This summer my diet went to hell and I began to eat way too many carbs. My weight climbed rapidly and I did not feel well at all, with decreased energy, low mood, high anxiety, bloating and cravings. I have a renewed respect for the reality of carbohydrate addiction, because though I was aware that I was doing myself no favors by eating ice cream and popcorn with my kids, I could not get a grip until I felt so lousy and fat that I just had to do something.
In early August I restarted the GAPS Intro diet, and ate soup and cooked vegetables for a few weeks. Within 3 days of doing this, I felt entirely different. My spirits lifted and my anxiety melted. I experienced relaxation and a sense of internal peace for the first time in several months. The impact of my diet upon how I was feeling was so very striking. Now I am trying to lose the weight I gained, and am doing a very low carb version of the Full GAPS diet. I am feeling really well again, and weight is falling off as fast as it piled on. Sometimes its good to go through a cycle like this, however painful, because it forces one to really accept the reality of necessary limits and the consequences of denying them.
An unrestricted version of the Full GAPS diet can be problematic for those of us who are carbohydrate intolerant or prone to addictive behaviors with carbs. There are many foods which are allowed on GAPS which are simply not healthful for someone who is very carbohydrate intolerant, like honey and fruit.
This evening I prepared shirataki noodles with pesto for dinner. Shirataki are very low carbohydrate, low calorie, thin, translucent, gelatinous traditional Japanese noodles made from the konjac yam. The word “shirataki” means “white waterfall”, describing the appearance of these noodles. Largely composed of water and glucomannan, a water-soluble dietary fiber, they have little flavor of their own. You can buy them in a health food store or in an Asian market. They come in small plastic pouches in liquid. Some are made with tofu. I recommend the variety that does not contain tofu. There are all sorts of different shapes and sizes available.
I had tried these noodles before, and was not crazy about them. The texture is springy and they have a slightly fishy smell before you rinse them. When I learned about the proper preparation of them, it made a big difference. If you rinse them well, and then dry roast them for 10 minutes in a skillet on the stove, occasionally stirring them so that they do not stick, the texture is much improved. I thought they tasted really good with pesto. There are many possibilities for the creative use of these noodles, and they are both GAPS legal and very low carb. If you tried them before and did not like them, you might want to give them another chance.
Judy,
check out this podcast with Dr. Jack Kruse.
http://robbiebourke.podbean.com/2012/09/01/episode-12-interview-with-dr-jack-kruse/
The guy has a fascinating blog. He thinks carbs make you age faster because carbs produce more ROS at cytochrome 1 in your mitochondria. Fat is a cleaner fuel . So even if you can tolerate tons of carbs without clinical symptoms it empties your stem cell supply faster than fat and protein. Which means premature aging. This is why he recommends a ketogenic Paleo Diet with much more seafood than usual paleo books. He says, there are no “safe starches” for anybody except you live at the aequator and eat one meal a day with lots of coconut and fish. This are hypothesis but it sounds interesting. And his success with his patients is remarkable. Just read the success stories and journals on his forum.
Another interesting thing: Light cycles and temperature play a huge role. We have an evolutionary mismatch not only with regard to diet but also to temperature and light cycles. Dr. Kruse says you can eat more carbs in summer at high temperatures and long light cycles and diet should be ketogenic in winter (has to do with omega 6). This also depends on your ancestors (genetics). No banana in December for Europeans. 🙂
Why have Finland and Sweden the highest diabetes rates? asks Dr. Kruse. There are no winters anymore because of artificial lights and heating. And carbs in abundance all the time.
I don’t eat much carbs anymore. I try to stay below 100 grams and have no probs with sweet potatoes or fruit, but ice cream and other sugary junk can destroy my appetite regulation. I could eat tons of them which I don’t do because I luckily don’t have strong carb cravings anymore. Only if I have lack of sleep or anxiety. I always could eat pasta and bread and cake with no symptoms but I don’t do it anymore. Why eat unhealthy stuff that I don’t even crave? Wheat addiction stopped when I removed grains from my diet in 2008. And why eat cake when there is mousse au chocolat. 🙂
Hi Andrea,
Thanks so much for writing.
I agree with you, that the way we live today is so different as compared to the vast majority of our ancestors, be it diet, lifestyle, electromagnetic exposure, and very importantly our divorce from nature, the cycles and seasons. I do think that it is at the heart of much chronic diseases of Western civilization, physical, emotional and spiritual.
BTW, I like mousse au chocolat too!
Thanks much for your post. I can relate to your experience, and feel certain I have some carb intolerance/fructose malabsorption. I notice intense neurological and physical sxs when I eat what are for many people healthy carbs (blueberries, being one).
