Here’s another top-notch story from Scandinavia, home of the famous twice-daily slab of margarine on white bread. My comments throughout are in RED.
When I grew up I was the skinny one, and my little sister, who ate exactly the same food as me, and had the same rules at home as me, was the chubby one. We have a fairly similar body type, but she kept gaining weight, whereas I couldn’t gain weight, no matter how much I tried. She was always hungry and seemed to never get full. I was hungry fairly often, but even a very small meal would be enough, and then I just couldn’t eat more. Aha! Appetite, metabolism, and energy-partitioning are controlled by hormones and heredity! I was also fairly anxious and depressed from an early age. My sister was more stable.
I know that the mothers diet/lifestyle has a major effect on the unborn baby (of course it has…). My mother was always (and still is) very anxious/depressed, and she was going through a lot of stress especially around the time I was born. I also believe she was eating a diet with some soy-products, but definitely low in sugar. My sister is 2.5 years younger than me, and by the time she was born we were all eating a lot more sugar. Since my problems started at such an early age, there must be an explanation that has to do with what happened to me even before I was born. Especially since my sister also got problems, but in a different way. We all come into this world with hereditary idiosyncrasies. What our parents do and do not do, eat and do not eat, think and do not think all has an impact on our development.
The food we ate was typical Norwegian: bread for breakfast with spreads, jams, cheeses or luncheon meats. I think we used butter until it was swapped for margarine when I was about 8 or 9 perhaps. I always had a glass or two of milk. Sometimes juice. Lunch for school children in Norway is, and was, exactly the same as breakfast; bread with a thin layer of margarine, topped with spread/cheese/meat. And milk. Perfect! Trade out one of the only unadulterated foods left in the diet – butter, with the axis of evil!
Dinner could sometimes be something decent like fish with potato and vegetables, but often there would be a major refined starch source like pasta (especially spaghetti and macaroni). I don’t think my mom used to add much sugar to anything. We never had sweets at home (only on Saturdays), and never any soft drinks (I don’t know if the fruit juices had any added sugar).
Any other meals during the day would be sliced bread with something on top of it.
I remember I used to eat quite often, but fairly small portions. The food at our home was in general healthier than what many other families in our area ate. But I suspect that it was low fat, and that butter was banned some time during the early nineties, in exchange for margarine and other vegetable oil products (I remember the soy oil… I have a feeling I consumed a lot of that during my childhood). I think all of our families have probably consumed way too much soy oil and other wholesome, solvent-extracted seed oils.
But overall I can’t see that our diet was particularly bad or extreme, except for a huge amount of grains. But everybody ate like that, and most of my friends didn’t get any of the problems that I got at that age. So I am wondering if genetically I am lees suited for the modern diet than most people. Plus I am getting the feeling that my constant anxiety and stress might have worn out my adrenals very early. I had a very low stress tolerance level, and it just got worse as I got older. I also got more and more fatigued as I got older, and I could only focus on tasks that really interested me. Homework was impossible. Margarine on white bread twice a day is a pretty extreme diet. Low in refined sugar, which is a definite plus, but there’s no question humans can become hypometabolic on such fare, symptoms of which include anxiety, poor stress tolerance, fatigue, inability to concentrate, and a lot more.
Anyway, I was tiny and skinny and looked two years younger than my friends. By the time I was 13 I had problems with chronic fatigue, but I thought it was just laziness (it wasn’t extreme. I was still going to school every day and doing sport). I have to add that except for my weight and mental health (looking back I would say that I was depressed), my health was great. I was never ill. In six years of primary/elementary school (not sure what you would call it… age 6 to12), I was away because of illness only three days. Three days in six years. I never had any allergies, or digestive problems either. And always did really well in school.. until the fatigue started getting really bad some years later. It seems you showed lack of developmental hormones at a young age, especially considering that you seemed to have a low appetite and couldn’t add lean body mass at the same pace of the rest of the girls.
Which is the next “chapter”. From 13 to 16 I was still very thin, but my weight was slowly becoming more normal. I didn’t reach puberty until I was almost 16, which is expected when you’re that thin. I was very tired all the time, and struggled to get out of bed in the morning. I never understood how my friends could find the energy to play and do sports every day. I played soccer but silently I hated it because I was never any good. In nine years I think I scored two goals. Needless to say that my overall self esteem wasn’t the best. But this all sounds very depressing! My childhood was great, I am just trying to connect the dots between genes ? food ? energy ? mood ? personality. I too felt a pretty radical shift in my overall health as I hit puberty, as I’m sure most of us did.
So… High School. I started partying and drinking almost every weekend, which probably didn’t help. I fell asleep in class every day, and started looking into nutrition, and especially carbs/insulin for some answers. My dad and many of his siblings are all diabetic, so I thought maybe there was something wrong with my blood sugar. I tried to sleep more, but nothing really helped. I started falling asleep while sitting on the front row in my favorite class. Quite embarrassing, and frustrating. My grades dropped and I became more and more anxious and depressed. There’s no question that having diabetics in your family predisposes you to all kinds of metabolic problems in life, but nothing is pre-ordained by any means. And no, the alcohol probably made things exponentially worse.
At this point my diet was really bad. I probably had sugary sweets and chocolate every day, and huge amounts of refined starch (different versions of white bread that probably also contained some form of vegetable oil). I would go out almost every weekend, which meant plenty of alcohol and sodas too. I was still very slim, but had problems with acne. My little sister was at this point still overweight, and had the same skin problems as I did. She did however not have the lack of energy and was able to focus on many different hobbies. Sugar, alcohol, stimulants, refined starch, and vegetable oil. The diet of champions!
I would say my diet consisted mainly of grains, wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oils and milk (I drank a lot of milk). I ate vegetables and fruit everyday too, but that of course wouldn’t have made a huge difference. I had meat or fish for dinner, but always with a side of refined starch. I was never ill, but I would get a sore throat several times a year, and would always completely lose my voice when that happened. I just got used to that. It was the same every time. I worked out (kick boxing) about three times a week, and spent the rest of my time half sleeping on the couch at home.
Going to university at age 20 I started working out even more, determined to become really fit. I had read a book about the Mediterranean diet, and was substituting everything with olive oil. The same book also said that we should eat less starch, so I stopped eating potatoes and cut down on grains. I don’t think my diet at that time was all that bad.. but I am guessing I still ate way more sugar than I remember. I definitely didn’t eat enough saturated fat. A very high pufa diet for sure. And I was probably also scared of red meat. In addition I remember constant sugar cravings, and fairly constant hunger, which I tried to ignore. I had practically zero energy.
Moving overseas I completely stopped working out, and did a six month binge on bread in all forms, plenty of sugary cereals, sweets and sodas. I was also basically drunk about four times a week. My mental health crashed and for a few months I didn’t really feel like living. Typical depression. I also lost my appetite, which had never happened before. Alcohol, sugar, refined starch, caffeine – the perfect depression recipe. Talk about crazy mood swings and big highs and lows. That’s a typical anorexic diet by the way. M&M’s, cereal, diet soda, coffee, and cigarrettes would be even better.
I eventually got out of that mess, and got a new roommate. She was a former vegetarian, and still thought that she could get her 18-year old body back if she went back to eating only grains, vegetables and fruit, with only small amounts of dairy. At this point I was convinced that vegetables were the solution to everything, and that red meat and saturated fat was the root of all evil. I cut down on grains and potatoes again, and had several meatless days per week. Thinking about it I don’t really understand what I ate back then! But I remember drinking enormous amounts of milk. I also remember always being on a diet, and always being hungry. I would binge on sweets quite regularly. Starving people love sweets!
I started working out, but never had the energy to keep it up for more than a few weeks. My skin and mental health were my biggest problems. Plus the chronic fatigue of course. I slept in most classes. Throughout this whole thing I was gaining weight. This is a good example of why I say “never ask more of your body than you give in return.”
I remember I ate a diet consisting of lots of low fat yoghurt and grapefruit for some weeks, while running for an hour every morning, and working out at night. I managed to lose several kg, but my skin was horrible. I now had acne down my neck, on my chest and on my back. Painful acne. I didn’t go to the beach at all that semester.
I started the Body For Life program, and struggled with eating all the rice cakes she told me I had to eat to get enough carbs. I was hungry all the time. I think that diet was a low-fat diet. I don’t remember, and I don’t feel like researching it. I actually paid for that program. I quit after six weeks after not losing a single kg. Body For Life is such an ironic name. You’d think more people would understand that it’s their body – for life! And that rice cakes probably aren’t going to nourish it properly.
Coming home to Norway in April 2008, my dad had a book on the HFLC (High Fat Low Carb) diet that Sweden is all about nowadays, and THAT is when I really got into diet and nutrition. I changed all my views on nutrition within a few hours, and switched to an extreme low carb high fat diet that same day. I immediately lost a few kilos within the first week, and thought I had found the answer to everything. I was eating meat, fish, butter, cream, cheese, vegetables and very small amounts of bread. For the first time in my life I could go more than three hours without food, and I suddenly found it so easy to just skip meals and not eat. A step in the right direction, and I’m sure you soaked up all that fat and protein like a sponge after your prior dietary escapades. A huge boost in neurotransmitter production for sure. Probably felt great.
After about six weeks on this diet, which must have been an enormous shock to my body, I started having digestive problems for the first time in my life. I would get nauseous within ten seconds after the first bite of a meal, and I would have to go to the toilet and just sit there and wait for it all to… calm down. I remember trying to eat a pear or an apple, and getting insane stomach cramps. Such diets can provide short-term relief from fiber issues and fructose malabsorption, but they don’t really heal the condition and yes, can make matters worse over time.
I quit eating bread completely, and started convincing myself that I was allergic to dairy. At this point I went full low-carb Paleo: no sugar, very little fruit, no grains, no dairy, no legumes. The whole thing. I was steadily gaining weight. My skin was getting better though, and my (still very low) energy was more stable. Sounds better. Still a big improvement, and your diet was 100% real food – as opposed to prior stages in which your diet was pretty much refined food with milk.
I stumbled upon a webpage about Candida/yeast allergy, and found a doctor that was willing to confirm that Candida had been my problem all along. I still think I have Candida overgrowth, I have ALL the symptoms, but I think my body will be able to take care of that by itself when things start to improve. I don’t think Candida is my main problem. That’s my general attitude about candida. It’s there when you are unhealthy, and takes a hike when you improve other elements of your metabolic health.
After three months on the Candida diet with some medication and supplements, I was incredibly tired of such a strict diet, especially when I wasn’t feeling any better. I was at the same time gaining weight, and I was still tired all the time. I added fasting to my Paleo-repertoire, and started heavy resistance training several times a week on top of that. I have to mention that after going Paleo I did feel better, and my acne eventually disappeared for good, and it still hasn’t come back. Except for on my back… which I am still having problems with, although that has improved a lot after adding back starch (who would’ve thought? I would have!). I’ve had a feeling for a while that nuts made me break out, and now I’m getting more and more convinced that PUFAS were always the main diet related cause of my acne. At least sugar and dairy doesn’t seem to be making a huge difference anymore. Same experience here with PUFA and acne. I can’t believe what I can ‘get away with’ now that I’ve been super low-omega 6 for 10 weeks.
This Christmas (2009) I avoided sugar as much as I could, but ended up eating everything else that my doctor said would make me sick and/or ruin the diet (milk, smoked/cured meat or fish, yeast, mushrooms, fruit, wheat). I felt fine. I got a sore throat, which I always do when I eat lots of sugar (no one has been able to explain that one yet), but other than that I felt fine. Fat, but fine. Sugar does some weird ass stuff to me too. Dry, cracking lips. Joint pain. Sore throat. Bronchoconstriction.
After Christmas I decided to fix the ?damage? that I had caused during the holidays, and decided on a zero carb diet. Meat and eggs. I think I lasted about two weeks. About 14 days too long.
February 4th Twitter tipped me about your post on Tom Naughton’s page. I read the article and basically ran to the store for potatoes.
It is now March 10th, which means I have been ?refeeding? for over a month, after I don’t know how many years of undereating/starving.
So what have I noticed? The first thing was the amazing feeling of actually feeling full after a meal, thanks to my long lost love; the potato. I almost feel bad for having blamed almost every single modern disease on the potato. I wish I could apologize to the potato. The potato forgives you. And yes, the satisfaction of a meal with starch, meat, and fat all thrown together cannot be achieved on a restricted diet of any kind. Soul satisfying.
Before adding back starch, I used to be able to eat until I couldn’t walk. I would feel like my stomach was about to explode, and I would still keep eating. A couple of times I even considered calling an ambulance. The pain was that scary. Since 4th of February I have not been able to binge like that.
My digestion is close to perfect too. And I am enjoying being able to eat whatever I want if I really feel like something. The psychological aspect of this is huge. Totally. It must be more than ten years since I have allowed myself to eat anything without feeling bad about it or having to suffer for it (skin problems or digestion). It was so worth it though! Even though I still find myself thinking “this will make me fat”, I try to focus on all the nutrition the meal is providing for my body, instead of the calories or amount of carbs. Or you could say that “If I had never assaulted myself in so many different ways I wouldn’t have this problem.” Putting on some fat, for some, seems to be like the body’s revenge for all the damage inflicted upon it.
I eat ?everything?, but what I avoid is sugar and foods with added sugar, vegetable oils and other sources of pufas (nuts, avocado, fatty fish, cod liver oil) and anything processed or refined of course. I do have the odd dark chocolate (30g of sugar per 100grams + soy lecithin), and I am eating fruit every day. I don’t know if I should quit the fruit. I also eat cream, cheese and cottage cheese almost every day. Not sure about that either. I generally avoid grains, but eat some “tortillas” (they are made out of potato flour, wheat flour, water and salt. Nothing else). I noticed that my stomach is a lot happier when I avoid fiber as much as I can, so I’ve had to cut out rye bread (sour dough). The fiber thing also explains why my stomach couldn’t handle coconut flour. Grains and nuts are definitely more problematic than fruit and vegetable fibers from a digestive standpoint. I feel more confident about low fruit diets for greater emotional stability and what not in the early going, but am open to the possibility that fruit has its advantages.
Every meal now consists of starch (potato or “tortillas”), protein (eggs, red meat, liver, shellfish , cottage cheese, some chicken or fish) and fat (butter, coconut oil, coconut milk or cream). I don’t worry too much about vegetables, but sometimes I have plenty of “fruit vegetables” (like tomatoes, squash, sweet peppers etc.) instead of starch. I’ve also noticed that I feel full for longer and more satisfied if I eat a piece of fruit after a meal.
I’ve measured my blood sugar and temperature a few times lately:
Fasting blood sugar:
– 20.Feb: 4.7mmol/l (84.6mg/dl)
– 23.Feb: 5.1mmol/l (91.8mg/dl)
Blood sugar after food:
– 18.Feb: After 30min ? 6mmo/l (108mg/dl), after 2hours ? 5.3mmol/l (95.4mg/dl)
– 19.Feb: 2hours ? 5.0mmol/l (90mg/dl)
– 21.Feb – A plate of dark chocolate (60g sugar): 30min ? 5.9mmol/l (106.2mg/dl).
– 24.Feb – 85% dark chocolate, three kiwis, 1slice of sour dough rye bread: 1.5hour ? 4.3mmol/l (77.4mg/dl).
– 27.Feb – Several different fruits, cream and cottage cheese: Immediately after ? 7mmol/l (126mg/dl), 30min ? 5.9mmol/l (106.2mg/dl), 1.5hour ? 5.9mmol/l (106.2mg/dl), 2hours ? 5.4mmol/l (97.2mg/dl).
Waking temperature:
– 20.Feb: 36.0 C/96.8 F
– 23.Feb: 36.5 C/97.7 F
– 24.Feb: 36.2 C/97.16 F
– 3.March: 36.0 C/96.8 F
– 5.March: 36.8 C/98.24 F
– 8.March: 36.6 C/97.88 F
– 9.March: 36.6 C/97.88 F (36.5 C/97.7 F mid day the same day)
I don’t know how accurate my thermometer is. I make sure I warm it up first, and leave it in the armpit for several minutes. I also check both armpits, and use the highest temperature.
It seems like overall my temperature is going up, and I do feel slightly warmer altogether. Your numbers look pretty solid. No major problems there. Your temps do seem higher, but track them before, during, and after menstruation to get a better handle on how they have changed.
I have always had freezing cold hands and feet, so when that starts improving I will know something is happening. I also have a very low ability to control my temperature. I am either freezing, or I am too hot. This is especially a problem at night when I am trying to sleep. I can be freezing and sweating at the same time. Several people have noticed improvements in these areas. My hands are like HOT almost all the time, and I went through long phases where I was always freezing.
Other problems I’ve always had:
– Bad breath
– Sore muscles and joints
– Brainfog
– Problems with my sinuses (which is the cause of the bad breath)
– Nausea within three hours of last meal (this disappeared when going low carb)
– Bloating and gas
– Headaches after meals (this still happens)
– Freezing cold when suddenly anxious/nervous (I will start to shiver no matter how warm it is when this happens)
– Hands/arms falling asleep very easily (just by holding them over my head)
– Legs falling asleep from sitting with them crossed
– Very very easily get dents/marks on my skin from socks, sheets, headgear
– Rosacea
– Runny nose every time I eat (within minutes)
– Instantly incredibly tired when stressed/anxious/worried (to the point where I’ve have to leave work because I can’t keep my eyes open)
– I sleep very lightly. A person can talk to me at any given time during the night when I’m sleeping, and I will always answer. It’s like I’m never really properly asleep.
– Painful muscles when touched. For instance: if my leg is itchy, and I scratch it, it feels like I am scratching really hard on a bruise.
– Pain in my ear after sugar intake
– Dry and itchy skin and scalp
Many of these symptoms are closely related to a low metabolism, as many minor health problems are. Dry and itchy skin and scalp, cold fingers and toes, numbness, and so on are all likely due to decreased blood circulation and protein turnover. Muscle and joint pain, sleep problems, digestive issues (slow transit time/delayed stomach emptying) can all be, at least in part, attributed to a low basal temperature. My general rule of thumb is to bring the temperature up to the ideal range, keep it there for a few months, and then deal with any remaining health problems that aren’t improving if any.
So, going low carb fixed my acne (to a certain point), and stabilized my (incredibly low) energy. It fixed my gassy gut, but not really my digestion. In fact it made it worse… before low carb I never had any problems with diarrhea or constipation. Now I can still get those problems every now and then if I’m not careful. Overall, it seems like you’ve made progress with your more recent dietary adventures. Be thankful for the ground you’ve gained.
I do feel better, and my relationship with food is a lot more relaxed. My biggest problem now really is the weight gain. I have to say that I am freaking out a little bit. I have gained a lot of weight around the waist. I have no idea how much, as I am terrified of stepping on the scales. It might be five kg. Maybe more. In today’s day and age, this always seems the most horrifying part – it often trumps the improvements in how you feel and improved relationships with food. But you can’t go back. Few return to restricted diets after giving this a shot, because it becomes so painfully obvious what a futile dead end restricted diets are.
