In 180 Degree Diabetes: Preventing and Reversing Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, and Type 2 Diabetes – I reveal some bold and daring information about reversing insulin resistance and thus lowering fasting and postprandial (post-meal) blood sugar readings.
It’s bold and daring because my core recommendation for improving insulin sensitivity flies in the face of every single belief held in all fields of both mainstream and alternative health, medicine, fitness, and nutrition.
Those recommendations include:
1) Eating more saturated fat, and less polyunsaturated fat.
2) Eating more calories.
3) Eating lots of carbohydrates, but trying to eat mostly high-glycemic carbohydrates.
4) Not exercising at all (not for everyday health per se, but as part of a targeted strategy for improving insulin sensitivity in a short amount of time).
And that’s just the beginning. I also advocate eating meat and lots of cooked food, which flies in the face of what generally prevails as the top method circulating in the health and nutrition field today for improving insulin sensitivity – a raw, vegan diet (which can also work, don’t get me wrong – and I discuss that in the book as well… but that’s not a practical or sustainable diet for many, and it typically comes with long-term consequences).
Anyway, I used this very approach (overfeeding, not raw vegan) myself to improve insulin sensitivity (while actively practicing what I preached, fasting blood glucose dropped from low 90’s to 67 mg/dl, while postprandial dropped from well over 100 mg/dl to 75 mg/dl 1-hour after mixed meals with 100grams of high-glycemic carbohydrate) – which is best monitored by seeing how high your blood sugar rises after meals as well as how quickly it falls back to baseline (fasting) levels. The result is that I am probably one of the few Westerners that can eat 250 grams of carbohydrates at one sitting without my blood glucose going over 100 mg/dl.
But this is not hocus pocus. Many people who keep track of their blood sugar have noted drops in postprandial blood sugar readings while following such advice. This may not be true of type 1’s or some advanced diabetics with beta cell burnout, but it certainly seems true for many – even when they see an initial rise in blood glucose in the first couple of weeks.
Anyway, 180 Groupie Lisa Eriksson has been following RRARF closely and has written about just how shocking it was to see her postprandial blood glucose readings fall from nearly 120 mg/dl all the way down to 95 mg/dl. How long did it take? 3 whole weeks.
You can read about Lisa’s experience on her blog CLICK HERE
Along the same lines, Ann Marie from http://www.cheeseslave.com/ has just published a 180 guest blog post. The part about butyric acid was taken a wee bit out of context – as butter was more or less anointed as a cure for diabetes in the title, but hey, butter has it’s part to play in restoring insulin sensitivity too – and it may just be because of the metabolically-stimulating butyric acid that it does.
CLICK HERE to see that, and welcome to all the newbies finding 180 from that post. Prepare to question everything you think you know about health and nutrition, and be annoyed and confused by my unrelenting open-mindedness about it all!!!
@Lisa,
I was looking through your blog and am wondering how you feel about the Candida diet. It sounds basically like a low-carb diet with all the common symptoms. Do you think there was any healing benefit in terms of Candida considering how long you followed it?
I myself low-carbed for two years before coming across Matt Stone. My health still isn't back where it was before I started that nonsense but I'm getting there. I'm wondering if somebody who low carbed while still allowing some amounts of sugar and starch would have anything to worry about Candida.
Bee has a huge list of symptoms so any hypochondriac could easily fall into it.
He does list athlete's foot, which I have and would like to clear up. I'm wondering if I ought to take Diflucan (prescription oral anti-fungal), which I have done in the past.
Anybody know about curing this without pharmaceuticals? Shouldn't it be like all the other things: heal the body and the symptoms go away?
Sorry… kind of off topic.
I can't ever get here in time for the first comment. I'll just take your second(s) Aaron :-(
Good post Matt, I just wrote you about this very issue. Anyone have any hints on convincing family members to change their diets?
Hi Matt & others,
I'm sorry this is off topic but I'm wondering if anyone can help. This may be TMI. After 5 years of LC (& 1 month of ZC-VLC) I began HEDing–have been doing so since March. I always had wacky periods–often months would go by before getting them (which was quite OK with me) and then when I did get them it would be inconsistent. Even being on the pill for 3 years didn't help normalize them–and I've been off of the pill for the past three years, too. But for the past few months (worse in the past two) I've been getting a period every single week. I'm glad to lose some iron but it's getting ridiculous. Plus, since I began increasing my carbs (mainly with non-grain starch), I've begun getting horribly swollen & tender breasts (thankfully not for this past month), which I never used to get, and which makes my main happiness fix–hubby hugging–impossible. This past week I've been trying to reverse what I figure is estrogen dominance by using topical progesterone but it didn't seem to help much, because I just got my period, AGAIN.
Also, don't know if this is helpful, but I grew up on macrobiotic fare (tons of brown rice & soymilk, infrequent protein & fat) and used to get infections all the time. When I began LCing the infections stopped but now that I'm eating high-carbs, low-PUFAs the infections have restarted….
I should also mention that I've always been very thin (5'4, 98 lbs while LCing), went up to 104 overfeeding for a couple of months, and am now 102 eating to appetite. I am 29 yo. Other than lifting weights 1-2/week, I am, and have always been, sedentary.
Given that I've been doing RRARF as best as I can do, is there anything I can do–maybe even go back to LC?–to fix what is going on?
P.S. I originally began LCing because of self-diagnosed hypoglycemia but now I can eat carbs (or at least potatoes) and not crash. And on LC I had low energy and dramatic mood swings. HC is like a morphine drip for me.
This sounds like me. I’m not a doctor and I obviously can’t diagnose anything, but I too have/had estrogen dominance, PCOS, fibroids, anemia, very heavy bleeding monthly. I tried many different approaches. For me it came down to getting a hysterectomy because the main cause of my bleeding was large fibroids. Estrogen feeds fibroid growth and estrogen is stored in fat. I have lost 100 lbs and that may have discontinued the bleeding, but I decided for myself that I could not longer go on with the monthly bleeding and constant fatigue from iron loss. I’m not saying you need a hysterectomy. I’m suggesting having yourself checked for PCOS and fibroids and you may be able to reverse it with lifestyle changes. I also take bio-identical progesterone, eat a lower carb real food diet, strength train and kickbox. The anemia went away after the hysterectomy. I’ve read cod liver oil can reduce fibroid size as well, so you may want to research that. There are mixed thoughts on soy, but I stay away from non fermented soy myself. Hope that helps.
Johnny just lead by example, and when the opportunity presents itself speak to them about it, kindly and without a sense of having the answers.
Wow, Bleeder, thanks for sharing!
It almost sounds like you may have a REAL thyroid gland problem (as in, something is actually amiss with the gland itself). Possibly adrenal gland related as well. Have you ever had any blood tests done for thyroid?
Best of luck to you. Whatever you do, don't go back to low carb — it doesn't "fix" anything!
Johnny, you couldn't even beat Daniel Larusso in hand to hand combat – how do you expect to commandeer respect from anyone? That kid had 3-inch biceps and schooled you.
I think the most important thing is to try to not make someone defensive about their diet or lifestyle. If you even allude to the fact that how you eat and live is superior to how they live and eat, they will immediately be forced to try to stick up for themselves – or even worse, beat themselves up. Give them a sense of "hey, let's see if we can figure this out" instead of "hey numbnuts, don't you know Mountain Dew is bad for you?"
We got a bleeder!!!
Ah yes, the wonderful game of health whack-a-mole. You whack one set of problems only to be burdened with a brand new set of problems.
