In 2001, M Magazine published an article about Low-carbing. Joanne Pollock and Friend Karen went for the “healthcheck”, and I gave an e-mail “interview” to the Journalist in charge of the article.

I also published it to my e-mail list, and more recently to the low-carb list owners list, where I got called “One Awsome lady…” for writing such a comprehensive piece of information.
Here in its entirity is the the interview to M Magazine, and typically, they only used one quote from the below!

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—-Original Message—–
From: Nikki
Sent: 27 June 2001 23:25
To: Michele
Subject: RE: interview for magazine feature – Long reply, sorry!

Glad you are up for an interview. I don’t have a slant, positive or negative- on this one. Everybody who has been on it or know people on it, think it’s the best thing ever. I’d say conventional nutritionists and
dieticians are the ones that might ( though I do not know for sure yet) find flaws.

Dieticians would find flaws… You only have to look at the recent copy of “Which?” magazine, where they reviewed diet books, basing their finding on current nutritional guidelines! The low-carb books failed to meet the panel’s criterian miserably, and yet in practise, they appear to be the most sucessful!

So, re:pointing me in the direction of research – please do. I am particularly after books ( available in UK) besides Atkins and Protein Power, and Eat Fat, Get Thin, that advocate this general idea. We want to do a box to run alongside the text on books.

I suspect I will do the “interview” via e-mail! lol! I hope you also speak to me too. But I will answer this lot on here, where I can marshal my thoughts as well!

Research. First up the Internet. I would guess that you have already visited my site and had a good nose. Also in there of specific relevance is a page on all the low-carb books I could find on Amazon.co.uk. Most are not widely availiable, but there is definitely more choice out there than when I started 18 months ago!

There is also an amazing book and site by a lady called Dana Carpender, http://www.holdthetoast.com. Dana did a lot of research, and wrote her book, entitled “How I gave up my Low Fat diet, and lost 40lbs!” for reference. This is a true synopsis of low-carbing! I cannot recommend this one highly enough!

I would also highly recommend a look see at Lowcarbluxury.com.
Lora owns what I consider to be the premiere low-carb information site globally. She has a “news archive” on her site, which is well worth checking over. I would particularly point your attention she has to the link to Science mag. They did an Article not so long ago about how The American Government have spent the last 30 years trying to prove fat is bad
for you, and failing miserably! You have to subscribe to the Science site, which is a bummer… But it is an excellent article!

Mammoth research could be undertaken about UK attitudes by trawling through the Archives of Low-Carb in the uk, my low-carb e-mailing list.

You do not have to be subscribed to the list to read the messages, it is a public database. Try doing some keyword searches on topics you want an angle on, and see what pops out! We are candid, and discuss just about
everything and anything!

I would also point you at Dr Barry Groves’ Website. His writing on Cholesterol myths and Low-carbing are rather good.

You may also want to read the First low-carb diet book, written by William Banting in 1868. (You do have to print this to read it I feel, as it is as wordy as you would expect a Victorian to be! lol!)

And this one written in the sixties before Dr A came to the fore:Eat Fat And Grow Slim by Richard Mackarness, M.B.,B.S.

And so, to the questions!

1) Tell me, briefly, about your own experience, how much weight have you lost, are you maintaining, etc, and how this compares , for you , to other diets you have been on.

Read My Story. It tells it is a nutshell, with Pictures too. As of this day, I have lost 3st exactly! I am in a stall right now, having gained back a little weight due to my not coming to terms with some emotional issues with food, and overeating… hey, no news there, over eat when eating anything and if you have a body type with propensity to gain weight, you get fat! I understand my stumbling blocks, and am hoping to get back on loss track soon.

How does LC compare. No Hypoglycemic attacks. I have to say that this is the BIGGEST plus. Having done a lot of research, about how insulin works, and how my body shapre relates to my insulin sensitivity, on the blood sugar roller-coaster that is “healthy eating” I was forever tired, washed out, irritable, moody and plain HUNGRY!!!!!!

Using LC plans, the blood sugar is ROCK SOLID (which is of huge advantage to diabetics) and also by switching your body over to Ketone Burning (Fat as fuel) rather than Glucose Burning (Sugar and starch for fuel) hunger is blunted, and less food is needed for appetite satiation.

Weight loss is erratic… This is due to Fat loss and Muscle gain. Muscle is more dense than Fat, so it takes up less space in the body. Why the Tape measure is more important to a low-carber than the scale. Low-cal diets are Muscle wasting, which slows down your metabolism. Low-carb promotes muscle growth, keeping your metabolism healthy! As an aside, this is why a low-carb will never be as light as a low-cal dieter. We have more muscle!

2) Do you have to eat this way for life? If you go back to eating carbs will you not just gain the weight back?

You never *have* to do anything… For me personally, I don’t want to go back to eating the metabolic poison that are Cabohydrate in large quantity. (yes, my “conversion” is complete… I view Refined Sugar and white Flour as total posion), I am happy to low-carb for life. The food is natural, nutrient-dense, varied, interesting and above all tastes good! Why would I want to feel like crap again, be tired all the time, have higher blood pressure (I dropped from 130/90 to 110 over 78 in the past 18 months), bad skin, brittle nails, dull hair, and above all, get fat again, after all this work!

You are right, if you have a body that is predisposed to plumpness, when you revert back to the diet that made you fat in the first place, you are going to get fat again! This is no shock, on low-carb or low-cal!!!!

However, studies have shown you are more likely to give up and gain back on low-cal than on low-carb. At the end of the day, Hunger usually does the low-cal person in, and they go back to how they ate before, gaining back all the weight they lost, and some more into the bargain! This will happen to a low-carber that gives up as well, but normally we don’t give up that easily.

3) Has not eating carbs cut your cravings for them?

The physical craving Yes. Simple answer there. However, all of us seem to have a favorite carb, mine is potatoes. My mental attitude change is so steep that I can walk down the Cake and Sweet ailse in a supermarket, and just see poison all round me. I live on my own, so I don’t have to keep sweets and starches (or milk, I don’t drink tea or coffee! I just don’t like them, rather than not allowed them) in the house anymore, but when I was living with a partner, I had no trouble not eating after I had cooked them for him… However you put a plate of chips in front of me, and I have real troubles resisting them. The Smell of toast is a killer as well, but resist I can. I know it is not worth the blood sugar High and Crash, and the hunger that follows.

It is strange. I have no desire to eat heavy duty carbs. It is really as simple as that. I have broken my addition. I don’t intend to get seduced again, that is for sure!

4) Do you have to take supplements?

Again, you don’t *have* to, as the LC is very nutrient Rich… however, I personally do take supplements. All the Vitamin study in the 20′s and 30′s was done to “cure” disease cause by deficiency. I have researched, and am in the camp that believes that if you take some Vitamins and Minerals to “excess” you get health benefits, rather than just prevent illness.

My Bibles here are “Dr Atkin’s Vita Nutrient Solution” and “The Vitamin Bible” by Earl Mindell (Ed. Now out of print in 2010) and I take a veritable cocktail of Tabs. All from Holland and Barrett.

2x Green Source MultiVit
2x Chelated Calcium 333mg with Magnesium 150mg and Zinc
2x Selenium ACE Maximun, with Zinc
2x CoenzymeQ10 50mg
2x VitC 1000mg (may up this to 3 we shall see…)
2x Glucosamine Sulphate 500mg
2x Fish Oil 1000mg
2x Flaxseed Oil 1000mg
2x Starflower Oil 1000mg
1x Chromium 500mg
1x VitB complex
1x Biotin 50mg
1x Vit E capsule 400UI
1x Korean Ginseng Extract
1x Cranberry Extract
1x L-Carnite 500mg

Split it into two takes, one with Breakfast, one with lunch, and the L-Carnite at Bedtime.

Some of it is general spectrum stuff, other stuff have specific jobs in the body, either to do with metabolism, or specific health issues such as my arthritis.

I don’t take these every day, I tend to take them during the week, and not at weekends. You do need to leave a gap, as the Fat soluable Vits build up to toxicity levels in the body if you are not careful!

