was in the teaspoon of crushed peanuts used as garnish at the Vietnamese restaurant. It’s a lot of work to hit 3,000 calories on such a diet, but I think I might have done it. With 100 or so grams of fiber too, my digestive tract is getting a workout ? but starting to adapt quite well.
I see I'm missing all the fun around here. But I will catch up in the next day or so. :-)
Sunshine – the researcher formerly known as Matt Stone, people start complaining about you picking on the dead you can always use FUME – I think you can figure that one out, though it is bound to be much more controversial since he is still among the living. :-)
Michael
Nutrition and Physical Regeneration
The best protein supplement must contain essential qualities that is bio-available that can fill the gap of dietary intake.
—–
The Right Place. The Right Time
When Page says "sugar was the main dietary offender in upsetting the calcium/phosphorous ratio, fasting blood glucose, and the body chemistry. Page found that in the presence of excessive sugar, the phosphorous would become depleted."
Is he talking about strictly white sugar in a diet? And if so, how does he come to the conclusion that it was only the white sugar causing the problems? Wouldn't that mean (by your hypothesis) it would make it impossible for someone with a metabolic disorder to get better if they were eating white sugar? Or that it was strictly white sugar causing the metabolic problems?
What if general sugar, natural or what else, is used in a different dietary manner than Page is seeing. I find it like the case of saturated fat – which, people simply adding it to their diet is not the same as using it as a tool (getting the rest of their diet right) to overcome their metabolic disorder.
Maybe he saw the tool being used wrong; as we often see what assumptions are blamed on..say, animal protein, saturated fat, or cholesterol.
Personally I haven't decided if strictly what sugar is the actual cause of metabolic disorders. I am leaning towards the fact that it couldn't be it alone.
Ever heard of the experiments done in the 1940s by Bernardo Houssay? That he found sugar and coconut oil protected against diabetes.
Page found white sugar to be the greatest offender. He had a vendetta against white flour as well, but didn't mention it in as specific detail as the sweet stuff. Amongst natural foods, fruit and honey caused the most dramatic departure from homeostasis in that order. He thought the body could easily become overloaded with natural sugars as well and recommended them in moderation.
There are a couple of potential holes in that conclusion as you know. The first is that white sugar just might be the most aggravating to a person with insulin resistance, but it doesn't show a causal relationship. History supports that there most likely is a causal relationship with white sugar and other refined carbs, but there is no incontrovertible proof. (I assume like Gary Taubes however, that refined carbs are guilty until proven otherwise).
Hypothetically, let's say that the accumulation of omega 6 fats in the tissues causes insulin resistance, and sugar isn't harmful to those without a high omega 6 load in their diets. Then sugar is framed in that scenario. It's not a likely scenario given observation from the past, but it is possible.
Another scenario is that nutrient deficiency of some kind – any kind, lowers the metabolic rate. This elevates blood fats and triggers insulin resistance. Once that is triggered, sugar becomes the most problematic food in the typical diet. Fats added to that scenario worsen the picture. Of course, most nutrient deficiencies in the modern world stem from eating too many non-nutritive calories in the form of refined carbohydrates and oils.
Another theory is the one that someone brought up the other day – artificial light triggers insulin resistance.
Another theory states that chronic dehydration causes insulin resistance (substituting sodas, coffee, tea, and alcohol for water being the way in which this comes about).
Another group of people believe that environmental toxins cause hormonal changes that result in insulin resistance.
There are many theories, but the introduction of refined carbs and vegetable oils always caused a timely and dramatic decline in health beginning with tooth decay in every observable case.
This still doesn't solve the vegetable oil vs. refined carb debate. That's why T.L. Cleave's work is so pivotal. He compared the health of two groups that consumed hardly a drop of fat. The fat they did have was in the form of dairy fats. 1 group thrived. The other developed the diseases of modern man like diabetes, tooth decay, constipation, etc. The ONLY difference was the type of carbs the two groups consumed (refined vs. unrefined).
I haven't studied Houssay, but I'll make a mental note to check him out.
Synaura –
After checking out your website, I think a good way for you to get good bioavailable protein would be to first:
Lick my butthole
and then
Shoot yourself in the head
Matt,
Are you testing your Calcium & Phosphorous levels at any point during the FUDA experiment, or just blood sugar?
