Tuesday, September 23, 2014

why we do it, and why that bothers people

Last week I lambasted MDA a couple of times; this week i'm placing yet another seal of approval on The Scribble Pad -- that ought to get a few people into quite a lather!  However, I don't wind up the latter purposefully, as it gives ME no pleasure to throw rocks at hornets' nests....

No, I particularly applaud the post I just read, discussing fiber.  Wooo first straightens out the misunderstandings of people who do not read her work thoroughly enough to know what she actually does, and why -- she eats plenty of non-animal products, and in fact deplores the fact that too much protein of any kind damages the ketosis that makes her feel her best;  she enjoys meat and would prefer to eat more than she dares.  AND THIS IS WHAT THE IGNORANT DON'T UNDERSTAND -- there are two kinds of people who restrict their diets:  those who WANT to do so, to achieve a particular end (like weight loss), and those who really don't have a choice (they feel horrible when certain foodstuffs hit their systems).

So CS loses weight but doesn't FEEL BETTER on a VLC diet?  She finds it easy to fall off it, because there's no misery attached to eating more carbs.  What happens when Galina breaks her diet and consumes wheat?  MISERY.  It's that simple.

Despite what I learned from Wheat Belly and Grain Brain, it would really be easy for me to eat like "everyone else" -- except that I would feel like HELL.  All those statistics about backsliders from a low-carb diet?  THOSE, who "can't stick with it," are the ones who ONLY get weight-loss or lower BG or some such benefit from it.  But some of us get a lot more than that, and Wooo described a few conditions that help define who those people might be.

I wish I could definitively answer the question in the second part of today's blog-title.  Why DOES it bother people so much that some of us adhere so "easily" to a restrictive diet that causes us to not fit in with "normal people"?

I don't subscribe to the "because they're jealous" philosophy, which I've heard so many times through the decades in response to a wide variety of "why do they hate me" questions.  Too facile, and usually incorrect, so it probably is here, as well.  Others may wish they had our determination, but if they experienced our physical repercussions to an inappropriate diet, they'd probably be determined, too! 

It may have something to do with societies being more comfortable when everyone conforms.  But curiously enough, vegetarians get a lot more respect than, for example, wheat-abstainers.  THAT I don't get, unless it's a question of vegetarianism being confounded in people's imaginations with idealism in anti-cruelty and health-consciousness.  Somehow, health-consciousness (eschewing a "whole food group") is a one-way street in this case.

Perhaps certain low-carb-anti's, as Eddie calls them, are hostile because they know, on some level of consciousness, that they're wrong about carb limitation.  Some of the excuses they bring up are patently incorrect (low-carb does NOT fuck up your thyroid, nor give you a mucin deficiency, nor damage a previously-healthy microbiome).  Perhaps if the anti's can convince others to follow their philosophies, it provides them reason to believe that they might actually be right after all?  Or perhaps they have a psychological desire for dominance, but no-one in their personal lives who will fill that role for them?  GOK what the answer is ... and he ain't tellin'. 

But just like "carb-deficiency," "probiotic-deficiency" is a nonsense concept where people have a adequately-working GI tract.  Do you poop without distress?  It works.

Chasing the colonic bacteria of a hunter-gatherer population of a different genetic background and on another damned CONTINENT is analogous to chasing NUMBERS in cholesterol or ketones.  WHEN WILL PEOPLE (who should know better) STOP CHASING NUMBERS?!  These things are results of behaviors and physical situations, not causative factors. 

Does it matter if I have a different population of gut-bugs from a HGer in Africa?  Absolutely not.  They have different diets and different potential infective agents in their environments and different genetics -- probably different colon-lengths as well. 

...What, you haven't seen THIS graphic recently?
 
How about this chart?

 
Didn't think so.

19 comments:

  1. It's like the nekkid King parable. People do not want to be called out for the error of their ways. They want everyone to sing the same song they are, then there is no discord.

    I'm in the camp where it's harder (albeit mostly on just some days harder) to abdicate all sugars (grains...not an issue at all)...because I don't have overt physical reactions when I do otherwise. It becomes much more esoteric when there are no debilitating physical results when you veer off course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. unfortunately, i'm in a similar camp! goitrogens I feel very soon if I've had too much, and certain other foods ditto (like cashews and hard cheese), but sugar's repercussions are usually small and hardly perceptible. I just know that i'll feel awful if I have some very often.

