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Monday 1 May 2017

What I eat 2017

Another in the ever-popular genre of blog posts about what people eat.

No photos though.

I wake up and have an instant coffee with cream and 1/4 spoonful of dark brown sugar.

Maybe I'll have another before breakfast. If I'm out I'll have a long black with cream without sugar, followed by a glass of cold water.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because it decides if and what you'll be eating before dinner. Usually after 10 AM.

My favourite breakfast is 4-5 eggs (depending on size) cooked in a mix of ghee and bacon fat. So I'm eating all the eggs whole, no yolk-only meals, and using less added fat than I did a few years ago.

The virtue of eating more eggs is that I can run further without my joints hurting. I could always run a mile, but the impact on my legs, feet, and ankles meant I couldn't do it the next day. Since increasing my egg intake, I find I can do it day after day (if I want to, sometimes I prefer to relax outside and take things in differently).

I might have leftovers of stir fry with a couple of added eggs, if it's there and I don't want to waste it, or frozen broad beans fried in bacon fat and ghee with a tin of sardine and a couple of eggs, if it's time for some omega 3s.

I'll usually add dried chilli flakes and some curry powder, and always salt.

I don't usually need to eat on days when I'm out of the house, in the city, but if I do it's usually some high-fat deli meat, maybe a piece of fruit.

In the afternoon at home, if I'm not too busy and feel the need, I'll have a small piece of tasty cheddar cheese, or a spoonful of pure peanut butter. If there's any fruit I'll have a couple of pieces. I prefer pears and plums, kiwis and feijoas. Apart from this and the trace element of sugar in coffee, no carbs (and almost always no starch) before dinner.

An hour before dinner on most afternoons I'll have a glass or two (standard serving) of red wine. I like chianti at the moment but whatever's both good and cheap. I started drinking regularly a year or so after I cleared Hep C with the Epclusa trial, and I like the effect, which is interesting because I used to be an alcoholic in the early 90's, but I'm quite sure I'm not anymore.

Dinner could be anything. These days either roast lamb or pork with roast veges, including some starchy carbs cooked in the fat or in beef and lamb dripping, or very spicy stir fry with mince or chicken and lots of veges, eaten with yoghurt and maybe some rice, maybe not. There might be a little sugar in curry pastes or pasta sauces, to be honest this concerns me a lot less than some other common additives like soy or cornstarch. So some days are less than 50g carbohydrate and some are less than 100g, rarely more. I no longer feel any different in my energy levels if I'm in or out of ketosis, expect that higher carbs make me feel overdone after a few days if I'm not exercising much, not that my weight changes, and I adjust back down. My favourite starchy dish is a bean salad, black beans with feta, tomato, vinegar and olive oil.

After dinner I'll have a cup of tea with some dark chocolate. If we don't have any, I'll eat sweet chocolate, but that is the sort of thing that can get away on me. If I need dessert I'll have berries and cream, or a roast apple with cream.

I'll also eat a little bit of cheese close to bedtime. Paradoxically, because I'm a little allergic to dairy and can't drink milk, this seems to stop me from getting hay fever when I'm trying to sleep. And it's good for my teeth - I lost most of these eating carbs, I realise now I could have stopped this at any time just by eating the way I do now. I have some surviving teeth with massive caries where mercury amalgam fillings inserted during childhood fell out due to further decay - these teeth are now hard again, have stayed the same for 6 or more years since going low carb, are still useful, and never hurt. This arrest of dental caries was first noted by Boyd in the teeth of children with diabetes maintained on very low carb diets in the 1920's. I have lived in an area without water fluoridation for the past 11 years.

Exercise is that of someone who has literally never been to a gym in his 59 years. And never been in team sports. In summer I swim in the sea and rivers - my stroke is lousy and slow but I'm finally confident to travel out of my depth for long periods. I climb hills, I run and sprint along the roads and paths, and test myself occasionally with runs up hill or for longer distances, but not every day. I can do 10 pull-ups from a dead hang at the local playground some days - I could never do that before, couldn't even do one a year or so ago. I can do all things I might need to do in my life without exhausting or injuring myself, which is my definition of fitness.

I use some supplements; vitamin D in winter (I average 5,000 IU/day from midwinter; sunlight withdrawal symptoms like psoriasis and optic twitch remind me when it's time to start), magnesium from time to time, grape seed extract at the moment, boron (as borax) which I've trialled for a couple of weeks and I quite like. Vitamin C occasionally.

