Do You Really Need This?

[rkbabang]

Ericopoly,

 

Before asking the government to tax "unhealthy" foods in a futile attempt to get the government to do some "good", maybe you should first try to get them to stop doing harm.  Stop the truly massive subsidies for corn and corn products (like corn syrup) or the protection of the US sugar growers for instance.  Stop telling every school child from coast to coast that carbohydrates should be the base of their diet with the "food pyramid" that is based solely on politics not on science.  Be careful what you wish for when it comes to government.  If you get them to tax "unhealthy food", what we will most likely see is a tax on high fat and high calorie foods and more subsidies for high carbohydrate foods.  Which is exactly the opposite of taxing bad calories and subsidizing good calories.  If you think ADM, Monsanto, etc will stand for taxes on corn syrup you are kidding yourself. If you don't think the US government does and always will do what ADM, Monsanto, etc.. want them to do, you are really kidding yourself. The politicians know what side their bread is buttered on.  Read Gary Taubes books, they are a real eye opener.  The entire nutrition policy of the US government is based on politics not science.  This will not change.  What we can do is educate people. The more people know the truth, the harder it will be for the government to get away with pushing its agenda on the public. People don't need taxes, they need information. Information based on scientific evidence, not politics.  Anyway, just an opinion from the weird-kid table.

 

Great post, BTW, where you linked to http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/lipid-synthesis.html  Taubes goes in to much of this in Good Calories, Bad Calories, but going through that site I was reading about Krill oil.  Right now I'm taking fish oil, I might try switching to Krill oil instead.

 

Thanks,

 

--Eric

 

[ERICOPOLY]

Ericopoly,

 

Stop the truly massive subsidies for corn and corn products (like corn syrup) or the protection of the US sugar growers for instance.  

 

That's not a bad suggestion, but they're not the only people in the economy getting subsidies.  I only care about reducing fructose consumption.  This isn't about free trade and tariffs on sugar from other nations... that's a different topic altogether than just health.  Getting more sugar imported from overseas sources (relative to domestic sources) in my opinion does not drive down total sugar consumption, so it's not the problem that I'm immediately interested in..

 

Stop telling every school child from coast to coast that carbohydrates should be the base of their diet with the "food pyramid" that is based solely on politics not on science.

 

The Japanese diet is high in carbohydrates -- that didn't present a health problem (prior to WWII).  The introduction of sugar presented the health problem.

 

Be careful what you wish for when it comes to government.  If you get them to tax "unhealthy food", what we will most likely see is a tax on high fat and high calorie foods and more subsidies for high carbohydrate foods.  

 

I was being exceeding careful and in doing so totally sidestepped the problem with high fat and high calorie food.  That's why I selected a tax based on fructose/fiber ratio and taking into account volume.

[twacowfca]

Manufacturers increasingly have substituted high fructose corn syrup for sucrose because it's cheaper and tastes sweeter calorie for calorie.  When given a sip in a taste test, consumers generally say they prefer the high fructose product.  The reason is that a taste of sweetness is generally preferred to a taste of something less sweet.  However, when given a choice, long term preference isn't toward fructose products.  If it were, people would sweeten coffee with high fructose corn syrup instead of table sugar (sucrose), and relatively poor Mexican immigrants wouldn't pay twice as much for Cokes imported from Mexico that are sweetened with cane sugar than if they had bought Cokes bottled in the USA, sweetened with high fructose corn syrup!

 

The physiology of carbohydrate metabolism sheds light on this paradox.  There are sweetness receptors not only on the tongue, but also throughout the digestive tract.  Fructose with its sweeter taste stimulates the pancreas to pump out too much insulin compared to other sources of carbohydrate.  This results in increased fat storage and then reactive low blood sugar somewhat later.  Sucrose is a lesser evil.  Eating resistant starches is best.

[rkbabang]

Sucrose is a lesser evil.  Eating resistant starches is best.

 

I hear what you are saying when it comes to taste, but sucrose is about 50% fructose where corn syrup is 55% fructose.  There isn't much of a difference from a metabolism point of view.  They are just about equally bad.

