Humor me, if you all will, as there are several things upon reading back a few pages that I wanted to comment on. I may not be able to reply for a bit, since I don't have a constant internet connection anymore, so I'll have to put it all in one big blog-like post. I apologize in advance...
1. Echoing another poster, I really wish this thread had a FAQ, because I notice over and over again some of the same misinformation and CICO nonsense being repeated, even from some low carbers themselves (which is disheartening), that has long been answered and debunked since way back when Tehpwn used to frequent the thread. The alternative hypothesis requires a paradigm shift in thinking about weight gain/loss/nutrition/and exercise. Calories as a measurement of energy is an extremely poor and rough model. Your body has way too much in play to believe that it breaks down macronutrients like a calorimeter. Trying to count them for weight loss or exercise is ridiculous as there's no way to be accurate, especially when you consider that 9/4/4 are already rough estimates for f/p/c when for ex. one type of fat can be 9.4 and another can be 8.6 calories, and on down the line and across the board.
2.
Suppression of FoxO1 Activity by Long-Chain Fatty Acyl Analogs
"CONCLUSIONS Suppression of FoxO1 activity by MEDICA analogs may partly account for their
antidiabetic anti-inflammatory efficacy. FoxO1 suppression by LCFA analogs may provide a molecular rational for the
beneficial efficacy of carbohydrate-restricted ketogenic diets in treating diabetes...The insulin-mimetic effects of MEDICA analogs in suppressing FoxO1 activity, combined with the previously reported efficacy of MEDICA analogs
in treating insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, diabetic dyslipidemia, and the macrovascular disease of diabesity animal models (17–22), suggest the intriguing possibility that endogenous free LCFA might simulate the antidiabetic insulin-like effects of MEDICA analogs, if allowed to reach high enough intracellular concentrations while avoiding their esterification into downstream lipotoxic products by abrogating the induction of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferases (GPAT) by insulin (reviewed in [50]) and by limiting the availability of glycerol-3-phpsphate. Hence, FoxO1 suppression by MEDICA analogs may offer a
molecular rationale for the surprising efficacy of carbohydrate-restricted diets in alleviating diabetes (13–15) and may point to the prospects of synthetic substituted LCFA in treating diabetes. "
This is just one study, there are ton more out there, but it's clear keto helps so many diseases and conditions from diabetes, to Alzheimer's, to multiple sclerosis, to epilepsy, etc. It is our healthiest and most natural state of being, and low carb paleo/primal eating/living is the obvious way to go. Not just for weight-loss, which I think is what is really lost on those who are resistant to keto or outright anti-keto, but for overall health and longevity. I find it hilarious that we are the ones spouting "dogma" when the SAD diet and all its ill effects have proven themselves ten times the world over, and CICO has failed so many; while keto and low carb has been around forever, since it was the way we ate, has been quite successful, and doesn't benefit big pharma, big argi-business, the health insurance industry, and many other industries with motives (profits) well above your well being. I find it funny that the default (CICO/SAD), nor matter how destructive and illogical, is the go to and "proven", while keto/low carb is the "dogma" and low carbers are the "nutters".
3. Someone mentioned white rice being A-OK earlier in the thread because it didn't have gluten and was low on the GI scale, well so what? Lots of low GI foods aren't good for you, like HFCS, they do damage down the line when converted to blood sugar. Just because you don't get an immediate spike doesn't mean there's no harm. No starch is "
safe", an
oxymoron which even Paul Jaminet concedes is not for the
metabolically damaged. It all turns to sugar in the end and increasing AGEs is never a good thing:
"when binding AGEs, contributes to age- and diabetes-related chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, asthma, arthritis, myocardial infarction, nephropathy, retinopathy, periodontitis and neuropathy."
I know for me personally I stayed fat consuming a more paleo high carb diet rich in white rice, plantains, yuca, and the like eating my traditional
Floribbean diet. I had IBS-D for 15 years and it wasn't cured until I went keto primal. Low GI starches affect ppl down the line and can exacerbate gut flora, big time, like it does for me and many others.
4. I also wanted to chime in that for all those who support carb ups and eating more carbs for exercise to please checkout Dr. Volek & Dr. Phinney's
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance and how it debunks carbs as necessary for exercise, refueling glycogen stores, etc. When you are properly keto-adapted, by making sure to moderate your protein intake, you don't need glucose for anything other than the 10-20% you brain requires for energy it cannot get from ketone bodies. That 10-20% of glucose the brain can easily get from triglycerides as Dr. Rosedale says:
"The brain needing 20% glucose is only under conditions of insufficient adaptation to burning ketones. Basic metabolic textbooks talk about adaptation to carbohydrate “starvation” when the brain starts deriving the vast majority of its energy needs from ketones derived from fat metabolism. After several weeks of adaptation the brain can derive at least 80% of its energy needs from ketones. After a longer period of time it can derive more. Regardless, the remainder of the brain’s energy needs can be met from gluconeogenesis using glycerol derived from the breakdown of triglycerides as substrate such that gluconeogenesis derived from amino acids is minimal to nonexistent, sparing lean mass"
And as Dr. Phinney states:
"Clearly some carbohydrate foods raise blood glucose more than others, which is the basis for both the ‘glycemic index’ and presumably the ‘safe starches’ concepts. In part, how fast your body absorbs the carbohydrates you eat influences how these energy sources are processed.
The other half of this picture is how promptly your body can ‘tuck away’ the absorbed carbohydrate, which passes through the blood stream mostly as glucose (which means you need both adequate insulin in the blood and insulin sensitive cells to clear it).
Insulin resistance (the hallmark of both metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes) occurs to a varying degree in many of us. Thus the more insulin resistant we are, the less tolerant we are of dietary carbohydrate from the different dietary sources (i.e., one persons ‘safe starch’ may far exceed the carbohydrate tolerance of someone else who is more insulin resistant). Many people with type-2 diabetes go into complete remission when they eat less than 50 grams per day of total carbohydrate, but remain diabetic if they eat 100-150 grams (400-600 Calories) of carbohydrate (independent of what grain or tuber it comes from).
There is no absolute human requirement for dietary carbohydrate. In our many published studies of human research subjects given well-formulated very low carbohydrate diets (e.g., 5-50 grams of total carbohydrate per day), we never observed low blood sugar levels. In fact, in my 1983 study of bicycle racers eating an Inuit diet, even when we exercised them to exhaustion, their blood glucose values remained normal. Simply put, if the body maintains a normal blood glucose level with little or no carbohydrate sources in the diet, how can one argue that they are required?
If the level of glucose during a well-formulated very low carbohydrate diet is maintained in the normal range, how can one credibly postulate inadequate glucose availability for glycosylation?"
5. Tying in the safe starch issue with carb ups and other stuff that's had the paleosphere drowning in mashed potatoes lately is this interesting tidbit I wanted to pass along:
"Somehow something happened where the #1 founder and popularizer of the Paleo movement on the internet got ignored, Art De Vany, and so his theories on being in low glucose states for mitochondrial biogenesis, down regulation of mSTOR, down regulation of IGF-1, fat burning, catecholamine increase, etc -- Are all ignored. All of those points are ignored/forgotten in the Paleo community! From a guy who's 73 and just gave a talk at the Zurichminds conference and still was standing like a greek God with his full mental function in-tact -- There's a lot of things he's doing like weight training and sprints, but he started his diet because he wanted to stay in a low glucose state and to this day a huge part of his website and diet method is to keep the glucose levels low most of the time."
6. On the issue on cheat meals, I get why some people do them but at this stage in my weight loss (148 lbs overall) food quality & ketosis has become such a lifestyle for me that when I see SAD food I don't even consider it food, I consider it
garbage. The food I eat is so nutritionally dense and delicious, and knowing now what I know, why would I even want to cheat?
Here's what I ate today:
Breakfast after an 18 hr fast (I do IF):
2 large eggs fried in butter and doused with black pepper and Goya adobo with bitter orange seasoning.
2 slices of thick cut Safeway bacon.
1 cup of home made mocha:
Cuban coffee "Café Oquendo" brand, Hershey's unsweetened dark cocoa powder, Silk brand unsweetened vanilla almond milk, alcohol free stevia glycerite extract
1 glass of water
Lunch:
1/2 a can of El Mexicano Sardines in tomato sauce &
1 giant salad bowl consisting of:
Baby Spinach as the base with slices of:
Jicama
Daikon Radish
Turnip
Beets
Rutabaga
Green Onions
Shitaki Mushrooms
Cucumber
Tomato
Green Olives
Green Bell Pepper
and topped with feta cheese, salt, black pepper, lots of pure extra virgin coconut oil, and lil bit of sriracha sauce for a nice kick.
1 glass of water.
Dinner:
Home made Vietnamese-like hot pot.
Seasoning: Chinese 5 spice seasoning, sugar free chili paste, white pepper, black pepper, salt, touch of soy sauce.
Broth: made from pork neck bones, beef leg bones, and chicken leg bones.
Meats: pork kidney, beef liver, beef honeycomb tripe, beef tendon, chicken drumsticks.
Veggies: Baby Bok Choy, Large Bok Choy, Green onions, Shitaki mushrooms, Enoki mushrooms, celery, mung bean sprouts.
1 glass of water to drink.
This hot pot will last me for awhile as it made a ton! And I've also got some nice salmon steak waiting to be grilled for tomorrow that I'm absolutely looking forward to making a butter & dijon mustard sauce for!
When you eat like this almost everyday why cheat?! BTW for those wondering, all the veggies are low carb veggies, high in fiber, in which they are catabolized as fat in the colon, so very little glucose intake from them.
Lastly, I can't tell you how important getting enough vitamin D is to your physical health and psyche. I've been sun bathing more as of late, and let me tell you, I feel so energized after a hour or two of it! I end up running uphill afterwards just for shits and giggles! I try to take advantage of every little bit of it up here in the PNW, so it's why I absolutely loath anything concerning gym work, it feels like being in a zoo. I hate being indoors working out when I could be outside, in nature, enjoying the sun, the air, the trees, the views, etc. I kinda like the ideas behind
Erwan Le Corre's MovNat program even though I have no interest in paying to
attend a workshop...