I am not working out any more, and I am trying to sleep enough every day, and stress as little as possible. The latter is proving to be really difficult… I constantly stress for no reason. Like right now; I am feeling slightly nervous and anxious, and I have absolutely no reason. It takes time to see improvements there, but I think sleeping well and taking it easy is a great way to overturn years of abuse.
I would really appreciate your thoughts on how you think I might be doing. And also… I really can’t decide on the sugar thing. I’ve read all your e-books and all of that makes sense. Then I read some of Peats stuff, and that makes sense too. I think I will continue to eat fruit every day, but try to limit it to one or two pieces. There is no way I am adding any refined sugar any time soon. I’d be curious to see how you do with fruit in the diet vs. no fruit. I suspect your anxiety issues would be better without it, but try with and without to get an honest idea of the difference it makes. I think you’re doing fine though. It’s only been 6 weeks since you “ran to the store for potatoes,” and less time still that your body temps. have been in a relatively normal range. I would keep it up for many months to decide if you’re making progress or not. If not, I wouldn’t advise a radical shift, but a minor adjustment – such as eating more fat and less starch, or more starch and less fat, or more starch and less sugar, and so on. Minor tweaks.
I really hope the weight gain will stop soon. It is affecting my mood and my relationship too, as I don’t feel particularly good in intimate situations. With a normal body temperature, it is unlikely that the fat gain will continue unabated for more than a few months. The pace will probably slow down soon if it hasn’t already, reach a peak, remain stable for a while, and then slowly start to come down. If it doesn’t come down, reaching a peak in your body fat makes it considerably easier to shed fat afterwards. Getting healthy first, with or without fat gain in the process, and shedding a few pounds later seems to be a more sensible, lasting, and effective approach.
In your experience, how long does it normally take before the weight starts to drop again? A couple months after body temperature reaches the ideal level. And have you noticed a difference between men and women with regards to the starch vs. fructose question? From the comments on your blog and the diet-fucked blog, it almost seems like women might benefit from adding some sugar? And that men might be doing better with more starch. I have no idea if that makes sense. That hasn’t been my experience, and I think the sugar-starch thing has more to do with individuality and digestion, not gender differences. But I suspect that the Diet Fucked girls were probably making the same mistake of many of us, which is eating too much fat and too little carbohydrate, which I turned them both on to originally (almost Kwasniewski-style). My health was starting to decline on a high-fat diet also, and has improved dramatically, as has my tolerance for simple sugars, on a lower-fat, higher-carb, low-omega 6 diet. Let’s say 100 grams fat, 100 grams protein, 400 grams carbs as of late.
Again, thank you for putting all the information out there. I hope you have the time to answer my emails every now and then. My goal is to fix this without having to see a doctor, which means that I really don’t have anyone to discuss this with. I’ve already spent way too much money on medical bills, without any results. I can relate to that! And yes, I’ll have time to answer a few e-mails. Seeing what helps you out is just another learning opporunity for me and those who I share this infotainment with.
Oh, and I am 27 years old, 170cm/5’5″ and somewhere between 65kg/143lbs and 68kg/150lbs.
Matt, I'm still having some difficulty truly internalizing/grasping the large amount of starch that you claim to be eating. 400 grams a day? Really? That's 3.7 cups of dry polenta each day. Assuming 3 meals a day, you're putting down over a cup dry at each meal. In your recent filet mignon and polenta dinner video your plate didn't look like it had anywhere near that much polenta.
If it's potatoes instead of polenta the quantities get even larger. To get that 400g of starch you must eat just under 5 lbs of potatoes a day, 1.5lbs per meal. I really can't fathom gagging down that much food. I start getting full before I've finished 1/2 a cup of dry polenta.
400g. I know i pretend to eat 300g and it might be less but a few desserts make it a piece of cake. Try an ice cream sundae w banana and candy.
I couldn't read all of it. It is waaay too long. But what I read is clearly a sign of an undiagnosed celiac. Every symptom I saw was a celiac symptom. Every one.
Matt,
Do you have any case studies/clients where you followed up after a few months and found this
"…In your experience, how long does it normally take before the weight starts to drop again? A couple months after body temperature reaches the ideal level."
to occur?
Are there any such case studies or even before/after-pics on your blog of people that went through this..
Nice post!
I absolutely had the same experience with O6 and acne. I got rid of my skin problems three years ago when i cut down the O6 consumption to almost 1-3% and started eating crazy amounts of butter and coconutoil.
When I keep O6 low I can get away with almost everything. I just spent 5 days with friends partying which means tons of sugar,alcohol, burgers and refined starch (pizza). As I woke up sunday mornin I still had clear, shiny skin.
Restricting PUFAs is probably one of best things you can do for your skin and overall health!
i'm coming up to a year eating HED so i'll give an update. My childhood diet and experience was close enough to the poster, my main problems being depression/anxiety/fatigue and everything in between, hypothyroid for sure (left school at 14 and missed a lot while i was there). Aside from those main things my body was in good shape, no weight or digestive problems or things like that. My diet has always been relatively good, no alchohol and not a lot of pufas or sugar. HED wasn't a big change for me, mainly just eliminating the little pufas etc that i did eat and generally eating more. What the poster said about freezing cold hands and feet and inability to control temperature is exactly me and HED hasn't and i don't think could fix this for me. I've taken 50mg of iodoral for the last month and they may as well have been tictacs for the noticeable effect they've had.
Anwyay i've said this before but finally (finally!) i read through all ray peats articles and theres been a few times when i just stopped reading and smiled at the screen (omg tahts me!). What he says about calcification especially (hypothyroid people lose magnesium easily, lack of magnesium causes calcification etc) definitely sounds like me. My face doesn't sweat at all no matter what, and while i have clear skin its kind of dry and rough. And i don't know my blood pressure but if i hold my head upside down within a few seconds it feels like it will explode. I've always had this. Theres lots of other things I identify with reading his articles and i strongly reccommend everyone to read all his articles. Combining his ideas with Matts and also the megadosing iodine guys is i feel the most complete way to fix my health and probably most people reading this.
so now in addition to the diet i'm taking 50mg iodoral, 1g+ magnesium chloride (spraying on my skin and drinking with water), 200mcg selenium, 25mg zinc and 134mg vitamin e. The iodine and magnesium especially together is what i think will make the difference.
some magnesium articles
http://www.health-science-spirit.com/magnesiumchloride.html
http://magnesiumforlife.com/medical-application/magnesium-and-sleep-disturbance/
@Taffy
You referred to the fact that you cannot sweat from your face no matter what. I've had the same problem for a few years now and never got to the bottom of it.
I have read most of Peat's articles but cannot recall him referring to this specifically.
Did I miss something?
I have been taking around 800mg of magnesium for the past year and 50mg iodine for past six weeks, with no apparent change.
A lack of iodine in the skin manifests as very dry skin
and skin that does not sweat when an individual becomes hot.
http://www.health-science-spirit.com/iodine.html
also relatable to the acne… the less Omega 6 i eat the clearer my skin is!! i am so glad after so long and so much reading on acne i have figured this out. low carb initially helped when i tried it many years ago, but in college it flarred again b/c i was poor and lived off tuna/mayo and free jars of nuts (holy high O6!)
also, mega dosing on the protein without some fat makes my face break out as well. oh and yea i gotta admit some carbs help keep my skin soft too
Is white flour really all that bad? Europeans eat bread and pasta from white flour and it was eaten in the U.S. too during the healthy times.
The reason I ask is because a couple months ago I thought all carbs were evil, so now I'm really questioning white flour too.
Someone here said they eat white bread only because it is lower in toxins, which makes a lot of sense.
I just also want to say that I'm completely obsessed with food and numbers. I decided a couple days ago that I would just eat and be happy without counting, but this is impossible. The whole time while I am preparing or eating food I am calculating something in my mind, doing all sorts of adding, subtracting, and multiplying. I have to force myself to stop, but sometimes can't. I can't eat anything or feed anything to my son unless I at least know how many calories are in it. Even if like my husband gets himself a snack, I have to notice it and mentally calculate. I'm trying to free myself of this, I almost feel like this is OCD or something since I feel very uncomfortable if I don't allow myself to know the calories/carbs/proteins/fats.
I'm working on it though.
I also can relate to a lot of the things the poster said. Especially the late onset of puberty. I'm 18 now and still look like 16, maybe even 15. Not really complaining about that though, there will come the time, when this will prove to be an advantage.
I also think I should start calorie counting just for a few days just to get a better picture of what I'm eating. I tracked my calories today and it seems like I'm still getting too much PUFAs (but well, I ate a can of sardines today, often my protein source is less PUFA-intense) maybe a little too much fat, not enough carbs and not enough calories in general. So how low should you stay in PUFAs to really eat a PUFA restricted diet (I think heard sth about 3-4% of calories max, is that right?). Still unsure about fruit though, but I think when they get back in season, I will also eat some.
The temperatures don't look that bad to me. Mine are usually lower, but it really depends on when I wake up. At the weekend my temps are way higher than during the week, when I get up at 6:20.
It's kinda funny how weight gain seems to freak out everyone. Including me. I'm still gaining and while I also may have gained some lean mass, most of it seems to be fat. I'm still rather thin and I think I will keep gaining for a while. I don't even have that much of a problem with it, but I hate to see my abs getting less visible. I kinda trained hard for that back in the day.
