[I've moved this article to the discussion forum: Comment Threads is for comments to blog posts only.]

ubetido:

There's a lot of bunk in that article.

The first giveaway is lumping paleo in with low-carb/Atkins.  They're not at all the same thing.

The second is that none of their references are linked.  This means that you have to do a lot of work to verify for yourself whether the references actually support the point being made or not, which is inexcusable for an Internet article.  I've found this to be a reasonably reliable sign that an article is baloney. 

The third is that they're making trivially false claims like "There is no equivalent body of research from the Paleolithic or Low Carb Diet crowd."  There are plenty of studies on paleo diets and low-carb diets: the writer simply chooses to ignore them.  Just to pull one random example from my files, http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/content/78/11/1331.full.pdf

I might write an article about T and paleo diets someday...it's an interesting topic.

JS

ubetido:

No, cramps aren't "normal".  

First, make sure you're drinking enough water and getting enough salt with it.  I like to mix some potassium salt in with my regular salt.

Second, make sure you're getting enough calcium.  Tums and Rolaids are the classic solution for athletic cramps: if taking them helps your cramping, calcium is your problem. 

Next, 30g of carbs is very low...you're probably bouncing in and out of ketosis.  See my article on that very subject.  Unless you really want to be ketotic (which I don't see any reason for unless you're addressing specific issues, like cancer or seizures) I would recommend bumping your carb intake up to ~15% of daily calories, always eaten with meals that contain complete protein and a good chunk of fat.  Any less and your body just makes the carbs out of protein.

This will make your potassium requirements easier to meet.  And often it's necessary to supplement magnesium, as water from the treatment plant doesn't have the minerals that natural spring water does.  Remember that magnesium oxide is basically worthless: you want something that ends in -ate, like citrate, malate, or glycinate.

Note that a slightly higher carb intake (again, ~15%, perhaps more if you're very active) will also lower your cortisol.

I'm not sure about the requirements for K and Mg vs. LC eating...but they definitely decrease when you remove grains from your diet, as phytic acid in grains binds to minerals.

I'm not a doctor, but I hope this helps!

JS

ubetido:

The forum post you linked is to someone following the Kwasniewski "Optimal Diet".

The problem with the OD is that people who follow it tend to drop dead of GI cancer at alarming rates.  Here's Paul Jaminet's explanation as to why, which I believe to be correct, and which I highly recommend reading: carbohydrate deficiency!  

Our bodies have an absolute requirement for glucose, which in the case of VLC/ZC dies, is satisfied by converting protein to glucose.  But in the case of the OD, which is relatively low in protein, the body simply has no raw materials to make glucose from, because we can't convert fat to glucose.

3-4 weeks on VLC/ZC is basically the time it takes to keto-adapt, after which you will indeed feel a lot better.  But I don't recommend the ketogenic state unless you've got very specific health problems (epilepsy, cancer) -- or you're doing the cyclical ketogenic diet in order to reach pathologically low bodyfat ratios (e.g. bodybuilding, fitness modeling) or as a temporary tool to boost mitochondrial efficiency for athletic performance.  Life without muscle glycogen kind of sucks IMO.

My recommendations (i.e. Eat Like A Predator) are not specifically low-carb/high-fat/moderate-protein: my recommendations are to eat real, whole foods like untrimmed meats, eggs, and vegetables, with limited fruits and root starches.  

I absolutely do not recommend the pathological high-fat approach of drenching everything in heavy cream and eating tablespoons of coconut oil.  Empty calories are empty calories no matter where you get them from.  We shouldn't be scared of fat, or saturated fat: but we shouldn't be consuming them gratuitously, either.  (If you're stuck with chicken or turkey breasts, that's another matter: you're simply replacing the fat that has been removed.)  

Eat and enjoy whole foods.  

If you're trying to lose weight, here are some foods to avoid:

-Nuts and nut butters.

-Any liquid source of calories.

-Snack foods of any kind, even high-fat snack foods.  Eat a meal or suck it up.

My personal approach is to eat fatty meat until I'm satiated; then I have some vegetables, perhaps a salad; then I eat some starch if I'm hungry for it.  The key is to eat the protein first.

Hope this helps!

JS

ubetido:

People are totally missing the point in that DC thread.

The Jaminets clearly state that glucose deficiency isn't the problem in the presence of sufficient amounts of protein, which gets converted to carbohydrate via gluconeogenesis.  Their theory is that the combination of VLC and low protein on the Optimal Diet is causing the problems.

As far as optimal ratios, I find that if we limit our choices to real whole foods, as in "Eat Like A Predator", we can experiment within the limits of those choices and find what works best for us.  (Our bodies might tell us that a Snickers bar is delicious, but we shouldn't necessarily listen to that.)  Targeting macronutrient ratios is dangerous because it tempts us to eat processed junk in order to hit certain numbers exactly, even though those numbers are guesses and don't mean anything anyway (I'm looking at you, Zone Diet).

The Perfect Health Diet is a bit more prescriptive than I think necessary in that regard...but they have some good points re: the conversion of protein to carbs.  I see a lot of people stuck trying to keto-adapt when they don't need to...and once you remove all the sugars from your diet, you find that it takes a lot of potatoes or white rice to make it to 100-150g of carbs per day.  I found relatively quickly how much carbohydrate made me happy vs. put me on the blood sugar rollercoaster.

JS

ubetido:

If you're experiencing pain upon eating a certain way, then absolutely you need to change that!  What anyone says you "should" feel doesn't matter.

Keep in mind that a lot of people have digestive issues when they dramatically change their diet in any way, because both their gut flora and their entire digestive system have to adapt to an entirely new set of inputs.  My reaction to this is NOT "suck it up" -- it's "back off until you stop having problems, and change things more slowly, at a pace that your body is prepared to deal with".

Clearly your body is telling you "that's too much fat for me to be dealing with right now".  Especially if you're trying to lose weight, ditch the cheese and cream and almond milk, dial down the egg intake (ten eggs is ridiculous), and eat some damn starch! Potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro, tapioca, even some white rice.

I can point you to plenty of studies that say cholesterol intake is irrelevant to heart disease (even Ancel Keys said as much), and that egg intake is irrelevant to heart disease.  Your problem isn't cholesterol, it's that you're simply overloading your body's ability to process fat.  Pain means your body is not happy.  Respect that.

JS