To Low Carb Purists – You Are Not Helping the Cause

[ChicagoGranny]

So right now Lettuce, beet greens, carrots, zuchinni, squash, tomatoes, beans, parsley, onions, garlic, other herbs. From the grocery store chicken, beef, pork, rice, almonds, hazelnuts, raisins, dairy, eggs, coffee and tea.

All of the nutritionally dense foods come from the grocery store. Then a reasonable guess would be that, even in summer, 80% of nutrition comes from the store.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Jay Aitchsee

Are there 10 or fewer items that make up 80% of your diet. Unless you eat away from home frequently, this can be determined by looking at grocery receipts.

My question is not just to Jay, but to anyone who cares to respond, low-carber or not. You can use as units cost, weight, calories or metabolic effect(?) to get to 80%.

I'm not sure of your question. There are probably 10 or less different types of foods, but more than 10 specific foods. For example, often eaten fresh vegetables, would include tomatoes, avocados, green beans, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, one or two of which would be eaten every day. Out of these, 80% would probably include tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli cauliflower. Meats include pork loin, chicken, salmon, sardines. One of which I probably eat nearly every day. 1 or 2 eggs every other day, pistachios, walnuts, most days, a piece of cheese most days. An apple most days. oatmeal concoction (lately, most days) and so on.
All of my food comes from the grocery. What specifically are we looking for?

[Jay Aitchsee]

Yes. It was your posts Jay, that got me interested in researching resistant starch in the first place.

Yeah, so I fooled around with some potato starch, got some probiotics from different sources, boiled up some new red potatoes had a cold one with my salad every night, increased my dosage of psyllium fiber, got pretty windy, worked on my rolled oat concoction and finally settled in on that.
So now my diet includes 1 Tsp. of Benefiber, 4 tsps. of Konsyl Psyllium husks, 1/3 C of Rolled Oats, and Probiotics daily. The rest of my diet (at least 80%, Granny) is fresh vegetables and fruits, unsalted nuts in the shells, fresh meats and fish, and some dairy. No other refined grains and few packaged foods, save for sardines, olives, olive oil, coconut oil and a couple of other things). This seem to work pretty good, my movements are good, my weight is down, and my triglycerides are down. My fasting blood glucose is still a little high (around 100) but holding or declining.

[DreamStalker]

Yes. It was your posts Jay, that got me interested in researching resistant starch in the first place.

Yeah, so I fooled around with some potato starch, got some probiotics from different sources, boiled up some new red potatoes had a cold one with my salad every night, increased my dosage of psyllium fiber, got pretty windy, worked on my rolled oat concoction and finally settled in on that.
So now my diet includes 1 Tsp. of Benefiber, 4 tsps. of Konsyl Psyllium husks, 1/3 C of Rolled Oats, and Probiotics daily. The rest of my diet (at least 80%, Granny) is fresh vegetables and fruits, unsalted nuts in the shells, fresh meats and fish, and some dairy. No other refined grains and few packaged foods, save for sardines, olives, olive oil, coconut oil and a couple of other things). This seem to work pretty good, my movements are good, my weight is down, and my triglycerides are down. My fasting blood glucose is still a little high (around 100) but holding or declining.

Yeah. Thanks for pointing me onto this track. I'd been researching soil microbes since the start of the year for my permaculture edification and knowledge base -- and it makes perfect sense that microbes are not only important for soil health and fertility but also for the health of all organisms in general. Microbes were here long before any multi-celled organisms and we evolved from them over billions of years -- so it makes sense that we still have important connections to them.

The Nature Of Things - It Takes Guts

[BlackSpinner]

So right now Lettuce, beet greens, carrots, zuchinni, squash, tomatoes, beans, parsley, onions, garlic, other herbs. From the grocery store chicken, beef, pork, rice, almonds, hazelnuts, raisins, dairy, eggs, coffee and tea.

All of the nutritionally dense foods come from the grocery store. Then a reasonable guess would be that, even in summer, 80% of nutrition comes from the store.

Can't raise chickens or dairy cows in the city. My sister is allergic to rabbit or we could raise that (we did when we were kids, it was my job to feed them. My uncle harvested them.). There are lots of wild hares around but they are not healthy. With my hip issues hunting is out. Fishing is a possibility but not anywhere near the city. I was offered some elk last fall but I didn't know the person (friend of a friend of a friend) and many here have TB.
But I don't eat that much meat either - certainly not 80% of my of my food.

(Actually they have a pilot project for chicken raising but the rules complex and licensing fees are so high as to be counter productive)

[Jay Aitchsee]

Are there 10 or fewer items that make up 80% of your diet...

