Last night, i spent far too much time trying to find a "candy recipe" to make inositol easier to consume in tablespoon-quantities. It made me think of something, as inositol is so sweet and powdered-sugar-like.... I just googled "carbs in powdered inositol." Serving size, 1/4 teaspoon -- 1 g carb. Two tablespoonsful = 24 grams.
Having a suspicion that my body may not convert phytates or glucose to inositol any better than it does beta-carotene to vitamin A, this means i NEED to ingest isolated inositol. This means i have an "essential carbohydrate."
Bummer.
I failed to mention yesterday, in my general discussion of this stuff, that most of inositol's magic comes from it being what is called a "second messenger" for our bodies' neuro-and-hormone-transmitting system. The major players travel through our bodies till they come to the cell wall, then hand off the message to these second-messengers like a relay-racer hands off the baton. If there's insufficient inositol in my system, for example, the TSH may be carrying urgent messages to my thyroid for more-more-more, and my thyroid not registering the message in its full amplitude.
No wonder if -- IF -- some people think that raising their intake of carbohydrates raises their thyroid's performance. It might just mean that some of the carbs they're eating are being broken down properly to inositol, and effectively giving a "hearing aid" to their glands.
I didn't get an awful lot of answers, googling "inositol and thyroid" -- mostly one damn rat study over and over. I wonder how much attention is being paid to this potentially-important connection.
Bear in mind that this is just a preliminary hypothesis! But not only is the conclusion from observation logically plausible, the mechanism is, too....
Friday, March 13, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
new supplement experiment
I first heard of inositol on Wooo's blog -- that's not unusual! Her historic collection of health-problems-to-solve led her (armed with her medical training) into places it never would have occurred to me to seek out. Her reasons for using inositol, i believe, had to do with mood issues, so i didn't explore it for a long time -- i had no idea that its other physiological functions might be closer-to-home for me.
Somewhere-or-other, i read an intimation that inositol might be interesting to me; some general link-following confirmed it. i came across this, too (thanks, George!): www.lucastafur.com/2011/10/is-phytate-really-problem.html ... though i felt Lucas' essay might indicate the answer is "yes" whereas he seems to be implying "no."
Inositol doesn't seem to be well-studied, though it has been found to be in smaller concentrations in people with disease than in "normal" ones. Of all the B-vitamins, only niacin is in the body in higher quantities -- but that might be misleading, as inositol (originally labeled b8) isn't a true vitamin because we can manufacture it ourselves. Part of the confusion about it might simply be how widespread it is in our food-supply, and that we can "create it from glucose" and we can also theoretically KNOCK THE PHOSPHATE GROUPS OFF PHYTATE to make it, too.
It requires just the right microbiome to do that. Do YOU have it? Do i? Who the hell knows, unless we get some damned fecal test. Personally, i have better uses for my time and money than in constant lab-testing.
Interestingly, a number of our diseases-of-civilization seem to afflict those sufferers who show low inositol levels. The pool includes people with diabetes, MS, and several mental illnesses. Some problems associated with low inositol are:
Whoa. Do i see what i see? ;-) Several "hypothyroidism symptoms".... If there's ANYTHING i've learned over the last five years, it's that many "hypothyroidism symptoms" are in fact from NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES. The well-known problems of low stomach-acid and impaired digestion drive MANY of these deficiencies in my experience. Supplementing nutrients i'm already eating, but in an isolated fashion, ensures that i actually absorb them.
Parenthetically, coffee-drinking depletes your inositol. Usually i only have two cups in the morning -- is that enough to cause me to require more? According to www.healthy.net/scr/article.aspx?ID=1663 more than two cups a day indicates i do -- but if i'm ALREADY absorbing/manufacturing less because of my digestion issues, i'm thinking this is a no-brainer.
There is no RDA, and no LD50 (a measure of toxicity) defined. It's estimated that we take in about a gram of inositol every day, and therapeutic doses start at a half-gram and go up to about 18.