I need to improve something. I have successfully raised by BMR (body temps at morning & afternoon) consistently for several months now, but no weight loss has ensued. Partly that may be caused by imperfect sleeping patterns (stupid baby …), but I would have expected some improvement. I think I should get a couple glucose test strips myself and see if I need to improve in that department or if the problem lies elsewhere.
Regards,
Brock
PS – LOL @ your 8:10:00 AM MDT comment.
Just blood sugar. That's easy enough to do at home.
As you know, and as anyone knows, the name of the game in creating weight loss is to keep the metabolism high while lowering the insulin level and overall level of insulin resistance. Although what I'm doing now appears to achieve goal #2 very well, there's a chance it could have negative rebound potential. I'm wary of it to say the least, and as you know, everyone should seek the ultimate goal, which is eating a healthy, mixed, wholesome diet that is synchronous with the appetite mechanism…
And be healthy for doing so.
But the body must be healthy and balanced to properly metabolize a perfect, "Weston A. Price" style diet. There are many strategies to try to achieve this. What I'm doing now may be one of them. It might not. Hopefully this experiment will help clarify some things, so be patient. We'll talk all about it in a few weeks.
Sucrose Ingestion, Insulin Response and Mineral Metabolism in Humans
"As a result of sucrose consumption there were significant increases in serum insulin and decreases in serum phosphorus, but no change in serum total or filterable calcium, zinc, sodium or potassium."
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/117/7/1229
But there is more to the theories to which you provided – like combining them.
Nutritional deficiencies (which, wouldn't be uncommon if someone were to try and live off of white flour or sugar) mean much more than just increased insulin resistance. As you had mentioned before, McCarrison showed it was evident that the immune system of the animal suffered to a great extent when lacking proper nutrition.
Say Vitamin A is deficient; this effects the liver, which is one of the most important organs in the human body that produces a plethora hormones (including a large percentage of thyroid hormones). Of course nutrient deficiencies play a role – how else would our organs function and hormones be produced without them?
Also, it's not just the theory that omega 6 has to be present for sugar to be bad. You don't have to necessarily ingest food as the only factor — cortisol and adrenaline in high amounts disrupt blood glucose and insulin. If there was also a lack of nutrients.. it's unfair to say white sugar caused anything. Exacerbate it — maybe in that situation, and if nothing else in the diet was changed (same as saturated fat). But there is no food that will magically fix anything when added to any old diet. It has to be looked at as a group of things changed to fit whoever's array of theories – it can't just be taken in bits and pieces, picken and chosen. He says sugar is good..but I added it..and IT did me (or, my hormones) bad.
You experimented with ice cream, but that was added on top of whatever else you were eating. Looking back on your summer recap – it seemed like you always ate a sugar source with a grain source included in your dietary repertoire.
If you wanted an example of someone who does eat mostly sugars, is not insulin resistant, and is somewhere around the 80s age, you've got a Ray Peat (and someone who does indeed help people – just like Schwarzbein has). So I wouldn't be quick to say that sugar is an antagonist; or that it's impossible to get better for someone who has insulin problems with it included in their diet. What kind of sugar.. this may be just me, but, it's probably not wise to live off of white refined sugar because of the obvious reasons that it's devoid of any nutrients. What it does hold is the power to help someone's blood sugar who is hypoglycemic. What fruit, or say, orange juice can do, is help stabilize blood sugar because of it's potassium and other minerals. And any sugars in general are supposed to decrease stress hormone output (like I said, keeping those low does effect blood sugar).
I don't accept any of what I say as absolute correct (as if I could for anything) – but what I think is incorrect is stating that sugar is somehow worse than starch (or fat) by most means when you mention : candida, blood sugar, insulin resistance, or disease.. When other factors could be considered, which aren't exactly..definitely aren't.. mainstream.
What Page studied extensively was glucose response amongst his patients to certain food types. What caused the most erratic swings were refined sugar, fruit, and honey in that order.
But sure, remove fat completely from the scenario and things change. I can eat fruit all day without tooth pain or skin problems on a non-fat, low-protein, vegan diet.
On a mixed diet that's much harder to pull off.
