Hank Garner, a man who quickly lost 100 pounds on a carbohydrate-restrcted diet, recently interviewed me on his site. It debuted yesterday. You can listen to it on My Low Carb Journey
The interview focuses in many ways on weight loss of course, but Hank mentions some interesting things about drinking water that is in line with recent conversations. Enjoy....
Enjoyed the interview.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with the Krispy Kreme
analogy. :)
Curious how your fingernails are looking. You mentioned that the ridges are going away.
All my life I have had ridged nails, more so now at 49. I was told, and taught this was a variation of normal. It would be great to have smooth nails. :)
Betty
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteJust looking at Rebecca's post over on Hank Garner's blog and I think she has some good points.
Here is the quote:
I was really looking forward to listening to this, but I have to say that I was disappointed to hear another strong, young man talk about things that have no bearing on the bodies of peri- and post-menopausal, middle-aged or senior women. All of his recommendations would not work for me. I know – I have tried them, and have gained body fat and lost muscle. I cannot eat to satiety without overeating. A lot. For many of us with broken metabolisms, there are no functioning hunger signals to rely on and trust. And when there is a body fat disregulation at play, eating more real, whole, natural food only results in more stored body fat and a raised body fat set point.
I don’t think that what he advises is bad, per se, but there needs to some acknowledgement that these things can generally work for younger, healthy people, and not for the majority of the aging population.
Just telling people not to eat junk does not address all the people who are already eating real, whole, natural foods and still cannot achieve a healthy body composition, even after years of struggling.
(cont)
I've noticed that even a year and a half after quitting low-carb my hunger/satiety doesn't seem to work quite the same as it used to. I don't know if that's just due to declining energy requirements or because my body hasn't come back fully in line.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people try to eat whole real foods but still never end up resolving their health and weight issues. Perhaps RRARF is a starting point, but is not a cure-all. Some people need a lot more specific care (hence looking into therapies such as RBTI).
I wonder if this lady really were to just go all out on real foods, if her weight gain would eventually halt, stabilize, and then possibly decline, or if she continues to restrict too early and is therefore ratcheting up her set point.
(Cont)
ReplyDeleteAlthough on the point about hunger/satiety not working correctly, it almost seems like that would need to be addressed first.
Thanks for the interview, I enjoyed listening to it. I totally agree with the point of craving refined foods - I can't remember the last time I ate apples or peaches (or anything unrefined) until I felt sick. If I CAN eat something until I feel sick, that's going to be my new benchmark as to whether it is something too refined. :) The chocolate almond milk is going to have to go. :)
ReplyDeleteGreetings,
ReplyDeleteThis is my first post.
Does anyone have experience with healing candida-type symptoms using HED / RRARF? I would really love to chat with someone about it.
I"m on day 11 of the HED, pounding white rice, butter, and sour cream, and I don't feel like I'm making much progress. My temperature is up from the upper 95s to the upper 96s, but my candida symptoms (dandruff, acne, thinning hair, fatigue, white tongue, swollen lymphatic ducts, diarrhea, etc.) are getting worse every day. I feel like I'm being composted alive.
I've been around the nutritional circuit quite a bit, and it's funny because I probably did more harm than good with all the extreme things I did in the name of "good health" - Raw food, low/no-carb, fasting, extreme amounts of exercise, and on and on.
At this point all I want is to be able to digest food again, have energy, and get on with my life.
Luke
Luke, I have been using raw-milk kefir (made with the living "Grains") to heal a massive candida overgrowth that was with me for many years.
ReplyDeleteIt's been one year so far. I'm much better than I was, but I'm not quite 100% cured, either. Still, the kefir has worked better than anything else for me. Overall energy and stamina are much higher than they were when I started. Skin is better, poop is usually well-formed and very regular. All from the "real deal" home made kefir.
It might be something that will help you.
Matt long time reader here but for some reason I never commented, so today is the day :-)
ReplyDeleteYou might have answered this question before but it really bother me. I got what you're saying about carbs not being the enemy and not leading to obesity - and thanks to you I put back plenty of carbs in my diet and feel rather good on it.