Wooo once wrote about mixing inositol powder (which resembles powdered sugar in texture and taste) up into little candies to facilitate ingestion; i might try this myself. For the last couple of days i've been taking about a teaspoonful in divided doses, but i need to get out my antique gram-scale and see how much that is, weight-wise. Fifteen grams of this stuff sounds like a lot, and just shoveling it into my mouth and chasing with coffee (as i have been doing) doesn't sound optimal.
I'll be experimenting with the myo-inositol powder i bought from Jarrow, over the next few weeks, and will keep you posted on whether or not i see any results. Any one of you readers use this stuff? Tell us all about it!
Somewhere-or-other, i read an intimation that inositol might be interesting to me; some general link-following confirmed it. i came across this, too (thanks, George!): www.lucastafur.com/2011/10/is-phytate-really-problem.html ... though i felt Lucas' essay might indicate the answer is "yes" whereas he seems to be implying "no."
Inositol doesn't seem to be well-studied, though it has been found to be in smaller concentrations in people with disease than in "normal" ones. Of all the B-vitamins, only niacin is in the body in higher quantities -- but that might be misleading, as inositol (originally labeled b8) isn't a true vitamin because we can manufacture it ourselves. Part of the confusion about it might simply be how widespread it is in our food-supply, and that we can "create it from glucose" and we can also theoretically KNOCK THE PHOSPHATE GROUPS OFF PHYTATE to make it, too.
It requires just the right microbiome to do that. Do YOU have it? Do i? Who the hell knows, unless we get some damned fecal test. Personally, i have better uses for my time and money than in constant lab-testing.
Interestingly, a number of our diseases-of-civilization seem to afflict those sufferers who show low inositol levels. The pool includes people with diabetes, MS, and several mental illnesses. Some problems associated with low inositol are:
- eczema,
- constipation,
- eye problems,
- hair loss,
- depression,
- elevated cholesterol ...
Whoa. Do i see what i see? ;-) Several "hypothyroidism symptoms".... If there's ANYTHING i've learned over the last five years, it's that many "hypothyroidism symptoms" are in fact from NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES. The well-known problems of low stomach-acid and impaired digestion drive MANY of these deficiencies in my experience. Supplementing nutrients i'm already eating, but in an isolated fashion, ensures that i actually absorb them.
Parenthetically, coffee-drinking depletes your inositol. Usually i only have two cups in the morning -- is that enough to cause me to require more? According to www.healthy.net/scr/article.aspx?ID=1663 more than two cups a day indicates i do -- but if i'm ALREADY absorbing/manufacturing less because of my digestion issues, i'm thinking this is a no-brainer.
There is no RDA, and no LD50 (a measure of toxicity) defined. It's estimated that we take in about a gram of inositol every day, and therapeutic doses start at a half-gram and go up to about 18.
Wooo once wrote about mixing inositol powder (which resembles powdered sugar in texture and taste) up into little candies to facilitate ingestion; i might try this myself. For the last couple of days i've been taking about a teaspoonful in divided doses, but i need to get out my antique gram-scale and see how much that is, weight-wise. Fifteen grams of this stuff sounds like a lot, and just shoveling it into my mouth and chasing with coffee (as i have been doing) doesn't sound optimal.
I'll be experimenting with the myo-inositol powder i bought from Jarrow, over the next few weeks, and will keep you posted on whether or not i see any results. Any one of you readers use this stuff? Tell us all about it!
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
...and besides that ...
As reported yesterday, the gelatin i've been supplementing for the last five months definitely has an effect, but it's not all that easy to tease out the specifics. There has been no other change in my diet or supplement regimen to explain the reduction of grey in my hair, and from the very beginning i've seen less "protein desire" in my food intake as a whole. But gut-health...? I THINK it's better.
