"DISCLAIMER
"The information provided here is as up-to-date, accurate, and as practical as possible in a field that is moving very quickly and is full of controversy. Any strategies suggested in this book should be discussed with and managed by a suitably qualified physician, and implementation should be supervised by a registered dietitian/nutritionist for maximum benefit."
AAAARRRGGHHHH!!!
You can always tell when a book or website is produced by someone in a licensed field -- the trouble someone goes to in order to acquire a diploma or special accreditation inspires in them an ardent attachment to the field and most everyone in it. They become identified with the organization, and hypnotized into believing that ONLY THEY hold "the keys to the Kingdom." No one else has the RIGHT to screw with their monopoly!!! THEY have the priviledge of authority over the daily choices of private individuals!
Incredible. We should be "managed by," "supervised by" self-ordained lifestyle hall-monitors? What HUBRIS on the part of "professionals" causes them to think that some deity-provided quality on their part gives them dictatorial rights over ANY aspect of MY life, let alone something like telling me WHAT I SHOULD EAT?
Incredible and laughable. Those of us who have much experience of the world and of the medical industry KNOW how little wisdom and omniscience they actually possess. The best of them realize their own limitations -- my mother was the executive secretary of the head of the pharmacology department of a respected midwestern university medical center, and i've been acquainted with two world-class "authorities" in this field all my life: nobody could be more down-to-earth than John and Stata. There's never been any brag or bluster about those two, and they'd be the first to declare they don't know it all.
But, the registered dietitians tell us, we cannot be trusted to choose what we eat without their input! We are incapable of understanding the complexities of the vitamin and mineral content of foods, though they know EVERYTHING about food! MDs, who get literally a few HOURS of instruction in nutrition know more than ANYONE else. We MUST be managed and supervised by their beneficient guidance, and realize that it's dangerous to conduct an elimination diet on our own. Above all, we must not eliminate ENTIRE FOOD GROUPS ... unless, of course, we've been inspired by the gods to give up meat for religious reasons, or ALL animal products for humanitarian ones....
Of course, if you choose one the latter paths, i just wanted to let you know that i have this BEAUTIFUL bridge for sale -- it's sure to make you lots of money -- and it's right in the heart of NOO YORK CITY!
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
confirmation -- it feels GOOD
When i was hit by that histamine tornado, i started doubting my regimen. I spent the first week of September eating VERY cleanly and vacationing from my supplements, and the second week adding them back in ... and i feel vindicated that I did a good job of choosing my additions well in the first place.
Well, although i might have rushed into trying new things there for awhile, stopping and starting again with them individually over the course of last year, i felt at the time that i had proven all of them "worthy"! :-) I've now confirmed that i'm benefitting from including them. Last week, as i added them back one by one, i felt improvement with each.
This faulty body of mine just doesn't absorb nutrients the way it should! About the only things i eat which give me a sort of "rush of well-being" are raw oysters, beef/veal liver, rack of lamb, and fatty beefsteak. An appalling number of healthyfruitsandvegetables actually make me feel BAD, which surprised me mightily when i first discovered it. Now, after further study and further experimentation i have learned to accept the counterintuitive!
We HAVE to accept what our bodies tell us, and ignore the "experts" if we adopt their advice and find our health deteriorate. EVEN IF populations have existed healthfully eating certain diets, if we try the same thing and find diminished wellbeing, it's wrong for us. EVEN IF other individuals, ostensibly similar, thrive on certain meal patterns and plans, that won't mean it's our own ideal. We each have to experiment and tweak until our own ideal emerges.
May all my readers find theirs! Amidst the storms of various opinions, there obviously is no one perfect plan for all of mankind, but i have to believe there's one for YOU.
Well, although i might have rushed into trying new things there for awhile, stopping and starting again with them individually over the course of last year, i felt at the time that i had proven all of them "worthy"! :-) I've now confirmed that i'm benefitting from including them. Last week, as i added them back one by one, i felt improvement with each.
This faulty body of mine just doesn't absorb nutrients the way it should! About the only things i eat which give me a sort of "rush of well-being" are raw oysters, beef/veal liver, rack of lamb, and fatty beefsteak. An appalling number of healthyfruitsandvegetables actually make me feel BAD, which surprised me mightily when i first discovered it. Now, after further study and further experimentation i have learned to accept the counterintuitive!
We HAVE to accept what our bodies tell us, and ignore the "experts" if we adopt their advice and find our health deteriorate. EVEN IF populations have existed healthfully eating certain diets, if we try the same thing and find diminished wellbeing, it's wrong for us. EVEN IF other individuals, ostensibly similar, thrive on certain meal patterns and plans, that won't mean it's our own ideal. We each have to experiment and tweak until our own ideal emerges.
May all my readers find theirs! Amidst the storms of various opinions, there obviously is no one perfect plan for all of mankind, but i have to believe there's one for YOU.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
home again, AND eating is like reading....
We just got back from another trip to Ol' Virginie -- had a great time with both our kids and their loved ones, visited some great vineyards, and got thoroughly worn out. ...It's nice to be home again!
As usual, i look enthusiastically forward to eating the way i usually do. Most of the trip i was "good" but on three occasions i just shrugged and ate "the bad stuff." I'm fortunate that i don't have a problem with trigger foods; this was my annual pizza binge, and it'll hold me for awhile. ;-) As a matter of fact, shortly before we started our vacation we ordered Dana Carpender's "500 Paleo Recipes" and when i had to turn off the ipad to charge properly (in the car), i opened the cookbook and got out a package of tape-flags and started reading -- OMG, do her recipes look good! Going shopping today to pick up a few ingredients!
It occurs to me that "what we eat" is similar in theory to "what we read." If we choose things to read that are merely amusing or titillating, we finish our books to find ourselves neither more informed nor wiser, but perhaps with implanted notions that affect our thoughts and behaviors with deleterious patterns. For example, "teabag philosophers" dangle plausible ideas that people want to hear and whip up their readers' emotions against innocent hate-targets. Fantasy-fiction (like television) shows us a non-existent cosmos and solves ITS problems in a way that isn't applicable in the real world. Romantic novels allow all kinds of improbable love-related behaviors to become plausible, believable, EXPECTED -- to people who will then suspect that their perfectly normal and decent relationships are deficient somehow. And i won't even MENTION bad self-help books... I tend to consider television/movie watching as a lazy form of reading. Questionable reading leads to poor thinking, choice-making and behaving.
Correspondingly, choosing "wrong" things to eat -- amusing and titillating things -- not only fails to nourish and fuel our bodies adequately, so that we can do what we need to in this world, but can set us up for disease, misery and death. When i look at all the "food porn" on commercial television and facebook, i sometimes think to myself DON'T PEOPLE REALIZE HOW NUTRITIONALLY BEREFT THIS STUFF IS? I see restaurant "healthy choices" like breaded and baked chicken breast meat in the middle of a virtual LOAF of white bread and slathered with a sugary sauce -- can anyone think that this is anything but JUNK? I find over-sugared cocktails, and dessert portions that are not only enough for four people, but excessively sweetened to the point that i can't stand to eat them. I detect "all-beef patties" which are obviously lying because of the state of my teeth when i finish eating them.
No wonder that once those twenty-somethings who used to get trashed on beer, mojitos and cosmos notice they've developed quite a belly when they pass the age of 30 (27 according to Dr Wong, 33 by the observation of Dr Donaldson). No wonder that when these people decide to start families, they often need medical help to conceive. No wonder that the mother's elevated glucose and insulin lead to their children's predisposition to obesity, diabetes and mental/emotional problems -- after all, folic acid is important in pregnancy, and orange juice is a great source of it.... (<-- sarcasm notice)
Reading for pure amusement has its place, just like treat-foods do. The problem arises when the treat occupies a central position in daily life. New low-carbers sometimes fall into this trap -- instead of concentrating on "meat and vegetables" they go searching for lower-carb substitutions of foods that got them in trouble in the first place, and which have minimal capability of digging them out of the hole they're in. In choosing our daily diet, we HAVE to concentrate on getting the (animal) protein we MUST consume along with whatever plant materials our bodies tolerate and our minds/systems "necessitate."
Even though nuts are good food, a little goes a long way and they can actually threaten to take the place of more valuable choices. Pork rinds and bacon, ditto -- it IS possible to overdo some of these things, though some people want to think otherwise. Is our goal to eat as much as we possibly can without gaining, or is it to be healthy and feel good? Although when one comes from a starvation diet of poor nutritional content to LCpaleo, the former seems important, once one gets over the hunger and starts becoming replete, i think the latter goal is the important one.
I'm not trying to take away your almond-flour birthday cake, thanksgiving pumpkin pie, or christmas trifle -- I'm saying that a constant stash of low-carb cookies is a questionable thing. I'm saying that good LC pizza is a nice thing to have in your repertory but not valuable to eat weekly while liver IS. I'm saying that a new Harry Potter movie every year has been fine, but the unending flood of crappy superhero remakes is NOT. I'm saying "pick your poison" on a VERY INfrequent basis.
Writing this reminds me of an obese friend who used to eat things she knew she shouldn't, "just this once" ... every single day.
As usual, i look enthusiastically forward to eating the way i usually do. Most of the trip i was "good" but on three occasions i just shrugged and ate "the bad stuff." I'm fortunate that i don't have a problem with trigger foods; this was my annual pizza binge, and it'll hold me for awhile. ;-) As a matter of fact, shortly before we started our vacation we ordered Dana Carpender's "500 Paleo Recipes" and when i had to turn off the ipad to charge properly (in the car), i opened the cookbook and got out a package of tape-flags and started reading -- OMG, do her recipes look good! Going shopping today to pick up a few ingredients!
