My Whole10 plus intermittent fasting (otherwise known as skipping breakfast) finished last night although I am expecting my weight to continue to drop for probably another 48 hours. Let’s see.

My reflections are that mainly that I didn’t notice much difference overall. I slept a bit better and woke up more easily in the morning. I was hungry by the time my evening meal came around and most evenings I ate earlier than my usual 8pm by up to an hour. My fasted work outs were not an issue with sprint patterns, LISS, resistance and flexibility all feeling slightly better and more enjoyable. My machine chest press is back to a 5 rep max of 105kg so I don’t think I have lost muscle.

My weight was 12 stone 8lbs(176lbs, 80kg) this morning down from 13 stone (182lbs, 82.7kg) ten days ago. That compares well to my usual non-intermittent fasted Whole30 I do in January in a third of the time. Also I went down a notch on my belt, which is about an inch and my clothes are noticeably looser, particularly my trousers.

In terms of food, breakfast was coffee, black and fairly strong. Lunch was 100g of protein if some sort (usually leftovers) and 100g of sauerkraut.

Dinner was simply a Whole30 compliant meal. Last night was lamb chops, avocado and salad.

Overall, pretty successful and not overly challenging. However a word of warning… I DO NOT suggest doing this unless you are already fat/keto adapted. You need to rapidly raise your fat burning to accommodate the IF and fasted work outs and if your body is not able to do that it will just go into “starvation mode”.

The Whole 10 experiment continues with everything in my life remaining as it was and just the diet changing. I am four days in now and had a great work out yesterday. I was pleased to discover yesterday that after a few weeks of a strange pain free “injury” which lost me 30kg off my machine chest press, almost entirely on my right side, I am back to within 5kg of my 5 rep max of 105kg which indicates to me that my body is still building muscle rather than tearing it down for gluconeogenesis.

Ketosis is fully established now as shown by my ketostix. I am not eating a huge amount of fat.

After 4 days my weight is 4lbs down on the start of the 10 and 5lbs down on where it was a week ago today. I sincerely doubt it will continue at a pound a day and most of the 4lbs is probably water but we will see. 6 days to go.

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition’s report on Carbohydrates and Health was published last Friday. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sacn-carbohydrates-and-health-report

It’s 384 pages long so not for the faint-hearted. The most news-worthy thing so far seems to be that the excessive consumption of sweetened drinks contibutes to type 2 diabetes…

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/21/sugary-drinks-may-cause-type-2-diabetes-regardless-of-size-research-says

Maybe the journalist had only got to page 2 of the report when they wrote the article 😉 

I will have a look and see if there is anything more interesting to report. Anyway my n=1 experiment with a Whole 10 continues. I have been in fairly strong ketosis for the 48 hours that I have been “Whole10-ing” with no obvious effects except I am hot (as in temperature!) but that could be the weather. 1lb off in 48 hours. 

PS An update after 5 minutes. My apologies to the journalist, it’s not on page 2 it’s on page 3…  

The first day of a Whole 10 over and apart from sleeping like a log (no alcohol last night?) and being a pound lighter (probably caused by dehydration after leading two back to back HIIT classes at the gym last night) I don’t feel any different from usual. 

Along with the Whole 10 auto-immune exclusion diet I am also intermittently fasting between my evening meal and lunch. I hope to strip out some fat from some stubborn areas. We will see how things develop.

I don’t expect to get “hangry” as I don’t often feel hungry and I think I have pretty good blood glucose control by now but here is an interesting article from the Independent this morning on the mechanism that appears to associate hunger with anger of relative severities. Something of which I think diabetic people are well aware.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/feeling-hangry-why-we-can-get-grumpy-when-were-hungry-10401397.html

So, just for the record, starting weight was almost exactly 13 stone (182lbs, 82.7kg) which is a few pounds heavier than usual for me. We will see what is achievable in 10 days.

If you are not sure what the Whole 10 (or 30) is, follow the Dallas and Melissa Hartwig link at the side.

From its beginnings, the sugar industry has always been political. The production of sugar initially was only possible because of its heavy reliance on the slave trade and the aggressive colonisation of warmer countries. The use of indentured labour, which is about as close to slavery as you can get without it actually being slavery, was common and huge numbers of people were shipped around the world to service the labour intensive industry. The sugar industry tried to demonstrate that it had a social conscience by funding things that would be seen as good for people (in this country, not the slave labour) such as art galleries.

Fast forward to the last century and we can see how the sugar industry used its money to fund the scientific research community. The same research community that silenced John Yudkin when he tried to publicise the link he found between sugar consumption and heart disease.

This morning, I watched a report on tooth decay in children and how it is almost out of control in the UK where total extractions of all baby teeth due to decay are now common. I find that shocking and more so because everyone knows it is simply caused by sugar and can be prevented by reducing sugar consumption but we still don’t help our children to save their teeth.