 

--Eric

 

[twacowfca]

Sucrose is a lesser evil.  Eating resistant starches is best.

 

I hear what you are saying when it comes to taste, but sucrose is about 50% fructose where corn syrup is 55% fructose.  There isn't much of a difference from a metabolism point of view.  They are just about equally bad.

 

--Eric

 

 

 

You're right.  When an enzyme breaks up sucrose, the products are half glucose and half fructose, not a great deal of difference than in the 55% fructose in high fructose corn syrup.  However, one molecule of sucrose will briefly latch onto one sweetness receptor, while the same energy equivalent of one molecule of fructose plus one molecule of glucose will latch onto two sweetness receptors.  The receptors signal the pancreas to put out a certain amount of insulin according to how much energy should be entering the bloodstream in the near future.  Thus, the body's expectation is much greater for an equivalent amount of energy from glucose+fructose than from sucrose.

 

Then, if you're not exercising vigorously,  the excessive amount of insulin will cause quick storage of the extra energy that will eventually be stored as fat, and the overabundance of insulin will then drive down the blood sugar to a low level that stimulates additional consumption.  The same process happens after drinking artificially sweetened "diet" drinks, an oxymoron if ever there was one!

[ERICOPOLY]

I kept myself interested for several more hours today thinking about this.  It's weird how something "natural" evolved in such a manner that suppresses our satiety, and I don't believe in coincidences when it comes to evolution.  So I have a hypothesis:  the fruit evolved to produce a sweetener that suppresses satiety so that we'd eat more of it (therefore spreading the seeds at a faster rate).  

 

Alternatively, perhaps we just eat more after sugar exposure because our bodies knew that fruits contained less concentrations of calories and thus our appetite evolved to eat a whole lot of them (rather than feeling full after a few bites).

 

Then I read that meals high in protein INCREASE satiety:

 

http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/2009/05/satiety-stuffed-with-protein.aspx

 

That makes sense too -- the appetite evolved to eat less of the foods rich in calories.

 

So preloading the high-protein meal with sugar is a bait and switch game.

[ERICOPOLY]

So Berkshire Hathaway owns Dairy Queen and significant stakes in Coca Cola, Kraft Foods, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Costco, and shares of other drug companies...

 

They are making profits via getting you sick, and then selling you drugs for your symptoms.  Is this what Ben Franklin meant by "doing well by doing good"?  I doubt it.

 

Then they openly discuss their desires to sell Coke into muslim countries that don't drink alcohol.  That sounds like growth for their drug stocks to me!

 

At what point does this become immoral?  Unethical?  He talked once about not wanting to invest in tobacco companies -- this is worse than tobacco.

 

I imagine there is no way that Warren and Charlie realize what they've done.

[rkbabang]

I imagine there is no way that Warren and Charlie realize what they've done.

 

I think that explains it 100%.

 

Not knowing what I know now, I've invested in KO myself in the past. 

 

--Eric

 

[twacowfca]

So Berkshire Hathaway owns Dairy Queen and significant stakes in Coca Cola, Kraft Foods, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Costco, and shares of other drug companies...

 

They are making profits via getting you sick, and then selling you drugs for your symptoms.  Is this what Ben Franklin meant by "doing well by doing good"?  I doubt it.

 

Then they openly discuss their desires to sell Coke into muslim countries that don't drink alcohol.  That sounds like growth for their drug stocks to me!

 

At what point does this become immoral?  Unethical?  He talked once about not wanting to invest in tobacco companies -- this is worse than tobacco.

 

I imagine there is no way that Warren and Charlie realize what they've done.

 

 

Food for thought.  No pun intended. ???

[ERICOPOLY]

Ericopoly,

 

Stop the truly massive subsidies for corn and corn products (like corn syrup) or the protection of the US sugar growers for instance.  

 

That's not a bad suggestion, but they're not the only people in the economy getting subsidies.  I only care about reducing fructose consumption.  This isn't about free trade and tariffs on sugar from other nations... that's a different topic altogether than just health.  Getting more sugar imported from overseas sources (relative to domestic sources) in my opinion does not drive down total sugar consumption, so it's not the problem that I'm immediately interested in..