It occurs to me that "what we eat" is similar in theory to "what we read." If we choose things to read that are merely amusing or titillating, we finish our books to find ourselves neither more informed nor wiser, but perhaps with implanted notions that affect our thoughts and behaviors with deleterious patterns. For example, "teabag philosophers" dangle plausible ideas that people want to hear and whip up their readers' emotions against innocent hate-targets. Fantasy-fiction (like television) shows us a non-existent cosmos and solves ITS problems in a way that isn't applicable in the real world. Romantic novels allow all kinds of improbable love-related behaviors to become plausible, believable, EXPECTED -- to people who will then suspect that their perfectly normal and decent relationships are deficient somehow. And i won't even MENTION bad self-help books... I tend to consider television/movie watching as a lazy form of reading. Questionable reading leads to poor thinking, choice-making and behaving.
Correspondingly, choosing "wrong" things to eat -- amusing and titillating things -- not only fails to nourish and fuel our bodies adequately, so that we can do what we need to in this world, but can set us up for disease, misery and death. When i look at all the "food porn" on commercial television and facebook, i sometimes think to myself DON'T PEOPLE REALIZE HOW NUTRITIONALLY BEREFT THIS STUFF IS? I see restaurant "healthy choices" like breaded and baked chicken breast meat in the middle of a virtual LOAF of white bread and slathered with a sugary sauce -- can anyone think that this is anything but JUNK? I find over-sugared cocktails, and dessert portions that are not only enough for four people, but excessively sweetened to the point that i can't stand to eat them. I detect "all-beef patties" which are obviously lying because of the state of my teeth when i finish eating them.
No wonder that once those twenty-somethings who used to get trashed on beer, mojitos and cosmos notice they've developed quite a belly when they pass the age of 30 (27 according to Dr Wong, 33 by the observation of Dr Donaldson). No wonder that when these people decide to start families, they often need medical help to conceive. No wonder that the mother's elevated glucose and insulin lead to their children's predisposition to obesity, diabetes and mental/emotional problems -- after all, folic acid is important in pregnancy, and orange juice is a great source of it.... (<-- sarcasm notice)
Reading for pure amusement has its place, just like treat-foods do. The problem arises when the treat occupies a central position in daily life. New low-carbers sometimes fall into this trap -- instead of concentrating on "meat and vegetables" they go searching for lower-carb substitutions of foods that got them in trouble in the first place, and which have minimal capability of digging them out of the hole they're in. In choosing our daily diet, we HAVE to concentrate on getting the (animal) protein we MUST consume along with whatever plant materials our bodies tolerate and our minds/systems "necessitate."
Even though nuts are good food, a little goes a long way and they can actually threaten to take the place of more valuable choices. Pork rinds and bacon, ditto -- it IS possible to overdo some of these things, though some people want to think otherwise. Is our goal to eat as much as we possibly can without gaining, or is it to be healthy and feel good? Although when one comes from a starvation diet of poor nutritional content to LCpaleo, the former seems important, once one gets over the hunger and starts becoming replete, i think the latter goal is the important one.
I'm not trying to take away your almond-flour birthday cake, thanksgiving pumpkin pie, or christmas trifle -- I'm saying that a constant stash of low-carb cookies is a questionable thing. I'm saying that good LC pizza is a nice thing to have in your repertory but not valuable to eat weekly while liver IS. I'm saying that a new Harry Potter movie every year has been fine, but the unending flood of crappy superhero remakes is NOT. I'm saying "pick your poison" on a VERY INfrequent basis.
Writing this reminds me of an obese friend who used to eat things she knew she shouldn't, "just this once" ... every single day.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
"authoritative" writers owe their readers good reasons for their recommendations
This was a note i made to myself on the Low-Carb Cruise, and i meant to write on the subject when i became inspired. The inspiration came yesterday, from the person who originally prompted the note. She did it again!
This was the woman whose talk actually "put off" my husband during the seminars. Her husband, a physician, came across very well both on the stage and off -- he gave me a piece of advice which impressed me with his insight and experience. Apparently, before the two of them married she was in publicity ... and it shows. She's probably been an asset to their professional success, but as the front-woman for nutritional educators, she leaves a good deal to be desired.
I read an article which she wrote -- one of those "x# foods you should never eat" kind of things. I confess, that kind of article tends to annoy me in the first place because the style is so "cheap media hook-ish." But when she was discussing the objectionable ingredient in the product being targeted, she threw in the logic-dismissing comment that this ingredient was also used in an industrial application -- after all, if they use THAT to do this icky thing, you certainly won't want to EAT it!
Sorry, chickie, you just lost all the engineers in the audience, and probably a good chunk of the chemists, biologists, lab-techs, mathematicians, and other technical folks too. You may win over the kind of people who think liver is "gross" with your kind of logic, but they're about all.
Anyone who makes recommendations to their fellow creatures from a position of "authority" SHOULD feel a responsibility to provide a sound and cogent reason for their point of view. "Because they use ingredient X to do nasty-job Y" is not a sound and cogent reason. Should i never cook with baking soda because it can also be used to clean toilets? Should vinegar be off the menu because it will kill weeds in the cracks of my garden path?
Granted that a wax made from petroleum is probably not as good a choice for food use as one made by bees, that does not mean paraffin in certain applications is unwholesome. There are an awful lot of neutral substances in this world, which are perfectly safe and reasonable to use in food applications. The nutritional -- and chemical -- realms are NOT properly illustrated in black-and-white....
The same emotional illogic is used in the condemnation of sucralose and a lot of other products, the utilization of which may not be IDEAL, but is minimally problematic for most people. This kind of thinking is behind why i had to buy my mother a special little soft brush for cleaning mushrooms -- "they're grown on COW MANURE!" Uh -- no. They're grown on COMPOSTED cow manure which is an entirely different substance. Uncomposted manure has too high a nitrogen content to grow ANYTHING.
I hope this lady will learn that dropping buzzwords (natural! organic!) and scare/gross-out tactics (bugs! petroleum!) is not doing their nutrition-and-supplement business any good amongst thinking people. At the end of her talk, as we were trotting off to the Red Frog Pub to get a drink during the break, J snorted, "we shouldn't eat THAT because it's used to de-ice airplane wings? They spray beet-juice on roads to help de-ice them -- does that mean we can never eat beets again?"
Monday, May 20, 2013
FINALLY at home
Well, actually, we drove into our alley parking spot at about ten, the night before last. Yesterday we went out and bought groceries (way out in the country for our pastured pork) and have been busily unpacking, and also ordering things we found out about during our trip, and some things we used up during it. I ran out of magnesium, zinc and B12, and am very low on systemic enzymes and pregnenolone; i haven't had ANY mucuna for three weeks, and replenished a couple of things while in Houston -- why is it everything seems to need refilling at once? :-) The supplement bill is a killer this month.
What with a million smaller mental/emotional annoyances and a few larger physical ones (like weather which exacerbates physical malaise), i've been pretty stressed for the last couple of days. I find it impossible to get my husband to understand that i NEED to take it easy for a little while, to recharge my batteries. "Normal" people will NEVER be able to fathom the problem of low energy and physical limitation.
He's outside mowing the over-grown backyard while i write this. Me, i'm in my nightie sitting in the "bedroom reading chair" with my overheating laptop perched on a big book (to keep it from scorching my thighs and turning itself off...). I've had a sinus headache for days, on and off, because of the damp weather and springtime pollen-fest both in Houston and here. Our carpenter MIGHT be coming today but i'm not sure. We DO need to look into the problem of our new 4-gig data limit (phone and portable modem) inexplicably using excessive amounts of our allowance while we're asleep.
Our Spenser was a very good dog during the whole ordeal (from his point of view) -- he DID take a nip out of our SIL, but it seems to have been our daughter's "fault" for rough-housing with her friend and upsetting him. :-( SIL was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.... He got along with his host-dogs very well, and the kids are getting better at coexisting with him (though they know they can't hug and pet him the way they do with their own "normal" dogs). But Spense is getting old! He needs shorter walks these days, and too much departure from his usual diet also discombobulates him. I cleaned up an "accident" this morning, and that's unusual for him.
As i said, i'm feeling pretty stressed. Sorry about the bitch-fest. On top of still not having my "dopa mucuna" i've also been trying to minimize alcohol, that great numbifier.
As my diet gets back to normal, i anticipate better physical/mental/emotional tone. Can't happen too soon!
What with a million smaller mental/emotional annoyances and a few larger physical ones (like weather which exacerbates physical malaise), i've been pretty stressed for the last couple of days. I find it impossible to get my husband to understand that i NEED to take it easy for a little while, to recharge my batteries. "Normal" people will NEVER be able to fathom the problem of low energy and physical limitation.
He's outside mowing the over-grown backyard while i write this. Me, i'm in my nightie sitting in the "bedroom reading chair" with my overheating laptop perched on a big book (to keep it from scorching my thighs and turning itself off...). I've had a sinus headache for days, on and off, because of the damp weather and springtime pollen-fest both in Houston and here. Our carpenter MIGHT be coming today but i'm not sure. We DO need to look into the problem of our new 4-gig data limit (phone and portable modem) inexplicably using excessive amounts of our allowance while we're asleep.
Our Spenser was a very good dog during the whole ordeal (from his point of view) -- he DID take a nip out of our SIL, but it seems to have been our daughter's "fault" for rough-housing with her friend and upsetting him. :-( SIL was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.... He got along with his host-dogs very well, and the kids are getting better at coexisting with him (though they know they can't hug and pet him the way they do with their own "normal" dogs). But Spense is getting old! He needs shorter walks these days, and too much departure from his usual diet also discombobulates him. I cleaned up an "accident" this morning, and that's unusual for him.
As i said, i'm feeling pretty stressed. Sorry about the bitch-fest. On top of still not having my "dopa mucuna" i've also been trying to minimize alcohol, that great numbifier.
As my diet gets back to normal, i anticipate better physical/mental/emotional tone. Can't happen too soon!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
pointing fingers at the wrong villains
How synchronicitous! I just read the year-old WAPF article on salt which ties in very neatly to my recent ponderings on the subject.
We're accustomed to seeing high-carb rodent diets being described as "high-fat" and all their ill effects being blamed on the lard in them -- as though that were good old-fashioned pig-fat from pastured swine instead of the high-PUFA, partially-hydrogenated garbage the passes for lard today. But i'm not sure the bloated PMSing women out there (of which i was one) might have any clue that it's NOT the salt that came on their pizza or fries that is making them miserable....
