Carb Free Eating Rant

Two years ago I was given the "metabolic syndrome" diagnosis. Its also referred to as pre-Diabetes or with the more sinister moniker, "Syndrome X." At the time, I weighed 272 and had a triglycerides measure so large you wanted to use roman numerals, "Hi, my triglycerides are CDLXXV mg/dL."

The doctor let that sink in for about 30 seconds before proceeding.

After pressing him, he recommended the original 'South Beach Diet' book by Dr. Arthur Agatston. Dont buy the later books and avoid the cookbooks. All you need is the original.

I read it cover to cover in about four days. The last thing I wanted was to make that final step to full-blown Diabetes. South Beach is broken into three phases - correctional, weight loss, and maintenance.

The correctional phase is the no-carbohydrate (carb) or severely-reduced-carb portion of the diet. Over the last two years,  I've had some success with living in this phase of the diet. However, it seems that I will quickly trip out of the  "correctional phase" and quickly stumble over the "weight loss phase", fall flat on my back into the "maintenance phase" and enter what I call the "all you can eat" phase. Total transit time from "correctional" to "all you can eat" can be as short as 48 hours.

The "weight loss phase" is a killer for me. "Add back an apple" it says. If you're still losing weight after a week, you can add another apple. Great. If only it would stop there. After two days, its three apples instead of one. Then the habitual eating kicks in. And I've found I don't need to eat the traditionally vilified food - candies and cakes. I'm so damned sensitive to carbs now that a sandwich (white bread) can put me off center and actually cause weight gain.

Yep. To be carb free except for an apple and a sandwich a day actually results in increased weight. On the plus side, I'm inferring that reaction means I'm still  producing and responding to insulin. My silver lined, puffed-marshmallow-like cloud. Doesn't matter though. The eating quickly expands to include other carbohydrate-rich foods that dont fall in the "sweets" categories. Mostly these are fruits (whole, no juices).

But why?

Did some more reading. Gary Taubes has a great book out, 'Good Calories, Bad Calories'. Read it from cover to cover. Its basically an indictment of the medical community's research, conclusions, and treatment regarding the condition of obesity. Bottom line? The medical community had it right until sometime in the 1960s when the emphasis changed from carbohydrates to fats. That's right, from the 1800s until the 1960s, obesity was largely treated by managing carb intake. And medical school texts placed the blame for obesity squarely on the shoulders of carbs. If you're interested in what happened, I strongly recommend reading Taubes' book.

Almost 20 years ago, I went through another successful weight loss stage, dropping 50 pounds in eight months. That effort involved daily trips to the gym and five meals a day of chicken, peas and corn. That was a different time and a different metabolism. During that time, I read Barry Sears' 'Enter The Zone.' Also a great read. It was the first time I was introduced to the body's cause/effect cycle related to carbs and insulin.

Taubes' book expands on the carb/insulin cycle and blames it for the craving of empty calories foods. I wont try to explain the cycle here, but it reduces to something like, "the more carb-loaded foods you eat, the more carb-loaded foods you want."  Something about an insulin spike, having processed available blood sugar, tells your body to ask for more sugar to give the insulin something to do...

For me, that meant a breakfast burrito (largest damn tortilla I've ever seen stuffed with eggs, bacon and potatoes) at about 730 in the morning meant I was looking for lunch about 11am. Having switched to eggs and bacon only, I dont "feel hungry" again until about 1pm.

This year, a married couple at my alma mater (Austin College, Sherman, TX) published a book, 'The Hunter Gatherer Within'. Read it cover to cover the first time over Thanksgiving. The footnotes are tremendous. Many sources cited. Their book incorporates Taubes' by reference, but takes a difference approach to explaining the problem of obesity and other "diseases of western civilization." Indeed, their concern is more driven by the differential rates of change for the western diet and the human animal's ability to process the western diet.