I also notice that when I don’t take them regularly, my body lets me know,  especially the Glucosamine Sulphate.

5) Do you have any concerns over long term health effects? It seems to defy logic that you can eat that much meat and not have cholesterol problems.

No concerns at all. LC is a natural diet. It is Nutrient dense and Chemical Sparse. It is the diet that our bodies evolved on, and thrived on enough to get us to Homo-sapiens state!

If you do the research, what you find is that Cholesterol in the diet has NO EFFECT on serum Cholesterol at all! Also, It is now thought that Triglycerides are a Better indicator of problems than Cholesterol.

We produce 80% of the Cholesterol we NEED to live in our liver… if we eat less, our body simply produces more.

Also, I don’t eat “all that meat!” I have meat once a day, twice if I cannot be bothered to be imaginative. I tend to have Scrambled eggs with butter and Mushrooms for breakfast, and usually either Salmon or Steak with a salad dressed in With Pepper, Olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar with mayonnaise on the side for lunch. Dinner is whatever turns up From Safeway or a restaurant. Weekends can be a bit catch as catch can as well.

If you want to check out what I have been eating in detail, and my musings for the last month or so, check this…

and hey, if Dr A and Barry have not dropped dead, after 40 years of low-carbing…

6) Correct me if I am wrong, but Atkins seems to think ketosis is a good thing, whereas Barry Groves – eat fat get thin, says it is not essential.
What is your view?

Ahhh… That argument. I have had this out with Barry on list (yes, he is a member of my LC list)… Do a search on the thread “Ketones – why waste the best fuel?” if you want his and my views. (messages 8605, 8611, 8640 and 8862)

It is all due to Dr A not being the greatest wordsmith on the planet. The aim of an LC diet is to make the body run on Ketones as its prefered fuel, rather than Glucose. The body runs better on Ketone bodies, and it is indeed the prefered fuel of the brain. What they “disagree” about is what I call “Ketone-Spillage”

Barry’s plan will put the body into what is medicly called “ketosis/lipolysis” ie Fat burning as well as Dr A’s or any of the other LC plans do… But, the difference is that Barry does not believe in wasting ketones, where as Dr A Does! What Dr A called BDK, or Benign Dietary Ketosis means to be at a point of Ketone Saturation, so that unused ketones exit the body via Urine and Breath. I think this gives thespoon fed American dieter a marker, to show he is doing well…

Barry is more economical, and expects us Brits not to need unnecessary “crutches”, that is all! His plan is trying to get your body to burn *all* the ketones you release from your body and dietary fat.

Now, I mostly follow Dr A, and I can afford to waste a few ketones! lol

6) Tell me what you eat in a typical day.
Again, Have a look at Fitday.

As I said above, usually Eggs and Mushies for breakfast, “protein” (a steak, salmon or an omlette if I am poor!) and a dressed salad for lunch, with perhaps a Loseley Greek yoghurt, then preferably a different protein and cooked, dressed veggies for tea. (Tonight I had a small Salmon fillet, with Asparagus tips, some herb Salad and butter/garlic fried Mushrooms, with a Cream sauce made of Cream, butter, Pepper and White wine vinegar! )

I Cook in lard and butter, dress salads and veggies with Olive and nut oils, use Mayo as my sauce if I need it, and make cream sauces where ever I can! Mostly in the evenings, as what I get from the canteen during the day is quite “limiting”.

I aim for a 70% fat, 20-25% Protein and 5-10% Carb caloric distribution. Most days I am on target… I don’t even have to think about it anymore, it just falls that way!

Here is what I wrote to “Which?” Magazine about what I eat, as it is quite a good piece, and typing it again would be tedious!:

“The diet of a low-carber is based around eating as naturally as possible. It practically forces you to cook proper food, and not to stick nutritionally barren chemical and sugar stuffed processed food into your body. My diet is based on drinking Water (at least 3ltrs a day, I usually make 5) and maybe a glass of wine or two once a week, and eating Meat, Fowl, Game, Fish, Eggs, Cheese, Nuts, Seeds, Non-starchy, Nutrient-dense “Green” Veggies, Small amounts of “native northern European” Fruits, Herbs, Spices, Butter, Cream, Lard, Olive oil, and a small amount of baked goods made from nut, soy and whey “flours”. (yes, I make my own low-carb bread, biscuits and cakes… they are fantastic!) With these ingredients, I don’t have to *try* and make my food taste good, it does so all on its own!

I eat as little prepackaged foods as possible, as few chemicals as possible, and I avoid the very addictive “Sugar” as much as I can get away with, in a world where manufacturers put it into everything! ”

7) Can you do the government recommendation of five portions of fruit and veg a day on this plan? What about fibre?

From the above, you can see yes! I don’t realy like fruit anyway… Fruit is Sugar wrapped in fibre, Veggies are much more nutrient dense! ie, there is more Vitamins C in Brocolli than an Orange!

I do eat strawberries occasionally, with cream of course.

I view fruit with trepidation anyway, as our bodies evolved to convert Fruit sugar (Fructose) to Triglycerides (fat) without needing the “help” of Insulin! (Excess Blood glucose is converted to triglycerides and shoved into fats cells by the action of Insulin, which is why people with insulin resistance (apple shaped) who eat the standard high-carb diet are fat!) It is what we ate to get fat for winter!

Fibre. I get enough from my veggies I feel. I also eat Nuts, and seeds, which are also Fibrous. I don’t suffer constipation very often, but when I do, normally due to either not drinking enough (I throw back between 4 and 6 ltrs per day) or having non-balanced meals (ie a burger (no bun of course!) grabbed on the run between a and b, or a breakfast at a friends house that is a slice of ham or three, or a lump of cheese)I have a good spinach meal and I am all sorted!

Sorry if these questions seen really basic but remember you know all about this and I am writing for people who know nothing about it.

Well, I suspect I have been far too comprehensive here, but I wanted to cover all bases. Trying to compress 18 months of experience into a *short* e-mail is probably impossible! lol!

Thanks for your help,

Not a Problem. Speak to you soon I hope.

Kind Regards
Nikki

This is an e-mail sent by Tim (The “Fella I worked with” in my story), to the Concise-low-carb-uk list. I thought it was better than my responce to the same post…

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Dr Jeremy Mills said: Are all these supplements discussed really necessary if you eat a varied low-carb diet – surely by cutting out the carbs you aren’t necessarily losing anything else ??

I think the view is generally that it is *better* to be getting your vits and minerals from food in any case, as there may be “other things” in there which science doesn’t currently fully understand, which lend themselves to enhancing absorption.

Most vitamins should, as you say be readily available if you are eating your veggies up (with the possible exception of Omega-3′s and Magnesium, and you can get Omega-3′s from oily fish if you’re into that.)

However, some of the antioxidants (and a handful of others) have such a dramatic beneficial effect that it may be worth supplementing in any case!

Getting the right fat balance is very hard to do today, unless you are a big fan of sardines! Taking a fish oil supplement comes highly recommended, just to make sure you get your Omega-3′s.

Magnesium reportedly has almost miraculous properties, and everyone should take it!
(This is to do with Magnesium/Calcium balance, it’s a bit like the Omega-3/Omega-6 fat thing)

(Note from Jeanette in reply to this post:
I would just urge one caution about the Magnesium and your comment “everyone should take it!”: In Protein Power LifePlan on page 220, there is a caution that if you have heart or kidney trouble you should NOT supplement magnesium without the permission of your doctor.)

Chromium apparantly has an insulin sensitising effect, and so may be helpful on this WOE, especially to people in the early phases of the diet.

Again with people in the early phases, you’ll be losing a lot of water initially, so it’s probably a good idea to replace the inevitably lost potassium, this can most easily be done by using some kind of lo-salt, but you could take a potassium supplement instead if you wanted to.

