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mckitterick Jan. 19th, 2011 11:10 am)
mckitterick Jan. 19th, 2011 11:10 am)I've reported how I've changed my diet over the past year and the health progress that followed, right? About this time last year, I weighed 25-30 pounds more, had way less stamina, was weaker, and endured sore joints like you wouldn't believe - especially the injured shoulder. After assurance from my doctor that I could resume full-on exercise "as long as it doesn't hurt; sore is okay," I shifted from recuperation and maintenance to a strengthening program. At the same time, I cut out sugar from my diet - something that I had been eating far too often and in far too much volume. Hence the weight and blood-sugar swings. It also was doing me no good in the feeling-sorry-for-myself category.
Zoom ahead a month, and ten pounds fall away. This encouraged me to continue this process, and avoiding sugar was now easy because it no longer tastes good. I'd dropped my sugar addiction in a month and grew physically stronger, too, from upping the workouts. No longer do I experience any knee pain, either, despite a diversity of prior damage: Paleo-diet proponents suggest that eating grains contributes to joint and other inflammation. I suspect losing weight is a part of it, too.
Positive results reinforce good behavior, so I started dropping more processed carbs from my diet and adding more strengthening exercises, until over-doing things without assistance from a physical therapist derailed the strengthening part a couple of months ago (working on that now - almost done with Physical Therapy: The Sequel). Oh, and I've also stopped taking the 800mg x2 of ibuprofen daily that my doctor prescribed last year, because it was damaging my mucous membranes (noticeable as a sore mouth and stomach); I've also dropped sodium lauryl sulfate (in most toothpaste, for Pete's sake!), and since then no more irritated mouth or tum. If you'd like to stop putting SLS into your mouth, I suggest either the old-fashioned route of baking soda or, if you want to keep fluoride (as I do), the only toothpaste I could find that doesn't use SLS (or sweeteners) in an extensive search is Jason (with macron over the A and umlaut over the O), and only Sea Fresh is available in Lawrence (at the Merc, natch). Good stuff, dumb name.
Other benefits: I need less sleep, I'm hungry much less, I have steady energy during the day, and I'm a cheap drunk - re: the last, it seems I can only consume about two drinks before feeling tipsy. Not sure if the latter is necessarily a benefit, but you get the idea.
Drawbacks of this diet? Well, good luck finding ANY pre-packaged or restaurant food that doesn't include sugar. I was at the grocery store recently and decided to do a survey: Not a single packaged "food" that I examined was free of sugar, mostly high fructose corn syrup. Seriously? Stove Top Stuffing needs corn syrup? Unless you're looking at single-ingredient tins (canned carrots or something), you'll find a long list of not-food in the ingredients - and often, even canned veggies are loaded with sugar. WTF?
So that's one drawback. Another is not being able to have chocolate. Now we get around to the point of this entry. I was a true addict, like so many, but last time I tried conventional chocolate since altering my taste, chocolate just tasted bitterly sweet, sickeningly sweet. So I figured I was done for in this arena.
Then along comes Dutch process cocoa.
OMG yum. In case you haven't yet explored the wonderfulness that is Dutch process cocoa in milk, let me just say: DO IT. This concoction is pure delight. DPC is just cocoa and nothing but cocoa, ground fine. Mine comes from Penzy's, who describes it thus:
"Dutch cocoa is processed to temper the natural acidity of the cocoa bean, yielding a smooth, rich, and slightly less strong cocoa that mixes more freely with liquid. Dutch cocoa has long been the cocoa of choice for hot chocolate and flavored coffee. Cocoa can easily replace unsweetened baking chocolate."
Milk adds all the mildness needed to make the unsweetened cocoa drinkable, and the concoction tastes like fine hot cocoa. Well, I guess it is, really, isn't it? Think hybrid milk chocolate and dark chocolate in beverage form, but without the tooth-coating aftertaste or sugary tongue-burn. Yum.
Sugar-free yet retains all the joy of chocolate. That's what I'm talking about.
Chris
Zoom ahead a month, and ten pounds fall away. This encouraged me to continue this process, and avoiding sugar was now easy because it no longer tastes good. I'd dropped my sugar addiction in a month and grew physically stronger, too, from upping the workouts. No longer do I experience any knee pain, either, despite a diversity of prior damage: Paleo-diet proponents suggest that eating grains contributes to joint and other inflammation. I suspect losing weight is a part of it, too.
Positive results reinforce good behavior, so I started dropping more processed carbs from my diet and adding more strengthening exercises, until over-doing things without assistance from a physical therapist derailed the strengthening part a couple of months ago (working on that now - almost done with Physical Therapy: The Sequel). Oh, and I've also stopped taking the 800mg x2 of ibuprofen daily that my doctor prescribed last year, because it was damaging my mucous membranes (noticeable as a sore mouth and stomach); I've also dropped sodium lauryl sulfate (in most toothpaste, for Pete's sake!), and since then no more irritated mouth or tum. If you'd like to stop putting SLS into your mouth, I suggest either the old-fashioned route of baking soda or, if you want to keep fluoride (as I do), the only toothpaste I could find that doesn't use SLS (or sweeteners) in an extensive search is Jason (with macron over the A and umlaut over the O), and only Sea Fresh is available in Lawrence (at the Merc, natch). Good stuff, dumb name.