In the fall i ran out of the bottle of betaine-HCl i had around, and i delayed getting another because i was using it so seldom. Thanksgiving day, we whooped it up with champagne* and i got that old familiar too-low-stomach-acid feeling, but trying to improve it with vinegar just didn't do the job. I seem to have kindled an H.pylori flare which answered to epizote, but which hasn't completely gone away. My stomach has required extra care since then, but my intestines have been quite happy...
...EXCEPT when i eat a heavy load of vegetables. VEGETABLES (and that's a colon issue). Throughout the winter, i've had some wheat-cheats every couple of weeks that haven't distressed me. I had a bean-cheat last week (CHILI -- ahhhh!) which was not a problem, cuz i soaked the beans over 24 hours till they went bubbly, rinsed well, cooked, rinsed again, and diluted with a LOT of ground beef. :-D
I credit an extended period of grain-avoidance for having healed my gut, long before i started the gelatin experiment. When we visit a fine restaurant these days, i occasionally (NOT regularly) indulge in a gluten-containing specialty, but usually it has to be DAMNED special to tempt me. On those rare occasions when i do, i get very little repercussion -- my bad knee is still a bit bad, but my good knee is better. THAT is the coalmine's canary. I know my gut is better, but has the gelatin helped? Can't tell.
Other joints seem happier -- nice and flexible. Pain-free, except the right knee, and it was actually injured a few years ago. I don't notice any significant changes in my skin or nails -- those were always pretty strong. It only JUST occurred to me to look at the ends of my hair -- i haven't cut it in a year, but i don't see the kind of split ends i used to see back in my low-fat days. The pull-to-break test shows the proper effect.
Is gelatin beneficial and worth taking daily? YES, i firmly believe it. I think we have a special need for the amino acids in broth, beyond what we get from eating muscle-meat. Would broth be better than the powdered gelatin i use? Probably, but that requires more work, planning and discipline. Putting the Great Lakes product in my first morning cuppa is EASY.
Perhaps when i run out of the hydrolyzed collagen i'll look into the cartilage supplement on which were based so many of the positive studies described in "Nourishing Broth." HC itself underwhelmed me, but it was a little easier to use -- you don't have to dissolve it in cold water before adding to a hot liquid, and it can also be utilized cold. If i were to start the experiment again from the beginning, i might start with the HC rather than the G, to eliminate the confounder. As it is, i'm happy with gelatin.
___________
* what is it with champagne??? it's worse for my histamine issues, too, than other wines are....
In the fall i ran out of the bottle of betaine-HCl i had around, and i delayed getting another because i was using it so seldom. Thanksgiving day, we whooped it up with champagne* and i got that old familiar too-low-stomach-acid feeling, but trying to improve it with vinegar just didn't do the job. I seem to have kindled an H.pylori flare which answered to epizote, but which hasn't completely gone away. My stomach has required extra care since then, but my intestines have been quite happy...
...EXCEPT when i eat a heavy load of vegetables. VEGETABLES (and that's a colon issue). Throughout the winter, i've had some wheat-cheats every couple of weeks that haven't distressed me. I had a bean-cheat last week (CHILI -- ahhhh!) which was not a problem, cuz i soaked the beans over 24 hours till they went bubbly, rinsed well, cooked, rinsed again, and diluted with a LOT of ground beef. :-D
I credit an extended period of grain-avoidance for having healed my gut, long before i started the gelatin experiment. When we visit a fine restaurant these days, i occasionally (NOT regularly) indulge in a gluten-containing specialty, but usually it has to be DAMNED special to tempt me. On those rare occasions when i do, i get very little repercussion -- my bad knee is still a bit bad, but my good knee is better. THAT is the coalmine's canary. I know my gut is better, but has the gelatin helped? Can't tell.
Other joints seem happier -- nice and flexible. Pain-free, except the right knee, and it was actually injured a few years ago. I don't notice any significant changes in my skin or nails -- those were always pretty strong. It only JUST occurred to me to look at the ends of my hair -- i haven't cut it in a year, but i don't see the kind of split ends i used to see back in my low-fat days. The pull-to-break test shows the proper effect.