Much in the same way medicine has out-paced ethics (the "we can, but should we" dilemma) and technology has out-paced tolerance/common sense ("if he'd said that in a bar, only 20 people would have heard it"), the western diet has outpaced our digestive system. A couple of thousand years ago, we may have consumed 10-12 pounds of sugar in a year, while fruits and veggies were in-season. Now, we're lucky if we only consume 10-12 pounds of sugar in a month [related from Diggs/Brock, 'The Hunter Gatherer Within'].

Now, as an aside, lets consider that type-II diabetes is usually adult-onset. Perhaps mid-40s to early-50s. Giving us a pass through our teen-age years, lets say from the time we are 20 until we reach 45, we consume an average of 120 pounds of sugar in a year - that's 3000 pounds. Or, it would have taken turn-of-the-era ancestors about 250 years to consume an equivalent amount of sugar. ....ever see any drawings of obese cavemen ?

I really like the Diggs/Brock book because it takes an unbiased approach to examining the evidence for the "paleo eating", or the "real food" diet as they call it. Summary: If it comes in a box, a can, or bag, you should probably find an alternative."

Now, to the credit of Agatston, and Diggs/Brock, each of them inform the reader that getting off the carb diet is no picnic. Agatston used to tell his patients to run this diet on their own; dont involve their spouse if they value their marriage. Diggs/Brock identify changes in demeanor and attitude as a side-effect of converting from the western diet to a "real food" diet. And I can attest personally these warnings are well-founded.

For me, day 5 is usually a good day for my family to "seek shelter." I try to make day 5 a day of rest. So I can go take a nap without feeling guilty and try to sleep through the Jeckyll/Hyde phase of kicking carbs to the curb. If I'm lucky, this is as close as I will ever come to experiencing substance-based withdrawal.

On the other side of withdrawal is a land of peace (not milk and honey). I sleep through the night. I require less sleep in order to feel rested. I suffer less, or not at all, from acid reflux and gastric distress. But its a tightrope walk to maintain this achievement level.

Here's an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to a close friend:

I'm working on what I think is day 4 or 5 of carb-free eating again. Want to get a nice running start going into our visit to the land of baked goods, chocolate, sodas and crumb cake - Granny's House.

Made it through Pei Wei last night for a late birthday celebration with [our son]. Ordered brown rice (which I cannot tolerate) and gave it to [him] after trying a spoonful. 

A couple of nights ago, four of us were at On The Border - to give [a daughter] some prime study time before exams. Did not partake of the chips & salsa (without my participation, the four of them could not finish the first serving. Lightweights (pun intended)). Ordered their super fajitas - shrimp, beef, pork, and mystery meat. Subbed vegetables for rice and beans. Scarfed the entire entree down, sans tortillas. First time

I've ever felt "full" leaving a restaurant after a no-carb meal.

Neighborhood kid brought buckeyes by for us - chocolate covered peanut butter balls. [Our kids] did me the courtesy of consuming them in a couple of days so they wouldn't hang around.....then [she] told me about the frozen cookie dough she bought and stored in the freezer.

I've started the last couple of days before 5am. As I purge the carbs from my system, I'm sleeping through the night and requiring less sleep. I look at the clock and figure, only need to avoid carbs for 16 hours, then I can rest. If I can get to bed between 10-11 pm, I have a chance of making it happen. But this morning, I awoke at 4:45. An extra hour for carbs to tempt me.

Speaking of which. On carb free day #2, a mini Milky Way bar appeared out of nowhere in the kitchen. I know for a fact its not left over Halloween candy, because I finished all of that off the second week of November, when the latest carb-free cycle came to an end. Its probably those ner-do-wells from Inception trying to put me back on a  processed food dependency.

If radicalized terror groups really wanted to destroy American society, the would be better served to export Cinnamon rolls, funnel cakes, twinkies, and HFCS sodas  at a bargain basement price. Attack the food supply by participating, not contaminating.

Carb free for five hours today. Only 12 hours until bed time. I got this.