My experience with former Low carbers is that they do best with a radical turnaround. Otherwise the low-carb metabolism so-to-speak ensures that carbohydrates aren't that well-tolerated and problems stem from that.
I would be more inclined to steer you towards a high-carb "cleanse" revolving around mostly raw fruits and vegetables for a week to give yourself a chance to re-learn how to handle carbs.
It may be a sucky week, but in my experience can advance your recovery. Then you go back to more butter, meat, etc. No macrobiotics though please. That's pushing it, and I'm not surprised that LC did help you in some ways, particularly in the short-term, with a macrobiotic history – especially at a young age.
Let us know how everything progresses though. You sound a little PCOS-y to me, but hopefully the worst of it is over and you are turning a corner.
AaronF-
Similar ideas for you and your athletes foot.
Matt
So related to diabetes and insulin. What are you thoughts on various cell type insulin sensitivities? Muscular/skeletal, liver, fat, how their sensitives vary, and the progression of sensitivity during rehabilitation.
What I am getting at is do feel that fat cells can be hyper sensitive to insulin and liver, muscle/skeletal sensitivity is in the tank?
Do you think perhaps that when you/we talk about insulin sensitivity we should be specific to cell type?
Just thoughts.
Gina, Thanks for your reply. Why do you think it's the gland itself and not low hormones?
I'd like to take a blood test to check my thyroid & adrenal hormones out but I have to take the test 21 days after my period and if I keep getting my period, I can't take the tests!
Matt, Thank you for your suggestion (& for this great blog!). One week of raw fruits & veg is quite do-able.
Nathan-
Worth discussion and further exploration for sure.
That's why I've been led to believe that leptin is the chief determinant of the type and severity of insulin resistance.
Generally speaking, as leptin rises (or leptin sensitivity improves), the body is discouraged from storing excess calories into fat tissue (fat cell insulin resistance). Likewise, sex hormone and growth hormone factors increase with rising leptin, which increases muscle insulin sensitivity and encourages greater muscle-building potential.
In my experience, people generally tend to gain fat (particularly belly fat) until leptin reaches a certain point, then they will begin storing excess calories in muscle at a much higher rate, which is why so many report (like Collden), at a certain time period weight continues to increase but pants and belts begin getting looser.
Which is pretty amazing if you think about it – fat loss while in calorie surplus.
Huh. Seems to coincide with my body comp progression. LC to HED, at first really not much happened (bone/organ growth?). Then I started putting on a little lower back fat and abs became less defined, and then the fat around the belly button increased. This was over a course of months. Then the fat just stopped accumulating.
Then Temps started going up and muscle started started increasing in the abdomen, butt, thigh, chest, back areas. Then I started to put a little more fat on.
Now over a year later I am on a high carb diet, in which I am leaning a little and the muscle seems to be increasing again. I also am 20 lbs heavier.
Just seems to me that my insulin/leptin sensitives fluctuated and shifted over time.
Yes amazing to think about.
Yes, I've certainly taken note of why it does indeed seem to play out this way more often than not, and tried my best to figure out what the hormonal interactions must be to yield that type of effect.
One thing is for sure though, the belief that eating a lot of carbs will spike insulin and make a person "insulin resistant" can be unmercifully bitch-slapped.
There's much more going on and much more to be understood. That package is way too nice, neat, and simple.
Wow! That's the best! I got featured!!!! Wow! I AM a 180DegreeHealth GROUPIE!!! A proud one!!! lol…I'm so happy to FINALLY be a success story after 10 years of hitting my head in different walls….
Great post today as always. I love all the bold dietary and resting recommendations and from reading 180Degree Diabetes, I totally understand why it would work. It makes so much sense to do a 180 from the mainstream since the mainstream is clearly failing in their approach.
Great video too. Diabetes is such a serious health issue. Matt, your work is so important!!!! So great what a whole foods diet can do for us. It's so wonderful to see an approach working for a change! But it's also typical to see the MD being so narrow minded as to think "oh it's something about the Arizona food"….fascinating…
Matt Stone:
As far as fruits go. I saw you recommend eating lots of it in the beginning of RRARF. But since I have had such serious sugar addictions in my life, I decided yesterday to go off all fructose for 3 months, like 180Degree Metabolism suggests. Do you think that might be a mistake for me or not?
AaronF:
I don't feel good at all about the Candida diet. I actually disagree with it now. Basically, the diet aims to "starve" the Candida of any sugars including glucose, hence the low carb. So many problems with that, the biggest one seems to me being that I ended up also starving myself….
Today I think that Candida can only be "cured" by a healthy and strong immune system, just as you say too. There is no way to have a good strong immune system when the metabolism is so way off. So, sadly, no I don't think I benefited at all from the last 3 years of low carb. All I can say is that I did stay on an all whole foods diet. Nothing refined at all. But in terms of healing, nope. I only got several new problems, seriously bad teeth, edema, chronic diarrhea etc. It was a nightmare.
Athlete's foot: I've treated it with drops of oil of oregano (diluted in coconut oil). It seems to work well. But also the RRARF seems to help.
Bleeder:
I also have experienced way worse PMS this first period on the high carb diet. Not sure why. However, less period cramps, and that's my main issue. I think it's cause going from low carb to high carb initially increases all sorts of hormones, but then over time they may stabilize. Fingers crossed. Sorry about your constant period though. That sounds very tough.
Johnny Lawrence:
I have noticed people getting very interested in what I'm eating now that I rave about how my years of symptoms suddenly have disappeared in 3 weeks. Then I just tell them about 180DegreeHealth, and if they want to change, then the info is right there. But I feel your pain. I want to email everyone I know with diabetes, but I have an issue about giving other people advice. I generally hate getting "good advice" unless I ask for it.
Thanks everyone. It's so great to be a part of this community! I think Matt Stone is REALLY onto something very, very, very important.
Matt,
What were your blood glucose readings when you were consuming 6 quarts of raw milk a day?
This is how I cured my insulin resistance:
1. Keep omega-6 fatty acids to 2% of your daily calories. Omega-6 fatty acids cause inflammation. Inflammation will trigger insulin resistance. So reducing inflammation will increase your insulin sensitivity.
2. Get enough of vitamins A and D3. Vitamin A and D3 helps to suppress your body's inflammatory response. As said above, reducing inflammation will increase your insulin sensitivity. But be sure to balance them out with vitamin K2.
3. Get enough nutrients from nutrients-rich foods like starchy tubers and liver. Potatoes, yams, and sweet potatoes are rich in chromium and magnesium which helps to increase your insulin sensitivity.
4. Reduce your stress levels. Stress increase cortisol levels. Cortisol increases your production of glucose from glycogen therefore may cause unnecessary high blood glucose during some times.So reducing your stress levels can increase your insulin sensitivity. Meditation will have the same effect.
5. Sleep at least 8 hours per day. Sleep is a period in which your brain requires less glucose, thus allowing more free fatty acids (FFAs) to be released from your fat cells. This will allow more fat to be burned, as most of the fat we burn occurs during sleep. Sleeping decreases cortisol levels as cortisol is required to raise your blood glucose. Thus, sleeping has a similar effect as meditation in reducing your cortisol levels.
6. Lose your body fat. Reducing your body fat can increase your insulin sensitivity because fat is inflammatory, and inflammation can cause insulin resistance. It's actually a direct cause-effect relationship. Studies have a shown an increase of insulin sensitivity following liposuction surgery. Sleeping well is an excellent way to burn body fat, and as I said above, most of your body fat is burned during sleep.