In spring and summer I try to get enough sunlight exposure to tan early and often, this then allows me to go swimming etc ad lib with minimal use of sunscreen or risk of sunburn.




17 comments:

Galina L. said...

What in a starch makes it worse than sugar?

Puddleg said...

See Gannon and Nuttall on intrinsic sugars vs starches

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9773720

But generally starches are just more trouble because they need cooking and you need to cook a certain amount, and I usually cook more than I need; sugar sources are easier to find in raw and convenient forms and easier to limit for me.

Anonymous said...

Hi George, any thoughts on the eggs-joints relationship?

Puddleg said...

Possibly the extra omega-3 phospholipids as krill oil might have a similar effect, I'm thinking. Another possibility is that a high intake of egg yolk sterols downregulates cortisol synthesis or otherwise regulates the immediate inflammatory response.

Brindy said...
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Brindy said...

Thank you very much for replying before.

Because of your blog, I had started thinking that I would try doing the drugs, because before, I didn't know one person, who had HCV GT 3 who has done this drug, been cured & what happened to them after. (I don't know anyone HCV 3 in any capacity)
I really wanted to speak with real patients who had completed the treatment & ask them things; as opposed to just doctors & drug info which says it works, but couldn't find any.

You're information & replies are extremely important to me & other people.

I wondered did you have peripheral neuropathy from the HCV alone at first? & that's why you started high dose Vit B6, which proved toxic?

Was your P.N. worse in winter,(from the cold) or always the same? Could you go to work with PN? Mine is way too painful during cold months,so I have to try to walk/move continually, or lay with feet up, or the burning in feet/legs gets so bad, & stabbing/creepy scratchy feeling on legs/feet. Can't go to school or work as I can't remain in a static position, w feet way below heart (as in standing/sitting) & must wear tons of clothes to keep warm in winter or the pain gets super bad after)

( I'm sorry if I haven't read every thing on your blog & may have missed something/or forgotten, but ..) Did your PN start lessening when your VL numbers started falling, or on completion of treatment? or just over time from ceasing VitB6? or 4 months after the cure? from nerve repair & regrowth? Is your PN totally gone?

I took 300gms of B6 a day for a few years for neuropathic pain I had, which was followed later by the bilateral buzzing/pins & needle feeling in both feet (being HCV + & vegan, & near vegan for many years with only plant protein would have made it so much worse) then I got the PN diagnosis. (though I had severe pains before from severe physical injuries years before) (along w lack of VB12/protein etc)

For you, 3 years now after completing your DAA treatment, are your latest TOTAL system complete blood tests/pathology all completely & totally normal?

Did your bilirubin go down? There are no concerning out of range blood results at all?

Do you have no burning or PN symptoms whatsoever now HCV is cured'?

Is there any url/ link for the extra need for Vitamin supplementation if one is taking ALA, &/or any other negative possible? effects on HCV people from taking ALA supplements?

Do you think eating lots of walnuts is ok or good?(as they have Omega 3 & ALA?) & eating lots of almonds (for VitE?) as it's so nice & easy to just eat lots of nuts.

My past long ago Hx. I had to stay in bed for 1 year due to severely worsening physical burning pain from physical injuries sustained, which also worsened after doing PT exercises (& also becoming truly vegan) After receiving super hard massage on my feet & legs, where the person's fingers had been massaging, bright red patches appoeared & remained for perhaps an hour or more, under my feet or on calf.(super poor circulation due to coldness of winter & totally stationary w prolonged bedrest, HCV & vegan. no sun)

Is your BP totally normal? & was it before you started the DAA? (I'm just wondering, just due to the HCV blood pressure/correlation, & that you eat salt too)

Thank you very much George for any answers you have.

Puddleg said...

Hi Brindy,

I think it's fine to eat walnuts or almonds if you like them, and walnuts are a great way to get all the ALA you need.
I took B6 because I was addicted to drugs and wanted to sleep better mainly. Then I just took it out of habit for years off and on. I quit around the time I quit drugs and started to treat my insulin resistance with the low carb diet, so it's hard to tell exactly what caused what, but I was fine by the time I did the Epclusa trial.
My blood pressure has always been good I think, but I don't have health records from the time when I was sickest.
For circulatory problems, like you describe, I think grape seed extract and other strong polyphenols can be effective. GSE is probably the cheapest.