I'm still not sure of the purpose of your question, Granny. But I would like say that I eat "whole" food not as a diet, but as a way to control what I eat. I'm not trying to eat Green, or Paleo, or Mediterranean, Low Carb or even "Whole". I'm just trying to know and control what I am eating because I know through objective testing (scale, serum lipids and glucose levels), what works for me. I "know", for example, that refined carbs raise my triglycerides and cause me to gain weight. I know that more fats and exercise raises my HDL, I know that fewer carbs lowers my serum triglyceride and promotes weight loss. I know these things through trial and objective measure. I also know, that for me, a lower carb diet tends to cause constipation. Some things I don't "know": What is a healthy weight for me? What levels of serum triglycerides and glucose are truly healthy for me? Here, I have to go with the commonly accepted values of the majority for guidance: a BMI of 25 or less, fasting blood glucose of 100 mg/dl or less, and triglycerides of 150 mg/dl or less. So these have become my goals: Maintain a BMI close to 25, stop my fasting glucose from rising over 100 and decrease it if I can, and lower my triglycerides to under 100. To do that, I know I have to watch what I eat. Choosing whole foods with 1 ingredient makes it easier to do that. It doesn't mean that I can't eat pizza or have cake and ice cream once in a while, but I "know" it can't be very often.

[ChicagoGranny]

Choosing whole foods with 1 ingredient makes it easier to do that.

Your rolled oats recipe is not one ingredient.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Choosing whole foods with 1 ingredient makes it easier to do that.

Your rolled oats recipe is not one ingredient.

Well, I didn't say one couldn't combine whole foods after buying them. Besides, I tested the effect on my blood glucose, individually and in combination. Alone, rolled oats causes an unacceptable (to me) rise in my blood sugar. In combination with the other ingredients, it does not.

The point is not that combined ingredients are bad, it's controlling the amount of ingredients that may produce an unwanted effect, like raising one's triglycerides. With packaged foods it's often difficult to control the amount and type of ingredients. With whole foods it is easy to control the ingredients, that's all. I do buy some packaged foods. Olives, for example. But I know and accept what I'm getting: olives, water, and salt.

[chunkyfrog]

Now I need to go open another can of black olives.
Yum!

[DreamStalker]

Now I need to go open another can of black olives.
Yum!

For some reason black olives don't get digested by either my gut or my gut microbes ... they always come out with my poop.

Yeah. I know. TMI.

[chunkyfrog]

Most of us CHEW them up!

[DreamStalker]

Most of us CHEW them up!

Well I'll give them another try then with a new potato salad recipe this weekend but I don't want to be a fat man.



Ga'night.

[Jay Aitchsee]

For some reason black olives don't get digested by either my gut or my gut microbes ... they always come out with my poop.

Hah! Another reason for me to eat them.

So, up early this morning, looking at what's been written, went and got a can of black olives out of the pantry, label says:
Serving size 6 olives, 25 cal, 2.5g fat (monosat 1.5g), 1g carb, 115g sodium, OK not bad, maybe a little high on the salt, I could rinse 'em, probably won't.

Ingredients: Olives, Water, Salt and Ferrous Gluconate. And there it is, Granny! Ferrous Gluconate, that extra little something that most often comes with packaged foods. What is Ferrous Gluconate? The label says a color stabilizer. Something made from iron and glucose it looks like. Will it hurt me? Probably not. Is it good for me? Probably not. Will I stop eating olives because of it? No

And it's not really the fact that most packaged food has preservatives or, as in this case, color stabilizers. It's the other food ingredients added to make it taste good, like salt and...sugar! Get a can of peas or carrots, or whatever out of the pantry and check the label, chances are it has sugar added, a refined carb that raises triglycerides. I know I don't need that. And this is from simple foods that one might think would have just one ingredient. Now check the ingredients of most any dry packaged food or prepared wet food. I can almost guarantee that it will be higher than desired in salt and/or refined carbohydrates and contain a bunch unrecognizable ingredients.

I simply choose not to try to decipher all that stuff. If I want carrots, I buy them fresh, If I want them salted, I add it, if I want them sweetened I add sugar, but I can control the amounts. And that's why I buy whole foods.

Or maybe, minimally processed would be a better term. I usually don't buy a whole pig.

[BlackSpinner]

Choosing whole foods with 1 ingredient makes it easier to do that.

Your rolled oats recipe is not one ingredient.

There is a difference between buying and cooking. Something many people seem to have forgotten, and cooking is not just heating something in the microwave.

And I don't shop most of the aisles in my grocery store. Half the store is dedicated to junk food - pop, snacks, candy and frozen meals.

[SleepyToo2]

Quick comment about the "vegetables" listed above - avocados, tomatoes, and cucumbers are actually fruit. If you care.