How many groupies does Matt Stone actually have? Several thousand? This ain't news, because most girls will find Matt attractive, because of his physical appearance, his intelligence, his integrity, and his fame. Matt was a former salesman, so he has plenty of experience with seducing girls. Matt's becoming a rockstar! Yeah!
Matt's also a badass. I just love how easily Matt keeps his polyunsaturated fats as little as 1%. Nobody else can do such a badass thing! Well worth it when you mentioned it on Stephan Guyenet's blog about this.
Look at the picture of Lisa Erickson! She's such a pretty woman! And no wonder why she's a Matt groupie. Matt is the star, the KING, the GOD of the diet gurus!!!
I would imagine foods that would be great to eat while having diabetes are coconuts, raw milk, fermented codliver oil, liver, bone broth, maybe tropical fruits like mangoes, and cold packed honey. Potatoes would be a decent choice as it takes a couple hours to digest vs. fruits being they take only a half hour to digest. Slowly releasing glucose into the body sounds like it would be a lot safer. Carbs from raw milk and cold packed honey may be even better to have than potatoes for diabetes, but that would have to be something a diabetic would need to experiment with. In one of Matt's other blogs an individual said his blood sugar readings were satisfactory when he had lots of raw milk.
It would do wonders to throw out fried foods, most vegetable oils, and refined sugar for diabetics. I would actually think omega 3s from fish would help with diabetes. Many Americans are said to have 30% omega 6 as their total calorie intake while it should be only 2.5%.
AaronF,
You should check out the article about me (Martin Verbeke) published a couple of weeks ago now. I talk about anti candida diets and how I believe that they actually make things much worse. That's how so many people eventually get convinced they have candida like me ! Before going very low carb with tons of antifungals, I was feeling bad and didn't know what was the cause. I blamed candida and went on the candida diet. Then I started to experience more and more candida symptoms and candida overgrowth (even on my torso on numerous occasions !). It had never happened to me before !! I then fell in a spiral of hypochondriacy that was self-inflicted as the candida issue never existed actually.
You should read what Vegans have to say about candida. They are light-years ahead of any low carbers in that respect. I ignored them for so long because I distrust what they have to say but they are right, I'm afraid. I challenge you to do a low fat vegan diet for a week and TRY to get a fungal infections. Just try hard, go to the swimming pool, wear wet clothes for an abnormally long time, dirty if possible, scratch your genitals against smth dirty (LOL, kidding) and see if smth happens. In my experience, you cannot get a fungal overgrowth if you eat less than 20% fat. Or it's never happened to me despite suffering from them on a daily basis on the "candida" diet. like Graham points out, the "candida" diet is indeed a good diet to develop candida, hence the name of the diet !!
Look at all those people on forums (especially Bee's). They ALL go through detox when starting the diet !! They all have awful symptoms. Whereas low fat clears problems in hours !! No detox whatsoever. Hours I kid you not.
So all I have to say is this: Fuck you Bee and your candida diet that potentially clogged my arteries, made lose my girlfriend because of my weird eating habits, turned a mild hypochondriac into an obsessive neurotic.
Oh and don't think Zero carb is a good solution either. You'll get more fungal infections from not eating ANY carb than from overeating on the Maximum Nutrient Partitioning. So fuck you The bear too !! Your diet is the optimal candida and degenerative diet.
Honestly just forget about candida. Eat like most people instinctively do: good amounts of starches, some meat and moderate amounts of fat and it won't bother you again. Eating a pound of butter a day is unatural in my opinion and WILL give you candida issues if you're sensitive to it (of course the amount of fat doesn't matter but rather the percentage of total calories)
Martin.
PS: What I'm saying only applies to sensitive people as I'm sure most people can eat high fat and not suffer from candida problems.
Oh this year I went on holiday and went to the swimming pool everyday and got no fungal infections. last year, on my zero carb diet, my genitals were itchy all the time and I got several fungal overgrowth !!
But this year eating high starch, low pufa and moderate protein, I seem to be immune to the problem ! Much to my amazement !!
Martin.
Hi Matt, in this post you recommend "Eating lots of carbohydrates, but trying to eat mostly high-glycaemic carbohydrates"
In the video they show people who eat lots low-glycaemic carbs. Who is right? They, you or both?
"Matt's also a badass. I just love how easily Matt keeps his polyunsaturated fats as little as 1%. Nobody else can do such a badass thing
…
Matt is the star, the KING, the GOD of the diet gurus!!! "
Dude! You really have to give me some of the stuff you are smoking, must be really good.
Nah, just kidding. Matt really is a cool dude. He's my personal nutritional-hero. Go Matt, go!
Organism-
You funny. Pretty sound advice for overcoming insulin resistance. I certainly talk at length about chromium, sleep, and stress in the book.
As for losing all your body fat, I can see your point. However, 95 out of 100 people who lose fat trigger a drop in body temperature, a rise in cortisol, and massive overeating that leads to rebound weight gain… 1 step forward and two steps back on restoring insulin sensitivity. So it's not quite that black and white.
Lisa-
3 months no sugar? I'd think you'd be much better served by relying on your own natural biofeedback than creating a set goal like that. That's a pretty daunting goal as well.
Martin-
Hilarious comment, and true. I don't think the Bear or Bee read this blog, but if they stop by I'll point them in the direction of that comment :)
Hans-
In the raw video, the food shown does not contain any calories. Any low-calorie diet will cause blood sugar to drop, weight to be lost, etc. I believe that's the primary gimmick involved in the Gabriel Cousens magic show.
But low-calorie diets are typically a dead end.
The question is, is a person who can eat a bowl of cucumbers and tomatoes without diabetes cured of their disease, or is a person who can eat 2 baked potatoes without diabetes cured of the disease?
In 180 Diabetes I reserve these vegany and low-carb restricted diets for last resorts once you've exhausted other options. It's better to not have diabetes than to have diabetes – even if it means eating cucumbers and sprouts as your burgers and fries at the Tree of Life Center.
Dan-
I didn't take many BG readings on the milk diet. Fasting levels seemed to be a little sporadic, but generally ran in the mid-70's. During the day, since I was sipping milk every 30 minutes, my BG almost always ranged between 84 and 86 mg/dl.
Hi Matt,
I've been eating the way you describe for the past year. I've gained 25 pounds since last fall (when I had a BMI of 23 or so) and now I find I have diabetes.
I never dieted or seriously over-exercised before – I don't think I had destroyed my metabolism through these means. I have never gained this much weight before, and I'm not sure why I did.
The self-experimentation you describe is interesting – I followed it with interest on your blog. I don't doubt that you're on to something. Your recommendations sound like they might be a good way for a non-diabetic person to reduce their blood sugar levels. But I'd also like to point out that you don't have diabetes. So it makes me gnash my teeth a bit to see you using yourself as an example of this diet working for diabetes.
In addition, what's generally termed Type II diabetes can be more complex than mere insulin and/or leptin resistance. And those complexities could throw a monkey wrench in your approach.
For instance, I was initially assumed to have Type II diabetes, although I don't fit the diagnostic mold very well. I now have an appointment with an endocrinologist to see if I have a type of diabetes caused by a glucokinase mutation (known as MODY 2). If I have this, I've had it all my life. It may have reached a clinical level lately with the addition of some creeping insulin resistance. But insulin resistance is not my primary problem and my beta cells work fine. They just don't get the signal to produce insulin until my blood sugars are fairly high.