Is gelatin beneficial and worth taking daily? YES, i firmly believe it. I think we have a special need for the amino acids in broth, beyond what we get from eating muscle-meat. Would broth be better than the powdered gelatin i use? Probably, but that requires more work, planning and discipline. Putting the Great Lakes product in my first morning cuppa is EASY.
Perhaps when i run out of the hydrolyzed collagen i'll look into the cartilage supplement on which were based so many of the positive studies described in "Nourishing Broth." HC itself underwhelmed me, but it was a little easier to use -- you don't have to dissolve it in cold water before adding to a hot liquid, and it can also be utilized cold. If i were to start the experiment again from the beginning, i might start with the HC rather than the G, to eliminate the confounder. As it is, i'm happy with gelatin.
___________
* what is it with champagne??? it's worse for my histamine issues, too, than other wines are....
Monday, March 9, 2015
got a surprise....
My hair has such a mind of its own, i've sometimes joked that it is a separate entity ... and a highly capricious one at that. If it doesn't "want" to be styled in the way i try to do it, it simply won't GO or STAY there. I don't have the "hair talent" that my eldest sister does, so i usually just give up and let it have its way (thank dog for scrunchies and clips). ;-) The other day it decided it wanted to be parted on the other side from the usual; i went along with that decision.
Then i noticed.... Usually when i let it part itself differently, the non-brown hairs gleam forth in all their glory. And my grey hairs are not the genteel dark grey that my husband's were in the beginning, no. They're SILVER -- they practically glow in the dark. Maybe silver isn't the right word either; think preternaturally light-emitting vintage-scifi robot platinum!
When the new parting revealed hairs that hadn't been exposed to the light of day since, oh, the last time my mane got the bit in its figurative teeth, there was a truly surprising lack of the metallic glint i anticipated.
How is that possible?! ...I googled....
There's a surprising lack of scientifically sound information on exactly WHY hair goes grey (or doesn't). One oh-so-brilliant website proclaims that hair greys because you're OLDER -- why didn't i think of that?! :-P The more scholarly ones say that it happens because the two types of melanin no longer go into the hair as it sprouts -- YA THINK? Of course, the reason for THAT is not mentioned.
On "natural health" sites, there's a huge list of practices and supplements credited with nurturing hair growth, keeping it "healthy" and of the original color. Beyond saying "X is required for the hormones that encourage growth" though, not much useful information is to be found. In the comments sections, everybody has HEARD that such-and-such helped so-and-so, but it's just like the seeing of ghosts -- one's aunt's college-roomate's brother-in-law saw one once....
So when i noticed the shortage of silver threads among the brown, the only thing i could do was reflect on what's new in my world -- and THE thing it could possibly be was only obliquely supportable through the literature. I left the internet and consulted the book that might offer support for my hypothesis. Even it didn't have SPECIFIC info about grey hair -- just general hair allusions.
A previous book in my collection had hinted that carnitine might influence the color, but in my experience it had no impact; it might have slowed greying, but there's no way to know. The people in my family whom i most closely resemble are/were grey-resistant themselves. And it surely didn't take two or three years for C's follicular benefit to manifest....
No, it HAS to be something i began last fall, because i haven't added (and stuck with) anything else very recently. It has to be the gelatin.
Again -- though gelatin is actually proven to increase hair thickness, there doesn't seem to be data on its effect on color. Looking up "hair" in "Nourishing Broth" mostly yields "hair, nails and skin" and doesn't mention the grey at all.
It's been about five months that i've been stirring a tablespoon of Great Lakes gelatin into my morning coffee, pretty much every single day (when i'm out of town i occasionally miss a day). I had also bought and tried out GL's collagen but i didn't "feel it" the same way, so i only use that a few days at a time when the current gelatin container runs out, to use it up; when the new order arrives i go back to the orange cannister.