 

 

Okay, I'm with you now on the corn subsidies.  Our local grocery store just let my wife know that they won't be supplying pasture raised&finished meat any longer until they can find a new supplier.  ThunderingHooves.com, their previous supplier, is going out of business.  They just can't compete against the corn subsidy.  The feedlots feed corn to the animals, loaded in fructose, and the animals create vLDL in their livers so their meat and dairy will clog your arteries.  I don't want beef so delicious "it's to die for", I want beef that I can still enjoy when I'm 100.  There's all the other things they get from grass too (like beta carotin, omega-3, etc...)

 

I realized today that our increased rates of cancer can only be avoided on a low fructose diet avoiding sweet fruit -- drink unsweetened herbal tea for the antioxidants:

The only place in the body where fructose is used (outside of the liver) is by cancer cells.  Cancer cells use fructose to propagate.  Without fructose, no cancer propagation.

 

Is it any accident of evolution then that while fruits are poisoning us with cancer propagation, they are also simultaneously giving us the antidote?  Yes, I mean antioxidants.  The fruits evolved with a given balance -- the fruit wants us to eat it in order for us to spread it's seed far and wide, but the fruit doesn't want to kill us in doing so.  The longer it keeps us alive, the more fruit we will eat and the more seeds we will spread.  Thus, it gives us the antioxidant for selfish reasons.  It's a symbiotic relationship.

 

Our seed companies have been cultivating fruits to produce more fructose (because people prefer to purchase sweeter fruits), and this is throwing off the evolutionary balance between the fructose and the antioxidant.  So we get more cancer.

 

The only recourse is to either pick my fruit before it ripens (or buy the cheap produce from Safeway full of carcinogenic pesticides), or buy the organic fruit with the carcinogenic imbalance of fructose to antioxidants.

 

I suppose I will eat avocados and get my antioxidant dose by drinking herbal teas without sugar.

 

 

 

 

[ERICOPOLY]

I may suggest reading "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes.  A very insightful book.

BTW, I've lost 18lbs in the last two weeks

 

You must be losing a lot of fluid?  Are you bleeding?

Fat has about 3,500 (working from memory) calories per pound.  In 14 days, you haven't lost 18 lbs of fat.

 

I never said it was all fat.  The first lbs that come off easily on any diet. Low carb or low calorie are always water, not fat or muscle.  I will not loose 18lbs in the next 2 weeks.

 

--Eric

 

 

Sorry for my comment.  You might just very well have lost a ton of fat.  I didn't understand this all that well until watching the Gary Taubes presentation.

 

I never got fat and ate heaps and heaps of refined carbs.  But lately (past week) I've stayed completely away from refined carbs and I'm feeling very energetic despite eating far less (I'm staying away from sugar completely, and I'm eating my salad AFTER I eat the meat portion).  And I don't feel hungry.

 

For years I've suffered from night sweats -- literally waking up soaking wet at 3 in the morning.  Our white sheets quickly get discolored on my side of the bed from all the sweating, so it's quite disgusting too.  Now I've finally solved the riddle.  My doctor by the way was no help at all on this.  It was this message board!

 

The Gary Taubes video talked about how fat cells are metabolically active.  What's been happening to me for years is I overeat refined carbs and put on more fat during the day, and then my fat cells get activated at night trying to burn off all that fat -- probably because it's difficult to be a hunter/gatherer if you're confined to one of those golf carts that obese people drive inside the store no less when shopping at walmart because they can no longer walk.  I'm just lucky that my body is designed to burn off the fat during sleep!  People who aren't designed to burn quite so much at night would pack on the pounds cumulatively.

 

The SeattleTimes ran an article last summer on night sweats:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2012221342_sweats28.html

 

They have no clue whatsoever.  Useless, just like my doctors who could offer no explanation for the night sweats.

 

This Berkshire board has made me wealthy and healthy, now I might live long enough to be wise.  Healthy, wealthy, and wise!