Glucokinase production is stimulated by small amounts of fructose and caffeine, among other things. So those things might be good for me while not helpful for some other people.
A great deal of fat in the diet suppresses glucokinase production, but *far more so* if you have this this mutation than if you don't. Therefore, carbs and fat together might not be a great idea for me, but might be fine for someone else.
There are several other genetic variations of diabetes that are neither Type I nor Type II. There is even a mitochondrial form of diabetes. Since they're more rare, they tend to get misdiagnosed as one or the other. I also suspect that there are genetic variations within the Type II universe. All of these factors could mean very different reactions to various diet compositions and drugs.
If you have one of these variants and don't know it, you may be banging your head against the wall following a regimen that works for other people, but not for you.
Although insulin resistance, leptin resistance, and beta cell function are major players in this disease (although not for my form of it), there are other things to consider. And people with diabetic genes may simply be much more susceptible to insulin resistance and/or beta cell dysfunction than people who don't develop diabetes. After all, most obese people *don't* develop it.
I highly recommend Jenny Ruhl's web site and book, Blood Sugar 101, and her blog, Diabetes Update, for in-depth discussion of diabetes and its management. I started there and am now charting my own path.
Thanks a lot for the comment Helen, and sorry to hear about your health woes.
You are very correct in that the etiology of diabetes is complex, with far more factors to take into consideration.
I have tried my best to make it clear in 180 Diabetes that my emphasis there is overcoming insulin resistance, which isn't a guaranteed cure for all cases of diabetes.
I too am beginning to explore the possibility that a high-fat diet, regardless of what some high-fat cultures were able to withstand, is a very risky endeavor for a modern human – especially ones like yourself with substantial metabolic disease that is not within your control.
I am also aware that I am not diabetic, and try not to stray too far beyond myself when I make generalizations. I do believe that most physiology is shared, and that what lowers my own blood sugar could very well do that in others – but certainly don't parade around claiming that ALL people will have such a response.
Please keep us enlightened as to the developments in your own case. I have been following Jenny's site for about a year now, and appreciate her work a lot more than she appreciates mine :)
For those of you wanting to read about MODY and other forms of what is classified as type 2 diabetes that are atypical, and have nothing to do with insulin resistance – here's a link to Jenny Ruhl's description on her Blood Sugar 101 site…
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14047009.php
"Lisa-?3 months no sugar? I'd think you'd be much better served by relying on your own natural biofeedback than creating a set goal like that. That's a pretty daunting goal as well."
Matt-
Don't you think that could help me get over the leptin resistance faster? Perhaps I should just do one month? Or eat berries/fruits only once a week? Right now I've been eating berries every day, to up the calorie intake, but I was reading in 180 Metabolism that sometimes cutting out all fructose for a few months is a good thing. Do you think that's overkill for me? After all my sugar cravings are totally gone by now. (amazingly!!!)
Matt,
I wonder what your BG readings would have been had you had 1-2 quarts in one sitting 3-6 times a day. I would imagine your body's ability to handle insulin weakened because you take in only small quantities at a time. You body doesn't have the opportunity to build up a tolerance to it. Did your tolerance for greater amount of carbohydrates weaken when you came off of sipping raw milk all day?
I've completely lost my appetite today. I don't know what to do? I still feel hunger, but I am so fed up with my foods I literally have to force feed myself at this point. What should I do? Listen to my body and eat less or push on?
AaronF,
I suggest you listen to the following interviews. The first one with Dr. Mumby really does a good job of putting Candida in the right perspective. Diet will only cure Candida to the extent that diet corrects whatever is wrong with a Candida suffer's terrain.
#1 Dr. Mumby Intro call:
http://detoxqueen.audioacrobat.com/download/3f6afa82-046f-ee40-571d-8372db156f08.mp3
#2 Leo Cashman on Dentistry and Health:
http://detoxqueen.audioacrobat.com/download/9fb4972d-aa94-fca8-6b18-d36c79413ce1.mp3
#3 Czerral on Probiotics, amino acids, enzymes, macrobiotic eating and why probiotics typically can’t work
http://detoxqueen.audioacrobat.com/download/f068b6da-24de-bf9e-63e3-8ffad2d40fb0.mp3
#4 Rik Deitsch on Detoxification of Mercury and Building the Immune System:
http://detoxqueen.audioacrobat.com/download/0457f350-1d9c-8137-30e3-d50d218984f9.mp3
#5 Frederic Patenaude with a totally different viewpoint on Diet:
http://detoxqueen.audioacrobat.com/download/fccb2e6a-316a-4b2e-249a-98189ea54674.mp3
Good Luck,
Paul
Lisa-
No need to push it – either with cutting out all fructose or with pushing too hard against your lack of appetite.
First off, as a lean person, you are likely very leptin sensitive. Your sugar addiction seems to have faded anyhow, which is to be expected anytime you restore leptin to proper levels by gaining weight from an underweight state – or by restoring leptin sensitivity if you are overweight.
As for the overfeeding, like I mention in RRARF!, true overfeeding is very, very difficult to continue for more than 30 days. You've been very dedicated, and it's natural for your appetite to start to fade away. Now just obey it. If you feel any progress slipping, you can always overfeed for a couple of days to get back to where you were at.
Dan-
I didn't take in BG readings immediately after the milk diet, so I couldn't tell ya. Like with any sudden diet transition though, there can be a big spike in BG levels for a few days.
Matt
Thanks so much. What you say makes so much sense. Good to know that I may not be that badly leptin resistant. I'll try to become more tuned into what my own body is telling me.
Will keep the community updated on my progress. :)
Bleeder, I feel for you. My period has always been wonky and painful too, and it's been coming closer and closer together, every 2 weeks now. It is kinda scary! Plus breast pain out of this world. I had relief from the pain when I took both Armour thyroid and Dr. Lee's progesterone at the same time, but not with just one or the other. I'm hoping things will start to improve soon, I *think* I'm have less cramping, but I can't say for sure. Hopefully things will improve for you!
Matt said: I think the most important thing is to try to not make someone defensive about their diet or lifestyle. If you even allude to the fact that how you eat and live is superior to how they live and eat, they will immediately be forced to try to stick up for themselves – or even worse, beat themselves up. Give them a sense of "hey, let's see if we can figure this out" instead of "hey numbnuts, don't you know Mountain Dew is bad for you?"
I used to do that and turned them away. Of course that's when I was ramming low carb down their throats. Now I'm gonna say, "ok scratch that, eat freaking potatoes you idiot". Johnny gonna be gentle Ben from now on.
Lisa E. said: I have noticed people getting very interested in what I'm eating now that I rave about how my years of symptoms suddenly have disappeared in 3 weeks. Then I just tell them about 180DegreeHealth, and if they want to change, then the info is right there. But I feel your pain. I want to email everyone I know with diabetes, but I have an issue about giving other people advice. I generally hate getting "good advice" unless I ask for it.
Thanks Lisa. I think I'm gonna just make a few hundred copies of 180 Diabheateaz and hand it out. Don't tell Matt though.
My link for 180 Degree Diabetes isn't work :[
Matt in a recent post someones suggested that outside temperature is going to influence our body temperature ie is very hot weather it is much easier for our body to maintain high basal temperatures, what's your take on this? ie should we expect lower temperatures in the winter?