I was thoroughly prepared to have to use gelatin for quite awhile -- MONTHS -- before i saw improvements in certain areas, like joints and gut, but i wasn't hanging in there in hopes that i could discontinue touching up my grey! Consider it just a positive side-effect -- hell, consider it a VERY pleasant surprise!
Then i noticed.... Usually when i let it part itself differently, the non-brown hairs gleam forth in all their glory. And my grey hairs are not the genteel dark grey that my husband's were in the beginning, no. They're SILVER -- they practically glow in the dark. Maybe silver isn't the right word either; think preternaturally light-emitting vintage-scifi robot platinum!
When the new parting revealed hairs that hadn't been exposed to the light of day since, oh, the last time my mane got the bit in its figurative teeth, there was a truly surprising lack of the metallic glint i anticipated.
How is that possible?! ...I googled....
There's a surprising lack of scientifically sound information on exactly WHY hair goes grey (or doesn't). One oh-so-brilliant website proclaims that hair greys because you're OLDER -- why didn't i think of that?! :-P The more scholarly ones say that it happens because the two types of melanin no longer go into the hair as it sprouts -- YA THINK? Of course, the reason for THAT is not mentioned.
On "natural health" sites, there's a huge list of practices and supplements credited with nurturing hair growth, keeping it "healthy" and of the original color. Beyond saying "X is required for the hormones that encourage growth" though, not much useful information is to be found. In the comments sections, everybody has HEARD that such-and-such helped so-and-so, but it's just like the seeing of ghosts -- one's aunt's college-roomate's brother-in-law saw one once....
So when i noticed the shortage of silver threads among the brown, the only thing i could do was reflect on what's new in my world -- and THE thing it could possibly be was only obliquely supportable through the literature. I left the internet and consulted the book that might offer support for my hypothesis. Even it didn't have SPECIFIC info about grey hair -- just general hair allusions.
A previous book in my collection had hinted that carnitine might influence the color, but in my experience it had no impact; it might have slowed greying, but there's no way to know. The people in my family whom i most closely resemble are/were grey-resistant themselves. And it surely didn't take two or three years for C's follicular benefit to manifest....
No, it HAS to be something i began last fall, because i haven't added (and stuck with) anything else very recently. It has to be the gelatin.
Again -- though gelatin is actually proven to increase hair thickness, there doesn't seem to be data on its effect on color. Looking up "hair" in "Nourishing Broth" mostly yields "hair, nails and skin" and doesn't mention the grey at all.
It's been about five months that i've been stirring a tablespoon of Great Lakes gelatin into my morning coffee, pretty much every single day (when i'm out of town i occasionally miss a day). I had also bought and tried out GL's collagen but i didn't "feel it" the same way, so i only use that a few days at a time when the current gelatin container runs out, to use it up; when the new order arrives i go back to the orange cannister.
I was thoroughly prepared to have to use gelatin for quite awhile -- MONTHS -- before i saw improvements in certain areas, like joints and gut, but i wasn't hanging in there in hopes that i could discontinue touching up my grey! Consider it just a positive side-effect -- hell, consider it a VERY pleasant surprise!
Saturday, March 7, 2015
eroding paleo principles
I just read another both-sides-of-the-story piece, basically trying to point out that paleo is as wrong as Conventional Wisdom. Rather, i started to read it -- it was just another yoyo attempting to rationalize an irrational interpretation, and these modern-day Quixotes don't deserve being treated seriously.
He was talking about grains and legumes ... AS USUAL. It's amazing that people are so attached to their goddam BEANS that they create elaborate excuses for exonerating them from their KNOWN shortcomings.
If one can't afford (or can't GET, in certain times and places) animal protein, legumes are the next best thing. BUT....