Oh, and about anxiousness and stuff. In the 180 newcomer post Matt wrote: "The whole experience should be as tranquil and meditative as possible."
I agree and I would urge anyone to try meditation, regardless of whether they have any anxiousness issues or not, meditation is great!
About the iodine: Same here, I'm not really noticing any differences (but I'm only taking 12,5g a day) except for one thing: I'm finally able to sweat again! That's a great thing! I still don't weat as easily as probably would be normal, but still, this is a great improvement for me, even though it may sound kinda silly.
Mike-
Going significantly higher in carbohydrate lately has been a very recent change. I've been using basmati rice to help me out with that. It's absurdly easy to get that much starch in with basmati. I regrettfully had some Grape Nuts the other day too. Consumed 260 grams of carbs in one sitting. Felt great, until it hit the digestive tract. Kaboom! That stuff is like eating gravel.
Martin-
Consider, for example, the researcer that has studied human weight gain and the set point more than any other living human – Rudy Leibel.
"That quick weight loss is normal among the lean controls who have gained 10 percent of their body weight, Leibel says, which is why he has no qualms about releasing them at the higher weight. "They are always back to normal within six months, sometimes less."
This isn't the case for those who are underweight going in, nor is it the case for those that continue to overfeed with steel will for many months on end. But the higher the body temp., the easier it is to lose fat. That is simple physiology. You can always go Sumo and continue to overfeed, but that is not the natural inclination given adequate time. I've certainly gone through impressive body recomposition since becoming hunger and overexercise phobic 3 years ago. Sure, if I would've lifted weights throughout it might have been somewhat more impressive, but I'm not a bodybuilder.
Amen to O6 and acne.
Don Wiss-
Celiac disease is a hypothyroid manifestation.
Taffy-
I'm open to all kinds of ideas. Peats especially, as I suspect a very low PUFA diet can expedite the process of metabolic healing. The point is what we are looking to do here, which is raise body temperature to ideal levels. If going high carb or low carb or high fat or low fat or high protein or low protein or high calorie or low calorie or bed rest or running sprints or IF or cycling or using supplements or using hormones can help some people with that, then I'm all about it whatever it takes.
But I am always cautious about recommending pharmacological doses of anything and even more cautious about taking supplemental hormones. I personally have NEVER had a health improvement delivered by supplements, and I have yet to see even iodine megadosing make a difference in anyone yet. I'm even hesitant about taking vitamin D because I believe it could lead to other deficiencies. The body is full of unanticipated surprises.
Fair point, Matt, but what constitutes "normal weight" is usually more than what people have in mind unless they have a naturally lean phenotype.
The set-point theory of weight regulation states that we levitate towards a certain body fat %. We lose weight easier when we exceed it and lose weight harder when we're below it.
You want to get people back to their set-point weight as I understand it. But given the bodily ideal most women and men involved in fitness have…I don't think they will be happy there.
Vida-
You can definitely become free of this, and would have a huge weight lifted off your shoulders to establish a new relationship with food. Jon Gabriel of The Gabriel Method really grasps the importance of this. I think you'd find some great encouragement in it, and it's a quick read. White flour probably isn't the devil incarnate. I'm no super fan of refined carbohydrates of any kind, but I've always felt there is a huge difference between refined starch and refined sugar.
Madmuhh-
Obesity researchers studying overfeeding have noticed that the typical ratio of fat gain to muscle gain during well-measured overnutrition is typically 25% lean gains/75% fat… Until the maximal range is reached. Seems like some have experienced significantly higher ratios of lean to fat, and some higher ratios of fat to lean.
The trick of course is to raise temperature, increase lean mass along with fat, and then use very targeted strategies to lose fat without the lean afterward while keeping body temperature stable. Cusick actually seems to be doing this very thing right now. Last time I heard from him, he was down 10 pounds with no change in body temperature, energy levels, appetite, etc. He's got another 40 pounds to lose, so it's no time for celebration yet by any means, but if he makes it that far without a drop in body temp. or rebound hunger I will definitely take notice of that.
The set point theory is half truth though. If we all gravitated towards one set point, then weight would never change. But most people continually gain and gain and gain for a lifetime. So the set point is obviously mutable. And generalized calorie restriction, just as any 40-year dieter will tell you, tends to raise the set point. It's not yo-yo dieting, where weight comes back to the exact point in which it started. It typically exceeds the start weight, which is why I refer to it as Check dieting, as a check mark is a good graphical representation of most weight loss programs.
As Ancel Keys starvation study showed, not only did the men in the study weigh more after the diet than before, they regained 101% of their belly fat and only 60% of the lean losses by the 12th week of refeeding. At the peak, they had 40% more body fat than they did prior to the experiment. Overall, even after an entire year of refeeding, they still had a greater proportion of body fat to lean mass at the conclusion of the experiment. That was true of every single one of the 32 subjects. No exceptions.
Dieter's have the same experience. In the words of Jon Gabriel, "Many experts now concur that dieting can actually make you fat. Studies have shown that teenagers who diet are statistically three times more likely to be fat in fiver years time."
Gabriel's hypothesis, and mine with even more conviction, is that doing the opposite of calorie restriction causes a slight drop in weight set point instead of an increase, and an improvement in the ratio of lean mass to body fat – particularly if done right, devoid of addictive substances that alter our natural appetite, and in a way that minimizes lean losses and maximizes metabolism (such as a low-PUFA diet).
So that's the mirrored opposite. Lose weight to become fatter. Gain weight to become leaner. It is a long-term approach that deals with physiology, metabolism, and hormones instead of focusing on energy intake and usage through exercise.
The end goal being to feel good, look good, be lean (not 6-pack lean, but leaner than average), and maintain a healthy weight eating to appetite and exercising only when it is desired.
Is Cusick calorie cycling to achieve this, Matt?
I do understand your hesitation about supplements. I plan on staying on iodine 6 months and if there is no change I am going to quit all supps for a while
The last two posts have been great! Thank you Elizabeth and current poster for sharing your stories.
I think that the destruction that diets cause often times gets so diluted with time, that it is hard to point your finger at the true culprit, dieting!!!
The life long recall of people in these matters is often so telling.
All this low O6 talk above, I have to completely agree with. Refined sugar is definitely starting to take second place for me. My lovely wife functions so well on some protein, fat (saturated as possible), and fruit. She is stable, full, and happy. Though dinner still consists mostly a starch (potato, rice, tortillas. etc).
Oh so I got a tortilla press, and picked up some masa harina. Unreal!!!
Also Matt, I second you opinion on supplements.
With that being said I do (not everyday) supplement vit. D3 3000iu during the winter/spring months which has helped seasonal skin issues (dry/eczema) considerably.
Damn!!! All those years of elimination, when in fact it was the addition of something that has made the biggest difference. Huh, oddly consistent with the 180 approach.
Homemade tortillas. You are a culinary badass! I almost asked for one for Christmas. I'm so gonna get one before the end of the year.
What's interesting about having a low body temp. is that, when in starvation, you crave more sugar (a reliable manifestation of starvation). The dangers in sugar consumption come from too large of a quantity and displacing so many nutrients with nutrient-free fare. But it could be that, in perpetual starvation (leptin resistance), people consume more sugar as a result of a low metabolism. I'm not convinced, but I've been really into this low omega-6 thing of late.
My hesitation about supplements is this… Let's say your body is in a low metabolic state due to a severe deficiency. You take iodine, which speeds up your metabolism artificially (there's no doubt that it is artificial in megadosing quantities), and your nutrient deficiency gets worse. I have just always suspected that megadosing supplements and hormonal supplementation was like a perpetual game of whack-a-mole – but medication obviously defines that to an even greater extent.
Cusick is not calorie cycling. He is following the precise recommendations of two authors named Frank Evans and J.M. Strang, who treated obesity in 1931 without inducing ravenous hunger, lowering the metabolic rate, or causing so much as 1 gram of lean losses – even in subjects losing over 100 pounds. To my knowledge, this has never been duplicated, but the authors were very intelligent men that operated by "sound metabolic principles."
In the summary they write:
"The satisfactory clinical results are obtained because only the inactive excess fatty tissue is being removed. The vital tissues are not wasted as in starvation, as shown by careful studies of oxygen, nitrogen, and creatinine metabolism."
It had so much "Holy Grail" potential that I asked Cusick to be a guinea pig. You can read about his experiences at:
http://www.cusickonnutrition.blogspot.com
Keep in mind he has been on HED for more than 6 months, reached a ceiling in his weight, and has increased his basal temperature by 2 degrees F prior to this endeavor, which may be signficant.
I have The Gabriel Method and am rereading it now. It is interesting because he says that in the past it was life saving to have extra fat during extremely cold times. I guess that when body temp is low your body has extra fat to heat you up. This goes along with what you say too. If your body is warm enough, it doesn't need the extra insulation.
I just want to pipe up here on the whole fruit thing. I went cold turkey on fruit for at least four months. It helped my sugar cravings a lot and I'm convinced my allergies were better without it. I still was feeling the need for some sugar though, so I went the Ray Peat/diet fucked route of drinking a lot of fresh squeezed orange juice. The results were not good for me. Weight came on fast and straight to the waist. I don't know whether it was a delayed rebound hyperphagia from a diet I quit four months earlier or a reaction to the fruit. Anyway, I'm still carrying this weight now that I've cut back on fruit considerably. I eat the equivalent of a couple pieces a week.
I would just give this some time and try fruit abstinence for a period and see if that helps with the moods and helps to slow the weight gain.