Then today I read in the paper that the UK government has delayed Public Health England’s report on sugar consumption and health.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/13/government-delays-publication-of-plans-for-reduction-in-uks-sugar-intake
Strange that… I wonder why it’s a good idea to delay a report that may help people lead healthier lives, maybe lose weight, maybe not get heart disease. It must be something really important that would delay such an vital report?

One lump or two?

… it’s about whipping cream and why it goes stiff and other stuff. By the way, you could always use the saved buttermilk from your homemade butter to start a sauerkraut culture.

Why was I whipping cream? Because berries are in season and I eat berries that are in season. Does my weight go up with the extra sugar load? Yes it does. 

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/the-science-of-whipped-cream-butter-creme-fraiche.html

In a previous post I mentioned that I was going to read Giulia Enders’s book Gut. I have finished it now and I thoroughly recommend it. It’s written in an accessible style and is a fascinating journey from mouth to bum and tells you all you need to know to keep a healthy and happy gut and do efficient poos. In an earlier post I mentioned Michael Gershon’s book, The Second Brain, and was pleased to see he got a name check in Giulia Enders’s book in the section that discussed serotonin as the nerotransmitter of the gut brain – the second human brain. That’s the same serotonin that a lack of in the head brain causes depression.

The book was at its most interesting for me when she conjectured that the bacteria of the  gut might actually direct the body to do certain things or eat certain foods to keep them happy. There are particular gut bacteria associated with obese people. Could obesity simply be the enslavement of the rest of the body to keep those “obesity bacteria” fed and happy in the obese person’s gut? Maybe when I was in the supermarket the other day and got the urge to eat Roquefort, it was my Roquefort loving gut bacteria controlling my thoughts and it was them that had the urge… Not me…

Great book, good read.

I am currently part way through a qualification in weight management for people suffering from obesity and diabetes. One of the statistics that sort of surprised me (and sort of didn’t) was that it is estimated that 25% of the WORLD’S population has Metabolic Syndrome (Syndome X). This rises to 35% in the USA. 

Metabolic Syndrome is a combination of central adiposity plus two of: raised triglycerides; high blood pressure; high blood glucose; and/or low HDL. Metabolic Syndrome increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke. It seems from the article in the Guardian that a huge number of the world’s population is headed toward an early end. I hope we have the facilities to cope. In my view and in my experience, a primal diet reduces all of the indicators for Metabolic Syndrome, most obviously central adiposity.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/07/heart-disease-plus-diabetes-can-knock-more-than-a-decade-off-your-life

“A combination of heart disease and diabetes can shorten your life by more than a decade, research has shown. Scientists came to the conclusion after analysing data on more than 135,000 deaths among more than a million study participants. They calculated the life expectancy reductions associated with a history of cardiometabolic diseases combining diabetes, strokes and heart attacks.
The lead researcher, Dr Emanuele Di Angelantonio, from Cambridge University, said: “We showed that having a combination of diabetes and heart disease is associated with a substantially lower life expectancy.

“An individual in their 60s who has both conditions has an average reduction in life expectancy of about 15 years.

Men of 60 with any two of the cardiometabolic conditions studied lost 12 years of life on average. The lifespan of those with all three conditions was reduced by 14 years. For women aged 60, the corresponding estimates were 13 years and 16 years of reduced life expectancy. The effects were even more dramatic at younger ages. Men of 40 with all three conditions could expect to have their life cut short by 23 years and women by 20 years.

Prof Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the research, said: “The results of this large study emphasise the importance of preventing diabetes, heart attacks and strokes in the first place, through encouraging patients to live a healthier lifestyle and, where necessary, treating them with medication. “Once someone has developed diabetes, or suffered a stroke or heart attack, it is even more essential to address all their risk factors, such as their diet and the amount of physical activity they do, to lower their risk of a subsequent heart attack or stroke and give them the best chance of a longer life.

“Everyone should be aware of their risk of developing any of these conditions, and how they can reduce it. If you wait until you have developed one of these conditions before thinking about your wider health, you will already have reduced your life expectancy.”

… but this week I did. I was in the supermarket buying washing up liquid, toilet paper and kitchen roll and was suddenly taken with the idea of Roquefort cheese, so I bought some. My butcher sells it too, wrapped in aluminium foil but I was in the supermarket… I took it out tonight to eat and I was struck by the amount of packaging. Plastic tray and lid wrapped in a plastic wrapper.

I wonder if the only purpose of the plastic wrapper is to be a place to print the cheese’s credentials and the government’s advice on how much Roquefort one should eat. Since when did government think it knew best about a healthy level of Roquefort consumption?

Never again.

From now on i will only buy my Roquefort from my butcher. In its original foil wrapper, from the cave, and cut to order. No plastic, no government advice. Just cheese wrapped in waxed paper. I will decide how much is good for me.

Ps. I like Roquefort 😋