Low Carbohydrate / No Added Sugar for Better Health AND for More Stable Mood

January 27, 2020 Leave a comment

I was overweight and often tired while taking Olanzapine.

Olanzapine is infamous for increasing risks for diabetes.

Having been off psych drugs for about 8 years I felt safe from any significant risk of being diagnosed with diabetes. During 2019 I allowed myself to eat more carbohydrate and more refined sugar. I was then shocked that a routine blood test showed I was heading towards diabetes.

Diabetes goes with excess blood sugar so I decided to cut back on high carbohydrate foods known to raise blood sugar and then eliminate all added refined sugar as well.

Most days I now have less than 100g carbohydrate and most days zero refined sugar.

Here is what I am talking about shown graphically. Basically, low carbohydrate and zero refined sugar can work very well for reversing diabetes.Changing to lower carbohydrate early in December 2019

What I am keen to know is whether almost all the benefits I have gained from low carbohydrate (defined as under 130g/day) and zero refined sugar could be gained just by cutting out the refined sugar. I say this because Dr Robert Lustig has presented evidence that seems to me to make it clear that refined sugar is the main culprit for diabetes and obesity, while my own experience is far more stable mood when having zero refined sugar.

Are you interested to see how you feel when you switched to having only foods with no added sugar?

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Diabetes, Bipolar and Fasting – More Great Information from iThrive

March 7, 2018 Leave a comment

New health documentaries are coming out so quickly these days it is challenging to keep up. This series on diabetes has been great. I said about being disappointed with episode 4 but they were soon back on track. 5,6 and 7 all great!

Now I have episode 8 playing. The subject is fasting, which would seem to be the fastest way to reverse diabetes. Essentially you stop adding sugar to your body for a while, then the sugar in blood goes down and things start to heal. Okay, for a lot of us that is nowhere as near as easy as it sounds. It may also need medical supervision if you happen to be very unwell.

Food and mood are so linked that I see regaining the ability to fast, even if just going for 12, 14, 16 hours without food in each 24 hours can be hugely beneficial. It is a matter of retraining our digestive system and brain such that we can walk past temptation and only eat when we plan and need to be eating.

It is 1pm here. Last ate at 7pm yesterday. Time for my break fast. I like how it feels and that having skipped eating in the morning I feel okay to eat a big meal now… feasting – it goes with fasting.

 

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Diabetes and Bipolar – How often do these go together?

March 1, 2018 Leave a comment

Prior to all those medications (psychiatric drugs), how much was excess carbohydrate consumption badly influencing my mood?

I am not saying it was my number one stressor/trigger. I’ll share about that another time, however…

What was I eating and drinking prior to being assessed by psychiatry?

  • I ate bread and either potatoes, pasta or rice every day
  • I would eat a few biscuits and pieces of cake every day
  • I worked for a multi-national food manufacturer with access to unlimited half-price confectionery and with chocolate/candy dispensing machines positioned throughout the offices.
  • I drank lots of orange juice = 10% sugar every day
  • I was consuming semi-skimmed milk (fat reduced but still 5% lactose = sugar!)

Was I balancing all this carbohydrate with healthy dietary fat?

  • I considered avocados, olives (and organic foods) to be too expensive
  • I was minimizing use of butter, cheese and reluctantly ate lean meats rather than the tastier fatty meats
  • As a family we regularly fried foods in cheap non-organic toxic vegetable oils from plastic bottles
  • We ate ready-meals and fast-foods that arrived in plastic containers

I believed I had a good diet!

As a food scientist I knew what happens to animals such as dogs kept on a High-Carb/Low-Fat (HCLF) diet – they get sick!

I did not believe I was sick. I was a very busy person burning off all that carbohydrate my body did not need. I was not dying but I was not sleeping well-enough or thinking clearly enough.

My diet was depriving me of just about every key nutrient!

I was most likely short of vitamins C, B vitamins including niacin and B12, D, E, K1, K2. So much of the carbs I was consuming were so processed that they were nutritionally of almost no use at all to my brain.

Although slim, I was not healthy and am sure I was already heading towards diabetes by the time I was prescribed Olanzapine. Olanzapine being a drug known for its ability to increase body weight and make diabetes more likely. It even says this in the leaflet that comes with it.

I had to change diet to get physically and mentally healthier/fitter.

 

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