However from what I'se seen around me going on limited/low carb diet ALWAYS end up in drastic weight loss, it always work. I'm sure you can find individual cases where things went differently but it's safe to say that the most effective, and maybe only effective weight loss diet on the short run is carb control. So how to solve this equation: carbs in diet = no weight gain, but limited carbs = drastic weight loss? And even if weight is not the best monitor of overall health for most people (including myself) a lean look is preferred to a chubby one...So where does that leave us with carbs? Hope you'll share some light on the matter!
AaronF-
ReplyDeleteWeight is not an issue really. Just an aesthetic one for most people. The older you get, the more protective it becomes, until age 75 when being obese (BMI 30-35) yields the best longevity and morbidity statistics. I think the vast majority of people who lose weight decrease their health. There are exceptions of course. Hank may be one of them. He was certainly what I would call dangerously obese before.
Likewise, I received this email yesterday...
"Hi Matt. I’ve been intrigued by your research to say the least and have been follow for only a few months now. My results have been uncanny and very impressive. I am just shy of 54 years young and am amazed at the strength and stamina that have returned to me since I’ve follow your suggestions."
-Heather
My offical stance is that obesity is not a disease, mild obesity - particularly if it is not visceral, has shown to have protective effects, and it has no known, permanent cure. My results exceed that achieved by standard dieting. And standard dieting is known to increase obesity long-term, as well as be a much stronger predictor of metabolic-syndrome related health issues than obesity.
Betty-
ReplyDeleteSome improvement yes. For real improvements the nail has to grow out completely, which takes months.
Laurent-
Low-carb does not always work. I know just as many people who have gained weight on low-carb as have lost it - and far more that have gained weight after being forced to quit low-carb due to health issues incurred on the diet. Joel Fuhrman advocates a high-carb diet and gets better weight loss results than anyone recommending a low-carb diet. I wouldn't fall too head over heals in love with it. How Hank used it is best though - for quick weight loss before switching to a more mixed, nutritious diet.
Luke-
ReplyDeleteDairy seems to be quite aggravating of candida, as is excess fat in general. I would eat more starches, vegetables, meats, and even fruits - but go low on the dairy. Kefir may help you, but I haven't heard that reported consistently.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteHave you tried Oreganol? Also,
Candida Clear by NOW?
I have used both of these products with success. I used them together.
I still do a maintenance dose of the Oreganol.
Vit C is also recommended. Unfortunately, these supplements might increase diarrhea. I don't know as I didn't have that symptom.
I had constipation. It was resolved, and hasn't been a problem since.
I also recommend reading all the previous post here on the subject of RBTI. Based on the information I have read here, and elsewhere, the RBTI program will be a solution to the problem.
Luke-I have had yeast issues all my life and have tried many natural cures (tea tree, oregano , Lo carb, etc) and it always came back. After reading about the rbti lemon water and ph, i suspected that i have an acid Body ph since I just came off a locarb diet failure. I felt immediate results so I continue to put about 1 tsp of lemon in my water and sip it. No more itchiness, blood sugar more stable, digestion a bit better. It's not a cureall and I should probably get my symptoms scientifically tested, but the relief was almost immediate-same day. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI am so intrigued, just need to buy a Testing Kit. Does anybody know where to get it in Europe?
ReplyDeleteI understand you can get all the items by them self, but the "Universal Extrac Solution" is only available in the States. What are you european people doing about this?
Also will Challen's book be enough to do RBTI by yourself?
Luke,
ReplyDeletealternating raw carrot, HCL capsules, and probiotics have helped me.
Thanks Matt.
ReplyDeleteReading other people comment on Candida, same problem here - and actually that's what undermine my performance with carbs. A bit too much carbs and I am really tired, dandruff etc. and feeling like I'm 230 year old. Candida striking back. So unfortunately carbs are a catch 22 for me - even if for some people they help with candida.
I do well on Kefir actually, but think I have overdone with the good fats and have rendered my liver sluggish - which might be tricky in term of candida. Trying a good parasite cleanse next month, hopefully will get rid of some bugs and then we'll see.
Cameron,
ReplyDeleteI've been drinking real kefir and consuming lots of other fermented foods (no much lately), including what I believe is perhaps the best probiotic out there -- EM (effective microorganisms) -- but there seems to be an underlying problem that is deeper than just the absence or presence of probiotics.