There are a whole swathe of anti-oxidants, but these 4 are generally considered to be the most important:

Vitamin E – THE most important antioxidant, hands down
Vitamin C – everyone knows about this one
CoQ10 – horrendously expensive, but very good for you
Alpha-Lipoic Acid – another excellent anti-oxidant, also has the effect of regenerating the 3 above in your body!

The anti-oxidants are recommended for their anti-aging and cancer-retardant properties, as I’m sure you know already.

Realistically, you are already doing your body a lot of good by getting your blood-sugar and insulin levels right down via the WOE. Everything else is really just extra. If you want to “go that extra mile” and perhaps reap some additional benefits, then start taking supplements as well. You won’t get anything like the benefit you’re already getting just from the WOE, but you may feel just a little better. It’s really down to the individual, where in the effort/reward balance do you feel most comfortable.

If you want to get more info, I highly recommend The Protein Power Life Plan which has some excellent science in it, explaining a number of aspects
of this WOE that I’d not seen touched on in such detail elsewhere, and has several sections dealing with vitamins and minerals and their specific effects.

Hope this is at all useful!

Regards,
Tim (KSC, KoX) -><-
“We are sorry, you have reached an imaginary number.

Please rotate your phone ninety degrees and try again.”

What can I drink on this diet?

Another oft asked qustion, both in my in-box, and to both the mailing lists, are questions about Alcohol. Men especially ask about “their Beer”. One such question, from a Chap called Gavin, got a good reply, and not being selfish, here it is! (hey, waste not want not! )

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—-Original Message—–
From: Nikki [mailto:admin@low-carb.org.uk]
Sent: 02 November 2001 21:28
To: Gavin Male
Subject: RE: beer…
Hi Gavin…

Great site you’ve whipped up there…
My thanks.

I have a quick question for you regarding low-carb action… I’ve done Dr Atkins in the past, just for a full-on two week period, drinking just water,no caffeine, alcohol etc. Being a young single bloke in London, I like to have a drink or two… main question is, do the principals of Dr Atkins still work if I drink as well?

The answer is yes and no. Alcohol as a fuel HAS to be burned off before anything else. So whilst the Alcohol won’t stop you producing Ketones, you will not be using them for Energy whilst you’re drinking. This is effectively stopping your fat loss dead in its tracks, but it will start up again once all the alcohol is burned off.

The Second Problem is the Carbs. The “best” alcohols to drink are either Spirits or Dry wines, as they have few carbs to refill your Glycogen stores with…

Beer, by its nature is rather carby. Lite Beers and Pilsners are your best bet if you still want them… in moderation.

So basically I’m looking to have very few carbs in my food, but still having alcohol. I avoid all drinks except water / de-caff tea etc, but really need my beer !!

Fair enough, then have it. Just remember that low-carbing will lower your alcohol tolerance (hey, I used to be able to drink my mates under the table… now, two glasses of red and I am pickled!) and that it will dehydrate you, which in turn will make you retain water as you rehydrate.

As a Man, you will not have as many problems drinking beer as a woman would have (don’t you just hate body chemistry sometimes…) but did you also know that beer contains phytoestrogenic componds… These are what gives you the
“Beer Belly” look… They are giving you a “pregnancy protection layer”!

Let me know if I’ll get thinner please!

As long as you stick with the plan, work with it, and don’t indulge *too* much, then I can see no reason why not. If you do have trouble though, I do suggest that you lay off the beer for a while… After all, what is more important, Beer or Thinness? I know my choice… What’s yours to be?

L&s
Nikki
http://www.low-carb.org.uk

There is a short section on this in the FAQ, but the subject really does merit a larger article. NOT written by me, and if anyone knows the credit please forward so that I can add it.

“Trying to keep both your fat and carb intakes low in the hope of losing weight more quickly? It’s probably not a good idea, and you do it only at your own risk.

Your body needs energy to perform all the little daily tasks it’s called upon to do. It takes energy to walk, to digest food, to sit in an erect position, to move, to breathe — even to think. It even requires energy to sleep, and for your body to repair itself of all the little damages it incurs during daily life.

Fortunately, your body is a very efficient power plant. It can use any of three fuels to generate the energy it needs. Only if it runs out of those fuels will it be totally unable to produce energy and cease to operate. But before it reaches that state it goes into a stage comparable to rolling blackouts — a condition in which it warns you through various symptoms including, but not limited to, hunger, aches and pains, extreme fatigue, bowel irregularities, and even problems with
the texture of your skin and hair, that it needs more fuel. However, you should never let your body get to the point of warning you that it’s out of fuel. Here’s why:

The three types of fuel the body can use are carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Carbohydrates are the body’s “preferred” fuel — the one it will use first, if available. If there are no carbs (sugars and starches) available, then it will use fats. And only as very last resort- — after having warned you via the “rolling blackout” method that it’s in real trouble — will the body use protein as a fuel.

That’s because the protein you eat is needed by the body’s organs and muscles, and is constantly used by those organs and muscles to keep in good repair. So if you require protein to produce the energy for your daily activities, you divert it from its prime — and very important — purpose. You could even end up cannibalizing your body, causing a breakdown of first its muscles and then the major organs you need to simply sustain life. (This, by the way, is why some doctors and
nutritionists are so convinced that low-carbing will shrivel your muscles, eat your liver and do unspeakable things to your kidneys. They don’t consider the fact that the body will use fat for energy before it’ll use protein if it’s supplied with enough fat for its needs. And because they’re so conditioned to the low-fat way of eating they can’t even imagine anyone eating enough fat to supply their body with energy, for heaven’s sake!)

Now back to the body’s preferred fuels. We are mostly conditioned from birth to use carbohydrates for fuel, so the body will use them automatically. (There’s a good reason why human breast milk — nature’s
intended food for infants — contains more than 1.5 times the carbohydrates that cows’ milk does.)

Most people get more than enough carbohydrates to fuel their bodies’ daily activites. The body, being a well-run power plant, puts the leftovers in storage to use in the future if it’s needed. But it can’t store carbohydrates, so it turns them into fat and keeps them on deposit in the body’s cells. And we see it walking around the streets wherever we go, hanging off bodies in a most unattractive way. Some of us see it every time we look in the mirror, as well, and don’t like the way it looks on us.

An excess of fat storage is usually the reason we choose a low-carb way of life. We want our bodies to use the stored fat for energy and leave our bodies lean and sleek looking. And, as we all know, it works. But we can make it work far more efficiently by understanding the way the body uses fat.

The switchover from using carbs for energy to using fats for energy is only semi-automatic. In the absence of carbs the body will use fat, but only sparingly. Remember, the body is conditioned to store that fat against the time when it runs out of fuel. It considers fat an “emergency ration” and it goes into conservation mode, producing only the amount of energy that’s necessary to sustain life, and you go into those “rolling blackouts.” You may feel hunger, fatigue, muscle aches,
joint pain, etc. You may become extremely constipated. Or you may just feel a general malaise. This happens to many people when they begin a low-carb diet, and often keeps them from following through. “Oh, I tried
that,” they’ll say, “And it didn’t work for me.”

There is a way, though, to train the body to use fat automatically as its preferred fuel, and one that it can safely use to produce unlimited amounts of energy. You do that by depriving it of carbohydrates, while at the same time providing it a good supply of dietary fat. After a while — usually only a few days — this convinces your body that it can
always expect to have a bountiful supply of fat to use as fuel for its energy generator and takes it out of conservation mode. Because it has both dietary fat and stored fat to draw upon, and has no reason to stay
in conservation mode, the body will produce lots and lots of energy.

You’ll avoid the “rolling blackout” warnings and feel far better, with plenty of energy. And this will continue for as long as you eat enough fat to keep your body out of conservation mode.

This is one of the reasons that doctors who support the low-carb way of eating tell you that you shouldn’t eat fat-free mayonnaise, salad dressings, cheeses, etc. (The other reason, of course is that most of them contain added carbohydrates just to make them barely edible.) It’s also the basis for the widely touted and very effective “Fat Fast”
method of jolting your body into weight loss if you find yourself in a persistent plateau.