The only thing that seems to control my sugar cravings (usually late afternoon) is something fairly high in fat and protein (Rye krisp and cheese with summer sausage for example, with some good pickles on the side). This just kicks those cravings in the head and I can all the way through to dinner without looking at food again. I can't believe how long it took me to figure this out. The funny thing is its the kind of snack my parents probably would have given me when I was little. I used to get home from work craving carbs so bad I would eat raw pasta.
As for the milk, thing, I have experienced it to trigger sugar cravings as well. I have a glass of milk and then 20 minutes later I'm trying to find my son's old stash of stale Halloween candy. I try to pair milk now only with other things as a drink at a meal.
The added sleep is really good. I think over time, you will see your random mood shifts and anxiety decrease.
Please don't stress about the weight. I understand what your saying about feeling that it negatively effects a relationship when you don't feel good about the way you look. But realize that that feeling is probably coming from you and not your partner. Buy some new clothes that fit and work for whatever is going on with your body now. (Nothing stresses me out more than the daily reminder that I've gained some weight when I have to battle with my clothes).
I think you've made really good progress fast. It can take a really long time to restore your hormones and metabolism. Six weeks of nourishment is unlikely to completely overturn a life time of restriction and damage.
OMG!! this post pretty much defines who i was/am! (except for the alcohol, major amounts of sugar and weight gain) i have/had almost ALL of the symptoms she listed. i keep thinking i am better but i then i read something like this post and i realize i am not. i have got to figure out how to heal. i know i have mentioned this in other comments, but i am 7 months post partum and nursing the baby. i have to still get up several times a night so i don't get super quality sleep and i haven't yet tried to record my morning temps b/c of this fact. i try to eat a lot of food, but i am constantly stressed and anxious about it and i just want something easy b/c managing two kids at this point is very difficult for me. i also get to the point where food doesn't even sound good to me so i just don't eat or i drink a lot of liquids like flavored sparkling water or milk or oj to ward off hunger. if someone cooks for me i will gobble it up and i love going out to eat for that same reason. sometimes i wish i was wealthy enough to hire a live in chef, lol.
anyway, i have been drinking some oj everyday and gotta say i love the stuff. oh, and my other sin i have been committing lately is that i bought some organic "chex" cereal and have been eating that at night with cream when i am too tired to make dinner. (esp. this week when my husband is in Canada for work ALL week) i hadn't had cereal in 5 years!! but i gotta say it makes me happy, if that makes sense.
Matt-
my temp throughout the day is usually bang on 98.6, my basal temp 97.7+ and has been since i started taking my temp properly. It might even have been around that before i started HED. I've definitely never felt that i am a normal temperature though. Also the problems that i have i have had for a long time if not my whole life (i remember my mother telling me that when i was a baby in the hospital i had to have my blankets removed because i was overheating, and had heat stroke as well at one point). I'm 21 now and aside from the aforementioned problems i feel pretty much fine. What ray peat says about excess iron, certain mineral deficiencies and tissue calcification and so on seems to me most likely to be the main source of my problems.
I see why youre hesitant about supplements but i feel diet alone has done as much as it will with me. Of course it takes years for the pufas to be removed from the body but i dont think my problems are closely related to them. I think if anything will work, aside from taking thyroid, its big doses of iodine and magnesium with a few other vitamins and minerals to help things along. I havent read of any real negative effects of taking them (iodoral and magnesium) aside from detox reactions of which ive had none so i think they are safe enough. And they also detox heavy metals and halides which is maybe the cause of my problems rather than being a little low in something.
i think the majority of people on this blog have messed up their health from calorie restriction or low carb or whatever and that diet alone can heal most of them. The source of my health problems i seem to have been born with and i have for all my life eaten more or less HED style so again i dont think its enough for me. So anyway if anything noticable happens(3 days of magnesium and my face is noticably sofer, and stings less from the spray) i'll let you all know
i also wanted to say that i have major social anxiety that i am afraid of admitting b/c i feel like a complete failure. and i can get some pretty major OCD impulses–haven't noticed them as much lately–but man it's like my body has been taken over by some kind of other force! being afraid of food in some way all of my life has been damaging, to say the least.
the whole "underweight gain 101% mostly in the belly" thing is what has kept me from taking the plunge… i am basically all muscle right now but i am not shunning carbs in the form of starchy vegetables.
things like potatoes, rice (WTF is basmati???), tortillas, oatmeal, "grapenuts" (never heard of this…cereal??). i have not had or really plan to add knowing i will gain all my weight in the belly. what exactly, specifically hormonally, do they have good about them or will help a diet i still do not understand.
also a thought about people constantly preaching high carb based peoples… their diet is very macrobiotic-like… which mostly shuns meat/eggs/cheese/dairy to an extent but doesnt totally disclude it… may be the way they eat that just keeps them thin…
i think there's a consensus pretty much you cant have you rice and pork belly too… if you eat the rice, you HAVE to keep O6 very low, fructose nonexistent, and watch your protein intake… if you choose the pork belly, you have to keep carbs low
maybe im wrong im just trying to fit the pieces together. i think i would be a prime candidate for the ancel keys study
Matt when you say "when in starvation, you crave more sugar (a reliable manifestation of starvation)". Is it safe to assume that if a person never really craves sugar or sweets their body mass is being satisfied by the amount of calories they are eating even it is somewhat "low"? Would the same go for under-eating a certain macro-nutrient like protein or fat? Would a person just crave sugar no matter what macro was missing in the diet?
Culinary badass, Haha!!! Yes, never underestimate the skills necessary to push that handle down!
Matt I quickly read through Cusick's blog entries, and, well it does seem that he is calorie cycling. Just over a much longer duration than a day to day approach. HED to Low Fat/Calorie to normal caloric range/HED all the while keeping a close watch on metabolic markers. Perhaps it's just semantics.
Riles, I believe that calories aren't that relevant over the long-term. A person can eat 2000 calories per day and have a high body temperature. A person can eat 5,000 calories and have a low body temperature. What matters is whether a person is leptin sensitive or not. Someone who is leptin resistant is in a body that believes it is starving, so body temperature drops, hunger increases, insulin resistance is triggered, and they start storing body fat. The real key to all of this is overcoming leptin resistance. Then a person can eat less, have very little body fat, have a high body temperature and no hypothyroid symptoms, and so on. I just did a video on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5tJskeuVaw
Jenny-
Ditto your experiences. Every single word. And my experiences were so powerful that I can't help but steer people with unsolved health problems towards an unsweet diet. Especially those with emotional/psychological issues. A sweet-free diet changed my life, but I'm 100% dedicated to finding ways to eat sweet foods without those negative consequences, which would be a greater level of health no doubt.
team smith-
I too have what would probably be considered some fuckin serious social anxiety, I think the result of being hypothyroid at a young age and some bad luck. All of my problems, the feeling of freezing cold hands especially, I associate with my horrible adolescence so to just feel warm all the time will have a huge emotional impact for me. I guess for you not being afraid of food and just enjoying it is the same sort of thing. I don't have any advice to give because most likely i'm worse off than you with the social anxiety but for me at least i know that when i can fix these health problems i'll find it much easier to deal with. In fact the more i learn about health and nutrition and the closer i feel to fixing these problems the better i feel, instead of knowing nothing about it and being stuck feeling like this because this is just how i am
I feel so much better now that the potato has forgiven me!
I think I need to quit the fruit for a week or two. I seems quite likely that it is to blame for my bad mood lately. I have been really emo. Annoying everyone around me.
Thanks for giving so much feedback throughout my letter! I now it was _very_ long and detailed. It is the first time I've gone through my whole "story" like that, so I just had to write down everything from start to finish.
There is one more thing, though, that I forgot to mention; last summer I lost my period for five months (on low-carb-paleo-gluten-and-lactose-free-anti-candida diet… aka. the anti-almost-everything diet). It came back some time before Christmas, but only every 40-50 days. Now I'm normal… 28-30 days between every period. So that's a really good thing.
Oh, and I think my weight gain has stopped.
Team Smith: I feel ya. I'm always at my weakest when I'm stressed and busy and don't want to cook. It's really important to keep food around that is easy and good for you. Some raw milk cheese, some grass fed beef summer sausage and rye krisp are all store bought and get me through that lazy time when all I want to do is watch tv and eat cereal out of the box. Other things that really help are Neiman Ranch canadian bacon slices. Just pop those in the microwave for thirty seconds and put them on toast for an instant sandwich that kills the carb/sugar cravings. I do that at work where I have a tendency to most starve myself. When my husband goes out of town, I make a big dish the first night he's away and live off of that the whole time. Usually something easy that the boy likes, such as sweet potato shepard's pie or hoppin john.
It helps that I have a husband who cooks a couple times a week. He usually makes pasta, which isn't great but at least I don't have to worry about dinner. The usual "man meal" of grilled meat, potatoes and a veggie or salad on the side is really great. I've been trying to get my husband to cook more by appealing to his Celtic Manhood. "Man make fire. Cook Steak. Mash potatoes. Woman take bubble bath."
idini: "I feel like I want to apologize to the potato" that was the best part of the whole post!
Hoppin' John! Holy shit Jenny. You ain't kiddin' around about this Southern cookin' delight.
Idni-
Yes, thanks for including that lack of menstruation detail. It fits in quite nicely with a recent guest post by an anonymous Paleo blogger that was infertile on Paleo, switched to HED, and boom, like the immaculate conception, she's now a got a bun in the oven. This Low-Carb Paleo for Population Control thing is becoming less of a joking matter.