Ya know what else causes water retention? Sugar (and other carbs, especially lactose and fructose if you're intolerant). Insulin. Cortisol. Allergies. MSG. Alcohol. And probably a whole lot of other things, too. But of course i keep coming back to the fact that "TABLE" SALT takes the rap.
As i pointed out before, i love salt and use it liberally at home. I NEED salt for the sake of my digestion. I find it hard to believe that i'm getting significantly more NaCl in restaurants. When CW slams something that i KNOW is beneficial for me, it makes me mad that others like me (but less headstrong) might believe the idiots and forgo something that would make their health better. And since the "logical" way CW deals with failure of a public policy is to make the original recommendations stronger, we get stupid reactions like denying school-children the use of salt-shakers....
The WAPF article makes it clear that although in a small population, severe salt restriction may lower BP by single digits, all-cause mortality in the general population seems to rise. Why is it, with salt and dietary fats, tiny fragments of demographics getting bad results get extrapolated to the rest of us, and now that we have large-and-growing bad effects of grains and other carbs, the cautions against them DON'T happen? If it were only the case of lobbying, i'd think the egg, dairy and meat-producers would band together and stand as strong as the wheat/corn/soy group does, but it doesn't seem to work that way.
We're accustomed to seeing high-carb rodent diets being described as "high-fat" and all their ill effects being blamed on the lard in them -- as though that were good old-fashioned pig-fat from pastured swine instead of the high-PUFA, partially-hydrogenated garbage the passes for lard today. But i'm not sure the bloated PMSing women out there (of which i was one) might have any clue that it's NOT the salt that came on their pizza or fries that is making them miserable....
Ya know what else causes water retention? Sugar (and other carbs, especially lactose and fructose if you're intolerant). Insulin. Cortisol. Allergies. MSG. Alcohol. And probably a whole lot of other things, too. But of course i keep coming back to the fact that "TABLE" SALT takes the rap.
As i pointed out before, i love salt and use it liberally at home. I NEED salt for the sake of my digestion. I find it hard to believe that i'm getting significantly more NaCl in restaurants. When CW slams something that i KNOW is beneficial for me, it makes me mad that others like me (but less headstrong) might believe the idiots and forgo something that would make their health better. And since the "logical" way CW deals with failure of a public policy is to make the original recommendations stronger, we get stupid reactions like denying school-children the use of salt-shakers....
The WAPF article makes it clear that although in a small population, severe salt restriction may lower BP by single digits, all-cause mortality in the general population seems to rise. Why is it, with salt and dietary fats, tiny fragments of demographics getting bad results get extrapolated to the rest of us, and now that we have large-and-growing bad effects of grains and other carbs, the cautions against them DON'T happen? If it were only the case of lobbying, i'd think the egg, dairy and meat-producers would band together and stand as strong as the wheat/corn/soy group does, but it doesn't seem to work that way.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
"liver" is the new "oysters"
If the fashion industry can do it, i can too! :-D "Red is the new black" -- PLEEEEEASE...! (Even though red IS my best color.)
Just recently broke my fast on a liver-bacon-onion stirfry, and now i'm enjoying that glow i described a few posts ago, when discussing how good i feel eating oysters on the half-shell. It really is a wonderful discovery! When oysters are out-of-season, liver will ALWAYS be there.
Why does my body seem to be able to absorb the nutrients it wants from liver and oysters, better than from muscle meats? Can't tell ya.... Could be the sheer volume of nutrients in them, or it could have something to do with nutrients COMPETING for absorption, who knows? (And that IS a real question, not rhetorical.)
I find it so ironic -- a food i've avoided most of my life because of my dislike of its texture is transforming my life NOW....
Just recently broke my fast on a liver-bacon-onion stirfry, and now i'm enjoying that glow i described a few posts ago, when discussing how good i feel eating oysters on the half-shell. It really is a wonderful discovery! When oysters are out-of-season, liver will ALWAYS be there.
Why does my body seem to be able to absorb the nutrients it wants from liver and oysters, better than from muscle meats? Can't tell ya.... Could be the sheer volume of nutrients in them, or it could have something to do with nutrients COMPETING for absorption, who knows? (And that IS a real question, not rhetorical.)
I find it so ironic -- a food i've avoided most of my life because of my dislike of its texture is transforming my life NOW....
Sunday, February 10, 2013
i agree with Zoe
Britain has been having troubles with their processed-food supply like the one we had with our infamous "pink slime," but in their case it's worse because the offending ingredient is not even a bovine product (sorry, Cow!). Horse-meat has been found where people thought they were eating beef. My indignation doesn't have as much to do with the "ewwww factor" but with trust and disclosure.
There doesn't seem to be anything actually WRONG with eating horse or slime (nutritionally) if you compare it with eating sucrose and wheat flour. If those pairs of "foods" were my only choices, you can easily guess which i'd pick.
But i'm of the opinion that truth in labeling is important -- sometimes there are darned good reasons for eating a prepared meal, and people should have informed choice. A lot of people don't read labels, and ... frankly, if they don't care enough after they've been alerted (and i'm not shy about alerting people -- my FB posts are full of that), let the buyer beware. But when you DO read labels and you DON'T know that "spices" can mean "MSG" as an example ... to me that's wrong. Some people's health can be seriously undermined by the duplicity of BigFood.
The serious snobs will say, well just don't eat processed food! Eat what you've seen growing with your own eyes! Know your farmer! ... All well and good actually -- IF YOU CAN. Some people can't. Some people have so many other things in their lives requiring attention, they HAVE to get on as best they can. Even people like me who can take the time and spend the money to source healthy whole foods, SOMETIMES have to cut corners! It's called "LIFE."
So, all you libertarians -- we NEED central entities to make those "smart successful businesses" treat the consumer with a decent degree of fairness. We need those smart successful businessmen to add a little integrity to the mix. Zoe thinks we're fools to trust processed-food manufacturers, and she's got a point ... BUT if they're breaking laws to ensure their "success" we should be able to trust that the bastards WILL be nailed to the wall.
...Anecdotally, mule is supposed to be a better meal than horse. It's said that explorers, emigrants, hunters and trappers in the "old west" preferred using mules for several reasons, only one of which was that if things went bad ... mule tasted GOOD. ;-)
There doesn't seem to be anything actually WRONG with eating horse or slime (nutritionally) if you compare it with eating sucrose and wheat flour. If those pairs of "foods" were my only choices, you can easily guess which i'd pick.
But i'm of the opinion that truth in labeling is important -- sometimes there are darned good reasons for eating a prepared meal, and people should have informed choice. A lot of people don't read labels, and ... frankly, if they don't care enough after they've been alerted (and i'm not shy about alerting people -- my FB posts are full of that), let the buyer beware. But when you DO read labels and you DON'T know that "spices" can mean "MSG" as an example ... to me that's wrong. Some people's health can be seriously undermined by the duplicity of BigFood.
The serious snobs will say, well just don't eat processed food! Eat what you've seen growing with your own eyes! Know your farmer! ... All well and good actually -- IF YOU CAN. Some people can't. Some people have so many other things in their lives requiring attention, they HAVE to get on as best they can. Even people like me who can take the time and spend the money to source healthy whole foods, SOMETIMES have to cut corners! It's called "LIFE."
So, all you libertarians -- we NEED central entities to make those "smart successful businesses" treat the consumer with a decent degree of fairness. We need those smart successful businessmen to add a little integrity to the mix. Zoe thinks we're fools to trust processed-food manufacturers, and she's got a point ... BUT if they're breaking laws to ensure their "success" we should be able to trust that the bastards WILL be nailed to the wall.
...Anecdotally, mule is supposed to be a better meal than horse. It's said that explorers, emigrants, hunters and trappers in the "old west" preferred using mules for several reasons, only one of which was that if things went bad ... mule tasted GOOD. ;-)
Saturday, February 9, 2013
seasonal inclinations
The instinctual tendencies i observe in myself, concerning what foods i WANT to eat from one day to the next, are fascinating to me. Here in the midst of winter with chilly temperatures but lengthening daylight, i seem to have lost a lot of interest in meat and starch, and my appetite is leading me in the direction of seafood. Left to itself (with no media-invoked temptations to pursue commercial foods), would our "nutrient sensors" cause us to eat the appropriate seasonal diet?
I can only speculate, because i've never heard much that's very scientific about seasonal eating, except the advisability of consuming what's seasonally grown in one's own location, for different reasons. I know that in the summer we grow muscle easily on protein and carbohydrate, and in the fall our endocrine systems urge us to put on fat to survive the upcoming winter (which never actually arrives for a lot of people). But what are we SUPPOSED TO EAT, physiologically-speaking, in the winter?
Is it because the fresh green grass, which helped to load our meat-animals with vitamin K2 and omega-3 during the spring and summer, is no longer THEIR diet, that my appetite is leaning toward ... other things? I'm not much on cravings, but when my appetite screams for a food, it generally means that food packs the nutrient my body wants -- like during the visit we made to VA last year when my body screamed for a big, very-rare steak ... then a nap. My body KNOWS.... The last few days (since the last family-pack of GF ground beef got finished), it's been NUTS which sound good. One day i'll eat an ounce or two of macadamias, the next day it might be pistachios and the following, cashews -- and these are not snacks, but a self-contained meal.
This is not to say that nuts are all i HAVE been eating (along with my wine/cocktail) -- the day before yesterday i made a new crockpot stew based on Julia Child's daube de boeuf Provence-style (LOVE the garlic-caper mixture to dollop on the finished bowl). But i have NOT had the steak-craving that has been known to drive my meal plans. OR ... is it because the liver i've been eating is SO full of similar nutrients that when a nutrient-calling happens, my appetite skips over steak to go straight to the powerhouse? If the latter is the case, it points up a big flaw in the FRH -- steak is much higher on the palatability scale than liver is ... at least to me!