Lots of people eat unhealthy foods and maintain good health until ripe old ages like Ray Peat. Don Gorske might be one of the healthiest middle-aged men in Wisconsin for all we know. The question is how to improve and restore the health of someone who has lost it. I don't think ice cream is the answer.
Although it looks like ingesting glucose drops serum phosphorus as well, so starch should do the same thing.
But ice cream isn't the answer — sugar in general can be restorative in a number of ways. Don Gorske isn't exactly..flourishing health, anyway. I'm not saying sugar will directly heal your blood glucose when you eat it – but that Peat's recommendations go beyond that of sugars. Like I had mentioned before, he said his father had "cured" his diabetes with Brewer's Yeast (from the abundant B vitamins) – and that he had used that to treat others or help others with their diabetes. Is it the same in every case..I don't know. I don't know what he does or doesn't do for people who are extremely ill. I do know that I've heard stories here and there of what kind of people he's worked with, including obese patients.
Being that he has had his own series of problems – here is one example that Lita Lee writes about with his encounter with Pregnenolone: http://www.litalee.com/shopexd.asp?id=205
"Dr. Peat accidentally discovered the effects of pregnenolone when he took some vitamin E containing a residue of pregnenolone that was left over from an experiment in solubility. Peat had been suffering from a variety of complaints, including ?inflammation of the arteries, dental abscesses, asthma, migraines, and colitis. When he took the vitamin E containing some pregnenolone, he immediately felt better, but got sick again when he stopped. Suddenly remembering the presence of pregnenolone in the vitamin E, he crawled out of his sick bed, took a pinch of pure pregnenolone and felt immediately better. All of his symptoms gradually disappeared and in ten weeks, his appearance changed. Many aging characteristics, such as sagging skin, ?chicken neck,? bags under the eyes, etc. receded. These changes were dramatically evidenced in a passport photo, taken one year before pregnenolone and 10 weeks after pregnenolone therapy was initiated. When I saw these startling photos, I fell off my chair, dashed to the phone and called Dr. Peat. The results of many interviews are summarized below. . . . "
I don't know if we could attribute his health to "genes" or exceptions or what have you, knowing this.
And this thing he discovered with Pregnenolone did not make him tell everyone to take it just because – but it lead him to discovering ways on how the body should naturally produce more progesterone, which, he points out is in a good proportion in a "healthy" person, you know, with good thyroids, good metabolisms. Every time I've contacted him he puts emphasis on diet over any supplement (E, progesterone, thyroid).
go CLOE!
Too bad Bruce ain't around anymore. We need more Peat advocates. I'm willing to jump on board to spam everything. I like this blog, but you're killing yourself with this vegan shit Matt–not that I'm opposed to that. All in the name of science, of course. Fuck the rest of the paleo blogs. They are all about insulin indexes or some shit. Bullshit, I say. Except for you at Wholefoodshealthsource. That place is good. And fuck the nytimes as well, while I'm at it. What is with those fuckers?
Just thought I'd mention, I made a double batch of your Massaman curry paste and it's sitting in the fridge, waiting to be used. Smells awesome!
"I like this blog, but you're killing yourself with this vegan shit Matt–not that I'm opposed to that. All in the name of science, of course."
D, ha ha!!
I agree.
I have no problem with the concept that low fat vegan fare provides favourable results for type 2 diabetes.
But then what.
There are so few individuals who can sustain such a diet longterm without becoming anemic, weak, ineffectual, depressive, lethargic and generally deficient.
Meds may start to seem quite appealing. Or, perhaps an alternative approach.
But whatever, each to their own.
fuck this… fuck that… fuck everything… fuck my life… not really… i just wanted to say that… i am drunk… and i am still the same weight!!!! going to do a cleanse soon… i am wasted hahahahhaha…
troy
I find Half-Navajo's post inspirational. I'm off to the bar!
j/k! It's 10 AM. Even for me that's a little early. I'll limit myself to just one martini at lunch. And maybe a bear or two? :-) Luger's makes really damn good martinis …
Anon's point about long term vegan leading to bad results is of course on point. One thing I'm wondering about that's related to that is whether the vegan diet is "curing" insulin resistance or is just "suppressing" it. Will it come back afterwards? I'm just as interested in Sunshine's glucose levels during the month after this experiment as the month during.