[sigh] How many times does it have to be repeated??? Preparation means almost EVERYTHING when it comes to healthfully consuming them, and grains too. Some grains and legumes i can eat in small quantities, and cope with better than i can certain green-superfood-vegetables. Eating them in the quick-and-dirty forms in which they're found in most Western diets, though, is a highway to misery. AND they're so high in carbohydrate content, i have to make allowances for their ingestion. I'm willing to make that trade from time to time ... but absolutely NOT, if most other people are doing the cooking.
Antinutrients MUST be disabled or grains and legumes can be deleterious to human health, as compared to animal products. THAT is what "paleo" is all about to me -- realizing that "neolithic" foods have issues connected with them, and making allowances for those problems, either by eschewing them altogether or by going the extra distance to deal with them.
All we have to do, to quickly assess the validity of arguments against any WoE (way of eating), is to watch for hyperbolic expressions like "eliminate a whole food group" or "promotes eating disorders." People INCLINED to eating disorders can develop one in any dietary scheme they choose, whether it be fruitarian, raw, vegetarian, vegan, calorie-restriction, eating-everything-in-moderation ... or paleo. And the fact that "food groups" are illogical philosophical constructs, NOT ACTUAL NUTRITIONAL DEFINITIONS, should discredit the rational faculties of anyone arguing about them.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
don't under-eat protein!
During my attempts to fall asleep last night, I started reading something mentally stimulating -- that's always a mistake! Exciting thoughts --> insomnia.
It all started with a yen for oysters yesterday....
There are two foods which I occasionally crave while eating correctly (eating INcorrectly, i'm inclined to crave big fatty steaks): liver, and raw oysters. Those two superfoods make me feel so good and ... NOURISHED! I feel calmly exhilarated after a couple of ounces of either one.
We tried to go to a "new" place which has a high reputation for both fresh oysters and other kinds of seafood, but the website is out of date and when we arrived during the lunch hour it was deader than Jimmy Hoffa. Bummer! But this is SAINT LOUIS -- the true daughter of New Orleans, where good food is to be found in so many restaurants we put larger and more fashionable cities to S-H-A-M-E!!! :-D
So we went back to a "tried" restaurant in the downtown area -- we previously sat on the patio and had no experience of eating indoors, but being wintertime we headed for the area beyond the first bar. ...It was charming in a French Quarter kind of way! Why did we delay revisiting this place?!
We started with raw gulf oysters, and they were delicious. The appetizer menu was broad and innovative enough to convince us that we need to patronize the Broadway Oyster Bar much more frequently, for the pleasure of trying more dishes while in that delightful state of food-naïveté, in which hunger is the best sauce. We next decided to get the baked-oyster sampler platter (which includes Rockefeller, Bienville, and Cardinale) and also the sampler including gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans & rice. :-D Nine oysters and a few spoonsful of the various other dishes charmed and ... FILLED me. My home-made gumbo always beats commercially available ones; even Mahatma brand red beans and rice is hard to beat; but their jambalaya is capable of tempting even a low-carber.
All through the afternoon I floated on a nutrient-repletion cloud. I felt happy and relaxed and satisfied. ... And energetic -- though I was pretty sedentary after we got back home, I didn't feel drained, just well-exerted. Unfortunately the energetic sensation was still going strong in the late evening.
I still wasn't asleep at 2 a.m. Too many thoughts were exciting me. I followed twitter-links to interesting blogs and studies. I googled the possibility that inositol supplements would be of use to me. I followed links on tLCD and PoWM if they sounded at all interesting. I read in a book I picked up on BuckBooks the other day.
There was more about "moderating protein" which caught my eye -- and my thoughts.
If you're a young body-builder trying to get into single-digit body-fat levels there might be a reason to play with juggling macronutrient ratios, and for going to extremes. For grown-up people who just want to be healthy, a different philosophy applies. There are certain "universal" physiological facts on which we can rely. One of those is how adequate dietary protein is metabolism-boosting ... NOT ruinous of the ketogenic state.