Matt, 180 Kitchen is great. I've been interested though, how would you prepare for, say, a 40-day woodsman stint? ;)
Something like…granola and pemmican – and a LOT of it? The 180 community should work out some interesting solutions. I think it would be really cathartic, ya know.
I hope to do a blog post on my diet choices for the 44-day woodsman stint, with macronutrient breakdown. Protein was readily available in the woods, so no need to bring any. My carb choices were great and plentiful-ish. 300 grams starch per day. What I needed was at least 300 grams of fat per day to go with that – ghee, tallow, and coconut oil – the most compact energy pound for pound. Unfotunately I brought only 40 grams per day. So stupid. I learned my lesson though no doubt.
Jennythenipper: :) But I actually _did_ feel bad. Especially since I've told a fair amount of people to not eat potato.
Matt,
I just checked out your latest video and it got me thinking about leptin again.
Now that everyone knows that body fat is actually active tissue rather than simply fuel and that this active tissue produces among other things the hormone leptin, is it remotely possible that the quality of tissue composition is relevant in it's ability to produce 'perfect' leptin which matches it's receptors?
I have heard of hormones and receptors mutating and becoming incompatible and am wondering if body fat derived from PUFA's and fructose etc might be less efficient as an active tissue.
I wonder if leptin resistant people were to fast their fat away then rebuild on HED with only saturated fats, whether they would gain 'clean' body fat and produce more efficient leptin.
Just a thought.
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@Rocket: Whoa. That's a fascinating thought. I wonder if there's anything to it??? I wish I could be the guinea pig for fasting away one's leptin-resistant fat and replacing it with leptin-sensitive fat, though I can't think how that could be tested…
"How was this managed? It took a lot of Real Science experimenting, but the conclusions are simple to understand. The key is to make sure dieters get enough protein and carbohydrates while minimizing fat while also making sure there was no vitamin or mineral deficiencies. It turns out that dieters (who don't want to lose lean tissue) need more protein than non-dieters, on the order of 1 g per kg of LBM (vs. 0.6-0.8 g/kg-LBM for non-dieters). You also need enough carbohydrates to stay out of ketosis (about 0.6 g/kg-LBM). In my case that's about 80 g of of protein and 48 g of carbohydrates per day."
here are the calculations from Cusick's blog this would give me 320 calories per day(50gr of protein 30gr of carbs ) and 30gr of carbs (which normally puts me into ketosis)…. interesting???? this would be a lot less than doing an ESE style of fasting.
To the poster, thanks for sharing this post. It really resonated with me. It's the closest so far to my own experience. Always anxious, always thin… no matter what.
Never dieted although started running and biking a lot after college.
Recently, the past couple years I started going low carb using blood sugar regulation a la the Blood Sugar 101 website. I became a very accurate predictor of what would spike it and when. I avoided situations that would spike it and otherwise ate with abandon. I also generally sourced high quality foods and avoided PUFAs.
By about 5 months ago I was overstressed in a relationship that my ex and I were trying to make work. I was having 2 to 3 drinks a night, a lot of dark chocolate, and sleep meds. And I was exercising a lot: cardio and weights.
I've been weaning myself from all this for the past five months.
About a month ago… not even, I started HED. It was really a turning point. Chocolate and alcohol stopped almost immediately. Sleep and mood both improved. Now I'm starting to gain weight all in the belly. I freaked
about it too. We'll see how far that goes and what occurs afterwords.
My temps have jumped around a lot too. This may be an indication of low adrenals, based on some stuff I read at WAPF. I'm pretty sure I was burnt out and harming my body in various ways. Looks like I just need to let the healing occur, though if I'm fortunate, I was never that deep in.
Rocket-
I don't think it works that simplistically, rather, overproduction of inflammation, stress, free radical damage, infection, etc. and therefore SOCS3 and cortisol seems to be what blocks the action of leptin. Replacing corn oil-like body fat with saturated and monounsaturated over a period of a year or two is certainly one tool in the defense against leptin resistance.
AaronF-
Dark chocolate and sleep meds. LOL! Had dark chocolate for the first time in years yesterday afternoon and was up until 2am. Hang in there. Sorry about the ol' belly fat.
Jedi-
It's clear that the Evans and strang approach works, but the big question remains – can you keep the weight off when returning to eating normal. They did not document this, but had some verbiage in their study that suggested they kept track of subjects for years afterward. Many weight loss regimes cause weight loss, even without hunger. But they all invariably lead to rebound eventually. There's great reason to suspect that the Evans and Strang method is no different.
"I wonder if leptin resistant people were to fast their fat away then rebuild on HED with only saturated fats, whether they would gain 'clean' body fat and produce more efficient leptin.
Just a thought."
I don't think there's any good reason to do that. Fasting in general does not seem like the smartest thing to do and your body will replace your fat cells over time regardless of what you do. Even if you wouldn't lose a single gram over a year, there still would be an exchange of fat cells going on. It certainly would take longer to replace those "bad fat cells" than it would to fast them away, but it would also be much safer.
Oh, and Matt, have you looked into the posts on PaNu.com lately?
I don't know if it was because of you or whether he changed his viewpoint in general, but it seems to me like he actually has oriented a little more into the direction you are going as well.
Maybe I'm also reading a bit more into it than there really is, but I don't think he ever was so "friendly" towards carbs before, talked about how insulin is not the be all end all or the importance of Omega 6 restriction in such detail before.
Well whatever, just thought I'd post this.
"Jedi-
It's clear that the Evans and strang approach works, but the big question remains – can you keep the weight off when returning to eating normal. They did not document this, but had some verbiage in their study that suggested they kept track of subjects for years afterward. Many weight loss regimes cause weight loss, even without hunger. But they all invariably lead to rebound eventually. There's great reason to suspect that the Evans and Strang method is no different."
i agree Matt, you will certainly get rapid weight loss but with what long term consequences? :)
I see, the meat grinder over the tortilla press. Where are your priorities man?!!
I am glad to see you guys are wanting to do an oil change like I suggested a few weeks back. The best thing to do is burn off all of the fat you have that is probably loaded with PUFAs, then you can work on putting some weight on and increasing your calorie uptake. If you try to everfeed while you are still fat you will just get fatter. You would be better off getting lean and insulin and leptin sensitive first.
This is what I did. I got lean first, now I am upping my calorie uptake slowly with no fat gain, only muscle.
If you want to do an "oil change" and get rid of the PUFA and replace them with a different type of fat, Ray Peat says it will take about 4 years. That is why I suggest getting lean first to speed up the process.
JT: So how did you get lean? Calorie restriction and exercise?
Oh and another thing I just noticed. Despite the fact that I've gained quite some mass, I still don't look like I've gained that much and now I know the reason why! I actually gained quite some fat, but not around the belly, but mainly at my thighs/butt. Now this is a little weird, but shouldn't come as a surprise to me since I always tended to store most of my fat there.
But now the question arises. Why is that the case? I think I once heard somewhere that the place of fat deposition is mainly a hormonal thing. Insulin resistant people will store fat around the belly and if I recall it correctly, storing fat in your thighs/buts is mainly a sign of too much estrogen, which certainly seems to make sense to me, because women tend to store fat at those areas aswell.
The question now is. How to adress that? There's probably a good change that the HED will normalize my hormone levels eventually, but still, does anyone know any specific things that would aid to sort that balance out? If it actually is a hromonal balance.
Also, I think I'm gonna up carbs and lower fat a little bit to see how I will do on that.
I know that I've posted this before but I too got fat on HED to the point that my waist was almost 40". I had to do something because I was having difficulty breathing. I tried carb cycling and lost 5" off my waist and another 1" just cutting back on my proteins. I think that I may carb cycle again. I was never hungry, ate until I was full, but other than cycling the daily amount of carbs, I kept my starches and fats separate. I still have a little extra around the middle but nothing like before. I think that carb cycling gave me the best of both worlds.
Will and JT can you explain further you views here i am a bit confused
BTW, I haven't "exercised" much since the beginning of December because I had water damage in my basement, needed a french drain installed, waiting for the concrete to dry, etc., so all of my weight equipment is disassembled in my garage right now. I have been keeping active shoveling snow, chiseling ice out of my gutters, but no exercise program. I was reading something the other day that, in regards to heart disease, it's not a matter of how much exercise or intensity of exercise, but how much you are INactive. For instance if you train intensely a few hours a week but spend the rest of the time laying around on the couch, it's a wash. The same may apply to weight loss too. Bruce Lee was always working out…even if he was watching TV, he was doing leg raises, and he was ripped. Not that you have to work out constantly, but just keep moving. So perhaps just NOT sitting around may be the best thing for you.
This was a really great post. It sums up so much and a lot of my own experiences with going 180.
Potatoes are just awesome, no doubt about it. My ex and I both felt best when we had as much mashed potatoes as we could convince ourselves to eat, and had this full and satisfied but not bloated feeling. I make mine by cutting the potatoes up fairly small (to maybe no thicker than 15mm, no longer than 50mm) chunks and then mashing them with just butter (maybe for just me 6 big russets and a stick of butter).
About the sugar/starch debate and genders, I've seen some women here who have just as much issue with the sugar than men, and vice versa. I really don't think there is any real gender difference in macro nutrient needs at all. For myself, I do find myself mostly fine with grape juice as far as blood sugar goes, especially orange juice. Bananas and apple juice will throw me off, but I can drink 4 cups of orange juice and feel perfectly fine. I do have anxiety issues and wonder if it's related to my sugar intake at all. I'll keep checking and see, but part of me is telling me that some fruit juice is great for me, another part I'm not so sure. I wonder how much potassium has to play in it, as I think Ray Peat and chlOe have mentioned.