Other benefits: I need less sleep, I'm hungry much less, I have steady energy during the day, and I'm a cheap drunk - re: the last, it seems I can only consume about two drinks before feeling tipsy. Not sure if the latter is necessarily a benefit, but you get the idea.
Drawbacks of this diet? Well, good luck finding ANY pre-packaged or restaurant food that doesn't include sugar. I was at the grocery store recently and decided to do a survey: Not a single packaged "food" that I examined was free of sugar, mostly high fructose corn syrup. Seriously? Stove Top Stuffing needs corn syrup? Unless you're looking at single-ingredient tins (canned carrots or something), you'll find a long list of not-food in the ingredients - and often, even canned veggies are loaded with sugar. WTF?
So that's one drawback. Another is not being able to have chocolate. Now we get around to the point of this entry. I was a true addict, like so many, but last time I tried conventional chocolate since altering my taste, chocolate just tasted bitterly sweet, sickeningly sweet. So I figured I was done for in this arena.
Then along comes Dutch process cocoa.OMG yum. In case you haven't yet explored the wonderfulness that is Dutch process cocoa in milk, let me just say: DO IT. This concoction is pure delight. DPC is just cocoa and nothing but cocoa, ground fine. Mine comes from Penzy's, who describes it thus:
"Dutch cocoa is processed to temper the natural acidity of the cocoa bean, yielding a smooth, rich, and slightly less strong cocoa that mixes more freely with liquid. Dutch cocoa has long been the cocoa of choice for hot chocolate and flavored coffee. Cocoa can easily replace unsweetened baking chocolate."
Unsweetened Hot Cocoa recipe:
4-5 shakes Dutch process cocoa (use a shaker bottle to get just the right amount, way less than a teaspoon).
1/2 cup hot water.
1/2 cup whole milk (hot or cold, to taste; use quality, local, non-homogenized milk if possible).
Shake the cocoa into hot water, stir, top off with milk, and stir again.
Milk adds all the mildness needed to make the unsweetened cocoa drinkable, and the concoction tastes like fine hot cocoa. Well, I guess it is, really, isn't it? Think hybrid milk chocolate and dark chocolate in beverage form, but without the tooth-coating aftertaste or sugary tongue-burn. Yum.
Sugar-free yet retains all the joy of chocolate. That's what I'm talking about.
Chris
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From:
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That's probably because you ate shitty chocolate to start with. Like M&M's. Or anything by Hershey or Mars, which is really candy more than chocolate.
Dutch-process removes a lot of the bitterness, so people may not get the same if they use non-alkalized cocoa, even with milk. Scharffen Berger does have unsweetened, non-alkalized chocolate in both powder and solid form, for those that do like to keep more of the chocolate taste that is lost in the alkalizing process.
Now I want some chocolate. Thanks ;)
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Like EVERYTHING in a package, it seems.
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The same thing happened with me and salt once I cut out pre-packaged foods, which was previous to the paleo diet. A lot of franchise restaurant dining food is way too salty tasting.
I've had a few pieces of good chocolate, akin to high cocoa content Valrhona, and it doesn't taste too sweet. It still tastes good to me.
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See, I didn't need to know that. :P
Some people (I'm looking at you,
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I tell people that I avoid added sugar in food. I still eat food that contains sugar, such as fruit.
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On food and sugar:
I cut out beer :(, most candies, and a lot of other things. Pasta, for example, potatoes, and lots of seed-type vegetables have to be eaten in moderation. It felt like I was down to rocks, sawdust, and skim milk.
Then, one night, I was hungry, and my blood sugar was low. I ate a double cheeseburger at a fast-food joint. I had one bun. My blood glucose shot up to 250 and stayed there overnight, until well into the next day. A little research indicated that the bun probably had HFCS in it.
I stopped that. Over night, my blood glucose came down, and stayed down, in a more manageable region. So I started hunting for it in my food. My GF has a cottonseed/rapeseed/sesame seed/other-seed allergy, so that's become a standard shopping practice. I cut HFCS out of my diet, as much as I could.
I won't say that my blood glucose is normal. But it's not swinging high for days at a time, now. As a test, I had some "normal" pasta, without HFCS in it or the sauce, and lo and behold! My blood glucose went up, some, but not as much, and came back down to where it was supposed to be by morning. Go figure.
We need to get, and keep the snake oil out of our food.
--EMT Hawk
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Re: On food and sugar:
I cannot find bread that is sugar-free, and usually they're HFCS-full. Something needs to make it rise fast! So I mostly just don't eat bread anymore, either; once a week or so I'll have a slice of pizza or breaded chicken, but even that is often enough to cause... digestive issues.
We need to get, and keep the snake oil out of our food: No kidding!
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so it might be time to try this in heavy whipping cream, which has no lactose, AFAIK.
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Re: On food and sugar:
We call it beer, but it's hard cider.
No gluten = good 'beer'.
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Chocolate is very important...
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Re: Chocolate is very important...
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Re: On food and sugar:
check out the info on http://www.cidery.com/bhc_order.taf?_function=view&ct_id=1
for inspiration.
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DATA!
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/digestive-health/nutrition/lactosecontent.pdf
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My most hated trap-label is this one http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WiAF5DLRNgU/TPRYTb8oAUI/AAAAAAAAE8A/R5aGpAFmtd8/s1600/DSC_1753.JPG
on the Lee and Perrins sauce label.
On the Front
"same premium quality since 1835"
-
On the Back
High Fructose Corn Syrup!
Fuckers.