My primary computer has been largely unavailable for use for the last FIVE weeks due to technical difficulties (or perhaps they were emotional – the motherboard had to be replaced).  I’ve been using a borrowed laptop during this time, so I wasn’t completely without internet access or the ability to create files.  However, I did not have access to any of my already created files, and since some of my passwords were on that computer, I therefore also didn’t have access to some of my online accounts.  I also have subscribed to RSS feeds to about twenty blogs, and I couldn’t remember what all of them were, so I got way behind on my blog reading.

This motherboard relationship issue actually ended up creating some wetware memory difficulties for me, because I cannot tell you how many times I would think of something I wanted to look up, and I knew I had a file for it, but I couldn’t access it.  I’ve decided to call this state of frustration and lack of memory access “computer-based amnesia”.  I really had no idea how much I relied on my computer to remember stuff for me.  It’s like what I have in my own head is just the directory and a brief summary of the files; my brain dumped the primary content because it didn’t have to do the work of remembering it.

At least I didn’t have any problems creating new content; I wrote the “Part I” series on my military experiences without any reference to old diary entries from that time period.  I am a little hesitant, though, to pull up those diary entries now and do fact checking, because I’m pretty proud about how the series turned out, and I don’t want the facts to get in the way of my good stories.

And yes, I do have hard copies of MOST of my passwords, I don’t keep them ALL on my computer.  And yes, I know external back-up drives are just common sense.  Long story short – I will get it rectified eventually.

In the meantime, I hope my computer has a strong, loving, healthy relationship with its new motherboard, because I do not want to come down with another bout of computer-based amnesia!

But there are also drawbacks to pursuing a low-carb lifestyle – physical, psychological, and social.  Given that many of the drawbacks that I have experienced are the same ones that discourage others from starting or staying with low-carb, I thought in the interests of fairness, I should discuss the drawbacks.

Side effects during transition due to electrolyte deficiencies – I had dizzy spells when I first started eating low-carb, and I didn’t really get them “cured” until I went back and read “Protein Power” more closely, and found out that the body will dump a lot of potassium and sodium (which are electrolytes, along with magnesium and chloride) as it’s dumping the extra retained fluid.  I started supplementing with potassium and magnesium, and eating more salt, and this eventually worked itself out.

Heart palpitations – same thing – some sort of electrolyte deficiency or imbalance.  It worked itself out as I got used to the diet and was taking supplements, but it was weird.  Fortunately, I knew it was diet-related and that I wasn’t having a heart attack.  The main problem with electrolyte deficiencies is that the symptoms are pretty much the same as when you’re getting too much!  So you really have to know how much of them you’re getting so you can adjust your dosages properly.

I had other side effects as well, but I didn’t document them so I don’t remember them!  This is like a lot of other health stuff – your results may vary.  You can pretty much count on experiencing some odd or uncomfortable side effects, so it’s really important to educate yourself on them.

Different body – the body I have now is not the same one I started with on low-carb.  It has just as many quirks but some of them are different ones than before.

I can easily get muscle cramps due to (I assume) a lack of potassium.  I still take potassium supplements on occasion but I still haven’t figured out how much or how frequently is just the right amount.  This is a significant deterrent to exercise (not that I need any deterrents, though).

I seem to be more easily dehydrated, but (like a lot of people) I don’t seem to feel thirst until I really really need it (although I will drink quite a bit if water is sitting right in front of me, fortunately).  I’ve always had a problem drinking enough water, but it’s more of an issue now that I’m not carrying around an extra gallon or so in vivo.

Skipped meals – hunger signals are more subtle now that my blood sugar isn’t surging up and down to unhealthy levels.  So, if there’s nothing in the fridge that I want to eat, it’s a lot easier to snack on a glass of milk or a few crackers with butter or cheese than it is to cook a decent meal.  This is an advantage, of course, when no food is available, but it can be a disadvantage when I just don’t feel like cooking (which is most of the time) and there are no tasty leftovers in the fridge.