 

[rkbabang]

Sorry for my comment.  You might just very well have lost a ton of fat.  I didn't understand this all that well until watching the Gary Taubes presentation.

 

I never got fat and ate heaps and heaps of refined carbs.  But lately (past week) I've stayed completely away from refined carbs and I'm feeling very energetic despite eating far less (I'm staying away from sugar completely, and I'm eating my salad AFTER I eat the meat portion).  And I don't feel hungry.

 

For years I've suffered from night sweats -- literally waking up soaking wet at 3 in the morning.  Our white sheets quickly get discolored on my side of the bed from all the sweating, so it's quite disgusting too.  Now I've finally solved the riddle.  My doctor by the way was no help at all on this.  It was this message board!

 

The Gary Taubes video talked about how fat cells are metabolically active.  What's been happening to me for years is I overeat refined carbs and put on more fat during the day, and then my fat cells get activated at night trying to burn off all that fat -- probably because it's difficult to be a hunter/gatherer if you're confined to one of those golf carts that obese people drive inside the store no less when shopping at walmart because they can no longer walk.  I'm just lucky that my body is designed to burn off the fat during sleep!  People who aren't designed to burn quite so much at night would pack on the pounds cumulatively.

 

The SeattleTimes ran an article last summer on night sweats:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2012221342_sweats28.html

 

They have no clue whatsoever.  Useless, just like my doctors who could offer no explanation for the night sweats.

 

This Berkshire board has made me wealthy and healthy, now I might live long enough to be wise.  Healthy, wealthy, and wise!

 

No problem, you're comment was pretty funny.  I didn't take offense to it.  I was almost ready to break out the QuikClot.  It's been a week since I wrote that and I've only lost 4 more lbs, so I'm sure the 18lbs was mostly water weight.  I've been struggling with my weight since college.  I graduated highschool weighing 165lbs, I graduated college weighing 225lbs and I've weighed about that ever since until this month.  Your story goes to show that even if your not the type to carry excess weight your body was dealing with an unnatural diet in other harmful ways.  And you are correct, the medical profession (for the most part) doesn't have a clue.  I've still got 30+ lbs to go, but I'm not concerned if they come off slowly over the next year or more, I feel healthy, my blood pressure is back to normal, my fasting blood sugar is in the normal range now for the first time in years, Taubes books have changed my life, I'm never going back to the way I was eating before.

 

My wife, who doesn't have any weight or diabetes problems like me, has started changing the way she eats and has noticed the difference in how she feels and the amount of energy she has too.

 

About this list, I agree with you, I've been on the internet since 1993. And in that time I've been on a lot of different discussion lists, boards, etc, (on usenet, via email, the web, social media, ...)  of all different types and subjects. And this list has been by far the most useful list I've ever been on.  Parsad has really attracted a quality group of people here.

 

--Eric

 

[Guest Bronco]

I have 2 kids under 2, so I figured I start going to the doctor to get checked out (should not wait but I have never been accused of being smart).

 

Anyway - blood sugar levels and cholesterol aren't bad but not where I want.  I am tall and don't look fat but was overweight at 235. 

 

To shorten the story - I haven't touched sugar or white bread (drink coffee black, whole grains) and dropped a quick 15 lbs since New Years.  No south beach or atkins but I guess close in many ways, but just eating real foods makes a huge difference.  I stopped drinking soda and that made the most difference imo.

 

When I am 210 I will post on here.  Not that you give a crap, but as a testimonial to how much eating real food makes a difference. 

[Guest broxburnboy]

"The only place in the body where fructose is used (outside of the liver) is by cancer cells.  Cancer cells use fructose to propagate.  Without fructose, no cancer propagation."

 

This is the dirty little secret the processed food and drink industry don't want you to hear:

Sugar feeds cancerous cells, after all they are fast growing and require constant feeding. They also require a growing flow of blood and secrete hormones that stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. One way to counteract tumour growth is to take vascular inhibitors for certain tumours, like Thalidomide, previously famous for inhibiting the natural growth of blood vessels in fetuses.

