Lowcarb/Keto Plus Other Restrictions

The Lowcarb/Keto eating plan already restricts you from eating a lot of things which most people think of as ‘normal.’ As I have found now that I’m having to eat low-protein due to a bad kidney test, adding even more restrictions can be hard. In my case, it seems to be necessary for my health right now. It can be hard to cope.

The problem is to understand the reasons behind your restrictions so you can make good choices. The reason you can’t have two bananas for breakfast is not because bananas are evil or Satanic, but because they are high in carbohydrates. (If you utterly adore bananas perhaps you can split a banana with a family member once a week or so.) The reason I, personally, can’t eat three chicken thighs for lunch is because even ONE chicken thigh can take me over my protein allowance for the whole day. Knowing the ‘why’ can really help.

Getting firmly into ketosis (MEASURE YOUR KETOSIS DAILY!!!) and adding more intermittent fasting to your life makes coping with multiple restrictions a lot easier. (I would not recommend doing more fasting without being in ketosis. It’s hard!)

Sometimes you can cope with restrictions by finding substitutes for problem foods. If you are lactose-intolerant, perhaps you can use coconut milk or cream, or nut milks of different kinds. If you can’t handle butter, you might try ghee, which does not have the milk solids from butter, or if you can’t handle that, try extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil. 

If you have to be on sodium restriction (I am experimenting with that right now,) you can learn to add more spices to your food. If the food is spicy enough, you can hardly tell whether it has salt or not! You have to find the spices and herbs you personally enjoy to flavor your food that can help make unsalted food taste great. 

Multiple restrictions are a challenge, but if you have already learned how to cope with one needed set of restrictions, adding another isn’t as much as a problem as it may seem at first. I’ve used OMAD (one meal a day) or OMAD plus a ’snack’ to cope with the protein restriction without exceeding the carb limitation. I also alternate days. On one day I don’t worry if I exceed the protein max by a bit. The next day I eat very light on the protein. (I tend to NOT exceed the net carb limit most days, or even get very close to the limit.)

Here’s hoping you joy in spite of restrictions,

Nissa Annakindt

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On Twitter? Follow my dedicated lowcarb/keto Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nissaamaskatoj

Chicken, Eggs, & Lowcarb/Keto

Like a number of lowcarbers, I keep chickens. I live in a rural area where chicken-keeping is even kind of expected. In the spring, we chicken-keepers get showers of eggs, some of which we can put in incubators to make new chickens. 

Last year, all but one of my chickens died in a winter storm, and neighbor provided me with some fertile hatching eggs. They hatched out in good proportions— I have 5 hens and a rooster. They live with my gander, Attila, who protects them from predators and chases the cats away from the chickens. My shy little mommy-cat Moxie hisses right back at him, though.

You can’t get organic eggs unless your local feed mill carries organic chicken feed. Mine doesn’t. Even the chicken-and-egg natural-production guru Joel Salatin can’t get organic feed, and must be content to keep his chickens grass-fed by keeping them in movable pens.

I have had portable chicken pens in the past but made a stationary pen as I can’t drag pens around like I used to. My standard chicken pen consists of a used calf hutch and some cattle panels covered with chicken wire. I also have a couple pens that use chain-link, 6 ft panels, but these pens are not very portable on a daily basis.

During the spring egg rush, it’s hard to keep up with the egg production. I feed my baby poultry some hard boiled eggs, chopped up, to improve their diet. Still, I have to consult my many and varied recipe books to find ways to eat eggs. 

By using the right seasonings, scrambled eggs can substitute for rice and rice-a-roni dishes (savory seasonings) and for flavored outmeal (apple extract & sweetener, or English toffee stevia and cinnamon.) Baked eggs can be good, and are quick to fix in the morning. I use Dana Carpender’s Creamy Parmesan Eggs recipe from 200 Low-Carb High-Fat Recipes (2015.)

