Fast-5 Diet and Lifestyle: Re: [fast5] Update

I think there is a lot of value in whole grains, apart from the
"carb" issue. It's true whole grains have "carbs", but they
also have a whole lot of other stuff in them that changes
your body's metabolism and appetite. The discussion
about macronutrients gets WAY too simplistic, to my
mind. A carb is not a carb is not a carb.

Basically when you eat, say, a bagel, the starches are
digested almost immediately and they are handled almost
like plain sugar. Finely ground de-fibered starches are like
that: and they are noted for making farm animals sick
because they feed the wrong bacteria/yeast. Bad stuff.

Also, most flour products are fortified ... one of the things
they add is iron, and a lot of us older folks have way too
much iron in our systems. Ferritin is a signalling compound
in the body, but not much is known about what exactly
it is signalling.

OTOH, when you eat whole grains, a whole other thing
happens. The fiber in the grain fills you up, first off. It also
slows down the blood sugar absorption. It feeds a different
set of bacteria/yeast, which makes your gut happier. Happier
guts are better at knowing how much to eat and how to
use food better.

Also, the whole grains are a source of IP6, which binds to
the iron in your food and also chelates it out of your system.
This is coming to light because this appears to help prevent
cancer, but what I'm noticing is that it appears to help with
some other health problems too. Dr. Eades has some
data on the high ferritin issue in the Protein Power lifestyle
book, and Dr. Atkins wrote about it some too, but it's
one of those things that hasn't gotten much press yet.

I had my stored ferritin levels tested, and they are rather
high, although the "free iron" levels are fine. So I started
taking IP6, and some CoQ10, and my energy levels came
back and my heart arrhythmias stopped. I had started
taking the konjac sometime before that, and while it didn't
help my energy levels it did make my gut happier than
it has been in a long time.

Anyway, this is interesting to me because I've been on a
low-grain diet for years (for various reasons, not due to being
low-carb per se). Recently I started supplementing with
konjac powder (fiber) and IP6. These have given me some
of the health effects I noticed back in the days when I ate
say, brown rice. I'm beginning to think that going "low carb"
by itself is kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
However, some of us simply can't tolerate whole grains
much.

Incidentally, my fasting blood glucose is better than it has
ever been ... it's been going down gradually and now
it's nicely below 90.

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 9:31 PM, littlelissa23 <littlelissa23@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone, I've been at this for a few months now and I wanted to let you know how I'm doing. It's been a lot of trial and error for me but I've reached my goals.
>
> Firstly, I've read countless times on this board that nearly everyone here advocates a low carb diet. I have found for myself, with my weight training and running that I absolutely cannot eat low carb. It doesn't work for me AT ALL. It was pretty frustrating that I'd actually bought into that for so long and if I hadn't, I would've gotten to my goal sooner.
>
> What does work for me however, is a low fat whole grains based diet. I open my eating window at 3pm and I'll have a hearty bowl of whole grain cereal with soy milk, whole wheat pitas stuffed with hummus and spinach or natural peanut butter and a protein shake with some glutamine. Then I'll have some low-fat yogurt and some popcorn. By this time, I'm easily satisfied until dinner where I'll cook some lean meat/fish and have a huge portion of veggies. I'm not eating fruit because it doesn't seem to benefit me in any way. For a while I did "low carb" and ate only veggies and fruits as my carbs and found I was spinning my wheels. I was still soft and jiggly with no muscle and had no energy for my workouts. Now, I eat my meals and workout about 8pm with TONS of energy.
>
> It wasn't until I centered my diet around whole grains that I could put on mass and cut body fat. I started out here at about 140 pounds and I'm down to 115. Not only that, I'm not starving while I'm fasting. The hunger is easily manageable with my high intake of bulky low glycemic carbs.
>
> I'm not saying this is for everyone but it's definitely healthy for me. I've also read dozens of research articles on studies done by universities that demonstrate the huge benefits of a whole grain diet.
>
> Hate to be so in your face in refuting the rampant low carb dogma that's everywhere these days but I wanted to share that I'm living proof that low carb isn't the be all that ends all for everyone.
>
> Thanks for listening.
>
>
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