Excellent! Glad things are working out.KatieS wrote:Swamp, I've been following your posts and so appreciate your prompting us to question what works for us. Interestingly enough, I've decreased my A1c by including more fruit and non-gluten grains, so possibly I'm one of your examples.
Hmmm, you know how I feel about those 'fluffy' LDLs.Gilgamesh wrote:And maybe the big fluffy particles really are benign!
I'm getting the impression that you think carbs cause diabetes and a LC diet should be followed by those with a family history. This isn't true. There are no studies out there showing that healthy carbs cause IR or T2D. Processed, fibre-free carbs, packaged with excess meat and fat (pies, pastries, fried foods, processed junk, etc.) yes, but not unrefined, wholefood carbs.progranulindefect wrote: if you have no family history of diabetes, you probably can eat higher carb than someone like me who does have a strong family history.
I find it difficult to believe that you were carrying extra weight whilst eating only healthy carbs. Are you sure that's all you were eating? Eating wholefood sources of carbs means that you consume lots of fibre, making it practically impossible to overeat. Since I started eating this way, It's been difficult to stop losing weight. My wife has threatened to kill me if I lose any more! I have a family history or diabetes, stroke and Alzheimer's, which is why I've found this way of eating. Since switching to this way of eating my blood work has improved in every way.
When I was overweight and tried a low-carb diet, I lost weight and felt great. I therefore came to the conclusion that the carbs in my previous, healthy low-fat diet were to blame. Carbs were the cause of all the worlds obesity problems. But three years later, after I completely debunked low-carb, I realised that my previous healthy diet wasn't so healthy. It was full of processed foods, marketed as healthy. I was eating sandwiches made with bread that I thought was healthy (e.g. seeded batch bread that looks healthy, but isn't made from wholemeal flour). I'd be hungry all the time and always be looking for snacks. When I first experimented with a TRUE low-fat approach, I actually expected to gain weight because I still believed that carbs make you fat. But as I restricted myself to wholefoods sources of carbs, I never found myself to be hungry as long as I ate enough. I finally broke my weight plateau and managed to attain a perfect BMI.
My own success is just an anecdote and we're all different, however I do not believe that much weight can be gained by overeating wholefood, healthy carbs.
Also, have you considered that your LC/paleo diet may have contributed toward your plaque build up? A famous story in the paleo world is of Don Matesz, who was a prominent paleo figure who followed paleo/LC for 14 years and published books on the subject before getting health problems. The most disturbing was his development of xanthomas, normally attributed to FH sufferers. After he became a vegan, his xanthomas disappeared along with his other health problems. Read his famous Farewell to Paleo post here, it's quite an eye opener: http://donmatesz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06 ... paleo.html
You also mentioned sleep problems and low-carb is notorious for bad sleep and insomnia. I suffered from it on LC, too. The mechanism for this is well understood, as carbohydrates make tryptophan more available to the brain.
I hope you find some of this information of use to you.