A really wonderful college English teacher one day called something to the attention of the class which has stuck with me ever since -- and that's been a LONG TIME. ;-) He pointed out the numerous songs and poems Britain's literature has which are paeons* to springtime, and frequently specific to May-time, tra la! He described the medieval rural scene in winter -- small, smoky rooms without glass windows; dark, because before the kerosene (paraffin) lamp with glass chimney made decent lighting affordable, the working classes with their betty-lamps and tallow dips could not do as well as (expensive) candle-burning did; miserably damp, cold and muddy before the days of paving and india-rubber boots; eating a diet of progressively-less-appealing nature, which they were capable of storing through the winter.... Then he described how their world changed in spring, when they were able to open the shutters and fling the doors wide without excessive chill, the sun warmed everything and dried out the roads and encouraged things to grow (GREENS -- yummmm). So no wonder they composed songs of happiness, huh?
______
* yes, i KNOW that "paeon" actually describes a specific meter, but i'm using the word in the generic sense -- poetry. ;-)
I can only speculate, because i've never heard much that's very scientific about seasonal eating, except the advisability of consuming what's seasonally grown in one's own location, for different reasons. I know that in the summer we grow muscle easily on protein and carbohydrate, and in the fall our endocrine systems urge us to put on fat to survive the upcoming winter (which never actually arrives for a lot of people). But what are we SUPPOSED TO EAT, physiologically-speaking, in the winter?
Is it because the fresh green grass, which helped to load our meat-animals with vitamin K2 and omega-3 during the spring and summer, is no longer THEIR diet, that my appetite is leaning toward ... other things? I'm not much on cravings, but when my appetite screams for a food, it generally means that food packs the nutrient my body wants -- like during the visit we made to VA last year when my body screamed for a big, very-rare steak ... then a nap. My body KNOWS.... The last few days (since the last family-pack of GF ground beef got finished), it's been NUTS which sound good. One day i'll eat an ounce or two of macadamias, the next day it might be pistachios and the following, cashews -- and these are not snacks, but a self-contained meal.
This is not to say that nuts are all i HAVE been eating (along with my wine/cocktail) -- the day before yesterday i made a new crockpot stew based on Julia Child's daube de boeuf Provence-style (LOVE the garlic-caper mixture to dollop on the finished bowl). But i have NOT had the steak-craving that has been known to drive my meal plans. OR ... is it because the liver i've been eating is SO full of similar nutrients that when a nutrient-calling happens, my appetite skips over steak to go straight to the powerhouse? If the latter is the case, it points up a big flaw in the FRH -- steak is much higher on the palatability scale than liver is ... at least to me!
A really wonderful college English teacher one day called something to the attention of the class which has stuck with me ever since -- and that's been a LONG TIME. ;-) He pointed out the numerous songs and poems Britain's literature has which are paeons* to springtime, and frequently specific to May-time, tra la! He described the medieval rural scene in winter -- small, smoky rooms without glass windows; dark, because before the kerosene (paraffin) lamp with glass chimney made decent lighting affordable, the working classes with their betty-lamps and tallow dips could not do as well as (expensive) candle-burning did; miserably damp, cold and muddy before the days of paving and india-rubber boots; eating a diet of progressively-less-appealing nature, which they were capable of storing through the winter.... Then he described how their world changed in spring, when they were able to open the shutters and fling the doors wide without excessive chill, the sun warmed everything and dried out the roads and encouraged things to grow (GREENS -- yummmm). So no wonder they composed songs of happiness, huh?
Bullock sterteth, bucke verteth, merrye sing cuckoo!...I guess it's apparent what we should be eating in the spring.
______
* yes, i KNOW that "paeon" actually describes a specific meter, but i'm using the word in the generic sense -- poetry. ;-)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
cravings
I've been plagued by food memories today. I guess that makes this a good time to talk about cravings!
There used to be a restaurant we'd visit when i was a teen, that served an amazing hot ham and swiss sandwich on pumpernickel. I think of it from time to time -- i don't know why it was so much better than any other sandwich of its like, but it WAS. If that thing were offered to me right now, i have little doubt i'd devour it, wheat and all.
Earlier today (late afternoon) something made me think of the gooey cheese on a good pizza, and i WANTED it. Not the pizza, just the hot mozzarella-blend that had been flavored by the toppings and sauce underneath it. I settled for a bowl of (innocent) chili with an ounce or so of grated cheddar stirred in, which hit the spot.
Why does this happen? Sometimes it's obvious -- an ad for a foodstuff may attract us directly. Or perhaps a suggestion in one's surroundings may spark a string of associations that trigger a longing for some dish, even if the immediate link has nothing to do with it directly. There are some books and movies which i associate with particular foods in an emotional way; i'm reminded of the book and the thought of the food comes leaping to mind. Our imaginations are our worst tempters to dietary "sin"!
There are times when i have no doubt that it is a nutritional lack which drives a craving. One day last summer when i was feeling crummy i got a fierce craving for a big rare steak; i had one, and promptly felt better. People report similar experiences with chocolate. When i'm stressed to the point that i get carb or alcohol cravings, experience tells me it's a B-vitamin fix that i REALLY need.
Occasionally the associations of time-of-day or a particular activity affect me, just like the book/movie associations do. And when our bodies are weary, our brains know that a carby snack will perk us up, even if we don't think about it consciously. Don't dare think about the taste, texture, look, smell, or mouth-feel of a particular treat, because your subconscious mind may latch on to the idea and not let go....
There are probably an infinite number of possible triggers -- that's academic. The important point is, what to do to take away their power before they nag you to do something you'll regret!
I'd say that the first thing to do is to determine if honest hunger may be the cause of the craving. Duh! :-) Nutritional need may be present, even if one has eaten recently, though. If i feel unsatisfied after a meal, nine times out of ten it means that i didn't get enough of either protein or fat (or both). On most occasions of this nature, a cup of coffee with a generous amount of cream tops off the meal perfectly. If some kind of stress has me frantic for either a cookie or a cocktail, popping a b-complex vitamin has been known to make things better.
Breaking the associations between food and unrelated activities is a subject that deserves some study. Perhaps my longing for peppermint ice cream when i read that book might be derailed if i sip some peppermint iced tea instead? I already know that when i get home from a busy afternoon out, a cup of HOT tea is just as relaxing as a glass of wine. Sitting down to watch a favorite holiday movie, it's easier to forgo popcorn or party mix or some other "evil" snack if my hands are busy with a knitting, crocheting, or tatting project.
Distraction is sometimes a viable technique for disable a craving -- doing something that requires close concentration can be helpful. Reading in a different room, or even in a different chair sometimes removes one of the "reminders to snack." I can imagine that rearranging the furniture in the sitting-room might help!
Anybody out there have favorite tricks or inspired ideas? Please share! We're getting to the time of year when temptations are even greater!
Friday, October 5, 2012
"the REST of the story"
I read lots more blogs than i have on my own list -- but there are a few reasons why some aren't there. Certainly the largest group is made up of sites i'm not particularly familiar with; i might have read a couple of examples from bloggers out of hundreds of posts, but until i find their information consistently helpful i definitely won't recommend them ... yet. There are also a bunch of sites that i agree with a lot, but not ENOUGH. Several of the ones i've removed from the list fall into this category, and i consigned them to limbo because just a FEW of their ideas are SO "wrong" (for me) that i consider their advice problematic. Hell, the big reason i write here is to pass along what WORKS for me, and potentially for those with similar challenges!
Other sites i read are on other bloggers' lists, and i only click the link if the title sounds interesting (a lesson: make titles interesting*). Therefore, i come across a LOT of writings which advocate dietary practices that i KNOW are deleterious to MY health, and probably that of quite a few others as well.
This is why i'm compelled to write so often in response to other bloggers' posts -- i can't stand reading those sincere, heart-felt messages full of BAD NUTRITIONAL ADVICE!
So, when i read a post just now, extolling the virtues of one of those hearthealthywholegrains (not wheat), it made me tense up all over. The nice vegetarian dietician lady was telling her readers how to choose and prepare a meal of a less-processed grass-babies. She didn't even advise to disable the antinutrients, or recommend avoiding the kind that can't be thus improved. :-(
Now, i KNOW these particular grass-babies are deleterious to my health. I did a careful elimination-retrial-elimination, and it was almost as bad as wheat when it comes to joint pain. So i have to conclude that, to carbohydrate-sensitive people (like me) who have autoimmune problems with wheat (like me), should stay the hell away from ANY grain that contains ANY degree of gluten, unless an elimination trial shows its side-effects are bearable. Like me.
_______
* not something like ... oh, for instance, "daily quote" or "surprise of the day".... there's nothing compelling in those at all. ;-)
Other sites i read are on other bloggers' lists, and i only click the link if the title sounds interesting (a lesson: make titles interesting*). Therefore, i come across a LOT of writings which advocate dietary practices that i KNOW are deleterious to MY health, and probably that of quite a few others as well.
This is why i'm compelled to write so often in response to other bloggers' posts -- i can't stand reading those sincere, heart-felt messages full of BAD NUTRITIONAL ADVICE!
So, when i read a post just now, extolling the virtues of one of those hearthealthywholegrains (not wheat), it made me tense up all over. The nice vegetarian dietician lady was telling her readers how to choose and prepare a meal of a less-processed grass-babies. She didn't even advise to disable the antinutrients, or recommend avoiding the kind that can't be thus improved. :-(
Now, i KNOW these particular grass-babies are deleterious to my health. I did a careful elimination-retrial-elimination, and it was almost as bad as wheat when it comes to joint pain. So i have to conclude that, to carbohydrate-sensitive people (like me) who have autoimmune problems with wheat (like me), should stay the hell away from ANY grain that contains ANY degree of gluten, unless an elimination trial shows its side-effects are bearable. Like me.
_______
* not something like ... oh, for instance, "daily quote" or "surprise of the day".... there's nothing compelling in those at all. ;-)
Saturday, September 29, 2012
a real-life MYSTERY!
Of all the things that could POSSIBLY go wrong with human health, nutrition and the epigenetic ramifications it has should probably be among the first things suspected, along with infection and toxicity. Why it isn't that high on the list for sufferers and their physicians is a subject for more knowledgeable writers than i am....