Matt,
You've given me enough good suggestions to keep me on RRARF for at least a while longer. I was inches away from jumping off the no-carb cliff again, but I must say I'm not too fond of having minor cuts get infected and never heal. If my body can't heal a hangnail how could it heal a systematic candida infection?! I'll give it a try and report back in a few days. By the way, I was consuming about 4 lb of butter and 3 lb of sour cream per week -- enough dairy to kill a man. Perhaps without all the fat my body will digest the grains and starches more easily.
Anonymous,
I don't believe supplements like oregano are a solution, and if anything, only a small part of the solution. I've tried massive dosages of the anti-fungal herbs like cat's claw and pau d'arco with no real results. I've been keeping an eye on all the RBTI discussion.
Honeybee,
Good to hear another confirmation that low-carb is not a solution to candida in the long term.
RC,
Raw carrot!!!! AH!!!!! Digestive enzymes, however, are something I've been considering.
@ Marius
ReplyDeleteNice to hear that you are interested in RBTI as well. I am from Europe too.
I found it also very difficult to get the meters and UREA chemicals to Europe.
I bought almost all of the meters at Pike Agri www.pikeagri.com/Urine-/-pH-testing/View-all-products.html, but most can be bought of a lesser brand on E-bay
The UREA chemicals are a bit more challenging since Pike won't ship them overseas. I only found www.biri.org willing to do this. But I have also heard that rbti.info is trying to get them over in Europe. Please keep in mind that for each package you must pay taxes, shipping (round $ 50,-), custom fees (around € 20,-) which makes getting a test kit in three parts rather expensive.
as for the Candida comments:
ReplyDeletecheck your pH's!
Laurent,
ReplyDeleteI too can't digest carbs well but I know that's what I need to address. As someone on this blog once said so cleverly, "You can run from carbs but you can't hide". I never had candida overgrowth until I did lots of carb restricting, and then when I would reintroduce carbs in the form of fruit, or in the form of massive quantities of pastries and ice cream because I had been repressing myself like an ascetic yogi, I had major blood sugar problems, digestive problems and ultimately candida overgrowth.
That's why I've come to this blog. I don't give a fuck about dietary dogma and all the "whys" of nutrition anymore; my only guru is my gastrometer. If my gastrometer tells me deep fried twinkies are good for me, then deep fried twinkies I shall eat.
Hi Luke
ReplyDeleteThanks for your experience and feeback. As for mine I seem to handle starch well now - altough potatoes give me and "old man face" the next day (LOL), seing sign on my face of poor digestion (puffness and spots around the nose etc. never fail). Wonder if it's the fact that they are nightshade.
Still intolerant to grain so even a congee, very diluted rice broth, send me to agony two days later.
Fruits are also mix bag - eaten alone and in small quantities mostly ok, but a cup of stranwberries had me lying with splitting headaches for to days lately.
Thanks to Matt however I went back to starcha and molasses and I think it's a good thing. Maybe the mix high starch/high fat is not so good as often pointed on this blog...
I've cured my candida by cutting out all overt fat and eating only sweet, ripe, organic fruit. Tried most of the other remedies mentioned above and they didn't work for me but then saw on the 30 Bananas a day forum that people were getting results cutting out the fat and eating fruit so I tried it and it worked like a champ.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous above;
ReplyDeleteI tried eating nothing but ripe, organic fruit (removing that damned overt fat) and all I got was the worst, itchiest rash on my butt I've ever had. Once I stopped eating so much fruit it went away.
Anyone know if Challen knows anything about how to alleviate difficulty falling asleep? I get that it's all very "person specific", but seeing as there is a no no list, there must be some general thing(s) I can go buy until I can get a refractometer.
-Anonymous
Anonymous, not surprising you got a rash. The skin is one of the primary organs of elimination/detoxification. Some people initially seem to have issues with a lot of acidic fruit. Sweet seems best.