I’m a psychotherapist and I’ve also noticed positive psychological changes (decreased anxiety and depression, for example) in some clients who are careful of problematic carb intake. I’m moving in the direction of being a Paleo diet-recommending therapist (being mindful of individual biochemistry, and my own scope of practice etc.!!).
Thanks again. I’ll keep reading.
Thanks for writing, Syd. I am just so impressed with the link between depression and anxiety and too many carbs (whatever that threshold is for a particular individual) in those people who are carbohydrate intolerant. It’s remarkable. I am increasingly recommending a 60% healthy fat diet for those of my patients who are carb intolerant. For certain individuals it elevates mood, is anxiolytic, sharpens cognition and increases energy. I would welcome hearing from you in the future in terms of your own experience with your patients.
I absolutely will post any relevant future findings. And, I hope you do the same. I think this is important stuff, and the more data the better. (Btw, do you give your patients a specific dietary plan to follow, or just the general “60% healthy fat” guideline?)
I combine the low carb, moderate protein, high healthy fat recommendation with elements of the GAPS protocol that promote digestive wellness/intestinal healing like broth and fermented foods, probiotics, and fermented cod liver oil, detoxification baths. I do not recommend a specific dietary plan, but rather talk about which fats are healthy and grass fed meats and that sort of thing. Depending upon an individual’s sophistication and level of knowledge there may be a discussion of starchy vs non starchy vegetables and carb content of fruits, etc. There may be discussion of preparation of foods as well.
Thanks much!
Steven, your comment about the calorie density of a potato implies that the volumetric filling of the stomach is the only factor, or at least the dominant factor, in making you feel full. I’m not a huge expert on the science of satiety, but my understanding is that it’s a lot more complex than that. Ultimately, you feel satisfied when your brain thinks you’re full, not when your stomach is full. The volume or mass of food in the stomach is only one of the many factors the brain weighs in making its decision. The biochemical makeup of the food is another very significant effect. If the brain thinks it’s getting the right kind of nutrients, it can signal satiety sooner. And the fact that the brain is what’s in control also explains why you can feel full on a smaller amount of food, if only you eat it more slowly and consciously, allowing the brain to have time to process all the inputs. And obviously, if you’re eating as a way to handle uncomfortable emotions, then these considerations will dominate, regardless of the amount and nutritive value of the food.
Here is a quote that I find very meaningful and pertinent to your blogpiece and the discussion.
Does this mean insulin has the same effect on everyone? Does this mean insulin has the same effect on any given person over time? Of course not. Contrast me and my wife. I look at carbohydrates and start to store fat. If you want a reminder of what I looked like on an “athlete’s diet” of complex carbs and little saturated fat, coupled with 3 to 4 hours of exercise a day, look here, here, and here. On the other hand, my wife can eat a bag of Oreo cookies for dinner every night, coupled with all the pasta, bread, and rice the world has to offer and not put on one pound (she has weighed about 110 pounds her entire adult life). How is this possible? Does this mean insulin doesn’t control fat metabolism? No, it means we have an entirely different genetic make-up. Her grandmother is 86 years old, eats bread all day long, is healthy as a horse, and weighs 100 pounds. Conversely, I come from a family where every single man has died of heart disease and looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy prior to doing so. I’m genetically programmed to lean towards metabolic syndrome, but I’ve been able to reverse it through strict attention to my eating habits.
This isn’t unique to me and my wife. There is an entire spectrum – a distribution across the population – of people with varying degrees of susceptibilities to the effects of carbohydrate on insulin levels and the commensurate effects of insulin levels on fat storage and breakdown.
And like gravity, the effect of insulin on our metabolism of fat changes over time at the individual level, usually for the worse.
End quote
Put simply, people are different with different metabolisms. For some of us, low carbohydrate eating is the difference between overwhelming health issues and glowing health. For some of us, like me, eating low carb is the difference at 5’6″ between weighing 240lbs and weighing 127lbs. Virtually all of us have made many attempts at pushing up the carbs. For some few who I have known personally, this has worked, to some degree, For many, like myself, finally, after pushing 10 years of maintenance and many “potato and fruit” attempts, I have settled into a lovely, forever, ketogenic level of carb intake. Gone are the days of insidious and not so insidious levels of rising hunger .
Additionally, there is much to know about the BIG differences in the metabolisms of formerly obese, morbidly obese and super obese persons. I find weight loss and nutrition communities, including the ancestral eating community, to be rather abysmally ignorant of these very important changes. And they are HUGE and long-lasting. As I have written here before, science has spelled out and is spelling out the formidable forces that post-obese persons are dealing with in their weight reduced bodies.