Unfortunately neither of these therapies are popular with the dispensers-for-profit. Unfortunately diseases like Type II diabetes are a major profit center for the medical industry whose interest is in selling therapies to maintain the patient's health for as long as they can pay.  Prevention and remediation by diet and lifestyle changes are not profit generating.

[Guest broxburnboy]

As an aside.. If you are interested in diet and cancer.. It's all been discussed and researched before.. In Germany in the first half of the last century.  Interesting read:

 

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s6573.html

 

 

[ERICOPOLY]

I am a hybrid 50% Scottish (my mother's family settled in Australia after leaving Scotland) and 50% Northern European (my last name is Swedish as my father's father was born in Finland as was his wife (a Swedish Fin).  

 

Blueberries (high in antioxidants) are wild there, but they are not that sweet and they are tough (full of fiber).  We went there to visit relatives when I was in 4th grade and I had the worst diarrhea after eating a "normal" sized portion (because I am accustomed to eating what comes from grocery stores).  

 

So... my father now has pre-diabetes, his brother is type 2 diabetic, and their father was type 2 diabetic.  None of them are fat!  What does that say about the link between obesity and type 2 diabetes?  Remember my night sweats?

 

My theory is that my night sweats are inherited from my father's side.  Far up north in Scandinavia the days are short in winter and cold as hell.  So while sleeping, to prevent hypothermia, it makes sense that our genes evolved to metabolize fat no matter what to stay warm.  However I ate enormous amounts of junk food (my father did not, nor did his brother, nor did my grandfather) so I had the most energy in my fat cells going to bed at night and thus I'm the one who gets the night sweats and they do not.

 

The Pima Indians likely (being from the Southwest) did not evolve with such long and cold nights, as they have longer light in winter.  Even summer nights in the Southwest are warmer than summer nights in northern Finland.  I don't know what the hell my ancestors did up in northern Finland in the middle of winter, where daylight only comes for a short period of time each day.  Probably a lot of huddling, as they didn't have flashlights to go walking around at night.  So ironically, perhaps it's evolution in the sedentary lifestyle of far northern Finland during frigid winter temperatures that causes me to stay slim.  Yet people accused the Pima of being sedentary!  How funny is that hypothesis?

 

So one of the big problems with having my genes, is that I have been putting myself at risk of type 2 diabetes without realizing it, because I haven't been obese which is the canary in the coal mine.  My body hides the problem, so it's not obvious that there is a problem going on.  This gives me a false sense of security so I go on eating my junk food.

 

Norwegian women tend to be thin -- are they cooking off their fat at night?  Any guys with some experience on that care to share a testimonial -- are they hotter?:

 

How about the Beach Boys:

"And the northern girls with the way they kiss, they keep their boyfriends warm at night".

 

Well, what if it wasn't the kissing that is keeping their boyfriends warm at night?

 

 

[biaggio]

I am impressed by the depth + breadth of knowledge on this board.

 

"You must be losing a lot of fluid?  Are you bleeding?

Fat has about 3,500 (working from memory) calories per pound.  In 14 days, you haven't lost 18 lbs of fat."

 

-I believe that if one takes away all refined carbs, sugars, junk food etc, what happens is that your glycogen stores (storage of energy- sugar in the form of glycogen for future use) decrease. Each gram of glycogen requires 4 gm of water for storage, therefore for  every 1 lb of glycogen  you lose(because you re burning it, instead of the refined carbs you re eating) you re losing 4 lbs of water.

 

-also fat is burned with low intensity activity (like sleeping?) when glucose not as readily available...

 

"Is it any accident of evolution then that while fruits are poisoning us with cancer propagation, they are also simultaneously giving us the antidote?  Yes, I mean antioxidants.  The fruits evolved with a given balance -- the fruit wants us to eat it in order for us to spread it's seed far and wide, but the fruit doesn't want to kill us in doing so.  The longer it keeps us alive, the more fruit we will eat and the more seeds we will spread.  Thus, it gives us the antioxidant for selfish reasons.  It's a symbiotic relationship."