But what the doctors often forget to mention is that these days even eating full-fat condiments and foods may not provide you with as many fats as you should have to encourage your body to freely burn fats. This is because so many of today’s foods are routinely stripped of the good, healthy fats they used to contain.

For example, food animals are bred to be as close to fat-free as possible. Beef and pork is touted as being “lean,” and it is — almost to the point of being tasteless. It’s nearly impossible to get chicken with the fat and skin still attached — I have to order it specially from my supermarket. Recipes routinely call for pans to be sprayed with fat-free sprays rather than using fats to keep the food from sticking, and even those of us who follow a low-carb way of life often use them, thinking we’re doing the right thing.

So to avoid depriving our bodies of both fats and carbohydrates at the same time, we often have to consciously add fats to our diet. Trying to eat a low-fat or reduced-fat diet along with a low-carb diet is almost a sure recipe for failure. It may appear to be effective, at least for a while. You may lose some weight, but despite cutting your carbohydrates down to almost zero you probably won’t lose as much as you would if you were eating more fat. You surely won’t feel nearly as good as you would if you ate more fat. And you may even end up falling by the wayside along with those people who say “Oh, I tried that, and it didn’t work for me.”"

On the e-list Low-Carb_in_the_UK we have far ranging discussions. What started this one off was a discussion about Kilroy, a programme about Obesity. As you would expect, this was no sympathetic view, but a ridicule session, along the standard lines of fat people have no will power or self control…

We know this to be carb addiction… You know what? I cannot wait for the day the rest of the world wakes up to this fact!

Anyway, this got us talking about “self image”, and Elaine wrote this rather wonderful essay…

So, I give you, Elaine’s take on Body Dismorphia.

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From: {hazeymaze6@*****.com}
It was always something I wondered about – whether, because anorexic women look in the mirror and see a fat person, how do they view me?

From:Lillian15@*****.com
> I hardly even notice that I’m fat and even when losing weight, I can’t really tell the difference.

This is just another facet of the same thing – body dismorphia. We have an image of our own body, and, no matter how we change our body, the image stays the same. Anorexics have a body image that is fat, sometimes huge.
There was an experiment performed with a “flexible mirror”, which the anorexic person could control. They moved the mirror until the reflection that they saw was the same as their body image – in their mind the mirror was then “flat”, and non-distorting. It was amazing how “fat” the people with anorexia saw themselves as, – and how thin the “fat” people thought
they were! It was a consistent thing, with many people all showing similar mis-conceptions. I know that my body image is thinner than I am, and despite the weight that I have lost, my body image and I still have a long way to go
before we coincide!

If you have lost weight, but your “body image” hasn’t, you may have body dismorphia too. In our case, it could prove fatal if we fail to accept the evidence of the scales – our body image tells us we are thinner than reality, so we can afford to eat a little extra food, and so we could become morbidly obese. Thankfully we have all accepted that reality and image do
NOT coincide – otherwise we would not be here! For those with anorexia, their dismorphia works the opposite way. They are desperate to shrink their body image, and can not accept that their body image and reality are not the
same. For them, too, body dismorphia can be a killer.

Would any program stand in front of a group of anorexics and say “eat more – you’ll be healthier”? Not today. It’s accepted that anorexia is a serious illness with deep seated psycological roots. All these have to be addressed before anorexia can be conquered. But Obesity? Well, obese people are just plain greedy and weak willed, and so any humiliation can be directed at them.

We know better.

We must just hope that, eventually, those ignorant medical professionals who dismissed anorexics in the past, but who now accept the serious and multifaceted nature of their disease, will learn that obesity may have similar deep seated causes.

Maybe then we will get the respect that we deserve when we go into the doctors surgery.
When we speak to a dietician.
When we appear on a TV program desperate for help.

Lets hope that, eventually, those people who have been hurt and humiliated find their way to this healthy way of eating, as we have, and turn their lives, if not their body images, around.

Body dismorphia is a killer. Let’s be grateful that we have ours under control.

Elaine in Cumbria

These menus were developed by long time LCer Terry Ross of the ASL Group, and posted on AAWOL for those losing slowly or stalled. I have anglicised where I can. |The three recipes mentioned are at the end of the page.

Turtle menu

Day #1

Breakfast — 2 scrambled eggs cooked in butter — 750ml of water -Decaf coffee or decaf tea if desired and *only* if you drink all your water as well.
Non-Aspartame AS and up to 2 tablespoons of cream are allowed with this meal.
Mid-morning Snack — 25g shelled sunflower seeds and 750ml of water

Lunch — 100-150g of protein (beef, pork, tuna, salmon, chicken, eggs,etc. or any combination thereof) made into a chef salad with 2 cups of salad vegetables chosen from Dr. A’s list in Chapter 8 of the book . . . the Induction Chapter. Top with Mayo, Ranch, Blue Cheese, Oil/Vinegar or other full-fat dressing that is no more than 1 gram of carb per serving. And 750ml of water.

Mid-afternoon Snack — 1/2 cup sugar free Jelly (make this from Geletin and Flavorings, rather than Sugar Free Jelly mix that contains aspartame) with up to 1/2 cup of homemade artificially flavored whipped cream, as well as 750ml of water.

Dinner — 150-200g of protein (your choice) with 1 cup of salad chosen from Dr. A’s Induction salad vegetable list, plus dressing as listed above, and 1/2 cup of cooked vegetable (either green beans,  courgette, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, or other veggie
listed in Dr. A’s 10% carb list outlined in Chapter of the book). Feel free to
cook in butter or lard, as desired. PLUS 750ml of water.

Evening Snack 50g of cheese and 750ml of water.

Day #2

Breakfast — 2 egg ham and cheese omelet cooked in butter (25g of
cheese and up to 75g of ham, bacon, or other meat of your choice) — 750ml
of water — Decaf coffee or decaf tea if desired and *only* if you drink all
your water as well. Non-Aspartame AS and up to 2 tablespoons with this meal.

Mid-morning Snack — pork rinds with cream cheese (up to 50g) and
750ml of water

Lunch — Chicken (or other protein) salad made with up to
100g of meat plus mayonnaise, and other salad veggies of your choice served
between 2 Atkins Rolls. 1 cup of salad with dressing. Plus 750ml of water.

Mid-afternoon Snack — 25g of nuts (macadamias, pecans, almonds,
walnuts, or sunflower seeds), as well as 750ml of water.

Dinner — 150-200g of protein (your choice) with 1 cup of salad chosen from Dr. A’s Induction salad vegetable list, plus dressing as listed above, and 1/2 cup of cooked vegetable (either green beans, courgette, cabbage, cauliflower,
broccoli, or other veggie listed in Dr. A’s 10% carb list outlined in Chapter of
the book). Feel free to cook in butter or lard, as desired. PLUS 750ml of water.

Evening Snack — 1/2 cup SF Jelly with up to 1/2 cup homemade whipped
cream and 750ml of water.

If these meals and snacks do not curb your hunger or satisfy you, feel free to make a basic protein powder shake with 1 scoop of powder, water, up to 1 tsp. of food flavoring, and up to 2 tbsp. of double cream. Add Ice and blend together. No other carby additives, please.

Day #3

Breakfast — Creamed Beef on Atkins Rolls (Recipes below) -  750ml of water. Decaf coffee or decaf tea if desired and *only* if you drink all your water as well. Non-Aspartame AS and up to 2 tablespoons cream allowed with this meal.

Mid-morning Snack — 25g of string cheese and 750ml of water

Lunch — 100-150g of protein (beef, pork, tuna, salmon, chicken, eggs,etc. or any combination thereof) made into a chef salad with 2 cups of salad vegetables chosen from Dr. A’s list in Chapter 8 of the book . . . the Induction Chapter. Top with Mayo, Ranch, Blue Cheese, Oil/Vinegar or other full-fat dressing that is no more than 1 gram of carb per serving. And 750ml of water.

Mid-afternoon Snack — 25g of nuts (refer to Day #2 for choices), as well as 750ml of water.