Matt – you commented previously that your aim is to confuse and you have done a good job for me on that. My current confusion is on the fat issue. When I started following your blog last year it was EAT FAT! Now you are saying lower fat is better. So the clarification I need is do you mean make everything I eat low fat like recommended on the SAD (or Canadian in my case) or just don't make a point to eat a lot of fat. Do I still use my butter and not worry about sour cream, yogurt and salad dressings being full fat for the times that I eat those.
Mary
Katerina-
Send me an email and I'll give you the link: sacredself@gmail.com
Jedi-
That hasn't been my personal experience at all – the opposite actually, but I've had a couple people report this.
Mary-
My beliefs that fat was better than starch a couple years ago stemmed from low-carb pseudo science – namely the belief that fat is a better calorie source because it does not raise insulin. At the same time, I believed that starch induces insulin resistance from spiking insulin over and over again.
In reality, fat causes insulin resistance by interfering with the absorption of glucose. Carbohydrate ingestion has nothing to do with insulin resistance. This can be circumvented by being hypermetabolic, and my goal all along has been to enable people to eat both starch and fat – like it tastes the best, without having to restrict either.
As several people who have tracked blood glucose have revealed, myself included, it is very possible to reduce insulin resistance even while maintaining a very high fat intake.
My current interest in reducing fat intake stems from the possibility that you could get this same effect without:
1) Gaining so much body fat
2) Gaining more lean mass
3) And running into the potential dangers of excessive fat intake, like atherosclerosis – particularly while in a reduced metabolic state
SAD is one of the highest fat diets in the world – average around 40% of calories as fat.
I'm talking about the benefits of reducing fat intake to small amounts of butter and coconut oil used for cooking, and the fat found naturally in poultry, fish, meat, etc.
But after habitually eating 150-250 grams of fat per day over the last 3-4 years, I'm finding that very little added fat can make it into the diet without the fat content of the diet rising pretty quickly. In other words, it's a dramatic shift.
I'm also not saying that it's for everyone – just that it is worth exploring, and that the negatives associated with low-fat diets probably don't have anything to do with real, whole foods and the type of low-fat diets eaten by most of Africa, Asia, and central and South America.
Matt I am glad you are looking at low fat. I have changed this year after 5 years of eating high fat and the result has been significant.
Of course when virtually all medical establishments, dietary advisors etc. recommend low fat there must be some truth in it.
if it's true that our body temps are affected by the weather and by electric blankets, wouldn't it be beneficial to keep our bodies warm in this way on the path to healing our metabolisms?
Well, is somebody's metabolism higher because he/she has a higher body temperature or does he/she have a higher body temperature because he has a higher metabolic rate? I would guess it's the latter and thus would argue that keeping yourself warm artificially would only mask the symptoms of a poor metabolism.
@madMUHHH
Doesn't Ray Peat mention a study where pigs that wore sweaters had the fat composition of their bodies change?
I suspect that an artificially-raised body temp would mostly be masking the symptoms of a poor metabolism, but one would think that keeping warm with sweaters or electric blankets would reduce the amount of calories required for heating the body. So there might be some metabolic benefit from staying warm with blankets, warm clothing, etc.
@samuel: Yeah, I actually thought about mentioning the pigs as well, bit decided against it. In fact keeping the body temprature artificially high might have several benefits, perhaps it would even offer greater resistance to bacterial infection, who knows?
Perhaps it might also make it harder for the body to keep up the temperature when not being warmed by a blanket.
It might have some benefits, it might have some downsides, but I think in the end it's not really worth thinking about too much.
Actually listened to a good interview with Ray Peat today, in which this topic comes up.
http://www.newhopemedical.org/portals/115/KKVV%20RADIO%2010-31-08%20%28RAY%20PEAT%29.mp3
Should be more specific and say the topic of warming the body with clothing and blankets.
@Bleeder — I really hope she comes back to read the comments.
I think you should chart your temps for a month or two and make sure you know when you are ovulating. That will tell you if you have something hormonal going on with the ovarian-pituitary axis. Yes thyroid and adrenal play into it, but you need to start there because, well, it's complicated. Once you do that you will be able to make educated choices about when you ovulate and how long your luteal phase is. If you are still bleeding every week then you need to make sure you don't have a polyp or fibroid that is causing the bleeding. Bleeding in between periods is also associated with endometriosis and there are specific diets that can help with endo.
If you don't find a biphasic pattern on your chart then you probably aren't ovulating and then need to look into leptin and/or insulin regulation to help normalize your hormones.
Yes, there's no doubt in my mind that living in cold climates is a huge stress upon the human body – not only due to temperature and having to wear excess clothing and reducing the breathing of skin/pores, but due to less exposure to sunlight for vitamin D synthesis, dry air, etc.
Living in a warm climate could only be of benefit to a low metabolism I would think.
I only feel my best in the summer, and in the tropics.
It's certainly interesting to hear Stefansson's reports of Eskimos gathering in an enclosed structure when they had the opportunity, starting a big fire to heat it up to tropical temps, and then stripping down naked to have a good sweat.
The Eskimos were a long way from "home."
Mack-
It's certainly worth exploring. It's impossible to read T.L. Cleave, Denis Burkitt, McCarrison, Hugh Trowell, and many other authors and proclaim that low-fat diets are harmful and not feel like an idiot saying so. I feel great eating a diet with little fat as long as I eat enough food, the food is unprocessed/unrefined, and I am not eating vegan.
So I'm about 24hrs into a very high carb/very low fat stint for building muscle. I've downed over 4k cals of potatoes and raw skim milk pretty easily. I'm already hungry again and preparing more of the same now. This could get expensive…
I found an interesting editorial that casts some doubts on the current high carb/low fat-panacea:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/74/6/707
Some snippets:
"The few exceptions to the rule that de novo lipogenesis is quantitatively minor have been when carbohydrate energy intake massively exceeds TEE, eg, the Guru Walla overfeeding tradition in Cameroon, wherein adolescent boys ingest > 29.3 MJ (7000 kcal) carbohydrate/d and gain 12 kg body fat over 10 wk while eating only 4 kg fat (5). Thus, de novo lipogenesis does become a quantitatively major pathway when carbohydrate energy intake exceeds TEE, but this circumstance is unusual in daily life."
"Some experimental evidence for a potential role of adipose de novo lipogenesis has emerged."
"First, these results do not mean that extra carbohydrate energy represents "free" energy in terms of body fatness. By sparing fat in the body's fuel mixture, surplus carbohydrate energy will make people fatter, even though it is not directly converted to fat. The absence of significant de novo lipogenesis is bad news for high-carbohydrate dieters for another reason, in that the high thermogenic cost of de novo lipogenesis cannot be invoked as an energy-dissipating feature of such diets."
"Second, the effects of carbohydrate-rich diets on macronutrient balances should not be confused with their potential effect on plasma lipids and atherogenesis. High-carbohydrate euenergetic or hyperenergetic diets consistently induce hypertriglyceridemia, the public health consequences of which remain controversial "
"Finally, what is the role of de novo lipogenesis in human disease? Recent studies (13) have identified different insulin signaling pathways for de novo lipogenesis and cholesterol synthesis, on the one hand, and carbohydrate metabolism, on the other, as well as co-induction of de novo lipogenesis with cholesterogenesis by overexpression of the sterol response element binding protein. Thus, is de novo lipogenesis involved in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance or hypercholesterolemic syndromes? Or does de novo lipogenesis influence intracellular signaling pathways involving myristoylation, palmitoylation, or membrane fatty acids? These questions and more arise from the observation that de novo lipogenesis is the pathway of last resort and that, at least regarding converting carbohydrates to fats, humans are neither bees nor pigs."