Reduced dental hygiene habits – I didn’t realize the extent to which I relied on mouth fuzz to prompt me to brush my teeth until I stopped getting it.  Since I still eat some carbs (including sugar) I still get some fuzz, but not nearly as much as I used to – so the fuzz rarely gets to the point where I feel I absolutely have to brush my teeth.  I don’t have bad breath and I have really strong teeth – so I just don’t have as much incentive to brush my teeth as I used to.  It’s embarrassing to admit this in our hygiene-crazed culture, which makes it all the more important to talk about.  And no, I will not tell you how often I actually do brush my teeth!  But obviously – less fuzz means less decay due to sugar, so I don’t believe I am compromising my dental health.  Here are a couple of great blog posts about preventing and reversing tooth decay in case you get more worried about my teeth than I am.  And good luck finding a dentist who is aware of this information (which should be known by all of them).

Carb cravings – well, this is a problem I also had before low-carb, of course, I just didn’t feel as guilty as I do now when I satisfy them.  I wonder how much of the carb cravings might be due to some sort of deficiency, versus the simple psychology of “it feels good to eat carbs”.  Dr. Michael Eades of “Protein Power” advises people to start or increase magnesium supplementation if they have carb cravings, but I still have the cravings even with supplementation.  I discuss my effort to puzzle out my feedback mechanism for cravings in a previous post, A buzz or a glow?

Lots of guilt and shame – am I craving carbs (especially sugar!) because I am a weak person, or is there something going on physiologically that I just don’t know the cure for yet?  It’s just so easy to assume my frequent desire for ice cream or sweets is “just me” and feel ashamed at my weakness.  It’s also a lot easier to feel guilty/ashamed than it is to devote considerable effort, time, and perhaps money to figure out what is actually behind the carb cravings (if it is other than psychological … or even if it is psychological!).  Of course, there was also constant guilt with the low-fat diet, because even if I followed the guidelines, I was still hungry and wanted more fat/protein – so then, too, the easy assumption was that there must be something wrong with me… which was true … I wasn’t getting enough fat and protein!

Toxic culture – well, this is a huge issue, and has been discussed in so many other media (like this recent excellent post by Dr. Michael Eades (Protein Power))  that I’ll just mention the basics.  Our culture – particularly the media – aggressively criticize a low-carb lifestyle.  Numerous studies showing its benefits are ignored, or worse, skewed into showing no benefit.  Health experts, most with virtually no training in nutrition other than the food pyramid, preach the non-existent benefits of grain-based diet.   Anyplace where food is sold has numerous high-carb, low-fat, no-nutrition products touted as health food.  It’s an upside down world in so many ways, and this toxic culture is one of the most basic, one of the most insidious, and is the single most difficult issue that low-carbers must contend with in pursuing their own good health.

Not a cure-all – I believe that anyone that has done a decent amount of reading about the benefits of eating a low-carb diet could be forgiven for forming an unconscious assumption that low-carb will cure anything.  Every aspect of human health is either directly or indirectly affected by unbalanced blood sugar and by insulin resistance.  While following a low-carb lifestyle will certainly improve many aspects of one’s health (as I have already attested) it can’t cure everything, especially if a health problem has been plaguing someone for years.

This leaves an enthusiastic but disappointed low-carber (like myself) to wonder – am I just not doing it right?  What else could be the problem?  This is especially true for weight loss. I’d bet good money that when people stop losing weight with low-carb, they lose faith in the diet, regardless of how good they feel otherwise.  I certainly did!  Some really good long-term studies on what is going on when weight loss stalls, but the low-carb diet is maintained, would provide a tremendous boost for people who are struggling to maintain a low-carb lifestyle while facing tremendous pressure from their culture, family, friends, and health experts to switch back to a high-carb, low-fat diet.

Conclusion - pursuing a low-carb lifestyle has most certainly been worth it for me and my husband – we are healthier because of it, and if we ever get around to reproducing, our kids will be healthier for it, and much more knowledgeable about optimal nutrition than we were.  I am grateful to all those health care professionals who wrote books and set up websites to get the message out about low-carb diets.  I feel confident now that I, my husband, and our (future) children will not have to suffer from diabetes or other lifestyle-related metabolic disorders, and that gives me some measure of peace in this upside down world.

Recommended reading:

Weston A. Price Foundation

Real Milk Campaign

Nourishing Traditions – great book on food raised and prepared naturally

Lardy, Lardy – great post on the health benefits of lard by Dr. Mary Dan Eades (Protein Power)

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!

Short version:

I believe that most mental illnesses are caused or significantly exacerbated by aspects of modern lifestyle – nutritional deficiencies, poor sleep, chronic stress, even poor physical development of the skull.  Without a dietitian’s license or medical degree, though, I cannot ethically advise clients on how changes in lifestyle can improve their mental health, or refer them to medical specialists for specialized tests or procedures.  And I’ve already discovered that working with patients who would obviously benefit from significant lifestyle changes, but being unable to discuss this with them except in the most general terms, is very frustrating.  So I would much rather not work as a counselor, than work within the considerable constraints of the current counseling bureaucracy.

Longer version:

I believe, now, that behavioral dysfunction is often a symptom of a physical illness rather than a disease in and of itself.  I did not have much awareness of lifestyle influences on mental health, however, when I started my coursework three years ago.  I certainly was not taught anything about the influence of lifestyle factors on mental health in my counseling classes, beyond perhaps some general observations on the detrimental effects of high or prolonged stress.  I get the impression that most counseling theories were formulated with the assumption that every other aspect of the lives of mentally ill people is in good shape, except their behavior and sometimes their relationships.  However, my own personal experience with improving my physical health, and feeling better mentally and emotionally as a result, contradicts that assumption.

I also had the good fortune to do much of my internship at an inpatient treatment facility, where I had greater access to patients’ medical information than I would have had in most other internship environments.  Almost every patient admitted to the inpatient facility had some sort of medical problem in addition to their mental illness.  Many were overweight or obese, and many were also given prescriptions for sleeping medication due to chronic sleep problems.  Many already had prescriptions for chronic health problems.

It’s unfortunate that conventional health care draws such a thick black line between physical health and mental health, acting as if the two are almost completely independent of each other.  In truth there’s so much overlap between the two that truly effective health care needs to treat both types of health as essentially interdependent.

I wish I could refer people to some great websites or a book or two that summarize the above ideas neatly in some easily digestible reading, but no such website or books exist.  I can only provide some general references that you can go browsing around in, where you may draw your own conclusions.

Weston A. Price Foundation – nutrition information

The blog of Dr. Michael Eades – co-author of “Protein Power” books

This is not to say, though, that counselors can do no good within their current restraints.  A good counselor can do a lot of good – plenty of research shows the effectiveness of good counseling in helping people who want to feel better.  I enjoyed studying counseling and learned a great deal about people and especially about myself that I might not have learned otherwise.  I met a lot of great people too, and working on my master’s degree was overall a good experience that I don’t regret.  I hope to do a post sometime soon on why studying counseling is a great idea.

But more than anything I want to be an effective counselor, which for me means looking at the person as a whole, instead of just as a mental or emotional being.  This is not to criticize the many, many good people out there who choose to work within a narrower focus; I’m simply saying it does not satisfy me. I’m not ruling out the future possibility of pursuing further education, say, a nutrition degree of some sort, but right now, I’m sick of academia! Especially homework!

So, I will be living off my husband’s dime for awhile, as I take a few fun art classes at my local friendly community college, and do a little part-time work.  I’m very grateful that I have this opportunity to continue avoiding the full-time rat race.  I really married a great guy!