Dinner — 150-200g of protein (your choice) with 1 cup of salad chosen from Dr. A’s Induction salad vegetable list, plus dressing as listed above, and 1/2 cup of cooked vegetable (either green beans, courgettes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, or other veggie listed in Dr. A’s 10% carb list outlined in Chapter of the book). Feel free to cook in butter or lard, as desired. PLUS 750ml of water.

Evening Snack — Pork rinds filled with pimiento cheese (recipe below) and 750ml of water. If hungry and desired, 1/2 cup SF Jelly and up to 1/2 cup homemade whipped cream.

Day #4 Breakfast – 2 scrambled eggs cooked in butter — 750ml of water -Decaf coffee or decaf tea if desired and *only* if you drink all your water as well. Non-Aspartame AS and up to 2 tablespoons of cream allowed with this meal.

Mid-morning Snack — Protein shake and 750ml of water

Lunch — 100-150g of protein (beef, pork, tuna, salmon, chicken, eggs,etc. or any combination thereof) made into a sandwich between Atkins Rolls, and salad with 2 cups of salad vegetables chosen from Dr. A’s list in Chapter 8 of the book . . . the Induction Chapter. Top with Mayo, Ranch, Blue Cheese, Oil/Vinegar or other full-fat dressing that is no more than 1 gram of carb per serving. And 750ml of water.

Mid-afternoon Snack — 50g of cheese, as well as 750ml of water.

Dinner — 150-200g of protein (your choice) with 1 cup of salad chosen from Dr. A’s Induction salad vegetable list, plus dressing as listed above, and 1/2 cup of cooked vegetable (either green beans, courgettes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, or other veggie listed in Dr. A’s 10% carb list outlined in Chapter of the book). Feel free to cook in butter or lard, as desired. PLUS 750ml of water.

Evening Snack — 25g Nuts (chosen from those listed previously) and 750ml of water.

If still hungry and desired, add an additional snack of pork rinds and
cream cheese.

Day #5

Breakfast — 2 scrambled eggs cooked in butter — 750ml of water -Decaf coffee or decaf tea if desired and *only* if you drink all your water as well. Non-Aspartame AS and up to 2 tablespoons of cream allowed with this meal.

Mid-morning Snack — 25g shelled sunflower seeds and 750ml of water

Lunch — 100-150g of protein (beef, pork, tuna, salmon, chicken, eggs,etc. or any combination thereof) made into a chef salad with 2 cups of salad vegetables chosen from Dr. A’s list in Chapter 8 of the book . . . the Induction Chapter. Top with Mayo, Ranch, Blue Cheese, Oil/Vinegar or other full-fat dressing that is no more than 1 gram of carb per serving. And 750ml of water.

Mid-afternoon Snack — 1/2 cup sugar free Jelly with up to 1/2 cup of homemade artificially flavored whipping cream, as well as 750ml of
water.

Dinner — 150-200g of protein (your choice) with 1 cup of
salad chosen from Dr. A’s Induction salad vegetable list, plus dressing as
listed above, and 1/2 cup of cooked vegetable (either green beans, courgettes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, or other veggie listed in Dr. A’s 10% carb list outlined in Chapter of the book). Feel free to cook in butter or lard, as desired. PLUS 750ml of water.

Evening Snack — 50g cheese and 750ml of water.

Day #6

Breakfast — 2 egg ham and cheese omelet cooked in butter (25g of cheese and up to 75g of ham, bacon, or other meat of your choice) — 750ml of water –
Decaf coffee or decaf tea if desired and *only* if you drink all your water as
well. Non-Aspartame AS and up to 2 tablespoons cream allowed with this meal.

Mid-morning Snack — pork rinds with cream cheese (up to 50g) and
750ml of water

Lunch — Chicken (or other protein) salad made with up to
100g of meat plus mayonnaise, and other salad veggies of your choice served
between 2 Atkins Rolls. 1 cup of salad with dressing. Plus 750ml of water.

Mid-afternoon Snack — 25g of nuts (macadamias, pecans, almonds,
walnuts, or sunflower seeds), as well as 750ml of water.

Dinner — 150-200g of protein (your choice) with 1 cup of salad chosen from Dr. A’s Induction salad vegetable list, plus dressing as listed above, and 1/2 cup of cooked vegetable (either green beans, courgettes,cabbage, cauliflower,
broccoli, or other veggie listed in Dr. A’s 10% carb list outlined in Chapter of
the book). Feel free to cook in butter or lard, as desired. PLUS 750ml of water.

Evening Snack — 1/2 cup SF Jelly with up to 1/2 cup homemade whipped
cream and 750ml of water.

If these meals and snacks do not curb your hunger or satisfy you, feel free to make a basic protein powder shake with 1 scoop of powder, water, up to 1 tsp. of food flavoring, and up to 2 tbsp. of double cream, add Ice and blend together. No other carby additives, please.

Day #7

Breakfast — Creamed Beef on Atkins Rolls (recipe below) 750ml of water Decaf coffee or decaf tea if desired and *only* if you drink all your water as well. Non-Aspartame AS and up to 2 tablespoons cream allowed with this meal.

Mid-morning Snack — 25g string cheese and 750ml of water

Lunch — 100-150g of protein (beef, pork, tuna, salmon, chicken, eggs, etc. or any combination thereof) made into a chef salad with 2 cups of salad vegetables chosen from Dr. A’s list in Chapter 8 of the book . . . the Induction Chapter. Top with Ranch, Blue Cheese, Oil/Vinegar or other full-fat dressing that is no more than 1 gram of carb per serving. And 750ml of water.

Mid-afternoon Snack — 25g of nuts (refer to Day #2 for choices), as well as 750ml of water.

Dinner — 150-200g of protein (your choice) with 1 cup of salad chosen from Dr. A’s Induction salad vegetable list, plus dressing as listed above, and 1/2 cup of cooked vegetable (either green beans, courgettes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, or other veggie listed in Dr. A’s 10% carb list outlined in Chapter of the book). Feel free to cook in butter or lard, as desired. PLUS 750ml of water.

Evening Snack — Pork rinds filled with pimiento cheese (recipe below) and 750ml of water. If hungry and desired, 1/2 cup SF Jelly and up to
1/2 cup homemade whipped cream.

---

Atkins Revolution Rolls are here

Creamed Beef Florentine are here

Pimiento Cheese (American’s get this pre-packed I just discovered!)

1x 8 oz tub cream cheese, softened

2 cups (8 oz) grated cheddar cheese

3 tablespoons pickle juice (no Idea… Use the Vinegar from Picked Onions?)

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

Dash of garlic powder

1x 4 oz jar diced pimiento, drained

Place cream cheese in a medium bowl; beat at medium speed of a mixer until smooth.

Stir in cheddar cheese and next 4 ingredients.

Cover and chill at least 1 hour

Got this e-mail to the list the other day:

“From: Gavin Allinson

I am using low carb to get rid of the last 7-10 lbs that is sticking on my
belly. I was really successful losing 20 lbs earlier in the year. My
challenge is that i do a lot of sport, particularly rowing and will be
competing later on in the summer, my concern is that if i don’t have enough carbohydrate and glycogen stored in my muscles i wont be able to perform an endurance event?

Do you have any ideas or guidelines?”

The answer is of course yes… But it is not my advice.

This article, from Amazon.co.uk, about The Schwartzbein Principle, is the BEST advocacy for a low-carb exercise regime that I have ever seen!

Tim Hatcher from Cheltenham, United Kingdom , 20 September, 1999

Sports Nutrition, no carbo loading required.

On the run up to my first triathlon I followed the high carbohydrate low fat eating routine, with daily training. Prior to the event had a pasta lunch, then an hour before start a banana. I had a terrible time of it, a slow swim time, got a stitch soon into the cycle, felt hungry, had some Kendal mint cake (sugar) and then collapsed exhausted at the finishing line.

Not put off I signed up for a second and put it down to more training required. However a side effect of my pre race diet was that sometimes I “crashed” after a meal cold sweat and a sugar craving. I checked this out with my doctor and he diagnosed me as suffering from reactive hypoglycaemia, and I was told “not to worry about it” as “we all suffer from it to a certain degree”.

