How to eat?

Carb cravings suggests insulin resistance, or possibly carnitine deficiency (which results in an inability to metabolize fat).

this s a complex and often highly contentious area - which is probably the reason for only a few brief replies so far -

despite 4000+ years of civilisation there is no consensus on what humans should eat
an utterly crazy situation

and today there is more garbage posted and cross posted on social media on the topic - in fact on all medial channels - than ever before - making the situation worse not better

to narrow the discussion a little - it might be useful to state the following
that normally functioning healthy people can eat and incredible range of different diets and remain healthy.
for example - there are indigenous cultures that lived happily for thousands of years from their cattle or reindeer herds almost exclusively( high protein, low carb), Inuit on seal blubber for energy (high fat/low carb) - or from bananas and coconuts and the odd fish (high carb low protein) - so its clear in good health we are a hardy and adaptable species.

its also clear that when our health declines - our adaptability reduces and that situation changes
health issues that impact the gut certainly seem to have the strongest effect here.
i think this is where you are coming from.

i used to eat a low fat high complex carb 1980's "sports nutrition" type diet - it had served me well all my life, till i became ill with this lyme / bart stuff - i was in good shape - went to the gym, mountain biked, played squash, hill walked, surfed , snowboarded etc

i had always been able to eat anything i wanted - no food sensitivities - no issues - then suddenly i had gastric issues, bloating, gurgling, discomfort, variable stools, pain and along with it fatigue and body aches, headaches etc
when the gut stuff flared - so did my other symptoms

what's crazy is my partner at the time developed the same issues - if not worse - at the same time
my fatigue was off the charts - her mental issues went off the charts
for years i didn't know i had lyme or bart were told by ID docs that we couldn't have either - and becuase we both had gut issues we tried treating the gut - mostly it made us more sick - occasionally it helped for a while - only to relapse as soon as we ate more carbs
she was super slim - but her belly would swell to that of a woman who was 6montsh pregnant after 30 minutes of eating something with a lot of carbs in it - when this happened her mental health issues would flare - mood issues, rage, anxiety etc

my partner eventually bit the bullet and went fully ketogenic diet out of desperation
she literally ate only meat, eggs, fish, olives, salad leaves for 18months - well under 20g of carbohydrate a day
this is what it seemed for her to be in ketosis - according to the urine keto sticks we were using

she went from nearly as fatigued as me to running 2 miles within 1 week
it was incredible
after 6 months she went back to work part time
after 12 months she was in full time work
it was a true game changer for her

i was completely resistant to the idea of Keto as i had ate high carbs all my life an that had worked well for me - and i thought fat caused my skin to break out
but after seeing that - i could not deny it - and also started to make the change
i didn't go as extreme as my girlfriend - the keto sticks seemed to show i didn't need to ( common if you are male and have more muscle mass ) - somewhere around 25/30g of carbs a day - more initially as i eased into it
i didnt have the ability to go running within a week like my partner - but my fatigue improved dramatically within a couple of weeks - from absolute rock bottom - hardly able to do even the absolute basics to - able to do a little bit of normal stuff here and there - and the aches and pains also reduced - i also track the start of my gradual recovery to this point.
i sometimes wonder if i would have had the same extreme response as her if i had gone the whole hog in the beginning as opposed to gradually reducing my carbs

my partner also struggled throughout with food cravings - she would occasionally give in to teh cravings, fall off the wagon and eat a bunch of nuts or dried dates or oatmeal - or millet porridge ( we were trying to avoid wheat / grains) we figured out that not only carbs triggered her gut and then all her other symptoms - but fibre too - like eating a couple of handfuls of almonds ( high fat, low carb - high fibre)

unfortunately, pretty much all of the items on your list would have triggered her gut - mine too to some degree
anything high in fibre - even vegetables - could do it if she ate a few too many
anything fermentable would do it - see FODMAPS
obviously any complex carbs would do it - grains, oatmeal, granola etc
of those thigs on the list - an occasional spoonful of honey or similar ( mainly glucose easily absorbed before it ferments in the small intestine ) was about the easiest to tolerate - but if taken 2-3x a day would still tend to trigger her gut