But no -- the medical industry would much rather hunt for chimaeras than rabbits. And many patients would much rather consider themselves the prey of a mysterious disease process than come to the conclusion that their favorite foods (and other lifestyle choices) are causing their degeneration. They'd rather take a pharmaceutical whose list of side-effects is as long as your arm, than even TRY taking grains out of their diets or give up their nightly Ben & Jerry's fix.
There's a reasonable chance that people resist the idea that changing their diets could improve their health because they've tried many other alterations and found them worthless. I wish i could remember where i read this idea, so credit could go where it belongs.... It makes perfect sense that if Joe switched from french-fries to baked potatoes and fat-free sour cream, and it made no difference either in how he felt or how his blood-test turned out, he might be skeptical about switching from potatoes to turnips, as a "frinstance." Certainly, if he followed mainstream health recommendations over the last half-century, any changes he made would have had little impact on his wellness, or his subjective sense of it. If these "common sense" changes didn't help, why would Joe be inclined to try something that his conditioning would react to as illogical?
Poor Joe -- he believes that dieticians actually know what they're talking about when it comes to food -- they're SPECIALISTS, aren't they? When it comes to weight-gain, it's all about the calories, and for health, it's vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Moderation in everything! All saturated fats are alike, and BAD. Macronutrient, schmacronutrient. How cells in a petri dish behave is exactly how they do in the body. Mice are excellent subjects, because their little bodies behave just like people's do, with a very short lifespan to allow us to see changes quickly. [sigh]
There are libraries full of anecdotal evidence as to the efficacy of food to healing. "Science" loves to pour scorn on this kind of information, because it doesn't fit the cookie-cutter notion of "HOW science works." But for the n=1 seeker after health, this is probably the best place to start to work. THIS worked for a sick human being. THAT may have worked for a knockout mouse, but is of questionable applicability if you have only two legs and the chromosomes that Nature gave you.
Of course, conventional sources of "wisdom" don't want you to try to improve your health by means of your diet or supplements. They want you to come in for blood tests, then tell you your values don't suggest that you could be short of things like B12 ... but an antidepressant might make you feel better! :-P
Our bodies evolved to be self-repairing. IF one had health as a teen but in the 30s developed infirmity, the first thing to ask should be, what has acted upon this organism to make it go wrong? In the absence of toxin, infection or injury, most of what acted upon the body was NUTRITIONAL INTAKE. Figuring out how to reverse the harm done is not going to be as easy, and probably won't be simply stopping the damaging intake ... though it's a good place to start. The next step is to see how other real people managed to mend a problem of a similar nature.
Thank god for google; I've found many answers online. "Tried and true" beats the hell out of "might" or "may."
But no -- the medical industry would much rather hunt for chimaeras than rabbits. And many patients would much rather consider themselves the prey of a mysterious disease process than come to the conclusion that their favorite foods (and other lifestyle choices) are causing their degeneration. They'd rather take a pharmaceutical whose list of side-effects is as long as your arm, than even TRY taking grains out of their diets or give up their nightly Ben & Jerry's fix.
There's a reasonable chance that people resist the idea that changing their diets could improve their health because they've tried many other alterations and found them worthless. I wish i could remember where i read this idea, so credit could go where it belongs.... It makes perfect sense that if Joe switched from french-fries to baked potatoes and fat-free sour cream, and it made no difference either in how he felt or how his blood-test turned out, he might be skeptical about switching from potatoes to turnips, as a "frinstance." Certainly, if he followed mainstream health recommendations over the last half-century, any changes he made would have had little impact on his wellness, or his subjective sense of it. If these "common sense" changes didn't help, why would Joe be inclined to try something that his conditioning would react to as illogical?
Poor Joe -- he believes that dieticians actually know what they're talking about when it comes to food -- they're SPECIALISTS, aren't they? When it comes to weight-gain, it's all about the calories, and for health, it's vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Moderation in everything! All saturated fats are alike, and BAD. Macronutrient, schmacronutrient. How cells in a petri dish behave is exactly how they do in the body. Mice are excellent subjects, because their little bodies behave just like people's do, with a very short lifespan to allow us to see changes quickly. [sigh]
There are libraries full of anecdotal evidence as to the efficacy of food to healing. "Science" loves to pour scorn on this kind of information, because it doesn't fit the cookie-cutter notion of "HOW science works." But for the n=1 seeker after health, this is probably the best place to start to work. THIS worked for a sick human being. THAT may have worked for a knockout mouse, but is of questionable applicability if you have only two legs and the chromosomes that Nature gave you.
Of course, conventional sources of "wisdom" don't want you to try to improve your health by means of your diet or supplements. They want you to come in for blood tests, then tell you your values don't suggest that you could be short of things like B12 ... but an antidepressant might make you feel better! :-P
Our bodies evolved to be self-repairing. IF one had health as a teen but in the 30s developed infirmity, the first thing to ask should be, what has acted upon this organism to make it go wrong? In the absence of toxin, infection or injury, most of what acted upon the body was NUTRITIONAL INTAKE. Figuring out how to reverse the harm done is not going to be as easy, and probably won't be simply stopping the damaging intake ... though it's a good place to start. The next step is to see how other real people managed to mend a problem of a similar nature.
Thank god for google; I've found many answers online. "Tried and true" beats the hell out of "might" or "may."
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
alcohol, caffeine, nutrients and life
Another half-pound down! Woohoo! The big trade off seems to be wine for weight-loss -- WHICH will i find more life-enhancing, today? ...Because they're different facets of the same precious stone, quality of life.
I've never made a secret of the fact that caffeine and alcohol are my drugs of choice. What i've learned more recently, though, is that nutrients qualify my desire for them in some very interesting ways. Since i started using tyrosine, i'm more likely to reach for the decaf than the high-octane coffee. (In fact, now that i seem to be "replete" in tyrosine -- if you can say that about an amino acid -- i'm even more wired by it, and i'm stepping down my intake.) As a hypothyroid, i'm so accustomed to being under-energied, it feels strange to find it hard to sit still and focus my mind on ONE IDEA. I'm still learning how to do it -- something that people with normal energy probably learned in elementary school! :-)
When i feel over-stimulated like this my instinct is to go have a glass of wine, which then puts me in a pleasant alert-but-mellow state, but it's also a bandaid situation. For a lot of reasons. And i consider it a mistake to do as a default.
I looked for years (before the internet made information easier to find) for how alcohol fits in a weight-loss diet. I kinda suspect that not a lot was really KNOWN till the end of the twentieth century. Yes, it was realized that alcohol ingestion crippled weight loss efforts. Yes, alcohol (especially the distilled kind) has a shitload of calories. But something else was going on beyond that, and diet-book-after-diet-book told me NOTHING -- they either failed to mention the subject entirely, or skimmed over it evasively.
I still don't have the whole "skinny" on it. I know enough to be going on with, though. Seems to me, the body tries to burn first what is most deleterious to let hang around. If alcohol is in the system, the body wants it OUT as expeditiously as possible. Then sugars. Finally fat burns as the body's planned default fuel.
On the way out, alcohol tries to screw things up due to its puckish delight in mischief -- setting traps in the liver involving metabolic flexibility (among others), so even though you've gotten the rockstar out of the hotel, you enter the room he last inhabited to find it trashed ... figuratively speaking. He promises to pay the bill if he's readmitted (and some fools let him back in), but he never does.
Though not a carbohydrate, alcohol and sugar-alcohols seem to have metabolic problems that are similar. I find it ironic that the fastest way to trash your liver is EITHER alcohol and omega6s, OR fructose and omega6s! And some poor misguided souls think agave nectar is a healthy alternative....
At any rate, i've found that it's POSSIBLE to lose weight and still have a glass of Mount Pleasant with my steak, but when the losing gets difficult, the wine HAS to go! Truel but crue. I strongly suspect that the worst thing one can possibly consume are sweet cocktails! You get the double-whammy of alcohol and sugar, all in one very moreish package!
So how best to get the relaxation of a glass of something, without the metabolic consequences? There are a number of things, and i'm still working on identifying the best ones for me. Sometimes it just isn't possible to get into a meditative state -- the world is too doggone NOISY. Using carbs as downers isn't a good choice for MY body, and i have yet to experiment with herbs (though Wooo has some good information and advice available about those, on her blog). I'll keep seeking....
I've never made a secret of the fact that caffeine and alcohol are my drugs of choice. What i've learned more recently, though, is that nutrients qualify my desire for them in some very interesting ways. Since i started using tyrosine, i'm more likely to reach for the decaf than the high-octane coffee. (In fact, now that i seem to be "replete" in tyrosine -- if you can say that about an amino acid -- i'm even more wired by it, and i'm stepping down my intake.) As a hypothyroid, i'm so accustomed to being under-energied, it feels strange to find it hard to sit still and focus my mind on ONE IDEA. I'm still learning how to do it -- something that people with normal energy probably learned in elementary school! :-)
When i feel over-stimulated like this my instinct is to go have a glass of wine, which then puts me in a pleasant alert-but-mellow state, but it's also a bandaid situation. For a lot of reasons. And i consider it a mistake to do as a default.
I looked for years (before the internet made information easier to find) for how alcohol fits in a weight-loss diet. I kinda suspect that not a lot was really KNOWN till the end of the twentieth century. Yes, it was realized that alcohol ingestion crippled weight loss efforts. Yes, alcohol (especially the distilled kind) has a shitload of calories. But something else was going on beyond that, and diet-book-after-diet-book told me NOTHING -- they either failed to mention the subject entirely, or skimmed over it evasively.
I still don't have the whole "skinny" on it. I know enough to be going on with, though. Seems to me, the body tries to burn first what is most deleterious to let hang around. If alcohol is in the system, the body wants it OUT as expeditiously as possible. Then sugars. Finally fat burns as the body's planned default fuel.
On the way out, alcohol tries to screw things up due to its puckish delight in mischief -- setting traps in the liver involving metabolic flexibility (among others), so even though you've gotten the rockstar out of the hotel, you enter the room he last inhabited to find it trashed ... figuratively speaking. He promises to pay the bill if he's readmitted (and some fools let him back in), but he never does.