This was not a satisfactory answer for me so I started my own research, this led me to the Schwartzbein principle, I read the text in a week. It was the first text that I had read that “made sense” it is not a diet in the sense that there are free foods and banned foods with meals set out, it explains how food is processed by the body, and why we require a balanced diet that includes good fats, with the only food group requiring monitoring and regulating dependant on activity level being carbohydrates. I changed my diet to be in line with the text.

This had surprising side effects, my training time started getting better, I felt better, I lost weight, my body shape is changing, I am loosing my belly, all of which I had not expected. Also the best thing is that I have not yet had a reactive hypoglycaemia attack since adopting this new eating pattern.

Night before the second triathlon arrived, Moroccan stew (Schwarzbein cookbook), with 1/2 a cup on cous cous for supper, the day of the event breakfast, fetta, artichoke heart and spinach omelette cooked in butter with sliced tomato drizzled with olive oil and 2 slices of bread and butter. This was really hard for me, no carbo loading, how was it going to work ? Would I “run out of steam” half way round ? Would I “hit the wall” ? Would my mussels “run out of fuel” and seize up ? All the scenarios that I had been led to believe could happen without carbo loading.

Got to the event, it was raining, that bit never let up for the whole event. Swim was good my personal best, Cycle was great no stitch, really wet and horrible, mud on road at points, overtook two people on this stage. Run, started and thought oh no stitch on its way, but that feeling soon disappeared and came to nothing, overtook three people in that stage, got to the end on the run, what was the next discipline then ? opps finished felt great none of the above fears or beliefs came to life and I felt a thousand times better than the end of the last event, very wet, but very happy, looking forward to the next.

My result was much improved on previous, being 15 minutes from the first guy, I had been 25 minutes from the top in the previous event.

I will continue with this eating pattern, it tastes good, it makes me feel good, it makes me stronger, it is changing my body shape to one I like, and so far has had no adverse side effects (un. I would recommend this text to anybody, in fact I have, and four others are in the process of reading it. I really does make sense and I feel is a must for any serious athlete.

Thank you

Article Originally Submitted 2004

Running LCUK and the associated Yahoo! Groups, I have come across this 4 letter abbreviation quite a bit in people’s e-mail. I learned much about the condition, even have a close friend that has it, but until very recently, my interest in PCOS was purely academic. Then, I discovered, almost by accident that have PCO.

How did I find that out? Well, that story starts back in January 2002. I caught a really bad viral throat infection which knocked me off my socks! Nothing unusual there, after all, it was the depths of winter, and colds and streph infections are common at that time of the year. What was more unusual was that it was the 4th infection I had picked up in 2 months, and considering that I hadn’t really been ill in the previous 18 months, I thought that it was time to take it to my GP.

When I told him all this (after he gave me the obligatory guilt trip about bringing a viral infection to him for attention, when he cannot do anything for it! i.e. wasting his time) he decided to send me off for some blood tests. Most of the counts were normal, but my ESR which came back extremely elevated. Normally around 20, mine was 79!

(FYI: ESR is a non-specific screening test for various diseases. The test simply measures the distance (in millimetres) that red blood cells settle in unclotted blood toward the bottom of a specially marked test tube in 1 hour.)

My local Pathology unit is very good, and the results got back to my Doc from the lab in about 4 hours. He called me right away, and told me to come in a pick up a script for Antibiotics!

He also told me to come back to him in a fortnight, to see how I was, and to send me off for further ESR checks. That first test it dropped back to 38, but as he said he would like to see me around 20 or so, he sent me for a further test a month later. That Second test, elevated back up to 44. So, the hunt began to suss out what was causing this ESR anomaly… I had plenty of other blood tests, 2002 made a pin-cushion of my right arm! Rheumatoid factor, Random Glucose, Cholesterols, All picture perfect normal. Very annoying!

I was doing some reading around Thyroid Problems for someone else on my list, and I picked up a copy of “Why am I so Tired?” by Martin Budd. One of the Markers of Subclinical Hypothyroid is a Raised ESR, and what with my other “symptoms” of constant tiredness and lethargy, dry skin, brittle nails, clumsiness, blurred vision, weight gain, trouble losing weight and couple of other classic markers of a thyroid problem, Logic kicked in, and I thought that maybe I had a thyroid problem.

So, I take my Barnes Basal Temp which turns out at 36.4C. (Normal Body temp is 37C. On a BBT, anything below 36.6C indicates a Thyroid problem) So, I bug my doctor for a Thyroids panel, which came back *bang-on* normal,(incidentally, just like the one I had 5 years previously, when I went to him complaining of severe fatigue, seemingly random weight-gain and trouble losing that weight (you see the pattern that I didn’t?)

As an aside here, given my symptoms, and investigations I have done on my own body, I believe that I have a case of “Wilson’s Thyroid Syndrome”. This is a thyroid syndrome, where T4 is not converted correctly to T3. “Normal” thyroid panel tests all come back normal in this syndrome, so the diagnosis has to be clinically (i.e. the Doctor looks at the patient’s symptoms! WTS not yet recognised in the UK, so I cannot get treatment on the NHS. I don’t yet have the money to “Go Private”, but I am saving up! Dr Wilson’s site if you want further detail, but it really is the subject of another article! This one is too long as it is!

Eventually my doctor threw his hands in the air and said, “I am going to send you off to a Consultant! We need a better brain than mine looking at you!”

I waited the obligatory four months on the NHS lists, (sometimes, I wish I lived in the US! Not that often though) and then get my appointment, with (I found out after the fact) a Geriatrics Consultant!

His Nurses take my BP (that day: 102/60 sitting. 110/70 standing, and as a side note, 130/90 before I started LC) and weigh me (a yucky 16st 7lbs that day), I wait around the hospital for an hour or so, then the consultant examines me, reads the notes sent to him from my GP, asks me why I think that my Doc refers me, listens to my story (With attention, and care, with some very good questions I might add), notes my symptoms of low-body temperature, fatigue, lethargy, post-nasal drip, achy joints, dry skin, irregular periods, took my vitals and BP, asked his Nurses to take a bit more Blood out of me and get a Urine sample. Then, he simply said “Although, I cannot deny you believe that you have symptoms, apart from your weight, you are in excellent health!” and that was that, pretty much.

Then, a letter from the Hospital turned up, to go and get a virginal Ultrasound scan arrived, about 3 months after my Consultation. I didn’t know why I had received it, and so I didn’t attend the appointment.

I got a call from the Consultant’s secretary 5 months after that, to check that I had received the letter, and attended! I feigned innocence, and said I had not received it! I asked her why the Consultant wanted me to go for this U/S Scan. She was very cagey about the reasons, so I hinted that without good reason, as I thought that he had reached the conclusion that I was healthy, why should I put myself out to get scanned, and she eventually asked had I heard of a condition called PCOS.

As I had, and for reasons I will go into later, I had learned all about it, I said, I would take the scan. I then had to wait about another 7 weeks or so from that Conversation, as the letter to make the U/S appointment from the Maternity unit U/S Department turned up on day 4 of my Period, and you have to take this particular U/S scan on Day 5 your period.

The Ultrasonographer asked me if I knew why I was there. Obviously, my notes had not come down from the consultant! I told her about the consultant’s suspicions about PCOS, and it turned out that I “have evidence of Polycystic Ovaries”

So, she sends the results back to the Consultant, who writes a letter to my GP. That gap was another month. He told my GP to refer me to a Gynaecologist. That wait would have been 2 months, but as I have private health care through work I have taken the option to go private for his consult, and I see the man this coming Tuesday. So, the story isn’t complete, but hopefully, as I have been referred to a chap that came highly praised to me by a fellow cyster, I will get some answers, results, and hopefully, some Metformin, to start me back losing weight again. All I hope now is that I am not one of the ladies that reacts violently against it. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

So, just why did the NHS Geriatrics Consultant decide that I might have PCOS?

Well, in the chat we had, I mentioned to him that I was a “late starter”, not menstruating until I was 14, and then my periods were irregular and *very* heavy. I tended to menstruate for 2 weeks, then have a couple of weeks off, and menstruate again. My mum finally took me to the Doc when I had a month long menstruation, stopped for a week, and then started again!

My GP gave me some tablets (hey, I was 15, I don’t know what!) to take for a week, which sorted me out for about 6 months, and then things started to mess up again. This continued until I was 18, when I started to have a regular sex-life with my then fiancé, and went off to College, so, in consultation with my GP, I elected to go on The Pill.

As an important aside, this was also about the time we moved house, and I changed Family GP.

In the next 10 years, I changed Pill brand about 4 times, mostly because I either had *chronically* bad cramps, or I felt like I wanted to axe-murder everyone (the Hormone Balances were so not right for me!). I worked with the Doc to find the right Oestrogen/Progesterone Combo that left me in the middle.

We got it sorted eventually, however, each time I changed brand, I gained about a stone (14lbs). I tried to control this weight gain by following the trusted Weight Watchers concepts I learned back in 1988, when I lost 3.5 stone (49lbs). It didn’t work though, and I ended up at 18st 7lbs in 1999.

As a side bar, I came off The Pill for about a year in 1995, hoping that maybe my irregularities might have sorted themselves out, as the Doctors said they would, by being blasted with hormones over the intervening years, but no…Instead of the incessant bleeding, I just had a 6 month gap between periods! Truly terrifying when your greatest fear on the Planet is Pregnancy. The relief when I finally had a period! Of course, it happens at the most inconvenient time, but hey, I was willing to forgive my womb anything at that point! (Although, I think that my boyfriend was actually rather gutted)
I resumed with the Pill in 1996 for various Boyfriend reasons. When came off again in 2001, this time for good, I thought that it might be that which was stopping me from being a successful LC loser!

The first time I heard about PCOS was through the LCUK mailing list ( LCUK) and so, to help out my list mates, I started researching. I read websites (Pam Ptyza’s pages being one of the most helpful I found, as well as PCOS.net and PCOSsupport.org ) and even bought a PCOS book (“PCOS: How to Cope with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome” by Colette Harris and Adam Carey. HarperCollins; ISBN: 0722539754) for my best Friend, who was diagnosed when her and her (now ex) husband tried for a family; I read it before I gave it to her, and so, I knew all about PCOS.

Indeed, I knew all about it. I just didn’t think it applied to me. At least, I hoped that it didn’t, but when I read “PCOS”, Alarm bells started to ring in my head.

I started low-caring in December 1999, and was losing weight quite successfully, with ease… Until November 2000, when, having lost 4st (56lbs), with practically no effort bar eating correctly on my part, it all stopped, and I started a cycle that perpetuates now, a 7lb gain, then a *long* stall, and then another 7lb gain. I also feeling shattered pretty much all the time and generally not getting the “full-o-beans” benefits of low-carbing that I had felt in that first year (Although a great deal of the other benefits are still with me, which is why I am still a dedicated low-carber!).

I am angry that is has taken this long to be picked up by the medics. I am also angry at myself that I didn’t put 2 and 2 together earlier and see if there was another reason apart from a dodgy thyroid that could be causing my tiredness. But hey, I cam not superwomen, and I don’t know *everything* however much I wish that I did!

One tragic thing for me that I noticed, and confirmed when I came off The Pill for the final time in 2001, was that the Pill severely limits my ability to Orgasm. What is the point of taking a Pill to let you have lots of sex safely if it mutes your enjoyment of what is to me, a sacred act? Another reason for anger.

Why am I telling this story? Well, hopefully, your 30 and 40 something’s out there, that are having problems will get yourself to the doc. PCOS is now a great deal more widely recognised as a syndrome best picked up in youth than it was in my teenage years, but if my original consultant had known about it, or thought more outside the box than just “Give her The Pill to regulate her periods, and she won’t bother me anymore” and I might not have had 14 years of being on synthetic hormones, gaining weight, not enjoying my sex life properly, and not living my life to 100% of its potential due to being tired and fat!

Article Originally Submitted 2004

PCOS stands for “Polycystic Ovary Syndrome”

It is also known as: “Polycystic ovaries”; “Sclerocystic Ovarian Disease”; “Polycystic Ovarian Disease” or “PCOD” and “Stein-Leventhal Syndrome”. The latter is the original name for the condition when Michael Leo Leventhal and Irving Freiler Stein when they discovered that women having erratic Periods and infertility often had “bilateral poly(many)cystic ovaries.”

PCOS affects between 5 to 10% of all women, is a hormonal disorder, primarily driven by the insulin/oestrogen dynamic, and is one of the leading causes of female infertility.

Are you PCOS? As a very broad indicator, If you are an “Apple-shape” woman, and you have a really, really hard time shifting the fat, even when you are strict as strict with your low-carbing, then the answer is probably yes.

Although the medical profession settled on “PCOS” as a name, it is a misnomer, because it only refers to one of many symptoms associated with this disorder. You don’t actually have to have PCO (Polycystic Ovaries) to have PCOS, although the overwhelming majority of Women that have PCOS do have PCO

Other Symptoms:

Most people only have a few (thankfully), and not all of which can be apparent (the last seven need GP/Hospital tests to become apparent)

• Menstrual periods are abnormal, irregular, or scanty (oligomenorrhea)
• Absent menses (amenorrhea), usually (but not always) after having one or more normal menstrual periods during puberty (secondary amenorrhea)
• Obesity
• Infertility
  
• Decreased breast size

• “Teenage” Acne
• Increased hair growth (hirsutism),
  
• Distribution of body hair in a male pattern ie a moustashe/sideburns, and/or a “tummy line” (virilization)
  
• Alopecia (male-pattern hair loss)

• Acanthosis Nigricans (brown skin patches, often found on the nape of the neck)
  
• Skin tags
  
• Exhaustion and/or lack of mental alertness
  
• Decreased sex drive
  
• Infertility
  
• Ovarian cysts
  
• High cholesterol levels
  
• High blood pressure
  
• Excess “male” hormones, such as androgens, DHEAS, or testosterone
  
• Enlarged clitoris(rare)
  
• Enlarged ovaries
  
• Enlarged uterus

Please note that you can also have PCO and not have developed the Syndrome. Becoming obese (Which is all too easy in a woman whose Insulin mechanism is already slighted by having PCO) does seem to be a major “turn on” factor in developing PCOS, and then the syndrome worsens with the more weight gained.

As I mentioned above, PCOS is primarily driven by Insulin/Oestrogen. Hopefully I don’t have to explain to all you educated low-carbers about how Insulin works? If you do need this lesson, I suggest that you go back and read your chosen plan’s section on this subject.

So, knowing about how insulin works in the body, the question regarding PCOS has to be: “Well, what effect does Oestrogen have on Insulin then?”

Well, in a normal ovluatory cycle, oestrogen is produced up to the point of ovulation. When the follicle bursts, releases the ova and becomes a “Corpus Lutium” (lit. “Yellow Body”), it releases Lutenizing Hormone (LH), which lets the body know that ovulation has occurred, and LH ramps down oestrogen production, and boosts progesterone levels.

However, in a woman with PCO, the follicle doesn’t burst, and so LH is not released. And although some progesterone is produced, to make the woman menstruate, Oestrogen remains dominant (hence scanty or irregular periods). This oestrogen domination drives the pancreas to release more insulin than normal, which is in turn why PCO women become easily obese.

It is a vicious upwards spiral. The more obese you become, the less likely your follicles are to burst, and so more oestrogen there is in your system, driving your pancreas to produce insulin.

The syndrome is one that you have a propensity to develop from Birth (There is strong evidence to suggest it is genetic, but the establishment are denying a link right now) and there is no “cure”.

According to Medline, Treatment options are thus:

“Medications used to treat the symptoms of Stein-Leventhal syndrome include oral contraceptives, spironolactone, flutamide, and clomiphene citrate.