Plain old sunny-side up or over-easy eggs are also just fine. I tend to fry up a ham or Spam slice or two in the frying pan first, then fry the eggs, and dip my meat into the yolk (since there is no toast to dip in it.) Some people love to make omelets, and Dana Carpender does explain how to make one, but I honestly prefer to scramble my omelets— it tastes less dry that way. But that’s a matter of taste, I guess.

Eggy days to you,

Nissa Annakindt

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On Twitter? Follow my Lowcarb/Keto Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nissaamaskatoj

Kidney Disease, Lies and Prediabetes

As I mentioned on this blog before, I had some medical tests done and according to the non-doctor PCP I have, everything was ALL  bad and my life was over and I had to make arrangements for an animal shelter to take in my pet cats when I go. And then the paperwork from my medical tests finally arrived.

I found that my non-doctor had lied to me. She claimed that I now had stage four kidney disease. The tests clearly show that I am still at stage three. Perhaps she exaggerated to force me to go to a nephrologist? I’d go if they ever get around to making the appointment, so long as they don’t send me back to the incompetent nephrologist in the city of Iron Mountain they sent me to before. Iron Mountain is too far a trip to go to see someone who claims there is no way to improve CKD, you just have to wait until you are bad enough to go on dialysis. 

I still do have protein in the urine, which is why my non-doctor recommended that I cut the protein in my diet. I started using the Carb Manager app on my phone to track the protein. It’s hard. One chicken thigh, if it is one of the heavier ones in the pack, can send me over my protein allowance. It’s kind of hard to figure what protein allowance to set because the ones recommended in a kidney disease book I have are less than the amount of protein needed daily. I set a goal close to the needed amount since it IS cutting down. I need to do a lot of intermittent fasting (partial-day fasting) to keep in line. But worrying about my protein seems to make it easier to cut the carbs. I rarely reach anywhere near my net carb limit for the day. 

The good news on my medical tests is that according to my A1c, I am no longer diabetic but prediabetic. And if I can go down by another two-tenths of a percentage point, I won’t even be prediabetic any more. Victory! 

I’ve been stricter with my eating plan since hearing from my non-doctor about the test results. I’ve started using the Carb Manager, cut back on both carbs and protein, am experimenting with going lower sodium, and am doing more intermittent fasting. I did have 2 carb indulgences, but they were small, only put me slightly over my net carb limit, and didn’t kick me out of ketosis.

Here’s wishing you healthy eating,

Nissa Annakindt

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On Twitter? Follow my Keto/Lowcarb Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nissaamaskatoj

The Lowcarb/Keto Learning Curve

Starting the lowcarb/keto eating plan without enough information can lead to bad results. Someone learns that eating lowcarb will lead to ‘quick weight loss,’ lower blood pressure and lower blood sugar, and so they get started. They’ve heard you can’t eat bread on lowcarb. So they eat pasta, or English muffins, or Froot Loops— all also high-carb foods. 

Some people are so afraid of dietary fat they are afraid to eat any meat except an ounce or two of dry, lowfat turkey. They eat egg white omelets— and wonder why they get so hungry. Other folks pig out on bacon and won’t eat any salads because they think veggies are not allowed.

Don’t be like that. The best way to NOT fail at lowcarb/keto is to learn what lowcarb/keto really is. Don’t rely on short magazine articles on ‘keto,’ or a random web site. You need to begin a reading plan to get up to speed on what foods are really allowed and not allowed, and you need a little of the science behind it— especially if you can’t get a doctor who knows about lowcarb.

I suggest a plan of reading, for a short time each day, some material that will help you get started. Recovering alcoholics often make a practice of reading AA’s Blue Book every day; we may need to do the same thing, both to learn and to keep inspired. I have done this for some years, reading my most recent lowcarb book for inspiration daily. (Do each Stage for about a month.)

• Stage One. To get started, you need to learn the basics. I recommend getting ‘Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Cookbook’ and read chapter two, which tells how the Atkins diet, a lowcarb/keto way-of-eating, works and what foods are allowed. Read this every single day. Yes, it’s boring and repetitive, but after about a month you will know very well what you can eat and not eat. Another good book to have is the original Atkins diet book, ‘Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution.’ The chapter on how to do the diet is the twelfth chapter— not numbered in my copy of the book— titled: ‘The Revolutionary Never-Hungry, No-Limit, Steak-and-Salad Plus Diet.’ Read that chapter also for a few days.
• Stage Two. You now know what foods are allowed better than most, so it’s time to expand your reading. Get out your ‘Dr Atkins Diet Revolution’ and read a chapter a day during your reading time. When you are finished, try Jimmy Moore’s ‘Keto Clarity’ and Gary Taubes’ ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories.’  Be willing to re-read these books once in a while. And read your Stage One chapters once a week or at least once a month to refresh your memory.
• Stage Three. Podcasts are a good way to learn without having to read books. Jimmy Moore has had a number of good lowcarb podcasts which often have featured well-known doctors and researchers and other well-known people in the lowcarb community. Moore’s old podcasts were still available online some time ago, so you can find interviews with a lot of folks you may have heard of by now, like Gary Taubes.
• Stage Four. By now you will have a lot of knowledge. You will have heard of other books to add to your reading list, and you will be able to tell when you are reading a book that is less science based than the others you have read. 

Can you ever stop learning? I have let my daily lowcarb/keto reading sessions lapse— but when I do that I am more prone to be tempted into renewing my carb addiction. I would suggest that after you have gone through the stages for some time, you might cut back to reading or podcast listening only 3 days a week and see if that keeps you inspired enough to keep on lowcarbing.

Wishing you happy lowcarb learning,

Nissa Annakindt

Understanding the Science Behind Lowcarb/Keto & Diet

We live in a world where people are confused about what science is. Some people think they are being all sciency when they call people they disagree with ‘science deniers’ for not accepting things like global warming, evolutionist philosophy, or the diet-heart hypothesis by blind faith.

Science is not about blind faith. It’s about things we know by testing them out, often by double-blind experiments where not even the scientists involved know which patient is getting the shiny new drug and which is getting an inert pill (placebo.) We need to know the science behind our way-of-eating, even if the learning curve may be difficult. Here are some things to remember.

• Doctors’, nurses’ and dieticians’ opinions are not pure science. Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist (kidney specialist,) estimated in his whole medical training he got about 4 hours worth of lectures on nutrition— and he is a kidney specialist, and the number one cause of kidney disease is Type 2 diabetes— a condition that all acknowledge is diet-related. I once had a nephrologist tell me that diet had no effect on kidney disease and that I should prepare for my coming dialysis by taking home a DVD even though I told her I had no DVD player. And I had a nurse tell me that continuing my low-carb way-of-eating would make my brain non-functional because brains need glucose from dietary carbohydrates. Remember, medical people are people, too. Their opinions MIGHT come from reading medical journals, but they might also come from a WRONG magazine article they read in their teens or something their grandmother told them.
• Case studies are good, but… A case study is a good start in developing scientific knowledge, but it is only as good as the quality of the observations. If a doctor tells a heart attack patient to eat ten bananas a day, and the patient eats bananas but also quits smoking and exercises more, the fact that the patient goes ten or twenty years without any further heart problems might be due to quitting smoking and being more active rather than being a proof that bananas cure heart disease. And what if the patient SAYS he’s eating all those bananas but isn’t, really, or doesn’t tell the doctor about the smoking and the exercise thing for some reason? 
• Scientific studies on lab animals don’t always apply to humans. I’ve read about an early study on dietary fat where the researcher fed some rabbits a lot of fat and the rabbits had higher cholesterol. But rabbits don’t normally eat a diet like that, and humans have been hunters and meat eaters for a long time so fat IS part of OUR natural diets. 
• Scientific studies must be well designed and without preconceptions. Suppose a scientist is keen on strict vegetarian diets. He does a study— but finds the vegetarians for the study from posting notices in health food stores and gyms, and gets the control group from a random group of middle-aged blue collar workers. His vegetarian group probably has far fewer smokers and couch potatoes than the control group, and are perhaps younger. If the scientist does not control for those factors, he does not know if the vegetarians are healthier because of their lesser-smoking, more-exercising, and younger status or because of the diet. 
• Understanding a scientific study may require using a dictionary. Scientific studies in scientific journals are not written in regular English! For example, studies on a low-calorie diet may call it a ’Semi-Starvation’ or even a ’Starvation’ diet— not what we say in normal English. And it may have scientific terms you don’t know. Keep a notebook beside you, write down words you don’t know, and look them up in a good dictionary. 