again - healthy people can eat a much much wider array of foods without issues - even with lyme and bart etc - everyone is different - not everyone will be as extreme as my partner -
i think bart is the thing that tends to cause people to have most gut issues a this is where we see a lot of food sensitivities, issues with carbs, mast cell issues, J-Tube feeding etc
but hopefully the personal experience gives you some clues as to what might help

btw - she / we always found it MUCH easier to make substitutions that to simply remove stuff - even if those substitutions were not much like the thing you were removing - eg cold cuts of meat in place of high carb snacks

for what its worth - i think it helps overall recovery by taking a load off the immune system - so all of its resources are no longer taken up with trying to manage the gut issues all the time- can get itself in some kind of order to better fight the infections.

it might also help to know that the human brain and tastes adapt to whatever a person eats in around 4-6 weeks - its a natural survival type adaptation - so what seems like an alien way to eat - becomes the norm - and your taste buds adapt - then you look forward to and enjoy the new foods just as much
(unfortunately - easting the old foods kind of derails this and keeps the sweet tooth going)

hope its of some help

Good luck!!

good luck Robin

i will find and post some of my old Keto related posts in case they are of any help

i also have a spreadsheet somewhere we used to try to work out where we were in terms of protein, fat, carbs per day in the beginning - as we didn't have a clear idea - and my partner needed to go very low carb to stay in ketosis - so if that would be any use - please just drop me an email (see my profile)

the first few weeks are the hardest with cravings, figuring everything out and possible die off reactions /your body adapting to burn ketones

all the best !

I remember you posting that your girlfriend has menstrual issues, pelvic pain, breast pain, mood issues, leg pain, lower back pain, hormone issues, and is triggered by certain physical activities. Has she been evaluated for endometriosis? Endometrial tissue could be growing on her spine, organs, and elsewhere in her abdomen, and compressing nerves all over, causing excruciating pain as well as digestive and bladder issues and hormonal disarray.

Does she have digestive issues that make you suspect diet specifically is the issue? (I don't remember if you've ever mentioned her having digestive issues.) Or are you thinking of diet as a possible trigger for inflammation in general? Is there a timing correlation between certain foods and symptom flares?

Has she tried an elimination diet, rather than doing keto specifically? For me, high-histamine foods and high-FODMAP foods (to a lesser degree) were an issue. Cutting out carbs didn't help, in my case, although I understand if she is hoping to remove carbs from her diet in order to combat candida, or because she's just interested in trying a ketogenic diet in general.

Thanks saraeli and everyone else. Shell deff ask her gyno about endometriosis. Shes also seeing a pelvic floor specialist and she can ask her as well.

She does waffle between constipation and diarrhea. She was diagnosed with candidia a few months ago and was given some drug to kill it but Im not sure any follow up tests were done. She is also diagnosed with SIBO. She has tried an elimination diet of white rice and chicken for two weeks but it didnt do anything. Keto is the last thing to try in terms of diet and Ive seen so many people make so much progress with it. Considering there is no risk to try and such a big potential upside we have to try.

robinhobb said...
.................. She was diagnosed with candidia a few months ago and was given some drug to kill it but Im not sure any follow up tests were done. She is also diagnosed with SIBO. She has tried an elimination diet of white rice and chicken for two weeks but it didnt do anything....................

You need to eat a non-candida diet along with Rx for it to really be the most effective. Any carbs that turns to sugar (white rice) will still feed the critters.

My most basic low carb easily prepared, gut friendly palio meal is electric (George Foreman) grilled skinless chicken breast and green beans. Green beans have 7gms of carbs per cup, rice is quadriple that.

As far as low carb fruit snacks, blackberries and raspberries are the lowest (if you control yourself). Still feed gut critters, just not as much as other fruits. Bananas are literally a gut bomb, To bad...its an easy snack.

Its amazing how many prepped snacks bare the "Keto friendly" label.......total BS once you look at the carbs. And they play a game with something called "Net carbs"...don't believe it. these are not "Candida friendly " either.

Post Edited (astroman) : 8/23/2023 11:11:18 AM (GMT-8)