JT: I've thought of burning off fat to get rid of omega-6 and then start eating lots. It seems a little dubious, but a the same time might not be too bad of a theory. I guess that was a good thing about my raw foods diet. It was omega 6 galore, but I was as thin as a stick.
Off topic, but I think part of the reason a lot of the healthy natives are fine on low calorie is because their body's efficiency is so much better. We are working with adulterated and damaged bodies, so 2kCals for us is probably more like 3kCals for them (just a thought). They have the perfect bacteria for digestion and all, whereas we are working with a mish-mash of low stomach acid and poor bacteria.
Hi Malpaz, Matt recommends high carbs, moderate fat and lower protein, which is cool. All I was doing was eating high carbs some days, moderate carbs some, and low carbs some. John Berardi wrote that eating high carbs and high fat at the same time tends to increase bodyfat, so by keeping them separate, you decrease the body's tendency towards fat gain. So some meals would be high carb, low fat while other meals were low carb higher fat. For instance rice and boneless skinless chicken breast would be a good high carb meal. Or a steak, a salad and vegetables would be a good low carb meal. High carb days would have 2/3 of the meals high carb and 1/3 low carb. Moderate carb days would be 1/3 high carb meals and 2/3 low carb. Low carb day was all low carb meals. Tue and Sat were high carb, Thurs and Sun moderate carb, and, Mon, Wed, and Fri were zero carb (actually zero starch because you are getting carbs from the veggies). I lost 3 inches off my waist in the first 2 months alone and then my fat loss slowed…then I found out about the importance of refeeds. Lyle McDonald and Tom Venuto both say that the metabolism will down-regulate after 3 days of reduced calories (don't throw the baby out with the bathwater all you Venuto haters, LOL!) which Matt has been saying all along…you gots to eat. So I never had two days of zero starch in a row. Then I also found out that you should also do a 12 day refeed every now and then to keep the metabolism stoked…again, you gots to eat. So it's just a different take on what Matt is saying and I think it would be a big help for heavier folks that could really benefit from losing some weight now. jmho.
@Will: I don't know what Matt's take is on this, but I already brought something like this up before:
While keeping ratios constand and eating both fat and stach at a meal will certainly stimulate the metabolism and will guarantee a constand healing process, I can not help but think that randomization actually could have a unique metabolic advantage. I already once posted that if you overfeed continously your body may "get used" to it. Thus randomization seems like a good way to assure to ingest every kind of macronutrient, while also shedding some fat and speeding up the metabolism every now and then.
I think I may experiment a little over the next few weeks with eating mainly high-carb lower fat but also throwing in some low carb days and an occasional high-everything overfeed which ultimately wouldn't be to different from Will's approach.
The question is. Will you do yourself any harm with this approach. When looking at an evolutionary context, I doubt that randomization can be harmful, but I don't know if the same thing applies to a metabolically deranged person.
THANKS! do either of you have a blog i can follow or some examples or your days and your workouts?
do either of you have weight to lose still or are you set in your body weight?
@madMUHHH…I agree 100%. It seems that the body adapts to everything. Like when Matt says how people initially feel really good on low carb and then in the long run, it goes bad…the same with veganism, etc. I'm thinking that if you switch things around, you could maybe enjoy these benefits perpetually…but that's just a guess on my part.
@malpaz…alas, I got my information from others so I can take no credit for any of it, LOL. Here are some of the links that I used…
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par30.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par32.htm
The funny part about this link is the Christian Thibuadeau talks about how he used to be carb-phobic and that he never goes zero carb…
http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_carb_cycling_codex
This next one is the ABCDE diet, where cycling your diet is more anabolic than weight training…
http://musclemedia.com/training/abcde/v58_abc1.asp
I guess I'm of the same mindset as JT…lose the weight first, then heal your metabolism.
I am a 5'9" male, 170 lbs with a 33.5" waist. If I was a bit more muscular, that would be a good weight, maybe even slightly heavier, but I haven't been working out for about 4 months, so I have a small spare tire around the middle, but it's MUCH smaller than where I started. I don't know exactly where my weight and waist should be, but I should be a little trimmer around the midsection. Once I start squatting and deadlifting again, I might thicken up around the waist from muscle, so I don't have a clear cut goal just yet, but i will keep you posted.
madMUHHH:
" I already once posted that if you overfeed continously your body may "get used" to it."
Isn’t that what we want? The body adapting to higher calories which means no fat gain. When you start overfeeding, the body will store most of those "surprise calories" as fat. After some time the body doesn’t store additional fat because the higher calorie intake is the new normal. Therefore I would rather suspect that increasing the calorie intake slowly is the way to go.
I am not sure carb cycling is a good idea. If you are eating LC for some time your body adapts. When you suddenly eat a big carb load your blood sugar will explode. Is the body able to adapt to chaos? I am not so sure.
@Sven:
You do make a point there, but I still disagree to some degree.
First of all, what we are trying to achieve is not being able to eat 4000kcals and not gain any weight but rather to heal the metabolism. The basic concept of the HED in my opinion seems to be getting the body out of starvation mode and raising the metabolism through overfeeding. It's not about the calories per se. To guoete Matt:
"Appetite usually falls dramatically over time after body temperature rises to healthy levels ? and the HED ends up being an incidental low-calorie diet by comparison to national averages."
I think we both agree that overfeeding is the way to go. My question that still remains however is that when you continously overfeed, will the overfeeding still have the same benefits as if it were something the body was not "prepared" for. This is the whole reason why I am considering randomizazion to be a viable option. I'm not even saying it is recommendable. Just putting the theory out there.
And I very, very much doubt that your blood sugar will "explode" when varying macronutrients ratios within the time span of a WEEK. You can not tell me that your body suddenly won't know what to do with carbs, just because you had one low-carb day or anything like that.
Oh, and actually that's "quote" and not "guoete". Don't know what my fingers were doing when I was writing that word.
Lose weight, and then heal the metabolism. Interesting concept. We'll see what happens to Cusick, who healed the metabolism, and now is losing weight. I have a tendency to lean towards bringing the body temp up to ideal, and then trying to make it stick as you lose weight – monitoring it to make sure that, every step of the way, your body is not attempting to conserve energy. The moment it does, you're in a counterproductive state and digging deeper. But hey, you never know. Maybe getting rid of all that fat first Scott Abel style makes it easier for the body to achieve a high temperature later. It definitely takes less work and fewer calories to keep a 170 pound body at 98 degrees than a 200-pound body at 98 degress.
Sven-
Doing low-carb for a month straight would cause some adaptation. The point of refeeding in the manner that Will is talking about is specifically to prevent adaptation, not interrupt it.
Right now I'm kind of naturally doing a little cycling, basically eating high-carb/lower fat at each sitting until I crave meat and fat. Then I will eat something like mac nuts, cheese, and jerky to appetite almost as a snack, and then resume regular high-carb meals. So far so good. I feel better and pants are looser even though the scale has not changed.
@Will:
Just reading through your links. Didn't like the first two articles that much, but it's the concept that matters. And the third one from tmuscle is really good. Even though I haven't read much from him, I really dig most of Christian Thibaudeau's stuff. That article alone showed that he knows more about insulin etc. than many so called "nutrtional experts".
Also I think this approach is a much better weight loss approach than most other diets, because since it's a body-builders-diet it automatically aims to produce as much lean mass as possible. Which certainly isn't the most stupid thing.
Well, I think I'm kinda convinced now that I will do some mini-cycling similar to what Matt is unconciously doing. High carb, low to moderate fat most of the time. With some low carb days inbetween and a HED-Day every now and then too where I just stuff myself. Should be fun.^^
Not that I'm fat or anything, but if I can still manage to get up my temps without increasing fat mass, even better. I'm starting to look a little "unproportioned".
@madMUHHH, what I like about the second article was the "Lifestyle" approach where you fit it into your week that suits you best…and it was easy. You don't have to measure and weigh and figure anything out. That was what I DIDN'T like about Thib's article…it was a bit too complicated for casual weight loss.
It's funny…now that I stopped following a set carb cycling structure, I find myself doing what Matt is doing…I eat high carb low fat, but sometimes I just gotta have some eggs fried in butter instead of oatmeal for breakfast, LOL!
im interested in this…but i am still confused… if you arent working out/lifting… isnt this body builder cycling going to make you gain a hellofalotta fat mass?
and…they base it on more low carb/VLC days with intermittent higher carb/low fat days so by having most your days low fat and high carb arent you reversing it?
I don't think cycling adds fat mass. That's the point of it. You're not combining a lot of carbs and a lot of fat together. It's Jay Robb action.
You also may be able to gain lean mass without lifting according to the other article Will passed along. Eating is more anabolic than lifting according to this dude:
http://musclemedia.com/training/abcde/v58_abc1.asp
Matt,
I see you referenced the ABCDE-approach by fellow countryman Torbj?rn ?kerfeldt.
I would not recommend that approach since it combines two extremes. Two weeks of force-feeding followed by two weeks of starvation will make most people fat and weak and miserable throughout the process. Which pretty much sums up the anecdotal feedback from people that used the approach.
If my memory is intact, we're talking about 4500 calories per day for two weeks, followed by two weeks of 1500 calories, for the average male.
There is nothing wrong with the setup/idea per se, but I would recommend more moderate fluctuations between weeks. I can guarantee that you will feel better, look better, and be much better off in the long-term.
