Low-carb diets support thread

daska

Sheila Wow! Congratulations! And I am soooooo jealous, I haven't been on holiday since I fell ill nearly 6 years ago.

I'm still trying to fit comfortably into my size 16 jeans, I can get them on but I wouldn't want to spend a day in them. And I seem to have spent the last two weeks hovering between 14.7 and 14.5 for various reasons - mainly to do with succumbing to too many carbs and the bread and tomatoes (I think).

murphydog thanks for the pointer, that Jonny Bowden book looks interesting, I've splashed out.

I tried stevia about 10 years ago and found the aftertaste utterly revolting, so I hope it's improved as I've just ordered some stevia gold purely on your recommendation! TBH my friend who's just been diagnosed type 2 will probably take it off my hands if I find I still loathe it. I also ordered some liquid, if I'm paying postage I might as well try it properly.

Interestingly, since succumbing to the tomatoes and the 2 slices of bread and the indian takeaway on Saturday I've experienced a lot of pain. I'm not unused to this, it's been a feature of the ME for nearly 6 years, but what I hadn't realised until now was how much less pain I've had recently. I've also got back a slight case of pins and needles in my fingers and toes. I need to go back on the straight and narrow and then try wheat and nightshade in isolation - the problem is as soon as I deliberately include one it leads to the other, more willpower needed on that score!

Skymist

SHEILA54 wrote: »

Bought 3 t-shirts and was pleased that I could fit into 16 - 18 as I was a size 28 this time last year!! :j

That's fantastic Sheila! :T:T:T

It just goes to show that doing LC really does change and improve one's body composition, and that instead of fixating on the number on the weighing scales...and I'm guilty of this too...we should instead be focusing on the numbers that our tape measure gives instead!! After all if you can fit into smaller sized clothes, that's a far bigger incentive to carry on with one's woe than to see .x lbs reduction on the scales, yet clothes size stays the same!!

S

SHEILA54

mazzers - have a lovely time

daska - still in size 18 - 20 trousers but weigh 13 stone 10lb. Big tummy and backside I am afraid What is stopping you from having a few days away as I think that it is so important to keep one sane? I have had holidays free the past few years thanks to Tesco as I have their credit card and use it for everything. This year I converted to avios and got free flights (+ £27pp fees) instead.

Skymist - thanks for the encouragement. Yes it is true that you can lose inches without lb as I found last week. I haven't lost much weight this year but will keep at it.

murphydog999

daska wrote: »

I tried stevia about 10 years ago and found the aftertaste utterly revolting, so I hope it's improved as I've just ordered some stevia gold purely on your recommendation! TBH my friend who's just been diagnosed type 2 will probably take it off my hands if I find I still loathe it. I also ordered some liquid, if I'm paying postage I might as well try it properly.

I think there are 3 issues with taste, 1 is purity and making sure it's not mixed with other things 2, how much you use, 3, getting your brain to accept that it isn't sugar and you are using it to sweeten something.

It is extremely difficult to get your head round the minuscule amount that you need, it is so easy to overdo it, and then it would taste awful. So when you get it, just try the residue left on the knife blade as I mentioned, and go from there; it is really unreal that just this is enough!

Sheila, I'll be in Jersey for the jubilee (not planned that way), never been there before and looking forward to our first visit to a michelin starred restaurant - hope it lives up to it's reputation - and hope this weather doesn't break!!

devildog

mazzers mine is coming from abroad too, costing equivalent of £5.
Have already been in touch with relevant agencies to make sure they would allow it(this was before someone told me it was available in UK)

ditto with Rome, it is amazing, I never fully appreciated the sheer scale of things there and to see it in 'real' took my breath away.

Well said Skymist but just WHY do I still have to get on them and then get the tape measure out too??

Sheila54-I am the other way around, skinny legs/hips/bum but up from there it all goes pear shaped, lol see what i did there, guess upside down pear shaped
When is the Jubilee, this coming week end? LOL guess that means I have nothing planned for it.

Angelfeathers

SHEILA54 wrote: »

I am off on holiday on Saturday as we have decided to go then rather in the summer as it is cheaper and the kids are off school. Taking our flags and bunting to decorate the mobile home with. Think that I will try to keep low carb but eat the occasional ice cream, if my stomach doesn't rebel! I will be self catering but may eat out a couple of times and am hoping that they will have fish or chicken with veg. I know that Italy has a lot of pasta and pizza but they should have other items as well? It will be a challenge as I love pasta and that will be what the others have as it is cheap and filling.

Sheila, when we went to Italy we found that (as in Italian restaurants here) there are usually two types of meals: the carby ones (pasta/pizza/risotto) and then meat and veg ones. We had a lot of lovely steak or fish with Meditterranean veg-type meals, and this was way before I'd heard of low-carbing! I believe it's traditional to fill up on the carby course first so you need less of the meaty one, but we tried that a couple of times and were far too full to eat much meat at all!