Though not a carbohydrate, alcohol and sugar-alcohols seem to have metabolic problems that are similar. I find it ironic that the fastest way to trash your liver is EITHER alcohol and omega6s, OR fructose and omega6s! And some poor misguided souls think agave nectar is a healthy alternative....
At any rate, i've found that it's POSSIBLE to lose weight and still have a glass of Mount Pleasant with my steak, but when the losing gets difficult, the wine HAS to go! Truel but crue. I strongly suspect that the worst thing one can possibly consume are sweet cocktails! You get the double-whammy of alcohol and sugar, all in one very moreish package!
So how best to get the relaxation of a glass of something, without the metabolic consequences? There are a number of things, and i'm still working on identifying the best ones for me. Sometimes it just isn't possible to get into a meditative state -- the world is too doggone NOISY. Using carbs as downers isn't a good choice for MY body, and i have yet to experiment with herbs (though Wooo has some good information and advice available about those, on her blog). I'll keep seeking....
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Spenser helps out
I'm reminded of a subject that's dear to the hearts of many of us, with the help of my favorite four-legged family member....
This is the best photo i have of my boy, and you can see why i have to do what i call "fur patrol" with the dustbuster every couple of days. Consider also that the carpet in our bedroom is a period-appropriate figured dark blue; the subject of hair loss comes to mind from time to time.
I noticed even back in the days when i was taking Armour thyroid that Spense and i would tend to shed at the same time, rather like nuns menstruating. ;-) My hairbrush would need cleaning out more often at about the same times that i'd have to step up vacuuming and fur patrol. I deduced that the same conditions were causing it in both of us, but never looked into the matter.
Well, i finally decided to, and sure enough, people of European ancestry (at least) are inclined to shed more hair in the fall, and to a lesser extent, in the spring. This seasonal telogen effluvium is absolutely positively NORMAL. A lot of telogen effluvium is normal, but the medical and hair-restoration industries would love us to think that there's something wrong with us, and we desperately need their services.
There are lots of things, less benign, which cause us to lose more hair than is "normal," with hypothyroidism being one of the best-known conditions. Everyone also knows about chemotherapy-related hair loss, and many also know that iron deficiency can be a cause. But is the low-fat world world aware that they're missing out on some of the best skin-hair "tonics" they could get? Search stubbornly enough and you'll find some good dietary advice on the net to benefit your mane ... and if you have a dog that can help, too.
WebMD is willing to tell you that stress and diet are the main causes of telogen effluvium -- that two-dollar phrase which makes googling "hair loss" more productive. Of course, they can't tell you how to amend your diet for the better, because that would be contrary to the CW they MUST cling to. So you start your search into particulars with your four-legged family member in mind; after all, excessive (and diet-associated) shedding is influenced similarly in dogs and humans.
First and foremost is enough of the right amino acids and fats -- notably omegas 3 and 6 -- and you thought that latter stuff was nasty! ;-) Of course it is ... in EXCESS. "Hair that doesn’t receive a balanced supply of nutrients becomes dull, loosens, and falls out. For example, pets on starvation diets have thin, dull coats*." Will i get jumped-on if i leap to a conclusion? People go on a low-calorie diet, get nutrient-deficiency-related hair loss, and become convinced that their problem all along has been hypothyroidism? Remember what Donaldson said about thyroid supplementation for weight loss....
Then there's blood flow, organ function, lots of different hormones, allergy, medications, and nervous habits (overgrooming in animals can translate to excessive hair-brushing -- one doesn't HAVE to lick...). ...In fact, i'm sure that advertising and "cultural norms" have got to be contributing to some people's shedding because all the things we do to our hair and the chemicals we put on it are just WEIRD, if you look at the subject in an objective manner.
So before you think you're hypothyroid or have a dire disease because you see more hair on your shower floor these coming months, take a look at your diet (and your liver, and your blood-pressure, and so on) -- or it may just be shortening of daylight hours. Or lengthening, if you're in the southern hemisphere. If your dog is shedding more, too, it's probably natural.
_____
* http://www.petassure.com/newsletters/030110newsletter/03012010Article3.html
This is the best photo i have of my boy, and you can see why i have to do what i call "fur patrol" with the dustbuster every couple of days. Consider also that the carpet in our bedroom is a period-appropriate figured dark blue; the subject of hair loss comes to mind from time to time.
I noticed even back in the days when i was taking Armour thyroid that Spense and i would tend to shed at the same time, rather like nuns menstruating. ;-) My hairbrush would need cleaning out more often at about the same times that i'd have to step up vacuuming and fur patrol. I deduced that the same conditions were causing it in both of us, but never looked into the matter.
Well, i finally decided to, and sure enough, people of European ancestry (at least) are inclined to shed more hair in the fall, and to a lesser extent, in the spring. This seasonal telogen effluvium is absolutely positively NORMAL. A lot of telogen effluvium is normal, but the medical and hair-restoration industries would love us to think that there's something wrong with us, and we desperately need their services.
There are lots of things, less benign, which cause us to lose more hair than is "normal," with hypothyroidism being one of the best-known conditions. Everyone also knows about chemotherapy-related hair loss, and many also know that iron deficiency can be a cause. But is the low-fat world world aware that they're missing out on some of the best skin-hair "tonics" they could get? Search stubbornly enough and you'll find some good dietary advice on the net to benefit your mane ... and if you have a dog that can help, too.
WebMD is willing to tell you that stress and diet are the main causes of telogen effluvium -- that two-dollar phrase which makes googling "hair loss" more productive. Of course, they can't tell you how to amend your diet for the better, because that would be contrary to the CW they MUST cling to. So you start your search into particulars with your four-legged family member in mind; after all, excessive (and diet-associated) shedding is influenced similarly in dogs and humans.
First and foremost is enough of the right amino acids and fats -- notably omegas 3 and 6 -- and you thought that latter stuff was nasty! ;-) Of course it is ... in EXCESS. "Hair that doesn’t receive a balanced supply of nutrients becomes dull, loosens, and falls out. For example, pets on starvation diets have thin, dull coats*." Will i get jumped-on if i leap to a conclusion? People go on a low-calorie diet, get nutrient-deficiency-related hair loss, and become convinced that their problem all along has been hypothyroidism? Remember what Donaldson said about thyroid supplementation for weight loss....
Then there's blood flow, organ function, lots of different hormones, allergy, medications, and nervous habits (overgrooming in animals can translate to excessive hair-brushing -- one doesn't HAVE to lick...). ...In fact, i'm sure that advertising and "cultural norms" have got to be contributing to some people's shedding because all the things we do to our hair and the chemicals we put on it are just WEIRD, if you look at the subject in an objective manner.
So before you think you're hypothyroid or have a dire disease because you see more hair on your shower floor these coming months, take a look at your diet (and your liver, and your blood-pressure, and so on) -- or it may just be shortening of daylight hours. Or lengthening, if you're in the southern hemisphere. If your dog is shedding more, too, it's probably natural.
_____
* http://www.petassure.com/newsletters/030110newsletter/03012010Article3.html
Monday, August 27, 2012
funny, now "adrenal exhaustion/burnout" IS real....
A couple of years ago when i was first reading up on how to improve my hypothyroidism, i came upon a website that spoke of how "adrenal fatigue" complicates it. I'd never heard of such a thing before, but perusing the chart it sure hit home.
You see, i don't HAVE some of the classic symptoms of hypothyroidism (mine are those most closely associated with nutrient deficiencies). I should have a slow heartbeat and low blood pressure and poor appetite, but in fact, it's historically been the opposite. I used to be strung WAY too tight. Yep, i seemed to be exhibiting the "combination" problem.
So i tried a cheap-and-dirty remedy -- i started using tincture of licorice a couple of times a day, and concentrated on relaxation and stress-avoidance. It helped a LOT. I haven't felt the same kind of exhaustion i used to, in a long time. And when i was doing all that reading, "authorities" were pouring scorn on the whole idea that mere stress could result in depleted adrenal function....
As usual, when i was reading about what nutrients might bolster adrenal function, there was a lot of common factors with thyroid function -- vitamins A, C, E, quality proteins, magnesium and zinc.... No wonder that my adrenal function seems repaired, as my recent supplementation covers the bases pretty darned well. Note to self: start adding nutritional yeast to soups and things -- i already have a big bag of it in the freezer, because i used to use it regularly.
Oh, i also need to add, i had never "done" VLC when the "adrenal complication" made its presence known. When i began developing it, i hadn't even done LCHF. To blame burnout on LC is just plain nonsense, though i can see how it might exacerbate the problem.
Well, i obviously need to read up more on the situation ... now that it actually EXISTS! ;-)
You see, i don't HAVE some of the classic symptoms of hypothyroidism (mine are those most closely associated with nutrient deficiencies). I should have a slow heartbeat and low blood pressure and poor appetite, but in fact, it's historically been the opposite. I used to be strung WAY too tight. Yep, i seemed to be exhibiting the "combination" problem.
So i tried a cheap-and-dirty remedy -- i started using tincture of licorice a couple of times a day, and concentrated on relaxation and stress-avoidance. It helped a LOT. I haven't felt the same kind of exhaustion i used to, in a long time. And when i was doing all that reading, "authorities" were pouring scorn on the whole idea that mere stress could result in depleted adrenal function....
As usual, when i was reading about what nutrients might bolster adrenal function, there was a lot of common factors with thyroid function -- vitamins A, C, E, quality proteins, magnesium and zinc.... No wonder that my adrenal function seems repaired, as my recent supplementation covers the bases pretty darned well. Note to self: start adding nutritional yeast to soups and things -- i already have a big bag of it in the freezer, because i used to use it regularly.
Oh, i also need to add, i had never "done" VLC when the "adrenal complication" made its presence known. When i began developing it, i hadn't even done LCHF. To blame burnout on LC is just plain nonsense, though i can see how it might exacerbate the problem.
Well, i obviously need to read up more on the situation ... now that it actually EXISTS! ;-)
Sunday, August 19, 2012
adventures in questionable nutrition
It's a grey morning and my husband is still out of town, so i'm reveling in that wonderfully self-indulgent treasure so precious and rare to people like me....
NO, i didn't pull out some hoarded treat! ;-) I'm talking about QUIET, about opportunity for thought with no distractions. At this time of day, even the dog is still and undemanding.
I'm looking back on the last few weeks and assessing progress, summing up the lessons that life has sent. An' ya know what? Well-being, for me, seems to be mostly about the gastrointestinal tract. Aside from allergic annoyances (which definitely have an interaction with the microbiota), what discombobulates my body most is an upset of the system which is dependent upon what gets fed through the input valve. The right animal flesh runs the biological mechanism very well indeed; the wrong plant matter presages a fuel-line or combustion problem.
I think back to the Salad of Doom, and to the difference between the Indulgent Anniversary Dinner and the Decadent Anniversary Snack, and things seem so simple....
Since that time, in the last half of the twentieth century, when it was pointed out that some of the favorite vegetables in the western diet in fact contained less vitaminsandminerals than people thought, first "fiber" and then "antioxidants" became the rallying cry for the "goodness" of healthyfruitsandvegetables. What are we finding out now? That fiber is unnecessary, and that antioxidants seem to work through a mild form of poisoning (aka hormesis). Technically, we don't need this junk.
That beautiful big healthy salad (which DID taste good) made me feel crummy for a solid week. The wicked and self-indulgent carbs (rice and sugar, a tiny bit of wheat), eaten in small quantities in the company of plenty of lovely raw (and cooked) meat, were minimally harmful. Food and drink which are "innocent" under the right circumstances are problematic when consumed incorrectly.
Sorry it's not more original, but ... the dose DOES make the poison. Get what nourishes you first (steak tartare in this case, but oysters work well too), and the asparagus and spinach, AND sugar (as a "garnish," not as a "full course") aren't going to hurt you as much.
NO, i didn't pull out some hoarded treat! ;-) I'm talking about QUIET, about opportunity for thought with no distractions. At this time of day, even the dog is still and undemanding.
I'm looking back on the last few weeks and assessing progress, summing up the lessons that life has sent. An' ya know what? Well-being, for me, seems to be mostly about the gastrointestinal tract. Aside from allergic annoyances (which definitely have an interaction with the microbiota), what discombobulates my body most is an upset of the system which is dependent upon what gets fed through the input valve. The right animal flesh runs the biological mechanism very well indeed; the wrong plant matter presages a fuel-line or combustion problem.
I think back to the Salad of Doom, and to the difference between the Indulgent Anniversary Dinner and the Decadent Anniversary Snack, and things seem so simple....
Since that time, in the last half of the twentieth century, when it was pointed out that some of the favorite vegetables in the western diet in fact contained less vitaminsandminerals than people thought, first "fiber" and then "antioxidants" became the rallying cry for the "goodness" of healthyfruitsandvegetables. What are we finding out now? That fiber is unnecessary, and that antioxidants seem to work through a mild form of poisoning (aka hormesis). Technically, we don't need this junk.
That beautiful big healthy salad (which DID taste good) made me feel crummy for a solid week. The wicked and self-indulgent carbs (rice and sugar, a tiny bit of wheat), eaten in small quantities in the company of plenty of lovely raw (and cooked) meat, were minimally harmful. Food and drink which are "innocent" under the right circumstances are problematic when consumed incorrectly.
Sorry it's not more original, but ... the dose DOES make the poison. Get what nourishes you first (steak tartare in this case, but oysters work well too), and the asparagus and spinach, AND sugar (as a "garnish," not as a "full course") aren't going to hurt you as much.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
IRON, IRON, IRON!
OK -- it's ranting-time again.
However, we did have something in common -- not enough oxygen in the tissues. In my case, what could it be but iron?
It makes me feel like running amok when i hear people caution against supplementing iron. What the flying F does a complete stranger know about what supplements one might need? Just because a VERY small subpopulation (mostly male, as usual) has a problem with a certain micronutrient, that doesn't mean that THE VAST FRIGGIN' MAJORITY OF US DON'T NEED MORE OF IT!!!
*cough* ... excuse me....
I'm absolutely incensed that some arrogant insulated academics in this world presume to pontificate over something that they have NO BLOODY EXPERIENCE WITH. I don't care if they've tortured and murdered thousands of those gentle, intelligent creatures known as laboratory RATS* -- until you've done proper on-and-off-and-on-again experiments with real live human patients, they don't know SHIT about the effects of nutrients IN VIVO. They have no shaggin' business acting like they know their ass from a hole in the ground.
Short version: i tried supplementing iron (in the presence of vitamins C, B12 and selenium, which are reputed to improve absorption) and not only did i feel more oxygenated, but my hairbrush needed clearing out less. I stopped, and the bad stuff showed up -- then i recommenced and the symptoms went away yet again. MYSTERY SOLVED.
So if you suspect you might have a problem with the oxygenation of your blood OR excessive hair loss, do the experiment on yourself -- and to the deepest, darkest, coldest reaches of HELL with the self-proclaimed SCIENTISTS who PRESUME to dictate that it's dangerous and you don't need it.
P.S. -- and if you haven't read it before, i STRONGLY recommend this article: http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/081504.htm
P.S. -- and if you haven't read it before, i STRONGLY recommend this article: http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/081504.htm
________
* ...in memory of two of the sweetest pets we've ever had, Sid and Catherine, who happen to have been rodents of the Long-Evans variety.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
treating the symptoms of hypothyroidism
I was reading on a website that listed a whole bunch of hypothyroidism symptoms and thought -- not for the first time -- what we have here is really just a bunch of signs of malnutrition!
Weight gain -- FAR from specific to hypothyroidism
Depression -- ditto
Insomnia -- do i have to repeat it?
Swollen legs, feet, hands or abdomen -- okay, i'll change it up...
Constipation -- lack of magnesium and animal fat, ...etc.
Brittle nails -- amazing what fatty meat can do for this...
Rough dry skin -- more of the same
Menstrual irregularities -- back to "unspecific to hypo"
Fatigue -- can everyone say mi-to-chon-dri-al dys-func-tion?
Poor circulation -- [snort] diabetics don't have THIS...
Fluid retention -- and female hormones aren't to blame? nor salt? fooled me
Hoarse, husky voice -- iodine supplementation alone has been known to help this
Elbow or arm keratosis -- funny, i don't have this but my euthyroid husband does
Low or high blood pressure -- aw, c'mon!
Muscle weakness -- not buyin' it
Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks -- carbohydrate-linked, as i can attest
Sparse, coarse or dry hair -- eat some brisket, fergawdsake! :-) really, it's all about iron and dietary fat
Decreased memory -- ...uh ... i forget ... never mind ;-)
Dull facial expression -- now they're confusing hypothyroid with stoopid
Inability to concentrate -- connected with carbohydrates and sleep deprivation ... oh, and iron AGAIN
Yellowing of the palms and skin -- ??? dare i suggest liver problems?
Muscle and joint pain -- if you don't believe THIS is diet-related, you badly need to do a Whole 30
Muscle cramps -- get your minerals!
Drooping eyelids -- ...where do they find these "symptoms" anyway?
Infertility -- ...how do i START listing all the things that contribute to this?
Morning Stiffness -- see what i said about muscle/joint pain ... or read the second paragraph here
Carpel tunnel syndrome -- means INFLAMMATION, that's all; systemic enzymes got rid of that!
Dry and irritated eyes -- yeah, and Paul J attributed that to "glucose deficiency"....
Elevated cholesterol -- okay, gotta be specific about particles; thyroid deficiency DOES limit LDL receptors
Reduced heart rate -- unless there are adrenal complications, when heart rate is fast
Cold intolerance -- unless there are adrenal complications (again), which make for heat intolerance
Slow reflexes -- now, this IS a classic symptom, and i'm not familiar with other etiologies for it
Puffy face -- granted
Cold hands and feet -- yep
Low body temperature -- DEFINITIVE, and you don't need a damned blood test to check it
Slow speech -- i saved this one for last, on purpose. I'm not sure if "they" mean what sometimes happens with me, but from time to time i have a definite "disconnect" between my brain's "language circuits" and my mouth. It's why i always come across better in writing than verbally, when i want to be precise in the way i phrase my thoughts.
Honestly, in making up this list, did some researchers just get a roomful of hypothyroids together and ask them what physical limitations they have? 'Cause that's what it sure sounds like. Really, why try to throw a prescription at a patient ... IF a proper diet can fix what's wrong?
As my long-time readers have heard ad nauseum, i'm terribly fond of the book "Strong Medicine." If you start reading at the last paragraph of this page and go on a couple of pages more, you'll get an interesting perspective on the use of thyroid in the treatment of "symptoms of hypothyroidism."
Weight gain -- FAR from specific to hypothyroidism
Depression -- ditto
Insomnia -- do i have to repeat it?
Swollen legs, feet, hands or abdomen -- okay, i'll change it up...
Constipation -- lack of magnesium and animal fat, ...etc.
Brittle nails -- amazing what fatty meat can do for this...
Rough dry skin -- more of the same
Menstrual irregularities -- back to "unspecific to hypo"
Fatigue -- can everyone say mi-to-chon-dri-al dys-func-tion?
Poor circulation -- [snort] diabetics don't have THIS...
Fluid retention -- and female hormones aren't to blame? nor salt? fooled me
Hoarse, husky voice -- iodine supplementation alone has been known to help this
Elbow or arm keratosis -- funny, i don't have this but my euthyroid husband does
Low or high blood pressure -- aw, c'mon!
Muscle weakness -- not buyin' it
Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks -- carbohydrate-linked, as i can attest
Sparse, coarse or dry hair -- eat some brisket, fergawdsake! :-) really, it's all about iron and dietary fat
Decreased memory -- ...uh ... i forget ... never mind ;-)
Dull facial expression -- now they're confusing hypothyroid with stoopid
Inability to concentrate -- connected with carbohydrates and sleep deprivation ... oh, and iron AGAIN
Yellowing of the palms and skin -- ??? dare i suggest liver problems?
Muscle and joint pain -- if you don't believe THIS is diet-related, you badly need to do a Whole 30
Muscle cramps -- get your minerals!
Drooping eyelids -- ...where do they find these "symptoms" anyway?
Infertility -- ...how do i START listing all the things that contribute to this?
Morning Stiffness -- see what i said about muscle/joint pain ... or read the second paragraph here
Carpel tunnel syndrome -- means INFLAMMATION, that's all; systemic enzymes got rid of that!
Dry and irritated eyes -- yeah, and Paul J attributed that to "glucose deficiency"....
Elevated cholesterol -- okay, gotta be specific about particles; thyroid deficiency DOES limit LDL receptors
Reduced heart rate -- unless there are adrenal complications, when heart rate is fast
Cold intolerance -- unless there are adrenal complications (again), which make for heat intolerance
Slow reflexes -- now, this IS a classic symptom, and i'm not familiar with other etiologies for it
Puffy face -- granted
Cold hands and feet -- yep
Low body temperature -- DEFINITIVE, and you don't need a damned blood test to check it
Slow speech -- i saved this one for last, on purpose. I'm not sure if "they" mean what sometimes happens with me, but from time to time i have a definite "disconnect" between my brain's "language circuits" and my mouth. It's why i always come across better in writing than verbally, when i want to be precise in the way i phrase my thoughts.
Honestly, in making up this list, did some researchers just get a roomful of hypothyroids together and ask them what physical limitations they have? 'Cause that's what it sure sounds like. Really, why try to throw a prescription at a patient ... IF a proper diet can fix what's wrong?
As my long-time readers have heard ad nauseum, i'm terribly fond of the book "Strong Medicine." If you start reading at the last paragraph of this page and go on a couple of pages more, you'll get an interesting perspective on the use of thyroid in the treatment of "symptoms of hypothyroidism."
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
stepping back to write THE INTRO to the intro to hypothyroidism
What i planned to write next was a list of the nutrients we hypos need, but which we either aren't getting or aren't absorbing even from a theoretically-good diet. This is trickier than it sounds, as i found in the past, when troubleshooting my problems. There are COUNTLESS sites full of advice and information for the "thyroid sufferer" but unfortunately, almost all of them include something which i know from sad personal experience to be DEAD WRONG. A gazillion nutrients ARE important for proper function, but some of them are pro and some anti, and some websites get the two lists hopelessly confused.
If you're new to the hypothyroid label, you have my very deepest sympathy, because OH BOY do you have a lot of learning and experimenting to do before you can feel normal again. Don't believe ANYBODY all the time, because your situation is absolutely positively unique. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt, especially information from a card-carrying endocrinology-specializing doctor, because he THINKS he knows it all ... but he doesn't know YOU. No matter what the lab test reports, if you don't feel right over the long term, your medication is wrong.
But getting back to the nutritional aspect.... One big problem in hypothyroidism is that once the imbalance is in place, it's self-perpetuating. Iron makes for the perfect example: you need iron to make thyroid hormones, but if you're low on either one, your digestion won't be up-to-snuff, so you'll absorb less iron, and you'll make less thyroid, and you'll have worse digestion, so you'll absorb less iron, so you'll make less thyroid ... ad infinitum. Some people will cut to the chase and supplement thyroid hormones, and they'll feel better for awhile, but then another imbalance will make itself known. This is the fast-lane to spending half your life waiting in doctors' offices and getting blood tests, and frankly, i have much better things to do with mine!
I'm taking the slower route to optimizing my health, BUT I DON'T RECOMMEND MY WAY TO OTHERS. That would be utterly irresponsible of me. Unless you're a stubbornly-self-governing, long-experienced old fanatic like me, what you need to spend your energy on is finding a competent, progressive, open-minded doctor who knows how to listen. There have got to be some out there! ...At least ONE? ;-)
But nutrition is profoundly important. Now that i've got all this off my chest, i'll go back to work trying to make some sense out of it.
If you're new to the hypothyroid label, you have my very deepest sympathy, because OH BOY do you have a lot of learning and experimenting to do before you can feel normal again. Don't believe ANYBODY all the time, because your situation is absolutely positively unique. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt, especially information from a card-carrying endocrinology-specializing doctor, because he THINKS he knows it all ... but he doesn't know YOU. No matter what the lab test reports, if you don't feel right over the long term, your medication is wrong.
But getting back to the nutritional aspect.... One big problem in hypothyroidism is that once the imbalance is in place, it's self-perpetuating. Iron makes for the perfect example: you need iron to make thyroid hormones, but if you're low on either one, your digestion won't be up-to-snuff, so you'll absorb less iron, and you'll make less thyroid, and you'll have worse digestion, so you'll absorb less iron, so you'll make less thyroid ... ad infinitum. Some people will cut to the chase and supplement thyroid hormones, and they'll feel better for awhile, but then another imbalance will make itself known. This is the fast-lane to spending half your life waiting in doctors' offices and getting blood tests, and frankly, i have much better things to do with mine!
I'm taking the slower route to optimizing my health, BUT I DON'T RECOMMEND MY WAY TO OTHERS. That would be utterly irresponsible of me. Unless you're a stubbornly-self-governing, long-experienced old fanatic like me, what you need to spend your energy on is finding a competent, progressive, open-minded doctor who knows how to listen. There have got to be some out there! ...At least ONE? ;-)
But nutrition is profoundly important. Now that i've got all this off my chest, i'll go back to work trying to make some sense out of it.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
the thyroid scenario...
...Seems to be extraordinarily oversimplified a lot of the time. One has this image of the gland manufacturing and sending out hormone like a factory responding to orders (TSH) from the head office (pituitary). Given enough raw materials going in (tyrosine and iodine), you expect your workforce (thyroid gland) to put together and ship whatever the orders called for, and it's up to the customers (body-wide tissues) to take the material (mostly T4, some T3) and further turn them into the finished products they require. If you have a less-efficient workforce, you may not get as much product from a day's work as you should. Then if a shipment of raw material doesn't arrive on time, they may work their butts off but will be unable to do the job; and if a shipment of fluoride, bromine or chlorine is mistakenly sent, it can tie up the iodine "loading-dock" while the truck-driver and foreman argue about the debacle....
Actually, this turned out to be a better analogy than i thought it would. ;-)
It's when the gland's products go out into the world to achieve their life's-work that things get REALLY complicated. That's what i have only STARTED to explore in my reading these days. The sheer number of different interactions is mind-numbing. The first thing that caught my attention: carbohydrate metabolism.
THYROID HORMONE HELPS INSULIN FERRY GLUCOSE INTO CELLS FOR ENERGY-PRODUCTION. It promotes more GLUT4 (as well as LDL) receptors. If there is less glucose in the system to be disposed-of, less thyroid is needed to do the job -- THAT is why you get lower free T3 on a low-carb diet. You just don't have the requirement; it's not pathological, it's physiological.
We should never forget for a moment that the longer our blood-glucose is high, the more DAMAGE it's inflicting on our organs, nerves and vessels. Insulin and thyroid are working their asses off to use it up or store it away FAST. Raising temperature and giving muscles a reason to do their thing are the first choice, but insulin WILL store it as fat if it has to.
When normal quantities of the thyroid hormones are called away from their usual duties to assist insulin in its endless toil, you end up with hypOthyroid symptoms. A strong healthy thyroid will do its best to make the amount you need, but it can overproduce, too, and hypERthyroidism isn't a good thing, either. Most people don't supplement tyrosine -- they make it from phenylalanine in the diet with the help of enzymes ... and remember how i said people produce fewer enzymes as they get older? Add to this iodine-deficient diets* and you have the perfect recipe for a metabolic MESS.
Some time ago, Chris Kresser wrote a good article on the connection between thyroid function and blood-sugar, and more recently, Sam Knox wrote a better one. Unless you really WANT to think that carbs in your diet are a good thing for your thyroid, i don't know how you can avoid coming to the same conclusion i did -- that MY thyroid is MUCH healthier and happier on LCHF.
_________
* most people think that they'll get plenty of iodine from salty foods, not knowing that commercial foods are usually made with NONiodized salt.
Actually, this turned out to be a better analogy than i thought it would. ;-)
It's when the gland's products go out into the world to achieve their life's-work that things get REALLY complicated. That's what i have only STARTED to explore in my reading these days. The sheer number of different interactions is mind-numbing. The first thing that caught my attention: carbohydrate metabolism.
THYROID HORMONE HELPS INSULIN FERRY GLUCOSE INTO CELLS FOR ENERGY-PRODUCTION. It promotes more GLUT4 (as well as LDL) receptors. If there is less glucose in the system to be disposed-of, less thyroid is needed to do the job -- THAT is why you get lower free T3 on a low-carb diet. You just don't have the requirement; it's not pathological, it's physiological.
We should never forget for a moment that the longer our blood-glucose is high, the more DAMAGE it's inflicting on our organs, nerves and vessels. Insulin and thyroid are working their asses off to use it up or store it away FAST. Raising temperature and giving muscles a reason to do their thing are the first choice, but insulin WILL store it as fat if it has to.
When normal quantities of the thyroid hormones are called away from their usual duties to assist insulin in its endless toil, you end up with hypOthyroid symptoms. A strong healthy thyroid will do its best to make the amount you need, but it can overproduce, too, and hypERthyroidism isn't a good thing, either. Most people don't supplement tyrosine -- they make it from phenylalanine in the diet with the help of enzymes ... and remember how i said people produce fewer enzymes as they get older? Add to this iodine-deficient diets* and you have the perfect recipe for a metabolic MESS.
Some time ago, Chris Kresser wrote a good article on the connection between thyroid function and blood-sugar, and more recently, Sam Knox wrote a better one. Unless you really WANT to think that carbs in your diet are a good thing for your thyroid, i don't know how you can avoid coming to the same conclusion i did -- that MY thyroid is MUCH healthier and happier on LCHF.
_________
* most people think that they'll get plenty of iodine from salty foods, not knowing that commercial foods are usually made with NONiodized salt.
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