Here is the link for the blogpiece out of which I took the above quote. Thanks for your blog and thanks for sharing your own experiences as well.
http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/gravity-and-insulin-the-dynamic-duo
What a wonderful comment. You say it all so well. One size definitely does not fit all, and one size does not necessarily fit the same person over the life cycle. Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully.
Judy, I identify strongly with your descriptions of addictive relationships with carbohydrates. I find the cause and effect between carbs and mood works in both directions. I usually start eating problematic carbs in response to anxiety, and then the carbs make me more anxious and full of cravings. If I keep a close watch on how I feel about foods, I can sometimes avoid problems by eliminating a food the minute it shows signs of becoming addictive. When I have no foods I’m overly attached to, I have the fewest cravings and most stable moods. When you recently told me about fructose malabsorption, I decided to cut way back on my fruit. Now I only eat occasional blueberries, and I still eat onions (which contain fructans). With this adjustment, I feel fewer cravings and have started to lose weight again. I think this indicates that even the modest amount of fruit I was eating before (mostly bananas, dates, and berries, plus some honey) was problematic.
Hi Andy,
Thanks so much for your comment. I agree with your understanding of the mechanism of how the addictive behavior gets initiated.
I am wondering about the whole FODMAPS concept. Very likely it is central to some people’s digestive disorders. But I wonder about the simple quantity of carbs in those sugary fruits and honey, and that once a certain threshold is exceeded in terms of carb tolerance, that then the metabolic consequences kick in with all the cravings and lack of satiety.
So great that you have figured it out for yourself.
The ‘carbohydrate addiction’ link is a bit misplaced in my opinion. I’m sure dunkin donuts and pizza also have a ton of fat in them, so why not label it ‘fat addiction’? Low carb propaganda is hard to stamp out =X
Hi Steven. Thanks so much for writing.
My observations and remarks are based only upon my experience, both personal and in in my clinical psychiatry practice. For some people who are truly carb intolerant, consuming what is too many carbohydrates for them specifically, leads to a constant feeling of craving for more. It seems to affect the satiety mechanism. These individuals can eat a potato with a meal and feel “full.” The problem is that in 2.5 hours, say, when they normally would not feel hunger for 5+ hours, they are HUNGRY.
For turly carb intolerant people, too many carbs, especially starchy or sugary carbs produces a failure in satiety and a vicious cycle that accelerates into this way too hungry, way too often experience. This does not seem to relate in the same way to fats, but to carbohydrates and particularly refined carbs like pizza and donuts.
Very often these individuals feel very out of control with carbs. It is often analogous to how someone who has a problem with alcohol feels. They know that they should not be eating the sweets or the chips or the bread, and not in the quantities they are consuming, but they cannot stop. they know better, but they are in it’s grip. There are the same feeling of guilt and shame, and an experience that they are not in control of themselves. I believe at the heart of this is often some way that the individual is trying to deal with difficult feelings, maybe using food to calm anxiety or to stuff down rage, but the cycle that gets initiated takes on a life of its own, and can get very out of control and self-destructive. That is why I referred to carbohydrate addiction.
Valid anecdotal experience explanation, but may I interject with my own? A potato is less calorie dense and more water dense than fat, therefore a person can eat a potato and feel full, meanwhilst they must eat a larger calorie portion of fat to be full. Since the calorie content of the potato was less the person gets hungrier quicker, while the fat meal was more calorie dense and satisfied for a longer period of time. I find it very difficult to promote such a designation as “carbohydrate intolerant” with so little scientific evidence behind it; honestly all i see i anecdote after anecdote–which doesn’t make it invalid, just hard to believe.
I don’t think I have anything to add that you will find persuasive. As I said, my own experience personally and clinically is that for some people, when they exceed a certain threshold in terms of quantity of carbohydrates in their diet, they become very tired, depressed, anxious, cognitively dulled, bloated, and constantly craving more carbs and feeling lousy. By restricting carbs, and having a larger proportion of fat and moderate protein, they feel abundantly energetic and healthy. I believe at some point, advances in scientific knowledge will help us to understand the mechanism of action behind these individual differences.
You are such a wealth of timely, valuable information. Thank you for sharing your experiences and for the hope you inspire.
Thank you, Carol, for your kind words. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for this. I have tried those noodles before, too and didn’t care for them much. I’ll try again as you suggest.
I have been eating low carb for quite a while now and I really do feel a difference if I occasionally give into a craving like a big hunk of French bread or something. I feel like going to sleep after so I know my body does not respond well to carbs. It’s easy to not give in after feeling so well and energetic on little to no carbs.
Thanks for writing, Pamlia.
Let me know if you like the noodles better if you dry roast them first.
I am finding that I am feeling the best with getting 60% of my calories from fats. I have lots of energy and I am very clear headed.