In other words, you should be absolutely fine, and be able to enjoy your occasional ice-creams! :-)

SHEILA54

devildog - it is this weekend, Monday and Tuesday. There are so many events planned all over the country so I am sure that there will be one near to you if you want to go to one. I weigh once a week in Boots as my weight goes up and down a bit.

murphydog999 - have a great time in Jersey. I went may years ago but remember it as being a nice place.

Angelfeathers - thanks for the info!

devildog

Just for a matter of interest I have just dug out my little booklet re additives (haven't looked at it in a long while) Some health conditions are not specifically named but are more generalised and one such group is metabolic disturbances and the apparent culprits- E925 &926(chlorine and chlorine dioxide) found in flour,cereals and tap water. E924(potassium bromate) flours and cereals.(all high carbs, sorry except the water doh) E220-E227(sulphur dioxide and sulphites) which appaerntly can cause metabolic deficiencies of vits B1 and E, commonly found in fruit juices,ciders.beers, jams sausages etc.
If I recall there were some here with thyroid issues(?) E127(erythrosine) found in biscuits,swiss rolls, scotch eggs, soups, sweets, butter etc)
It certainly makes you think

daska

murphydog999 wrote: »

I think there are 3 issues with taste, 1 is purity and making sure it's not mixed with other things 2, how much you use, 3, getting your brain to accept that it isn't sugar and you are using it to sweeten something.

It is extremely difficult to get your head round the minuscule amount that you need, it is so easy to overdo it, and then it would taste awful. So when you get it, just try the residue left on the knife blade as I mentioned, and go from there; it is really unreal that just this is enough!

This is what was going through my mind, I'm hoping that the purity is much improved and therefore the flavour/aftertaste is less intrusive. I've also heard that it works well with flavours that have an essential 'bitterness' such as coffee and chocolate and is less successful with things like vanilla - which suits me just fine LOL. If I can use it to substantially reduce the amount of sugar in recipes that I'm baking for family that will be a good result. Apparently my recent offerings haven't been of the standard previously expected...

sheila the lack of 'holidays' is simply down the ME. It really limits how much I can cope with, so unfortunately it's not just the day of travelling and then some time to recover, there's a lingering exhaustion that can take days/ weeks/ months to rebuild from AND the ME causes a second wave of exhaustion a couple of days after the event - it is best described as someone turning the lights out, I can go from walking/ talking almost normally to shuffling and incoherent in the space of a few feet. So, for instance, going to Dunelm Mill for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon leaves me exhausted on Sunday evening, slightly better on Monday and Tuesday, exhausted again on Wednesday/ Thursday, slightly better Friday and Saturday and back to normal in about two to two and a half weeks. So 2 weeks away could turn into a week spent mainly recovering from getting there and then another week spent recovering enough energy to return and then several weeks getting back to where I was before I went on holiday in the first place. (And of course there's the price/hassle of finding a hotel that can guarantee wheelchair access!)

Edwardia

Gosh you've all been busy posting :T

sheila54 wow what a transformation :j:beer::D:T:A:bdaycake:< Strictly Low Carb cake

murphydog999 I cheekily emailed a doctor researching insulin resistance in Toronto and he emailed back. He mentions inflammation and so I've been doubly cheeky and asked whether inflammation in fat cells affects leptin as well.

daska I wouldn't want to go holiday either if that's how it affected me (((daska)))

devildog my liver enzymes dropped over 10 points in 14 days after giving up additives in food completely. I'm crossing fingers that the LFT I did Friday will come back even more improved.

I always used to think oh it must be safe or it wouldn't be put in food. I now know that in the USA food additives only have to be found not to be acutely toxic ie no immediate effect to be Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS). The manufacturers don't have to prove that there's no chronic ie longterm toxicity :eek: I know EU food laws are tougher and the USA thinks they are too tough but I don't know how much tougher they are.

To Truvia or Not To Truvia ? It's still a processed product. Soil mould is natural, glucose is natural - but feeding soil mould with glucose to produce Quorn is decidedly processed.

Dr Robert Lustig MD of Sugar: The Bitter Truth YouTube video fame (more than 2 million hits) was asked in a YouTube video what he thought of sweeteners. He said that as soon as we start thinking about something sweet we produce insulin. (Maybe that's where 'I only have to look at a <insert sweet food> to get fat' comes from ??) As soon as the sweetness hits our tongue we produce more insulin. Some sweeteners aren't metabolised by the body and pass through, some are. But anything sweet which hits our tastebuds will induce an insulinogenic response.

He wouldn't recommend any sweeteners. Dr Lustig says he believes in what he's telling us, he's researched it. But since he doesn't feel confident about the extent of research on sweeteners he just won't talk about them. That's all he would say. I noticed though that kids on his WATCH program get told they can only drink water or milk.

I realise that's not great news for low carb bakers what with the inflammation from soya and all, but at least you can choose and decide how strict you'll be with yourself. And if you want to try another diet you can do that too.

Low carb is being used to treat childhood epilepsy, Crohn's disease and non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Thousands of people with diabetes ignore the official advice and use it as a treatment too - there are at least three of us on this thread. For people with health problems the question is if I eat X how ill will it make me !