Low Carbing It

I had to low carb the third trimester of my pregnancy in 1998 due to gestational diabetes, which I now realize was probably an existing hyperglycemia condition (impaired glucose tolerance) that just happened to be picked up during pregnancy due to the more rigorous prenatal screening. I had a healthy baby and easy delivery, only gained 28 pounds of pregnancy weight (14 remained after the birth), and my weight was even a bit below my pre-pregnancy weight when my son was 6 mos old (breastfeeding is a fat burning exercise!).

A few years later and back face down into the carbs with a fun new bread machine, I had gained 20 pounds and reached a weight I’d not seen other than when I was pregnant. Months at the gym didn’t budge the scale (though I did become fitter). Then in January 2004 I bought a Dana Carpender cookbook because I liked the recipes; I’ve been low carbing continuously ever since and I can’t imagine any other way to eat now. After a year or two I ditched the processed and fake low carb products and got more into real foods that were naturally low carb and high in natural fats, especially saturated fats that are full of vitamins (grass fed butter, meat, backyard eggs).

Now our family is gluten-free and nearly grainless, as my son and I both test positive for gluten antibodies and genes that predispose to gluten problems.

I rarely even miss grains. Instead of filling up on starch, I fill up on nutritious fats, a variety of seasonal local non-starchy veggies, some high quality pastured or wild protein (animal protein), and now and then a bit of seasonal local fruit (lower sugar varieties, not high-sugar tropicals). I monitor my glucose levels after meals periodically, and maintain steady, normal results if I keep the starches and sugars very low (I don’t count or measure, I just focus on the foods that I know don’t spike BG and insulin and those foods are much lower in carbs than all the so-called “low glycemic” sugar and grain foods). I’m quite sure if I hadn’t gone low carb, I’d have full-blown diabetes by now, despite the fact that my BMI is 22 and I’ve never been obese. Diabetes wasn’t even a blip on the family health history when I was pregnant nearly 12 years ago, but since then on the maternal side of my family an uncle, a cousin, and my mother have been diagnosed with diabetes.

So sure, I low carb for vanity – to keep my weight in line. But I also low carb to preserve my health. Dropping those empty and unessential starches and sugars left a lot of room for nutrient-dense foods that are more satisfying in the long run and better fit our evolutionary genotype.

Kristin,

Bravo to you for kicking wheat to the curb. Wheat (and wheat’s cousins barley & rye) have opioid-like compounds that bind with the opioid receptors on our cells. That accounts for at least some of wheat’s addictive and “comfort” food appeal. But it gets worse.

All that starch in wheat flour breaks down quickly into a lot of glucose (and ground wheat, whether it is “whole” or refined, enters the bloodstream as glucose quite fast). That’s disastrous for our waistlines and for our BG regulation.

Here’s an example of a food that is too often touted as “healthy” by the people and organizations who push wheat on the public: a Bruegger’s whole wheat bagel has 73 grams of CHO according to the Bruegger website, minus the 9 grams of indigestible fiber, which yields 64 grams of CHO. Even though legally they can claim in the nutrition data only 8 grams of that CHO is “sugars”, the starch in the finely ground wheat flour breaks down quickly into glucose (a basic sugar) which quickly enters the bloodstream, so the bagel really contains 64 grams of digestible CHO divided by 4gms per teaspoon = 16 teaspoons of sugar in that bagel dumping into your blood! Most of it is glucose, but it doesn’t even taste very sweet, does it? The pancreas has to respond with secretion of a lot of insulin to mop up all that rapid glucose quickly. Sometimes it overproduces and drops the BG too low creating reactive hypoglycemia (which is a often precursor to T2 diabetes). Keep in mind an adult body tries to maintain about 1 teaspoon or 4 gms of glucose in the blood at all times – more than amount that becomes toxic to body proteins (the glucose “sticks” to proteins, caramelizes/gums them up – these compounds are called AGEs – and this process impairs cellular function, leading to “diabetic complications”). Plus high insulin production promotes storage of that glucose as body fat, hence weight gain or lack of weight loss, even on a low calorie or low fat/high carb diet; chronically high insulin levels also lead to insulin resistance which leads to yet higher levels of insulin production, and eventually in some suspectible people, beta cell burnout (insulin-insufficiency). High blood insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) is also is associated with the chronic degenerative diseases such as CVD, cancer, and neuro-degenerative and dementia diseases that initially were a facet of Western civilization but now plague industrial populations worldwide.

BTW, butter or full fat cream cheese by themselves won’t raise insulin or glucose levels very much if at all, so they they don’t mess with glucose regulation and they aren’t generally stored as body fat in the absence of insulin. So they aren’t really “fattening” by themselves. But if butter or cream cheese are on a bagel, which leads to a spike in insulin levels, then the the dietary fat will be stored in fat cells instead of being burned for energy or used for structural purposes.

Furthermore, years and decades of high amounts of insulin charging in like the cavalry to remove constant toxic/excessive amounts of glucose from the blood leads to “roller coaster” BG levels (and energy levels) throughout the day and becomes reactive hypoglycemia and/or impaired glucose tolerance and ultimately Type II diabetes. This doesn’t happen overnight; it can take a decade or two if BG is chronically over 140 mg/dL for many hours of most days. That level isn’t high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes, but it is damaging to body proteins nonetheless. Obviously higher BG levels that “qualify” as diabetes are even more damaging. Differences in gene types as well as how the genes are “expressed” in conjunction with the effects of diet and lifestyle determine the specific type of glucose regulation impairment and when/how it manifests.

At the very least, roller coaster BG levels create repeated strong carb cravings as the insulin reduces BG levels which leads to strong hunger pangs and more carb eating, uneven energy cycles, and roller coaster moods. For too many people this vicious cycle of eating wheat and other carbs throughout the day in meals and especially snacks (which often come packaged with lots of sugar and/or processed fats and oils) often results in weight gain, poor health, and overall lack of well being, especially as we age and can no longer compensate for the excess BG.

Then there are other issues which cast wheat in a poor light, despite it’s continual promotion by the USDA and the industrial food manufacturers. One is celiac/gluten sensitivity conditions, which recent research is demonstrating is far more common (but often under-diagnosed) than previously thought. Additionally, genetic alterations in hybrid wheat breeds have changed wheat to better fit the industrial food manufacturing industries, but at a toll to health (contemporary wheat is not the same as wheat in our great-grandparents’ time). Then there is the environmental damage that occurs when ancient native grassland are cleared, wildlife and plant habitats are destroyed, ground water is pumped dry, and petrochemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides are used on the crops, in the soil, and in the storage/transportation facilities.

Given that wheat is a relatively recent addition to the human diet (not much more than about 10,000 years of human consumption history) compared to the 2.5+ million years of human evolutionary diets without significant dietary wheat or grains, wheat is an unessential and potentially dangerous food to consume in quantity, especially if processed and prepared in industrial facilities. Despite the convenience and seemingly cheap cost of wheat (the true price tag is hidden), this annual grass seed has the potential to create a perfect storm of disastrous health if consumed in abundance long enough.

Watch out when I have a handy pulpit!