      Delete
  2. Woo restricts her diet because she suffers from serious mental illness and refuses to seek medical assistance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. push, push.... [head shaking...] here's proof that you can't be nice to some people -- I was patient in my last post, and now we're going to have accelerating unpleasantness ... or we would but i'm cutting you off here. Wooo knows more about "medical assistance" and its effectiveness than most of the people I know, and nor is she averse to seeking it if there was a possibility of good that could come from it.

      "unknown," don't bother to come back; you're no longer welcome. your snide little jabs will be deleted on sight.

      Delete
    2. Is it better to take medications when diet works at least good enough, but often even better? Fortunately, Wooo doesn't think that elimination of some foods is a tragedy.
      I had an experience using small dose of anty-seizure drug for migraines prevention, it also worked very well for eliminating mood problems , but only for several months . Diet works better and doesn't poison your body. Psychotic drugs has serious side effects .

      Delete
    3. While all medications have side effects, some are particularly prominent in that regard and should be considered as the last resort remedy, not a modern alternative to bothersome life-style changes like a diet. Steroids will wreck chaos into a body system, anty-psychotic drags also are very notorious for their side-effects , and btw, weight gain and diabetes are on the complication list, not to mention suicide.

      Delete
    4. if eating a VLC diet and avoiding things that disagree with me can allow me to feel as good as I do now, it's worth passing by all the wheat and soy products ever made. :-)

      Delete
  3. WTF medical assistance will work to lower weight and not have brain fucking invisible spears going through your head and brain fog, If that sort of medical assistance was available I would have stumbled across it sometime in my 55 years, doc and shrinks, statin and all that shit. I will treat myself thank you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ditto, on that "treating myself" bit! an awful lot of pharmaceuticals DON'T work consistently, and people in clinical psychology see up-close-and-personally what happens when you try to tweak a single pathway ... cuz you CAN'T. only our pill-pushing culture could imagine that you can abuse your body and poison it with the range of toxins and food-like-substances we do, and then expect to fix what goes wrong with a drug....

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  4. Hi Tess

    I have no choice but to low carb as a type two diabetic. Hang on a minute, I could take a bag full of type two drugs like Actos, Avandia and others, oh no, they have been banned for killing people. I know, I will go onto insulin, good grief look at the death rates.

    "Last year, we reported on the dangers of insulin therapy for type 2 diabetics, following the publication of a study comprised of almost 85,000 type 2 diabetic patients that found insulin monotherapy doubled their risk of all-cause mortality, in addition to significantly increasing their risk for diabetes-related complications and cancer. Insulin monotherapy resulted in"

    2.0 times more myocardial infarctions.
    1.7 time more major adverse cardiac events
    1.4 time more strokes
    3.5 times more renal complications
    2.1 time more neuropathy
    1.2 times more eye complications
    1.4 times more cancer
    2.2 times more deaths

    Link to info http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/gmo-insulin-causes-type-1-diabetes-type-2-diabetics-study-finds

    I am sticking with whole fresh food home cooked. Let the antis eat cake and the junk, it keeps our quality food choices available to us and keeps the price down.

    Those low carb anti carboholics do have their uses.

    Kind regards Eddie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :-) you're my type-2 success-story poster boy, like Karen is my prime midlife-weight-loss-and-maintenance example! when people in real life (not mice in a lab) need to fix something wrong, the first place they should go is to others who have actually solved their OWN problems. screw the theoreticians!!!!

      Delete
    2. Yes Tess there are a million theories out there and words like "may be caused by" "could be linked to" etc etc. I prefer to trust how I feel, how I perform and BTW, did I mention the 40 odd hospital bloods tests and other tests I have each year.

      I have one big problem, I ain't selling anything, I am not about to publish a book, and one thing is for sure, I will not be doing a 180 to drum up publicity for my latest earner.

      Kind regards Eddie

      Delete
  5. I wish it would give me mucus deficiency. I'm still mildly sick and don't have my Mucinex with me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. stilll? :-( hope your cold is better soon!

      Delete
    2. When a cold leaves head and goes down to chest, it always involves longer recovery.

      Delete
    3. This cold started out in my chest. I knew from the beginning it would be around for a while.

      Delete
  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete