The benefits I’ve experienced from eating low-carb

Short version:

The benefits I’ve experienced from eating low-carb for almost two years:

Better sleep
Weight loss
Stronger nails
Longer hair
Less water retention
Better between-meal endurance
Less “fuzz” on teeth
Fewer skin tags
no more heartburn
Candida intertrigo clearing up
milder symptoms of cold and flu
milder symptoms of seasonal affective disorder
More sensitive sweet tooth (i.e. decreased appetite for sweets – sometimes!)

Longer version:

A short weight problem history

Twelve years ago, for the first time in my life, I went on a diet. I was in my late 20s and had gained 20-25 pounds since high school (I’m not exactly certain what I weighed in high school). I had bought the book “The Zone Diet” by Dr. Barry Sears, and was blown away by how little I knew about eating properly. I followed this diet almost to the letter (I needed a few more carbs than he claimed, to avoid a low blood sugar feeling) and I lost 12 pounds in 2 months, all without exercising and while working rotating shift work (which makes anything, especially dieting, more difficult). This was a great diet for me (and I still think it is a great diet) although it did get pretty technical.

I went off the Zone diet several months later, even though I liked it and felt great while following it, and over the next several years gained 45 pounds. During that time, I tried the Zone diet again, and lost no weight. I later tried the Atkins diet, and, although I experienced some interesting and positive side effects, I also suffered some very intense carb cravings, AND I lost no weight, so I only stuck with it for 3 weeks, then went back to my “normal” diet of whatever I wanted to eat, which was a lot of carbs, mostly. I also went back to having a lot of low blood sugar symptoms (irritability and inability to concentrate, among others) whenever I went too long without eating, usually 3-4 hours. I was almost a slave to my blood sugar, and I thought this was normal. And I never considered the idea that I might have some blood sugar issues, because my fasting blood sugar tests were always normal.

Three years ago, I was kicked out of the Navy for being overweight. I’d been over the weight standard for five years, and a change in the regulations meant that I either had to lose the weight, or get involuntarily separated. I managed to lose a few pounds, but not nearly enough. I can still remember the late July afternoon when I was sitting in my gorgeous flat in England (where I was stationed at the time), and I realized that I just was not going to lose the weight, and I was going to get kicked out. This was such a huge shock for me – I had been planning on staying in for 20 years! I also had to leave the best place I’d ever been stationed (England) only one year into my three year tour. I was also making about $50K a year at that time. I want to emphasize strongly here – I lost my awesome, lucrative job because I was overweight, and I didn’t know the real reason why. I was involuntarily discharged a few months later, given a bit of severance pay, and I came back home to Quincy.

Figuring things out

I started dating my boyfriend (now husband) Aaron a few months after getting back to Quincy, and he told me that he had previously used a low-carb diet to lose quite a bit of weight. He still needed to lose more, but since he wasn’t sticking to the low-carb diet too well he wasn’t really losing weight anymore. I usually cooked low-carb meals for him when he was at my house, which he appreciated, and which I enjoyed too. Aaron had suspected for some time that he may have some problems with his blood sugar, and a purchase of a blood glucose meter in May of 2007 confirmed it; his blood sugar readings were way too high. He decided to get religious about low-carbing again, and has been controlling his blood sugar pretty well, and he’s also lost a bit of weight.

I was curious about my blood sugar too, so I used Aaron’s meter, and to my disappointment (although not really my surprise) my blood sugar readings were also somewhat high (I don’t remember the reading – probably over 140, which is when organ damage starts to occur). Well, this scared me – not only the organ damage, but I also have a family history of diabetes! I knew I had to get serious about controlling my blood sugar, and diet was the way to go, if I didn’t want to take insulin shots or lose any limbs. So I reluctantly started eating a low-carb diet in late June of 2007. My only goal was to control blood sugar; I didn’t anticipate any other benefits.

Staying on the low-carb wagon

Unlike when I went on Atkins, though, I didn’t go cold turkey in cutting out the carbs. I just couldn’t, because I knew I couldn’t handle those awful carb cravings again. In fact, it was a rare meal where I ate fewer than 10 carbs (which is the induction phase requirement of the Protein Power Diet, by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades) and I would guess I averaged about 50-60 carbs a day, and still do. However, this still was a significant reduction in my carb intake – I would guess 70-80% – so my blood sugar readings also significantly decreased, and that was my main goal. I also was comforted by eating a LOT of fat, more than I’d eaten in ages. Fat is a great appetite suppressant! And it tastes so good!

To my surprise, I started losing weight. I figured I couldn’t lose weight since I was not suffering miserably from carb cravings and I was eating lots of tasty fat and red meat, but fortunately, I was wrong. I lost about a pound a week for the first several weeks, all while not exercising. I seemed to have lost most of it in my face, which apparently was my body’s favorite place to retain water. While I still have a bit of a double chin, my face looks far less bloated and I’ve gotten a lot of comments about how I look like I’ve lost a lot of weight, even though I don’t feel that I have … and I still have a long way to go to my ideal weight. I stopped losing weight in September 2007 and I haven’t lost any weight since then (unless you count losing the few pounds here and there that I regained, then lost again).

I wish I could say I don’t have carb cravings anymore, but I still do. Fortunately, they are relatively tolerable, and easily assuaged with a small amount of carbs. Overall, my body has adjusted well to a low-carb diet. At the beginning of this post, I listed all the benefits I experienced from the low-carb diet.

One great strength – and great weakness – of the low-carb movement is that there are a lot of different ways to eat low-carb. I mentioned 3 ways above – The Zone Diet, Atkins, and Protein Power. I’ve stuck with Protein Power (more or less) because it’s the most recent one I’ve tried, it works, and Aaron likes it too. Dr. Michael Eades has a great blog that feeds the science geek in me regarding research that supports low-carb diets (and debunking bad research that doesn’t). There are other low-carb diets too, like Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution, the Paleolithic Diet, the Optimal Diet, and the Primal Diet, to name just a few, and lots of people find them effective too.

Here are some great sites to check out if you’re interested in learning more about what is going on in this field – especially what the medical establishment is not telling people about carb consumption and diabetes.

What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? by Gary Taubes. This is a 2002 New York Times article about the government’s eating pyramid and the sad lack of research supporting it – and the price the American public has paid trying to follow it.

What They Don’t Tell You About Diabetes – a great website by a woman who suffers from diabetes and the amazing research she has unearthed about how diabetes works, and how it can be prevented. For me, the most dramatic information she has is that “Prolonged exposure to blood sugars over 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/l) damages your organs and causes diabetic complications.” My high blood sugar readings were around 140, and this article, more than anything else, scared me straight.

The Soft Science of Dietary Fat, another great article by Gary Taubes that won a science writing award in 2001. He discusses how dietary fat has been transmogrified into a great evil when, in fact, it isn’t – and it’s usually good for you. This is related to the low-carb topic because conventional wisdom holds that fat consumption leads to coronary disease, when in fact, the real coronary culprit is sugar.

Whole Health Source – another great nutrition and health blog!

Tags: health, low-carb, mental health

Uncategorized | Angel | April 11, 2009 1:15 am

5 Comments

By Jedidja, April 11, 2009 @ 2:15 am

Mark’s “Primal Blueprint” is a great way to follow a relatively low-carb lifestyle as well http://marksdailyapple.com
By David Brown, April 11, 2009 @ 12:55 pm

Hi Angel,

Regarding your occasional cravings for carbohydrate, you might want to ensure that you consume adequate protein for breakfast. Barry Groves explains how this works in Chapter 9 of “Eat Fat, Get Thin.” Here’s an excerpt from a review of this book:

“It is essential to start the day in such a way that your blood sugar levels are high and you will not have to snack between meals.
Chapter 9 cites studies which show that doing this can keep your blood sugar levels steady all day long.”
http://www.lowcarb.ca/atkins-diet-and-low-carb-plans/eat-fat-get-thing.html

Another excellent weight control expert is Diana Schwarzbein. Google “Video Diana Schwarzbein.”

Gardening is one of my interests. I’ve been experimenting with compost and deep soil fertility. My goal is to maximize the biological potency of my produce. As Michael Pollan noted, “You are what what you eat eats.”
http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/you-are-what-what-you-eat-eats/
By Angel, April 11, 2009 @ 2:38 pm

Schwarzbein! That’s the name I couldn’t think of last night, when I was writing the blog entry (and I didn’t feel like hunting the book down). I googled “Schwartzkopf diet” and unsurprisingly, got no results.

I have recently started eating 3 eggs for breakfast, with a small side of hash browns (both cooked in butter or coconut oil), and a glass of raw milk (usually has lots of cream). I do notice now that I am eating more protein and fat for breakfast that I feel better in the morning, although it’s subtle. My guess is that it’s just some sort of leftover addiction to carbs (from all those years of eating so many). However, as I mentioned regarding the Zone diet – I always just needed a few more carbs than what that diet called for. Obviously, I could be healthy eating NO carbs, but maybe my particular body just likes a few extra carbs to be happy?

Gardening – it’s all about compost! My husband and I have two small raised beds in our backyard. Their soil is mainly compost from our own compost pile. Even though those beds do not get full sun (they get maybe 5 hrs a day) we’ve been able to grow tons of peppers and tomatoes and other “full sun” veggies. I have to wonder about the full sun recommendations – maybe full sun compensates in some limited way for poor soil. Or biologically active, well-drained soil compensates for decreased sunlight … something like that!
By Joanne of Open Mind Required, June 10, 2009 @ 12:15 am

I know what you mean about the thinner face. I just started eating more meat and less fruit. I had tried the 80/10/10 diet and I just couldn’t stick with it. But after eating more meat, an ache in my hip that I’d had for a year is gone and I feel thinner though I’ve lost only four pounds. But the bloat is out of my face.

Divine Mind

musings by Angel