 

-there are also a lot of other "phytochemicals" that help to fight cancer in fruits + veggies. If you eat 10 servings of fruits + veggies per day you can reduce your risk of cancer by 60-80%.

 

There is a very good book -"Foods that Fight Cancer" by Drs Beliveau and Gingras...they have spent there careers at the university of Montreal studying the subject. I thought it was very informative

[twacowfca]

I am a hybrid 50% Scottish (my mother's family settled in Australia after leaving Scotland) and 50% Northern European (my last name is Swedish as my father's father was born in Finland as was his wife (a Swedish Fin).  

 

Blueberries (high in antioxidants) are wild there, but they are not that sweet and they are tough (full of fiber).  We went there to visit relatives when I was in 4th grade and I had the worst diarrhea after eating a "normal" sized portion (because I am accustomed to eating what comes from grocery stores).  

 

So... my father now has pre-diabetes, his brother is type 2 diabetic, and their father was type 2 diabetic.  None of them are fat!  What does that say about the link between obesity and type 2 diabetes?  Remember my night sweats?

 

My theory is that my night sweats are inherited from my father's side.  Far up north in Scandinavia the days are short in winter and cold as hell.  So while sleeping, to prevent hypothermia, it makes sense that our genes evolved to metabolize fat no matter what to stay warm.  However I ate enormous amounts of junk food (my father did not, nor did his brother, nor did my grandfather) so I had the most energy in my fat cells going to bed at night and thus I'm the one who gets the night sweats and they do not.

 

The Pima Indians likely (being from the Southwest) did not evolve with such long and cold nights, as they have longer light in winter.  Even summer nights in the Southwest are warmer than summer nights in northern Finland.  I don't know what the hell my ancestors did up in northern Finland in the middle of winter, where daylight only comes for a short period of time each day.  Probably a lot of huddling, as they didn't have flashlights to go walking around at night.  So ironically, perhaps it's evolution in the sedentary lifestyle of far northern Finland during frigid winter temperatures that causes me to stay slim.  Yet people accused the Pima of being sedentary!  How funny is that hypothesis?

 

So one of the big problems with having my genes, is that I have been putting myself at risk of type 2 diabetes without realizing it, because I haven't been obese which is the canary in the coal mine.  My body hides the problem, so it's not obvious that there is a problem going on.  This gives me a false sense of security so I go on eating my junk food.

 

Norwegian women tend to be thin -- are they cooking off their fat at night?  Any guys with some experience on that care to share a testimonial -- are they hotter?:

 

How about the Beach Boys:

"And the northern girls with the way they kiss, they keep their boyfriends warm at night".

 

Well, what if it wasn't the kissing that is keeping their boyfriends warm at night?

 

 

 

 

There is an unusual type of body fat called brown fat that is found mostly in the abdomen or broader ventral trunk area.  It is capable of burning its own energy.  Most people have very little, but when the body is exposed to prolonged, low ambient  temperature, it increases dramatically in some people and acts like a portable electric blanket when needed.  :)

 

Been there, done that with the wild blueberries on the trail.  Every 10 or 15 minutes I would have to take a trip to the bushes.  The problem is in the seeds.  It's hard, but not impossible to spit them out.

 

Eric, have your night sweats gone away since you have stopped eating easily digested carbs late in the day?  If so, perhaps you're merely wired to burn off the extra as you suggest.  If not, it may be wise to rule out conditions and diseases that could be envolved such as hyperthyroidism, lymphomas, leukemia, adrenal tumor, Aids and especially in your case, hot flashes associated with menopause.  :)

[ERICOPOLY]

Eric, have your night sweats gone away since you have stopped eating easily digested carbs late in the day?  If so, perhaps you're merely wired to burn off the extra as you suggest.  If not, it may be wise to rule out conditions and diseases that could be envolved such as hyperthyroidism, lymphomas, leukemia, adrenal tumor, Aids and especially in your case, hot flashes associated with menopause.  :)

 

(I went to a doctor a few years ago after my wife complained about the sweating and was checked out for cancer CAT scanned.  Aids tests, etc...)