Treatment with clomiphene induces the pituitary gland to produce more FSH, which in turn stimulates maturity and release of the ova. Occasionally, more potent ovulation induction agents (fertility drugs, human menopausal gonadotropins) are needed for pregnancy.

A “wedge resection” of the ovaries has been used in the past to remove cysts.

Finally, weight reduction, which may be very difficult, is also very important. Maintaining general good health and eliminating the complications of obesity are helpful.”

So, as you can see, the best help that standard conventional Medicine gives is to tell is to lose weight and pump us full of synthetic hormones to suppress our symptoms. (Which, by the way, make losing the weight even more difficult!) Or, in the cases of infertility, tell the patient to lose weight before she starts treatment, and once she has starved off 25lbs or so, either pump her full of other drugs to induce ovulation, or take away a section of her overy, to make the rest of it work!

Not that helpful, or natural really!

However, in the more holistic medical world, it is becoming acknowledged that the best “cure” for PCOS is to control insulin, which will therefore make the body lose that insulin driven Visceral fat.(and hey, like we know that that is the answer to most of the “diseases of civilisation”!)

Losing your abdomial fat stores will make the other symptoms lessen/disappear, will help to kick start the body into ovulating itself again, without any other drugs in most cases.

Of course, with standard dietry wisdom, from that standard doctor, starting that fat-loss process is extremely difficult, as the Hormones in a PCOS lady are so unbalanced as to throw buckets of spanners in the works with the S.A.D!

As we know, control of insulin is extremely important in normalising every other hormone level in the body, in the search for overall heath, so, as you can gather, an LC approach is the perfect one, as it is the best way to control your insulin levels. Some PCOS women find that all they need to do is start to LC in a dedicated manner, cutting out the junk food, and eating real foods, not going overboard on the LC junk foods, and keeping their carbs down to under 60g or so, and that is enough.

However, even with the added LC metabolic edge, some PCOS women find it very difficult to shift the lbs!

This is where medical science can help. There is some promising development using the Diabetic medicine Metformin (Glucophage) to help out with overcoming insulin resistance. Be warned however, it is not a miracle for everyone, some women react wonderfully to it, have no side effects and it really helps to regulate their insulin, and the weight dropps of effortlessly, others feel really sick, and like they have been hit by a truck, and it does nothing for them at all.

There is also a huge spectrum of “in-between” people that feel either a little, or a great deal of nausea when taking Metformin, but it helps them out a great deal with both Weightloss and reduction of other symptoms.

So, if you are a lady that is finding it hard really to lose on an LC diet, you have a decidedly apple-shape to your body, and if you have been trying for a baby, are failing right now, go to an Endocriniologist and get your overies Ultrasound scanned, and some blood drawn. PCOS might well be the reason why you are having such a time of it.

Article Originally Submitted 2003

For most Low-carbers, the answer to the above question is “Oh golly gosh yes!” Me, I never was a “fruit fan”, so when I started LCing in 1999, it was one thing I never missed.

However, over 3 1/2 years on, and my taste buds have adapted to my lowered sweetness diet and I now enjoy, in moderation of course, many fruits that I thought were too bland, sour, or tart.

As a general rule, a fruit’s sugar content is governed by when the fruit is naturally produced by the plant. The amount of sun the plant gets controls the sugar content. (See Table 1)

Fruit	Opening month of season	Closing month of season	Active Carb Counts per 100g
Rhubarb	April	September	2.3g
Tomatoes	April	October	3.7g
Cherries	May	June	14.8g
Melons	May	July	3.7g
Gooseberries	June	July	6.6g
Raspberry	June	September	5.2g
Strawberries	June	October	5.1g
Limes	June	August	7.4g
Apples	August	March	13.1g
Blackberries	August	October	8.1g
Pumpkins	August	March	7.0g
Lemons	August	February	6.0g
Grapes	September	October	18.1g
Pears	September	March	13.2g
Plums	September	October	12.4g
Oranges	November	February	17.0g
Grapefruits	November	June	3.9g

Table 1

However, we now get fruit all the time, regardless of seasonal patterns, as it is grown and shipped from all over the world. I would say, for the sake of taste, if nothing else, it is always better to try and be both “local” (i.e. the same country at least!) and seasonal with your fruit choices.

As an example, I now love Strawberries, whereas before LC, I used to think that they were far too tart and acidic! Shame really, when I was a child we used to go Strawberry picking as a family outing every June!

Strawberries smell and taste far better in June, when the supply in the shops is homegrown in Kent, and ripening naturally in the correct season. The imported Spanish and Moroccan ones we get in February which have been “forced” to ripen early are far too crunchy and have no real taste at all!

How can you judge what fruits are the best choice in a low-carb diet? As far as I am concerned, there are three selection criteria:

1. Fructose content
2. Antioxidant and Vitamin content and quality
3. Fiber content.

As a side note, GI could be useful is your selection process however, GI and Fruit is very deceptive. Most fruits have quite a low GI. This is due to the fact that Fructose does not require insulin for processing, as it does not directly raise blood sugar. Fructose is immediately converted into triglycerides by the liver. Put simply, fruit (and honey) is designed to make you fat for the winter lean months. Although GI can be a handy indicator, I personally treat it with a pinch of salt when it comes to fruit!

As a rule fruits provide us with Vitamins A and C, Folate, Potassium and Magnesium in any sort of appreciable amounts. Fruit fiber is the only fiber that has a positive influence in the gut. They are gentle, do not scoure the digestive tract and they do not prevent mineral absorption, unlike phylate containing Bran Fiber. (Which is the subject of another article altogether!)

I.E. going back to my Strawberries, they have to be at the very top of my list! Strawberries pack more Vitamin C than Oranges per oz (but then, so does Brocolli, so that cannot be difficult to achieve!), and have one of the lowest sugar content of all fruits. (1 cup of sliced strawberries (166g) contains 7.8g of Active Carbs (A.C.) (See Table 2)) They are high in Antioxidants (especially Ellegic acid, which is being studied intensively and appears to have very potent anti-cancer properties!), other fruit acids and Vitamin C (that cup has 94 mg!).
They also contain generous amounts of various other minerals and 4g of Fiber, so, if you are going to eat fruit, I believe that Strawberries are really the all round best option.

1 cup sliced fresh strawberries (166 grams) (US Nutrition information)

Calories 50

Protein 1 gram

Carbohydrates 11.65 grams

Dietary Fiber 3.81 grams

Calcium 23.24 mg

Iron 0.63 mg

Magnesium 16.60 mg

Phosphorus 31.54 mg

Potassium 44.82 mg

Selenium 1.16 mg

Vitamin C 94.12 mg

Folate 29.38 mcg

Vitamin A 44..82 IU

Table 2

What happens if you don’t like strawberries? Well…

A general rule is to choose a “Summer” fruit, as the Autumn and Tropical/Citrus Fruits tend to have lots of Sugar, and are very light on vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in comparison!

To help you with your choice, here are some pointers. All of the Berries pack a nice antioxidant/sugar ratio, and are around the 6-8g A.C. per cup mark. Blueberries in particular have antioxidants that are very good for the retina, and general eye health. Peaches and Plums are also good choices, Peaches having around 8g A.C. per peach and 2g of fiber. However, Plums are around the 8.5g A.C. each but only have less than a gram of fiber. Apricots (4g A.C. each, with just under a gram of fiber) in particular are a really good source of Vitamin A. If you are going to eat Melon, choose a Cantaloupe. They have the biggest share of vitamins and minerals in all the melon family. Avoid highly glycemic Watermelon, which is mostly just fructose, fiber and water! Mind you, you do get the joys of spitting the pits if you eat watermelon…

You can also spit Bing cherry pits, but at 1g A.C (With practically no fiber inside!) per cherry, this is a really a luxury you will have to put off until maintenance!

Clearly, summer fruits can be a delicious and healthy addition to our low-carb diets. Nutritionally, they are far “better value” than the Autumn and Tropical Fruits, so, I urge you to enjoy them, in moderation of course, as long as they last!