Chronic venous insufficiency

In chronic venous insufficiency, blood pools in the legs, causing pain, swelling, fatigue, and visible veins. A number of high quality studies have shown that OPCs from grape seed can reduce symptoms.

http://www.umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/grape-seed

Brindy said...

Hi George,

Thanx for reply! Hey, so are all your bloods totally normal now if you don't mind my asking?
& also, how come you keep on with this strict lo carb regime? Do you have some other health problem which it helps? or is it still to combat HCV?

Yes, GSE is also v helpful for HCV. (Alsopivir seemed to be using it too? u probably know all this)
Thank you for trying to work out my circulatory problem, which no neurologist/vascular surgeon, rheumatoid specialists or myself have been able to fathom. The phenomena is like Science fiction.(similar to Raynauds, chilblains) My most respected neurologist called it Polyneuropathy. I know it seems like a venous/return problem. Many vascular kinds of diseases start out seeming like this could be it, but the symptoms don't really fit. I don't have swelling, enlarged/varicose or even faint spider veins. No fatigue, no 'heavy' legs, just burning or scratching, when it's bad. I look, feel & am pretty fit, most of the time, but when winter comes I get this problem. (tho I have had it occasionally through summers)
Don't weigh much, eat well (except for the long vegan past & difficulty eating animal protein/meat a lot of the time.)
In 7/05 started Methylcobalamin, Liver every day, smoked mussells. Got better in 4 mths when summer came, & stayed well for 2 whole years, through winters as well, & 6 mnths after the first dietary 4 month success, was running, planking, situps, core stuff & walking maybe 4 hrs a day, as well as eating smoked salmon. No problems. Stopped eating liver & mussells probably after first 7 months of wellness, & during the 2nd year stopped smoked salmon as too expensive.
Endured a few upsetting things, & the day after being very angry about something, it started again. (in summer) (Liver/strong emotions link) Got tired of endlessly exercising & lax with the animal protein, tho always ate eggs & dairy.
I get better every summer, though when I was vegan I never did. (Helps to have no clothing on my legs then maybe?) If I don't have neuropathy caused by HCV, I wouldn't see the point of doing the treatment as my VL is usually mild & no other symptoms, but probably ? all this is due to HCV deranged liver processing?

My extremely low TG reading before w higher VL & cholesterol, may have been as it may have been over 12 hr fast.
Really interested in your blood results now, like RBC etc.
thank you. Brindy

Brindy said...

PS. Thank you for suggesting GSE & reminding me of it. I bought 1 bottle years ago for the 'venous return'? problem, after trying many foul, sometimes nauseating herbs in water, but too expensive. Also drank tons of grapefruit & citrus including juiced pith & membrane, (naringen) which probably helped HCV, thus circulation, but I didn't know I had HCV back then.

Also, the 2 yrs of no circ problems '06/07 exercise was maybe only 2 hrs a day, including over 60 squats a day, so lots of calf muscle/valve support help then as well.

(Suffered massive repeated neck trauma many years ago, which eventually effected my whole spine, thus nerves to extremities. Nothing shows on MRI's, but Ultrasound shows flattening of the waveform at confluence/sometimes positional influence etc, abnormalities in blood flow. I've always wondered if it's possibly CNS connected? or just HCV/P.N. or veganism/ or combo of 2 or all 3.

Where do you get tallow? Can one make their own from beef fat? Is lamb fat okay or not? Thanks

Brindy said...

PS. OK. Found tallow instructions.

Puddleg said...

IMO lamb fat is the best; it also has more ALA than beef tallow.
B12 malabsorption issues are quite common and worth thinking about; this is something veganism could have brought to the fore.
Neural injuries often stimulate neuroinflammation via sensitivity to gut bacteria and there is some evidence that probiotics can sooth this.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4069378/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352289515300370

Brindy said...
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Brindy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brindy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Puddleg said...

Hi Bindy, (I can read your deleted comments in gmail) it looks like the blood sample was hemolysed, this happens, it screws up the liver function component but not the lipids - which look good.
TGs could be depressed extra by the virus perhaps. But if even the lab thought sample was hemolysed, and you went through that drama to get it, it undoubtedly was (they have other ways of checking).
If in doubt, go by how you feel; do what makes you feel most energetic and optimistic.

ChrisErHam said...

Hello George,

Has your way of eating changed much since here? Or have I missed a more recent post/comment?

Chris

Puddleg said...

Hi Chris,
I updated my what I eat post on my patreon blog here
https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-i-eat-64350120