Advocating a sub-optimal protein intake is absolutely insane, and yet this is promoted in the LCHF community. For the sake of pursuing high readings of ketones, nutrition-tweakers are overdosing on cream, butter and coconut-oil shots, and reducing their protein intake down to a ridiculous degree.
Physiologically-correct protein intake is GOOD for your body composition. "Excess protein converting to glucose" is HYPERBOLE, not par for the course.
In the case of individuals who require strong central ketosis for brain function, keeping protein intake regulated is important. For people merely trying to lose weight on a LCHF diet, taking in adequate protein is something to encourage. We see it over and over -- higher protein content in the diet almost always results in improved weight-loss.
Reasonably-high levels of protein (under two grams of protein per kilogram of ideal weight) in the diet DO NOT destroy ketotic status. Outrageously-high numbers of protein grams MAY. So also might one-meal-per day, lower percent of protein, in a single high-calorie meal. One big bolus of calories with ANY macronutrient ratio causes a strong insulin response, which impacts ketone production. Percent of protein in diet means NOTHING -- it's the grams that count.
If you don't believe me, read Bill's educated opinion: http://caloriesproper.com/dietary-protein-ketosis-and-appetite-control
It all started with a yen for oysters yesterday....
There are two foods which I occasionally crave while eating correctly (eating INcorrectly, i'm inclined to crave big fatty steaks): liver, and raw oysters. Those two superfoods make me feel so good and ... NOURISHED! I feel calmly exhilarated after a couple of ounces of either one.
We tried to go to a "new" place which has a high reputation for both fresh oysters and other kinds of seafood, but the website is out of date and when we arrived during the lunch hour it was deader than Jimmy Hoffa. Bummer! But this is SAINT LOUIS -- the true daughter of New Orleans, where good food is to be found in so many restaurants we put larger and more fashionable cities to S-H-A-M-E!!! :-D
So we went back to a "tried" restaurant in the downtown area -- we previously sat on the patio and had no experience of eating indoors, but being wintertime we headed for the area beyond the first bar. ...It was charming in a French Quarter kind of way! Why did we delay revisiting this place?!
We started with raw gulf oysters, and they were delicious. The appetizer menu was broad and innovative enough to convince us that we need to patronize the Broadway Oyster Bar much more frequently, for the pleasure of trying more dishes while in that delightful state of food-naïveté, in which hunger is the best sauce. We next decided to get the baked-oyster sampler platter (which includes Rockefeller, Bienville, and Cardinale) and also the sampler including gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans & rice. :-D Nine oysters and a few spoonsful of the various other dishes charmed and ... FILLED me. My home-made gumbo always beats commercially available ones; even Mahatma brand red beans and rice is hard to beat; but their jambalaya is capable of tempting even a low-carber.
All through the afternoon I floated on a nutrient-repletion cloud. I felt happy and relaxed and satisfied. ... And energetic -- though I was pretty sedentary after we got back home, I didn't feel drained, just well-exerted. Unfortunately the energetic sensation was still going strong in the late evening.
I still wasn't asleep at 2 a.m. Too many thoughts were exciting me. I followed twitter-links to interesting blogs and studies. I googled the possibility that inositol supplements would be of use to me. I followed links on tLCD and PoWM if they sounded at all interesting. I read in a book I picked up on BuckBooks the other day.
There was more about "moderating protein" which caught my eye -- and my thoughts.
If you're a young body-builder trying to get into single-digit body-fat levels there might be a reason to play with juggling macronutrient ratios, and for going to extremes. For grown-up people who just want to be healthy, a different philosophy applies. There are certain "universal" physiological facts on which we can rely. One of those is how adequate dietary protein is metabolism-boosting ... NOT ruinous of the ketogenic state.
Advocating a sub-optimal protein intake is absolutely insane, and yet this is promoted in the LCHF community. For the sake of pursuing high readings of ketones, nutrition-tweakers are overdosing on cream, butter and coconut-oil shots, and reducing their protein intake down to a ridiculous degree.
Physiologically-correct protein intake is GOOD for your body composition. "Excess protein converting to glucose" is HYPERBOLE, not par for the course.
In the case of individuals who require strong central ketosis for brain function, keeping protein intake regulated is important. For people merely trying to lose weight on a LCHF diet, taking in adequate protein is something to encourage. We see it over and over -- higher protein content in the diet almost always results in improved weight-loss.
Reasonably-high levels of protein (under two grams of protein per kilogram of ideal weight) in the diet DO NOT destroy ketotic status. Outrageously-high numbers of protein grams MAY. So also might one-meal-per day, lower percent of protein, in a single high-calorie meal. One big bolus of calories with ANY macronutrient ratio causes a strong insulin response, which impacts ketone production. Percent of protein in diet means NOTHING -- it's the grams that count.
If you don't believe me, read Bill's educated opinion: http://caloriesproper.com/dietary-protein-ketosis-and-appetite-control
Sunday, March 1, 2015
fed up with junk science
I couldn't bear to continue reading on the blogs and facebook this morning -- the stoopid was getting really thick. "OMG, when you eat asparagus, your urine stinks because DETOX!" :-O
Okay, i'm used to that kind of thing. I rarely comment anymore.
I followed a link on MDA to what was supposed to have been a summary of Prof. Noakes' talk at the recent CapeTown convention. It must have been the opening speech, because it was just the same-ol'-same-ol' public criticism of LCHF by entrenched academics who see their career-theories crumbling. How many times will we hear the same story? TN seemed philosophical but aggrieved -- though they ignored science, they were sincere believers....
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO TAKE OFF THE GLOVES? When "the other side" lies like a rug, why do we insist on playing like gentlemen? This is not the first time i've resolved to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but, and whenever i come up against some mendacious dickweed, go right ahead and call him/her a FUCKING LIAR.
Like Dr. Kendrick with his arch-enemy Sir Rory Statin, playing nice just doesn't work. Those assholes are willing to say and do anything to protect their phony-baloney jobs here (name that movie!) -- we should be willing to be JUUUUST a little bit unladylike, in defense of Truth as well as public welfare. THEY are in it for money and power; WE are in it because they are hurting the ones we love.
All you have to do is hang out on the internet, on sites where "ordinary people" congregate, to hear what a hash has been made of people's understanding of nutrition and health. It's a SLOUGH. The press might actually cover it better, and the public pay a little more attention, if there were a little "blood" (figuratively speaking) involved.
...Kinda like a road-side accident. Rubber-neckers can't resist.
Okay, i'm used to that kind of thing. I rarely comment anymore.
I followed a link on MDA to what was supposed to have been a summary of Prof. Noakes' talk at the recent CapeTown convention. It must have been the opening speech, because it was just the same-ol'-same-ol' public criticism of LCHF by entrenched academics who see their career-theories crumbling. How many times will we hear the same story? TN seemed philosophical but aggrieved -- though they ignored science, they were sincere believers....
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO TAKE OFF THE GLOVES? When "the other side" lies like a rug, why do we insist on playing like gentlemen? This is not the first time i've resolved to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but, and whenever i come up against some mendacious dickweed, go right ahead and call him/her a FUCKING LIAR.
Like Dr. Kendrick with his arch-enemy Sir Rory Statin, playing nice just doesn't work. Those assholes are willing to say and do anything to protect their phony-baloney jobs here (name that movie!) -- we should be willing to be JUUUUST a little bit unladylike, in defense of Truth as well as public welfare. THEY are in it for money and power; WE are in it because they are hurting the ones we love.
All you have to do is hang out on the internet, on sites where "ordinary people" congregate, to hear what a hash has been made of people's understanding of nutrition and health. It's a SLOUGH. The press might actually cover it better, and the public pay a little more attention, if there were a little "blood" (figuratively speaking) involved.
...Kinda like a road-side accident. Rubber-neckers can't resist.
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