The last parts are speculative but human metabolism is definitely more complex than most people think.
Hi Lisa–I do hope you're right about the hormones stabilizing on high carbs. I had the opposite reaction to period cramps in that I only got them when I was eating HC as a teen, and recently.
But taking magnesium and potassium eliminates the pain. Lorelei–have you tried magnesium?
Anon–I have been charting my temps ever since I read about them here several months ago. Initially I was in the 96-97 range, then when I heard about the pig-wearing-sweater-increasing-sat fats I began to overdress and to try work up a nice sweat–which was tough because I rarely sweat. I did this for a month and my temps skyrocketed into the 98-99 zone.
But then I read how Broda Barnes said taking your temperature while overdressed yields inaccurate results so I stopped. (Yes, I'm very suggestible!) So now they've been in the high 97 range. But, for the past month it's been in the low 97s. I've been trying to figure out if and when I ovulate but I'm having difficulty interpreting my rollercoastering numbers.
Although the inconsistencies can also be due to the fact that since I'm constantly on the verge of getting sick (upper-respiratory and urinary-tract infections), I've been taking very hot baths every few days to artificially elevate my temp so my white blood cells can get a chance to do their thing….
Today, however, my temp dropped to 95.8!!!!–this was after several days of trying to follow Matt's advice of eating only raw fruits & vegetables–but I did so incompletely, because I have yet to make another shopping round.
Regarding ovulation, do you think it's possible that someone can ovulate twice a month due to the ovaries "taking turns", i.e. being out of sync with one another? Although that wouldn't explain the period every single week….
I guess I really have to see a doctor but that's weeks away….
OK, sorry to overcomment. But given how much faith I have in Matt & the commenters on this blog, my husband asked me to ask for help/guidance about his condition too. The problem: fast transit time. No matter what he eats (HC, LC, fiber, no-fiber, high-fat, low-fat, etc.), his digestion time is exactly 12 hours. Since he is, like his father, a light sleeper, if he eats anything other than one big meal (late evening), his having to go to the bathroom wakes him up and causes insomnia. The one-meal-a-day makes social interactions (which usually center around food) difficult, and it makes him weak during the day. Does anyone know of anything that would slow down transit time? Hubby is 51, 6'0, 157 lbs, thin but muscular, and other than this problem, doesn't exhibit any ill-health symptoms. His temps, however, tend to be in the low 97s, even with/after over-feeding.
Bleeder-
Interesting comments as always. As for the sudden drop in temps, I tend to believe that very short-term changes are pretty insignficicant, and much of the high-sugar/low-temp connection could very well be due to big drops in adrenal hormone output, which, although potentially miserable in the short-term, may be healing. That is one hell of a drop though.
As for you husband and his short transit time, this, again, is not something I have heard very often (okay, ever). It obviously seems like something systemic, and may be some form of malabsorption if I had to make one guess.
Has anyone else dealt with such an issue?
I like your method and I also like the very low carb paleo approach for normalizing insulin sensitivity, but I'm just wondering what the deal with the continuous lip service to the raw vegan crowd. Yeah maybe if you isolate one macronutrient you can improve insulin sensitivity but we both know that it weakens digestion of anything other than vegetable juice and causes deficiencies. Whhhhyyyyy do people keep mentioning this stuff? Meth will make someone thin too but it's not a good thing.
I'm not aware of low-carb Paleo normalizing insulin sensitivity. I am aware of low-carb Paleo increasing insulin resistance.
No one is saying that a raw vegan diet is healthy and sustainable here. But it is of interest that it can make many type 2 diabetics "undiabetic." If that's not worthy of discussing, I don't know what is.
A bit o/t, but it's amazing how quickly protein adds up, even on a mostly vegetarian diet, when one is getting sufficient calories. Unless you're exclusively eating fruit, then you're getting quite a bit of protein, even if each source isn't complete. I tracked my macros for a few days on my new low-fat regimen and some days I'm getting 80 or 90 g of protein a day and that's with very limited amounts of animal foods. I'm not sure how you'd do 80-10-10 without eating only or mostly fruit. Protein consistently ends up being around 16 – 18 % of my diet.
Sven,
First of all, that is one of the most poorly written editorials I have ever read. I have read some badly written science editorials in my day, but that one takes the cake. It's interesting and brings up some insightful questions, but the author needs to hang his head in shame for writing such convoluted piece of crap.
Second: Where is this high carb/low fat "panacea" you speak of? I do not see it anywhere on this blog, either from Matt or any of the regular commentators.
Moreover, speaking personally, high carb/low fat overfeeding is working well for me. I decided to experiment with "veganmasters" approach the day after JT linked to it on the "Fat vs Fruit" thread. I have been on it for about 10 days, and so far I have experienced both an increase lean mass and a decrease in body fat –the scale went up about half a pound, but my waist has gone down by a third of an inch.
In the months before this, I was eating around 20% fat; mostly so I could keep PUFA's around 1% or less of my diet, and I saw health improvements from that approach –whether if was from lower fat, higher carb or low PUFA it is hard to say, but I lean toward the latter.
(An aside: I wonder if the decrease in overall PUFA consumption is one of the reasons why many people benefit, at least initially, from low-fat veganism, but then the inherent nutritional shortages overtake most people?)
Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that high carb/low fat has actually done me more harm than good, and I am interested to see where three or four weeks of the veganmaster approach will take me.
DML:
"Where is this high carb/low fat "panacea" you speak of? "
Of course that’s an exaggeration but I would say here is quite some enthusiasm about HC/LF a la veganmaster (without the vegan part). Actually I am trying to give it a shot myself.
Maybe it’s a poorly written editorial but there are some interesting issues e.g. the Guru Walla example.
I tried to research de novo lipogenesis and that was one of the first hits. I am planning to dig somewhat deeper.
In the last sentence I meant "more good the harm" not the other way around…And to think I was criticizing somebody else's writing!
Sven,
"Of course that’s an exaggeration but I would say here is quite some enthusiasm about HC/LF a la veganmaster (without the vegan part). Actually I am trying to give it a shot myself."
I kind of figured you were engaging in some innocent hyperbole, but I wanted to make sure.
Good luck with the veganmaster approach –it entails a lot of eating! High carb/low fat is a lot of bulk and it takes me about twice as long to eat a meal now than before; I am frankly getting a little tired of the amount of time it take to eat, but on the other hand I am enjoying the results and the increased energy and endurance!
I should point out that I am not following the"vegan part" of veganmasters approach either.
The low carb "insulin resistance" is a little mid-leading. Why should one's muscles be insulin-sensitive if all of glucose is better used in one's brain? That's how we partition our nutrients. Who needs it?
Sven,
7000 calories is probably more than anyone here will be trying to deal with. That's getting into sumo ranges.
As for me, my experiences are identical to your DML and several others. I am currently eating mostly starch to appetite but not overfeeding. That also includes a tiny amount of butter and a big meat meal a couple times per week plus a fruit meal every couple of days instead of starch.
In any case, lean mass to body fat ratio is rising pretty quickly.
True anonymous, but many are under the impression that insulin resistance comes about from spiking insulin again and again by eating carbohydrates, which is false.
But if you want amino acids and glucose in your muscles, it's good to be insulin sensitive, which is why a high-starch diet is so radically superior for muscle-building and athletic performance.
Okay I gotcha, good point.
I just bought a glucose meter… and my postprandial blood glucose reading after a meal of brown rice and a bit of grilled chicken with a teaspoon of coconut oil is 133 mg/dl…. can anyone tell me what this means??
DML:
"Good luck with the veganmaster approach –it entails a lot of eating! "
It’s definitely not an easy road to travel and I am struggling to eat enough calories. Right know I am eating quite some fruit and without fruit I wouldn’t even be be able to reach maintenance level. There is some room for improvement in my starch/sugar-ratio. Because of increased bulk I am spending way more time on the loo.
Another problem is keeping fat very low. Protein from egg whites and chicken breast doesn’t sound very appealing to me. Maybe for some time but I donn’t want to eat that way forever. Back in diet land with severe restrictions what to eat and what not.
Bleeder-
After a few days of a 50mg b-complex and 1g of vitamin b5 I could sweat for the first time since I can remember and my fluctuating temps settled on 98.6. Worth a try.
DML, Matt, others doing the veganmaster style deal-
Can you give me a little better sense of what eating this way looks like? I'm imagining lots of baked potatos and sweet potatos with minimal fat, brown or white rice, fruit and maybe a couple eggs a day? A big (fatty?) meat meal every few days for you, too, Matt? Where do veggies come in? You steaming them? eating them raw?
Maybe a couple days run down just to give me a sense? I'm real curious about this, and mght give it a shot, but I have no idea what I'd eat, and I'm just about to start a new job, so I don't know what my meal frequency or timing will be. Starch is cheap, though, and with a recently begun exercise plan, I'd love see what could happen. It seems a lot more desirable than the standard bodybuilding diet of egg whites and chicken breast.
Thanks in advance, fellow travelers.
No full-on veganmaster diet for me right now. If I were to try it, it would be in short, 4-6 week bursts to try to get some decent gains in a short time period.
I am currently eating a strictly whole foods diet that is low in fat and high carbohydrates. I'm still eating at least 1 fruit "meal" per day – so no fructose restriction there.
My diet has been mostly yams, brown rice, potatoes, sprouted breads, vegetables, beans, and fruit. I eat a little meat, fish, butter, etc. at least once every few days.
I do hope to do a musclebuilding menu plan in the 180 Kitchen revision due out in a couple weeks, based loosely on veganmaster's ideas on overfeeding, minimizing de novo lipogenesis, and getting greater protein deposition by eating very high starch/low-fat.
But to keep things simple if you are curious, I'd say that 90% of your diet should be starchy carbohydrates – corn, beans, rice, bread, oatmeal, potatoes, and other root vegetables. Meat/protein should be included in very small amounts – maybe 15-20 grams added in per meal.
Remember that MNP is somewhere between 6:1 and 8:1 carbs to protein. Many of the starches I listed above have less than an 8:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein, but I would think you'd fare much better with some higher quality protein from eggs/dairy/meat/fish thrown in and closer to a 6:1 ratio.
Added fat? Not much, especially if there is some fat in your protein foods.
Sven-
Time in the loo is temporary. I was crapping about 6 times per day to start, but am back to twice daily even eating up to 100 grams of fiber per day.
Thanks Matt- that's helpful. I'm excited to hear about the 180 Kitchen revision. Will that be available to previous purchasers too, like the Metabolism revision?
Will keep 180 posted on any noteworthy developments if I pull it together for an MNP trial run. Cheers.
You betcha Rob.
Hi Rob,
Matt pretty much covered your question, but I thought I'd go ahead and add my two cents anyway.
My starches revolve around white/brown rice and potatoes. I also get my starch from oatmeal, sweet potatoes and beans sometimes, but rather infrequently.
My protein, because I think animal protein is far superior to plant protein and I am often eating slightly higher protein the MNP guidelines, comes from egg whites, chicken breasts, jerky and other lean cuts of red meat. However, my most common source of animal protein are the egg whites and an ounce or two of cheese per day or, if I don't want cheese, I will eat some cottage cheese –I don't do this for any particular reason; they are my most common choices because I find they are what makes my meals the most palatable to me.
As far as fat goes, I rarely add any because I am sometimes pushing the upper end of the 10% maximum after eating cheese.
I also eat some veggies and fruit: green beans; steamed carrots; peas; bananas and oranges. Sometimes some raisins or orange juice.
So how does all this fit together? Well…
Today I had:
First meal: 3.25 cups cooked jasmine rice, half cup raisins, 1.2 of cheese, some jerky. Calories: 1160; fat/carb/protein percentages: 8.4%, ~76%, 15.6%
Second meal: around 3.75 cups cooked rice, half pound potatoes, 6 egg whites, ounce cheese, corn and peas, finished off with cup orange juice. Calories: ~1500, 7.1%, ~77%, 15.9%
Third meal: 1.5 pound sweet potato, 6 egg whites, banana, about half tablespoon coconut oil, some spinach. Calories: 820 7.3%; 77.7% 15%
Only complaint I have today is my starch/sugar ratio was a little bit lower than I would have liked.
Yesterday: I had cup dry brown rice; about 4 pounds of potatoes; cup dry jasmine rice; x amount of cottage cheese;, y amount of jerky; veggies; two bananas; orange. Macronutreint breakdown about the same, calories higher.
Thanks DML,
That's real helpful too. I think I'm going to give it a week, and see what happens, see if it's sustainable for a month.
Nt much of a cheese person, so I don't know what I'll do on that end for animal protein. I won't have just egg whites, though- maybe a whole egg or two every other day. I know it's for the short term, but I can't stand the thought of throwing out the most nutritious part, and would rather just not have them than commit that sacrilege. Hah.
Looking forward to hearing the continuing developments of your porgress through the month. Good luck!
Rob, you'll be fine with whole eggs. MNP is not that extreme. 2 eggs is only 8 grams of fat, which is far less than 10% of the calories in any typical meal.
Also Rob,
If you aren't used to high-carb/low-fat, you ain't gonna like the first week or two. I'd give yourself a little adjustment time before trying to dive right into an overfeeding version of HC/LF and trying to get a bunch of muscle gains.
Hmm- point taken, Matt. What should I expect in the first week or two in the adjustment period? I have done high carb low fat before in my vegan days, but it's been a whiel since I actively avoided fat as this calls for.
Maybe related- while on the MNP site, veganmaster cited a study that seemed to show a metabolic advantage of sorts on a very low fat diet in terms of protein deposition even at maintenance calories levels. That is, the high insulin levels worked to store away the dietary protein even when not overfeeding. With overfeeding, it was even more dramatic (2/3 of ingested protein became deposited as lean body mass, versus 1/5 or so). Would this mean that eating just to appetite, without active overfeeding might induce some of the favorable body composition changes you guys are experiencing?
Yes, definitely – especially if the diet has higher quality protein from animal sources in small quantity versus trying to get lean on beans and rice.
Expect, in the first little bit, increased hunger, tiredness, wierd sleep, emotional rollercoaster, and other signs of poor glucose metabolism that occur while your body is becoming more insulin sensitive.
On that insulin sensitivity note- any recommendations on low cost effective blood glucose monitors. I figure if I'm gonna try this, might as well track it with some metrics. A quick search gives me prices from $8-$80. I don't want to drop more money than necessary, but cheaper often has its costs. Any recommendations, Matt or anyone?
The industry has gone to very cheap monitors with very expensive test strips. A $20 First Touch is still an outstanding glucose monitor. The strips, however, often run over $1 per strip.
Still, if you are curiuos, I think a blood glucose meter is a great and very revealing toy for health nerds.