Thanks Martin. Duly noted. I'm generally quite skeptical of this kind of stuff anyway. It's always notoriously overhyped. Would be interested in trying a cycle sometime for shits and giggles.
The overfeeding component is very real, and we're striving to get the metabolic boost of overfeeding without some of the fat gain that many experience in the interim.
Hence the tossing around of ideas on cycling and timing, 1-day overfeeds, etc.
Can anyone please add to the list of foods with higher PUFA counts? Matt's list in a previous post was good but I'd like to add to that! THanks
Mel. Why don't you e-mail me and I'll send you my microsoft word version that you can add to. I've added a few since posting that also. sacredself@gmail.com
This Scadinavian poster clearly has adrenal fatigue and perhaps coeliac disease. If, after healing her adrenals and going off gluten she still has symptoms, THEN it might be worth investigating hypo. But, adrenal fatigue SCREAMS out at me.
Rest, herbs and a good diet will cure the AF in many cases.
Apologies. The use of the word 'hypothyroidism' is a bad habit. Adrenal problems are just as causative if not moreso of a low metabolism/low body temp.
Matt how comes you dont eat that many vegetables?
How many oz of meat do you think eat a day or how many grams of protein daily?
thank you
Lately I've been eating far more vegetables and far less meat. Potatoes are vegetables too :)
Seriously though. I've been eating tons of cooked spinach, broccoli, asparagus, salsa, etc. of late.
Been trying to keep my protein to about 100 grams per day – my protein portions rarely exceed 4-5 ounces per meal – mostly from fish, cheese, yoghurt, beef, and shrimp.
Why specifically are you trying to keep your protein down?
Because there is no advantage to consuming excess protein. A man my age, size, and activity level needs no more than 100 grams per day. The rest is basically waste that has to be dealt with and excreted. I also believe, based on the work of Broda Barnes, that excessive protein is a metabolic burden as well. His patients needed larger doses of thyroid to keep metabolism in the ideal range on high-protein diets. There's just no foreseeable reason to eat more protein than your body can use for structural purposes.
Unless for high activity , muscle building reasons, they suggest 1g/1lb body weight.. which i think is ideal and not excess.
I think about food all day long, each spare minute, calculating, recalculating … I have tried to just let it go and eat however much I need, but found to my horror that I could not stop eating when I did this. I seem to have no turn off mechanism for food – I can always eat!! This is worsened by sugar but is still a problem when I eat healthy. Over the years it has become a mental nightmare. Please, can somebody help??
Auberon-
A lot of people notice the same thing. The floodgates open up and they eat and eat and eat and eat. But at some point, this usually shuts off. You're not the first person around here to face fears of endless overeating. Although I don't know your exact situation or health condition, my natural inclination is to tell you to obey that appetite more fully than you ever have, and just eat as much as you want – maybe even MORE than you want, and see if you can get your body back to regulating this normally and naturally.
I would not recommend that approach since it combines two extremes. Two weeks of force-feeding followed by two weeks of starvation will make most people fat and weak and miserable throughout the process. Which pretty much sums up the anecdotal feedback from people that used the approach.
Hi,
I am also from Scandinavia, so I can relate so much to your story. From the early highly refined childhood foods us sugar addicted Scandinavians grew up on, to the struggle with multiple symptoms and trying oh so many different diets. And then there's 180DegreeHealth.com suddenly making a grand entrance into our lives. When you write "I read the article and basically ran to the store for potatoes" I can't tell you how much that is "me too!". I did the same thing. Immediately after reading the eBook I headed out to the store for the first potatoes I'd had in 3 long, painful low carb years. It felt so great to know that I was not alone on this journey back from "low carb prison" (in Matt Stone's colorful words). Today I can eat potatoes, carrots, beets, and blueberries without too much trouble. I'm so happy! And I definitely also think I'm getting a much more healthy relationship to food.
I also think I should start calorie counting just for a few days just to get a better picture of what I'm eating. I tracked my calories today and it seems like I'm still getting too much PUFAs (but well, I ate a can of sardines today, often my protein source is less PUFA-intense) maybe a little too much fat, not enough carbs and not enough calories in general. So how low should you stay in PUFAs to really eat a PUFA restricted diet (I think heard sth about 3-4% of calories max, is that right?). Still unsure about fruit though, but I think when they get back in season, I will also eat some.
I also think I should start calorie counting just for a few days just to get a better picture of what I'm eating. I tracked my calories today and it seems like I'm still getting too much PUFAs (but well, I ate a can of sardines today, often my protein source is less PUFA-intense) maybe a little too much fat, not enough carbs and not enough calories in general. So how low should you stay in PUFAs to really eat a PUFA restricted diet (I think heard sth about 3-4% of calories max, is that right?). Still unsure about fruit though, but I think when they get back in season, I will also eat some.
I would think 2% would be a safer bet on PUFA restriction, and it can take a very long time – over a year.
So in a 2500 cal diet; a person should eat no more than 5g a day. Is that correct?
That sounds about right. Ideally half of that 5 grams would be omega 3 and half omega 6 for best results.
OMG – 5 grams sounds IMPOSSIBLE. PUFA's are in everything! I use your list of PUFA sources, but even things like popcorn, eggs and pork have PUFA's in them. I have switched to coconut oil from olive oil and no longer eat chicken wings; but I am sure I must get more than 5 g of PUFA a day as I eat pork chops and roast chicken a few times a week and occasionally peanuts.
I consistently have low sodium levels so I crave crunchy, salty food. However, what I thought was a healthy salty snack (nuts) has now turn out not to be! Chips are certainly crammed with rancid PUFA's so they are out. I have started taking sea salt in water again so maybe that will help.
Otherwise, do you have any ideas?
Thanks!
I think 2-3 grams of omega 6 is a pretty realistic target, especially if you are a woman and eating in the 2,000-2,500 calories per day range.
For nuts, eat macadamia nuts.
If you are not eating fruit, you can displace a lot of PUFA-filled calories with more or less fat-free fruit calories.
You can also just eat less fat overall. If your primary starches are rice and potatoes, and they comprise 50% of your diet, then you have more leeway for peanuts, chicken, pork, and so on.
Don't stress over this though. It is just an idea for re-balancing the fatty acids in the body – and, while helpful for many, some don't notice a damn thing from eating a low-PUFA diet.
Starches do not constitute 50% of my diet. I am having issues with my thyroid – it's a LONG story, but basically I was optimised on natural thyroid medicine and everything was great. I was changed to a different brand and all hell broke loose. So, while we are getting my levels right I need to eat moderate carb (about 100 carbs daily) or I gain weight. Since I put on 14 lbs when my thyroid went south, this took me from a BMI of 25 to a BMI of 27. So from overweight to more overweight. Not like people who gain from a BMI of 19 to 22 or something.
So, further weight gain is not acceptable to me. I already look and feel awful with this extra weight.
When my thyroid was working well, I ate more starches and was losing beautifully. Sadly when I recently resumed a higher starch diet, the pounds came on at an alarming rate. When I saw my latest labs, I understood why!
What is the upper limit one should eat in a day? Is a PUFA from chicken skin really as bad as a PUFA from vegetable oiL?
How soon would I notice a difference from eating a low PUFA diet? Peat says it can take four years to clear out from the body!
I'd prefer to see you drop fat until you stop gaining weight as opposed to dropping carbs until you stop gaining weight, but…
Vegetable oil is much worse than chicken skin, but on a low-carb diet I think it takes much greater diligence when it comes to PUFA intake.
I would stick to mostly beef, lamb, dairy, and coconut fat if possible.
Personally, I noticed improvements in skin within weeks, but no other major improvements on a low-PUFA diet other than better carbohydrate tolerance, but that is to be expected when reducing total fats, which I also did – going from 50-60% of calories to about 40% calories (now I'm much lwoer in fat).
What about chicken breast? It is low PUFA.
What type of diet do you recommend now for weight loss? Specific plans?
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It can be very enjoyable, intimate, profound, and means you can enjoy yourselves for a lot longer when you both practice the tantra exercises. It certainly doesn't mean you don't have an orgasm! In fact with practice you can have many orgasms while having sex.
If you are looking to enhance your health, you’ll would like to at several completely different vitamin supplements to seek out which ones are the most effective for you. You ought to take a look at everything on the market, and not simply attempt some to determine what happens.
Women body is different from the man's body and they needed different kind of protein.They need lesser fat protein so they can maintain there shape.
Vida said…
Is white flour really all that bad? Europeans eat bread and pasta from white flour and it was eaten in the U.S. too during the healthy times.
The reason I ask is because a couple months ago I thought all carbs were evil, so now I'm really questioning white flour too.
I think Matt would agree that it's best to use unbleached, unenriched flour, ex: Hodgson Mills Naturally White. Organic flour is probably not bleached or enriched, but read the label as there are exceptions. Bleaching of flour creates alloxan which is proven to cause diabetes, esp when combined with a high-PUFA diet. No wonder diabetes is such a problem, ever since the companies started bleaching flour. Synthetic vitamins and processed minerals in enriched flour (or rice) are also best avoided. Most refined grains are bleached and/or enriched. That definitely contributes to problems.
Matt, your blog is being hit by an increasing amount of spam. Someone is quoting comments by other users verbatim and repeating them. This would not happen if you turned on "word verification" at the bottom of Settings/Comments. Please do.
Thanks, Ian/Bruce
http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42520
This article explains more about word verification. Basically, most comment spam is done by automated programs and word verification can at least prevent a majority of the spam. But even if it's not done by software, word verification stops most spam because people are lazy. At the least, it slows them down.