ReplyDeleteI just came across this article and thought it was pertinent to this conversation and others. It may have been covered in previous Blogs but I don't recall reading about some of these findings.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.drpasswater.com/nutrition_library/Potassium%20_to%20_Sodium_Ratio.html
"We now have very strong evidence-not totally conclusive, but very strong evidence-that this potassium/ sodium imbalance also is a cause of insulin resistance. Furthermore, this potassium/sodium imbalance, which contributes to insulin resistance also is associated with an abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and fatty acids, and may contribute to causing Type 2 diabetes. I just mentioned that the Hypertension Society people did not want to listen to us."
@Anonymous if you have problem sleeping I advise you to go see "The Three of Life". I've endured it yesterday and the only way to survive the nearly 3 hours of non-sensic images is to fall asleep. Alternatively any marathon of Little house on the prairie should do to.
ReplyDeleteIf not, on a nutrition level, I have personally seen that heavy dinner - red meat, too much fat or sugar for that matter - play havoc with my system and stop me from sleeping. Light dinner such as a soup might help you then.
Sorry for the typo Tree of life of course.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous on sleep issues. This article from Chris Masterjohn might help.
ReplyDeleteGetting Better Sleep -- Cool, Dark, And Lots of B6, Carbs, Calories, and Fat
I'm another generally moderate to poor sleeper. But I've noticed certain things can help a lot, including what kind of food I eat.
Interesting comment about painting yourself into a corner with low-carb. I just read Sugar Nation by Jeff O'Connell. He was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and went on an investigation of diabetes treatment in America. He did what few with Type II do and tries to treat with exercise and diet (low-carb). He thinks he's doing so well and when he goes back a year later to have his blood checked again, he's marginally better but he also has hypoglycemia! So, you guessed it he goes even lower-low-carb. Poor guy. Really, diabetes treatment in this country is pitiful. I don't have the diesease, but I wish I could help these people. It just rips me up to see so many young people with the disease.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI was eating mostly bananas as they were the cheapest, occasionally eating apples. I only ate acidic fruits a hand full of times because I did not like the taste of them (weren't really in season and tasted more like water).
@ingridknits
i was actually taking unsulphured blackstrap molasses on a regular basis for the past few weeks, which most definitely solved my sleeping issue, however it brought with it other weird issues that were signs of me getting an excess of minerals i was already had plenty of. so, something in blackstrap is helping, the question is what.
@Laurent
Yea, I've also noticed that too much fat, protein, and raw cane sugar makes it hard for me to sleep properly. strangely, fruit and fruit juice do not do this for me.
@Aaron
Thanks, however, I have already tried/am currently practicing all that he talks about. None of it works for me. The light thing helps, but if I'm not tired I simply can't fall asleep no matter how long i'm in total darkness.
-Anonymous
Thank you for your help Petra.
ReplyDeleteMost of the meters and solutions are easily available here in Germany, but some aren't. Especially the "Universal Extractin Solution".
Also I am confused, since the composition of the kit varies from site to site. Sometimes it's pH-stripes, sometimes it's an solution. But well, I guess the most important thing will be the refractometer.
@ Marius,
ReplyDeleteI have the pH paper, the pH reagents and a pH meter with a flat probe at home.
I find the meter and the pH paper less accurate than the pH reagents. The reagent are also cheaper as the pH meter.
Luke-
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what many of us have gone through. Low-carb caused us to have problems with carbs. But we knew there was a way to get back on our feet again.
Try eating a lot more fruit too. Fruit is very low in fat, and is much more palatable and energizing than trying to eat tons of starch without fat to make it taste better.
Also, try avoiding sweets after 2pm a la Challen and RBTI. I find this to be a big help in keeping blood sugar stable the following day and beyond. It ties in with the natural blood sugar rhythms throughout the 24-hour cycle (evening is when it is highest, so you don't want to add additional sugar at that time).
Be persistent. You can get through this. The list of people who have is a mile long.
Anonymous-
ReplyDeleteWhen I got too carried away with the fruit I developed a huge rash from my waist all the way to the back of my knees - despite many other seemingly-positive changes.
Glad to be with Challen now and no longer playing whack-a-mole.
Thanks so much Matt.
ReplyDeleteI will give your suggestions a try and let you know how it goes.
O god, i can't WAIT to quit playing wack-a-mole either!!
ReplyDeleteWaiting on my kit with bated breath and daydreaming about getting to talk to Challen about how to fix this body!
LOL.