Relion from Wal-Mart is a cheap glucose meter with strips at about half the price of most other brands. It's $8 or $9 for the meter and $39 for a box of 100 Ultima Relion test strips.
Check out Jenny Ruhl's section in Blood Sugar 101 on diabetes on a budget for getting the most out of your glucose strips – timing your tests for the most important information on glucose control without a lot of excess testing (thereby conserving your strips).
@ Katerina,
Was that test taken one hour after you started eating? If so, it suggests your glucose tolerance *may* be somewhat impaired. Have you ever had an oral glucose tolerance test or an A1C? I would suggest asking your doctor for both.
Check two hours after you started eating as well. If you aren't diabetic, it should be under 100. For diabetics, being under 120 at two hours post-prandial is your goal.
Helen- Yep, one hour. Should I check the one hour mark or the two hour mark routinely? Those little strips are so expensive!
I'd do a couple meals and then compare your 1-hour and 2-hour readings. The one that is higher is probably the most valuable to track for signs of improvement.
Then you can do one or the other instead of having to do both, which is a pain in multiple ways.
Katerina,
This advice from the site Blood Sugar 101 tells you how to test your glucose tolerance at home.
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14046889.php
Matt,
I am one of the masses that found you via CheeseSlave – Thanks for the guest post, and thank you for the extensive information here. I am amazed that I have not come across this site before…of course, with two small children I could have easily stumbled through a year ago and totally forgotten :).
I read through your free eBook today and found it fascinating – lots of questions, but some of your food ideas really align with what I've experienced. There are also some rather surprising ideas there too of course – you've really got my interest. It was also very well written – I enjoyed the pop-culture refs and the jokes – keep 'em comin'. :)
Thanks again, and really looking forward to digging into what you've started to uncover here.
Best to you,
Metroknow
AlmostFit.com
Matt,
I've been on RAARF for some weeks now, for some days high carb / low fat (4kg potatoes, 50g coconut oil, 120g lean lamb). Recently I noticed an old problem coming back: My leg muscles, especially calves, but the other too, get tense giving me discomfort in my knees and hips. In my SAD days, this had been an everyday thing for me, but I hadn't had it in a long time after that.
My question is, could this problem be blood sugar / insulin related? I'm eating RAARF first of all because I want to get rid of my insulin resistance.
Another question: The other week I thought my insulin resistance had somewhat decreased, but then I ate some junk food – kebab – it wasn't really high in carbs or anything, but after eating came a major crash. I fell asleep on the train and when changing I felt like I might pass out. What could have caused this sudden blood sugar low?
Metroknow-
Thanks and welcome to geek ground zero.
Hans-
Many people notice various aggravations in the short-term with overfeeding. For me, it was an increase in zits, a little extra physical pain, extreme fatigue and sleepiness after meals, and so on. This started to decline after about a week and was gone after a few weeks. If you don't start noticing improvement soon, you might want to back off or toy around with your macronutrient ratios.
As for your percieved low blood sugar, this is actually a symptom of high blood sugar not low blood sugar.
When blood sugar and insulin rise it drops catecholamines and you feel sleepy, relaxed, almost drugged.
The most intense version I've ever felt like this was after following Joel Fuhrman's diet – vegan style for 2 weeks, and then eating a huge feast of pork ribs, cornbread, white bread, etc.
When testing my BG I was at 173 mg/dl 1-hour after the meal – by far the highest reading I've ever had.
I had to then drive after this and almost fell asleep at the wheel.
Pay attention that you are progressing. If you are not, try making some changes to see what helps.
If it was high blood sugar, I don't really get where it came from. I just ate one regular serving, no feasting there, no dessert. On the contrary, compared to my other meals this was just a snack.
Oh well I will keep it up and see what happens.
That is kinda weird.
http://wofgtg.blogspot.com/
Thanks.
Matt,
Why do you recommend eating a lot of cooked food?
I can't seem to find my old comments or it takes way too long. Is there any way to search for them?
Jonathan-
In general because I'm a strong advocate of unrefined starch, which needs to be cooked in order to be edible.
Matt, could you please delete my comment that said "I cured my insulin resistance…" ? I lied, and I don't want to spread out any misinformation until I completely cured myself. In fact, I almost killed myself from water intoxication and hyponatremia. I drank six liters of water per day at that time, before it was like ten liters. So I thought I was in the process of curing myself in a way.
But I wasn't. After I moved to China in August, I upped my starch consumption because I can't find much animal fats or full-fat dairy. Because of this, my belly expanded so much that I looked like a pregnant woman. People will stare at my belly and chat about it. So I haven't cured myself.
I don't have a glucose meter, so I relied on how much water I consumed and my gut feelings rather than objective evidence. I learned my lesson, and relying too much on my gut feelings nearly killed myself. Things are not that simple as them seem. And it's best to keep things in moderation, and follow what our ancestors ate (and not ate) rather than to invent new diet schemes or to use nutritional supplements when whole food sources exist. Yes, this sounds like a broken record, but this message isn't emphasized enough.
Anyway, Matt, as a side note, could you give me a reason why I should eat "high-glycemic carbohydrates" in place of "low-glycemic carbs"? I don't think it would matter? I know that high-glycemic carbs will allow better digestion for some, but am I missing something?
No need to delete anything, as you cleared everything up with this comment.
As for high vs. low glycemic – the only reason I stress high glycemic carbs is because they typically contain less fructose, as fructose is the lowest-glycemic carbohydrate.
Ideally, low-glycemic carbs with no fructose would be the best, such as beans, vegetables, and whole, intact grains. Root vegetables are great too though, despite being higher GI, particularly parsnips and Russet potatoes.
So I am reading this post again, and maybe feeling a little calmer with what is happening… ?
I am doing the starch grazing, and my postprandial glucose levels are coming down, but fasting glucose has gone up! And my sleep is now definitely a complete mess! I am nervous, but not panic attack. And the nervous is making me more nervous than I would otherwise be. lol. I used to be so laid back and uncarig before I f***ed my metabolism. Seriously.
Anyway, I am hoping these are signs of my body becoming more insulin sensitive? I am taking butter and most cheese out of my diet.
Funny things are happening. I no londer get sleepy after a meal. More energy, but hyper nervous energy. Which is why I am not sleeping well?
I read a post from you Matt that says to expect this kind of stuff as the body becomes insulin sensitive again. Also I read on McDougalls diabetes thing about it being high blood sugar and lower insulin causing the wierd burning and thirst. Maybe that means that my excessively high insulin levels are dropping? Strange that I would start to have the diabetic symptoms with my bg readings lowering. I was having high bg feelings at a bg of 99?
Trying to just have faith in something, for the first time in my life.
How would I know when it's time to up carbs at each meal? I am feeling terribly hungry, and I even ate about 6 pounds of yams yesterday among a lot of other starch very spread out.
Now I am having more symptoms of low than high bg.
And *sigh* I used to have a fasting glucose of 66, back before I started crazy dieting. I ate a lot of carbs back then. A LOT of pasta.
Hey Erika-
I don't think insulin resistance is your problem. The problem is producing a disproportionately high level of insulin in relation to the food you are ingesting. Because you are very insulin sensitive, this rapidly gets stored into cells and is evidently triggering your adrenals to freak out and dump more sugar into your blood, especially when you've gone too long without food (at night when you're trying to sleep).
I would definitely recommend eating a little food when you wake up at night to get back to sleep. You may not sleep more than a few hours at a time initially, but it's better than nothing.
Try increasing the amount of food you and see what happens.