Even if you think you are not particularly smart or well-educated in regards to science, you can learn more about the science behind the low-carb way-of-eating. I have found that the book ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’ by Gary Taubes, a science journalist, is a good way to learn more. Taubes references scientific studies by the boatload, and explains what they mean. The book IS rather challenging, so if you find it hard, read just a few pages every day and keep a dictionary handy when you read. 

Sciency greetings from,

Nissa Annakindt, nutritional science geek

Kidney Test and the Food-Free Diet

Last Wednesday I got the results back on a kidney test and my results were worse. At least according to my PA. She wants me to eat less protein & less sodium. Since I need to be on low-carb to control my diabetes and I’m sure my very conventional PA presumes that everyone needs to be low-fat, that adds up to a food-free diet. Luckily I already have a couple books about that diet.

I have ‘The Complete Guide to Fasting’ by Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore, and ‘The Obesity Code’ by Dr. Jason Fung. Dr. Fung is a nephrologist (kidney doctor) and if fasting (or low-carb) were deadly for people with kidney disease, I assume he would know it. Perhaps be in jail for killing patients by now.

I ordered another of Dr. Fung’s books, ‘The Diabetes Code,’ which I intend to read cover-to-cover repeatedly even though Dr. Fung doesn’t write as well when he doesn’t have Jimmy Moore as a co-author. I also ordered 2 books on kidney disease and low-protein diets, both written by doctors. I need information!

Low-protein shouldn’t be THAT hard for people on the LCHF eating plan. Even though commercial sources brag about the grams of protein in meal bars and meal ‘shakes,’ our way-of-eating is supposed to be MODERATE protein. Because our clever bodies can turn protein into glucose. Also, protein intake can raise your insulin levels even if you eat it without carby foods— and that can make insulin resistance worse.

I have had fun calculating how many grams of protein I can be allowed on this new diet madness. First, I had to convert my weight from pounds into kilograms. Since I’m still hoping to lose weight and I don’t want to get in an eating pattern that I will have to make more restrictive soon, I used 160 for my current weight even though I’m at 182 at last check.

That’s about 73 kilograms. So at a .3 grams of protein per kilogram I can have about 22 grams of protein, and at .6 grams of protein per day that comes to 43 grams of protein. So my target is between 22 and 43 grams of protein per day. (Though my protein-needed amount is 50 grams per day I calculated.) I ordered a book of food counts that includes the protein & sodium counts to help with that. I also wanted to look for an app for my phone that did food counts, but I cannot find the darn thing at the moment— even though I put St. Anthony of Padua on the job! (Update: found it when the phone rang. Downloaded Carb Manager app and started using it.)

So— my current intermittent fasting plan calls for reducing my eating opportunities to one meal a day, with plenty of fluids in between time, and perhaps a bulletproof beverage to help me overcome hunger (which counts as a ‘meal.’ I’m going to replace my morning bulletproof coffee with a cup of hot bone broth (recommended by Dr. Jason Fung) and later a black coffee (with cinnamon & turmeric added.) 

It’s doable, and I haven’t been badly hungry so far. Just slight hunger pangs which can be ignored or defeated with a glass of water, tea or black coffee. My blood sugars are better— 101 this morning— and today I had a 123/72 blood pressure which is a big improvement. Plus according to my Ketonix I’m in moderate ketosis. 

So— good health and good low-carbing to you,

from 

Nissa Annakindt and her ‘unhappy’ kidneys