Fast-5 Diet and Lifestyle: Re: [fast5] Re: Long post

Crackers and cheese could be a problem. Gluten is a big deal in diabetes, though I haven't read up on it much (I had to gave up gluten 10 years ago, way before I started studying dietary issues). Dairy is problematic too, for some people. I gave up dairy when it finally came through to my thick skull that it was causing 30+ years of migraines ... I used to get 5 a month, like clockwork, and they stopped cold when I stopped dairy. But I still get them occasionally, when I have dairy. Dairy does weird things to hormones.

For protein in the PM: Eggs or fish seem to have the best effect. I do have good luck with almonds too, but then, I also just love almonds. Esp. fresh roasted. I buy them raw, then roast them, and keep them in the freezer.

So, the question is still, what is it that causes your blood glucose to rise? Clearly it is not "food you are eating". Your hormones are releasing glycogen from your liver. Why? The usual suspect is cortisol, but I'm not sure what-all the biology of that is either. Feeling hunger is one trigger of cortisol, but there are others (like: stress).

I think getting your ferritin levels checked are a really good idea. I had no idea mine were so high. In my case I was drinking high-iron well water, plus eating lots of organ meats, and making molasses beer, and eating lots of good grass-fed beef. And taking vitamin C with my meals, to "enhance absorption". OK, all the wrong things, as it turned out!

As for your experiments: OK, you have two to cross off on the "immediate effect" column. Vinegar didn't work, nor cinnamon or turmeric.

So next to try: electrolytes, and exercise.

And if that doesn't work, try some food in the AM, but experiment with WHICH foods work. I expect your problems are different from mine, but in my case, "calories" were never the issue. Lately I've come to think a lot of the issues are stomach irritation and reflux, and the konjac helps the most with that (and d-limonene).

If the only food that works for you is one specific category, then I'd think food intolerance. Some foods are addictive, and when you don't eat them your body goes into meltdown.

Now, if NO food type helps in the morning, then something else is causing the high blood sugar.

As to iron blocking: it's a big topic, and well-studied. There are a cluster of foods that provide a lot of iron:

-- organ meats

-- "red meat"

-- white potatoes

-- Iron fortified foods (most starches in the US)

-- Brown sugar and molasses

There are foods that eaten WITH iron meals, block the iron:

-- turmeric

-- chili peppers

-- tea

-- red wine

-- brown rice or other whole grains

-- whey protein

-- some vegies?

There are foods that eaten WITH iron meals, enhance iron absorption:

-- Vitamin C

-- Fruit or fruit juice

-- Some food additives and preservatives

-- Saturated fats

-- Wheat (my opinion, based on Dr. Fasano's work with zonulin).

All this gets into "cuisine". I've sort of adopted the Asian style, which seems to work for them, and is working for me too. Tastes good, is filling, inexpensive, and my body loves it. Mostly I have white (not enriched) rice, with seafood, vegies, and kimchi with meals, and a sauce of raw garlic, chili, soy sauce, and olive oil if the seafood isn't fried. Followed by lots of nice tea! And red wine. I don't take cod liver oil, since I do eat a lot of fish, and much of that is from oily salmon.

I eat fruit an hour or more before "dinner", but not with the meal. Sometimes in a smoothie, with aloe. I take Vit C in the morning, with some konjac and my other vitamins. Also I drink coffee with turmeric and cinnamon and cocoa powder (which is actually rather tasty, oddly enough). Turmeric requires heat to be "activated" so I add it to the hot coffee. I don't know about cinnamon or cocoa, but they don't seem to taste like much until they are heated, so maybe the issues are similar.

The konjac seems to have solved the reflux issues, so I don't take it daily.

On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 6:21 PM, csampey99 <sampey99@cox.net> wrote:

Hi Heather,

Thanks for the suggestion to get my blood ferritin levels checked out - I think I will do that. I do donate blood pretty regularly, as I had heard it was good for diabetics too, however, I did miss it the last 2 times my church had a blood drive.

I tried eating some crackers and cheese last night before bed and this morning my blood sugar was high again, so that didn't help at all. I then fixed some water and vinegar, drank it and tested an hour later and my blood sugar had gone up further. I guess I'm just gonna have to do a modified Fast-5, where I eat something with substance in the morning to keep my blood sugar from soaring most of the day and fast the rest of the day until dinner. I love fasting all day, but keeping my blood sugar at a good level is more important.

Can you give me examples of what you eat that is low-iron-absorption. I've also tried drinking water with cinnamon and tumeric in the morning with no benefit to my blood sugar.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Cindy