 

They have now gone away completely after watching the Gary Taubes and Prof Lustig videos and eliminated all refined carbs.

 

My concentration, cognitive function, and memory has also improved.

My energy is way up -- I feel more vital.

 

I found some research from the University of Washington linking elevated insulin levels with poor cognitive function and impaired memory.

 

I also found that hypoglycemic people get night sweats (the fats get metabolically active, just like if you've been exercising for 20 minutes).

 

I think what happened is my blood sugar level spikes from all the refined carbs and my insulin gets pumped up so it all goes to the fat cells.  Then I run out of blood sugar around 3am and my body decides it's time for a "snack" and starts metabolizing my fat, which generates heat (same as if I was exercising).

 

So my pancreas is very sensitive to blood sugar apparently, so I can't tolerate refined carbs.  Like the Pima Indians, except my pancreas probably gets too overly enthusiastic so my insulin likely spikes and my fat cells then gobble up all of my energy leving me  hypoglycemic (the chronic fatigue) and thus I burn off the fat when I'm sedentary.

 

My grandfather's parents being from northern Finland, this may be no accident of evolution.  Can you imagine living up there before central heating and insulation in the dead of winter, long dark days where you are sedentary (you're not going to go walking around much without flashlights).  So being designed such that excess blood sugar goes right to the fat cells leaving me hypoglycemic is a bit of an advantage, because that way I can stay warm while being sedentary in my cave!

 

Diet of northern Finland?  Well let's see... wild blueberries (high in fiber and not very sweet), wild game, mushrooms, fish.  Not a whole lot of refined carbohydrates.  But if you're sitting there with cache of wild blueberry tar or however they would have refined it for consumption during the winter, it would be great to be designed like this!  And during summer when you eat in the non-tar form (with the fiber), you don't get this problem of being chronically fatigued.

 

So, ironically when my blood sees more than a little pinch of sugar I get sedentary in my ice cave to wait out the winter, and when I cut way down on the blood sugar I get hyperactive (summer) so I can go gather more berries for the next winter.

 

The refined carbs we're blasted with today would tend to make a person like me insulin resistant over time -- my grandfather, father, and uncle are all type 2 diabetic.

 

Shazaaaam!!!!  Nothing like a good narrative that makes sense.

 

I might add this also might lead me to be better as saving money.  I evolved to squirrel away blueberries all summer and make tar with it so that I could survive a winter covered in snow and ice with no food but what I saved.  I have a hoarding instinct to survive a future of scarcity, and this transfers to accumulation of money in the modern society.  I am afraid to spend -- frugal by evolution.

 

The lower brain function in the face of refined carbs (high insulin) might be some sort of hybernation instinct to conserve energy in my ice cave, but when taken with lots of fiber during summer I'm very energetic because I've got a lot of blueberry gathering to do while food is abundant in order to make tar to survive the next winter in my ice cave (and I dare not eat any of the tar for fear I won't have enough).

 

The chronic fatigue is also convenient if you are in hybernation mode -- you won't wiggle around much.  You conserve energy this way.

 

I should write a paper about my condition, and call it "Thirty Seven Years In An Ice Cave".

 

Refined carbs (blueberry tar) causes me to go into a hybernating state:

1) chronic fatigue (movement wastes energy)

2) brain fog (brain activity wastes energy)

3) night sweats (keep warm while being sedentary)

 

Semi-sweet blueberries taken fresh in summer with all the fiber

1) very energetic

2) high brain function -- I have my wits about me

 

I can't eat blueberry tar in summer or else I go into a hybernating state and won't survive the next winter.

 

So I've evolved to have a hoarding instinct, and in modern times I hoard money for a future perceived scarcity.

 

[twacowfca]

Eric, your narrative resonates with my wife's experience.  She has to watch her consumption of carbs and avoid eating more than a small amount at a time or bad things will happen.  She hyper secrets insulin.  She once had a six hour glucose tolerance test.  Her fasting blood glucose was low, and her blood glucose never got above the normal range during the challenge which was drinking a big glass of glucose solution.  When the test was over, she could hardly think straight -- major emotional and cognitive disfunction.  Later, when we got her readings in graph form after the test, we saw that the reaction to the glucose challenge eventually  drove her blood glucose  down to the extreme hypoglycemic range, almost bordering on insulin shock.

[ERICOPOLY]

Eric, your narrative resonates with my wife's experience.  She has to watch her consumption of carbs and avoid eating more than a small amount at a time or bad things will happen.  She hyper secrets insulin.  She once had a six hour glucose tolerance test.  Her fasting blood glucose was low, and her blood glucose never got above the normal range during the challenge which was drinking a big glass of glucose solution.  When the test was over, she could hardly think straight -- major emotional and cognitive disfunction.  Later, when we got her readings in graph form from the test, the reaction to the glucose challenge eventually  drove her blood glucose  down to the extreme hypoglycemic range, almost bordering on insulin shock.

 

Does she have no cavities too?

 

Interestingly, I never got cavities despite all the sugar I consumed.

 

my father never got cavities.

my grandfather didn't have cavities despite his sweet tooth.

 

Evolved to eat heavy amounts of blueberry tar in the ice cave!

[twacowfca]

Eric, your narrative resonates with my wife's experience.  She has to watch her consumption of carbs and avoid eating more than a small amount at a time or bad things will happen.  She hyper secrets insulin.  She once had a six hour glucose tolerance test.  Her fasting blood glucose was low, and her blood glucose never got above the normal range during the challenge which was drinking a big glass of glucose solution.  When the test was over, she could hardly think straight -- major emotional and cognitive disfunction.  Later, when we got her readings in graph form from the test, the reaction to the glucose challenge eventually  drove her blood glucose  down to the extreme hypoglycemic range, almost bordering on insulin shock.

 

Does she have no cavities too?

 

Interestingly, I never got cavities despite all the sugar I consumed.

 

my father never got cavities.

my grandfather didn't have cavities despite his sweet tooth.

 

Evolved to eat heavy amounts of blueberry tar in the ice cave!

 

You could spread some of the blueberry paste on another northern delicacy, bird cheese (don't ask).  Then you would have an extra special treat!

[rkbabang]

Okay, I'm with you now on the corn subsidies.  Our local grocery store just let my wife know that they won't be supplying pasture raised&finished meat any longer until they can find a new supplier.  ThunderingHooves.com, their previous supplier, is going out of business.

 

I just found a local place to buy grass-fed beef near me using this website:

 

EatWild.com

 

I haven't gone there yet to buy any, but I plan on checking it out soon.

 

Also another website you might want to check out is this one:

 

LocalHarvest.org

 

I used localharvest.org to find the CSA farm that I joined last year.  There's nothing like having organic farm fresh vegetables and herbs all summer and fall.

 

--Eric

 

[twacowfca]

"The only place in the body where fructose is used (outside of the liver) is by cancer cells.  Cancer cells use fructose to propagate.  Without fructose, no cancer propagation."

 

This is the dirty little secret the processed food and drink industry don't want you to hear:

Sugar feeds cancerous cells, after all they are fast growing and require constant feeding. They also require a growing flow of blood and secrete hormones that stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. One way to counteract tumour growth is to take vascular inhibitors for certain tumours, like Thalidomide, previously famous for inhibiting the natural growth of blood vessels in fetuses.

Unfortunately neither of these therapies are popular with the dispensers-for-profit. Unfortunately diseases like Type II diabetes are a major profit center for the medical industry whose interest is in selling therapies to maintain the patient's health for as long as they can pay.  Prevention and remediation by diet and lifestyle changes are not profit generating.

 

That's very interesting that cancer cells can't propagate without fructose.  Do you have a reference for that?  Thanks.

[rkbabang]

That's very interesting that cancer cells can't propagate without fructose.  Do you have a reference for that?  Thanks.

 

lmgtfy click here

 

:)

 

Quote from first the link:

 

"They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose. Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate."