Daily potassium intake??

by | Jan 24, 2013 | How Your Body Works | 0 comments

Another one of my comment on a post at forum.lowcarber.org regarding potassium

 

Ms Arielle’s post:

I regularly take 1-2 99 mg tablets daily since I finally figured out the cause of my severe leg cramps. Because the tablets have so much carb filler I thought I would use lite salt in stead of my regular salt and instead of the K tablets. 

Like many good LCer’s I eat my salt ( 100% sodium) 1/2-1 tsp a day. HELP, plz. If 1/4 tsp Lite salt has 350 mg of potassium( and 250 mg sodium) how much should I use?

 

My insight:

Potassium tablets are a very poor substitute for the natural potassium that you can get in your food and if you think about it, there are a number of advantages in relying on food sources for potassium when compared with taking tablets.

The first of those is that food sources actually can contain 8 or more times the amount of potassium than the single potassium tablet may do. Most green vegetables are quite high in potassium, things like brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus and cooked spinach for instance has over 800 mg per cup so with 3 servings of green vegetables each day, that could quiet easily add up to 2,500 to 3,000 mg of potassium from a natural source.

The other advantage of choosing a natural source like that is of course, that it enters the body slowly and being biological in origin, that type of potassium is far more readily used in the various bodily processes that require it just for them to work properly.

 It is a fact that our body does need potassium but being slightly lacking in potassium is not as crucial as some might imagine. What’s more important is the ratio between potassium and sodium in the standard American diet or to some extent even the standard western diet. The amount of salt that is found in processed foods is quite frankly dangerously high, again not so much because there is a lot of salt but simply because there is very, very little potassium to go with it. So you might be wondering, what is the ratio? At a minimum it should be 1:1 that is for every 1 gm of salt you have, you should have 1 gm of potassium in your food. However it’s far better to have a slightly more potassium than sodium or salt if you prefer because potassium plays a crucial role in so many body functions. We need potassium for muscle contraction, neurotransmission, glycogen formation, heart and kidney functions and adrenal functions and a whole host of other things. If we don’t have potassium then that could give rise to things like water retention, muscular weakness and cramps, constipation, heart irregularities, hypertension and raised blood pressure.

Now while I said we need to make sure that our potassium intake is slightly higher than our salt intake, that doesn’t mean to say that we should cut down on salt because salt is also crucial for many of our bodily functions and you’ll quite often find it used in the same process as potassium. For instance in things like muscle contraction as well as throughout our whole nervous system. I would also encourage people to stay away from commercially produced salt simply because commercially produced are man made salt and has quite a few things added to it that you wouldn’t really put in your body if you knew they were there at a choice. They’re mainly put in to commercial salt to act as flow agents or to absorb moisture, things like aluminosilicate and ferrocyanide.

In Europe, we also have to put up with fluoride being added to our table salt which is why it is important as much as possible to try and use salt from natural sources. The advantage of that is that natural salt is only around about 85% sodium chloride the rest is made up of natural trace minerals which include things like phosphorus, silicon, vanadium and others which are also going to aid the various chemical processes that go on in the body day by day.

Another point to bear in mind is the ratio between our salt and potassium intake and how much we drink each day. This becomes even more crucial for people who are involved in physical activity and it is obviously much more healthier to balance these things out to fit our activity level, lifestyle and general health needs.

So to answer Ms Arielle’s question how much is too much potassium? Much of that would depend on how much salt you consume. The more salts you have the more potassium you should be having preferably from natural  sources and as our daily intake of salt, for active people at least, is recommended to be between approximately 2,000 gm and 4,000 mg each day. That will at least provide a base level for how much potassium you should be taking in order to balance that out nicely.

Hope that helps,

Mark

__________________________________________________________________________

This is a vastly complex subject. I’ve done my best to bring out just the salient points here that is worth noting and not only should we make sure we have adequate levels of potassium but also manganese and calcium as these form a delicate balance of electrolytes in our body that are crucial for good bodily function.

Does extra hunger mean something?

by | Jan 15, 2013 | Food Choices, How Your Body Works, Low carb diet, Metabolism, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

Here is another copy of the post at forum.lowcarber.org where I have responded to about eating and low carb

 

KristyRusi asked:

So i just got out of induction yesterday. I plan on keeping the 20nc induction rule of thumb for at least a few more weeks to keep that fat buring quicker, however today i was sooooo hungry (in the past 3-4 days i’ve not been hungry at all), i grazed like a dairy cow lol. Every few minutes i was wanting to nibble. I think it was because i was craving something sweet (which is rare) and nothing was sating the sweet taste i wanted.

I’ve limited myself to using artificial sweetner only in coffee and the occasional glass of tea. I fear using it in a “dessert” type meal will only make me binge for that flavor and make me want sweets even more. 

My real question is though, does this extra hunger mean i’m out of ketosis? I have not ate anything i didn’t eat in induction today and like i said don’t plan to, but i want to try and stay in ketosis as long as i can. I never used the ketostix but when i was in ketosis before my urine was darker (even with drinking 90% water) and my breath was awful to even taste in my own mouth, my urine was clear today and my mouth is extremely dry but doesn’t taste bad. If i am out of ketosis, what might have caused it and what can i do to kick it back in?

Thanks in advance for the insite!

 

I replied:

Hi KristyRusi,

Does extra hunger mean anything? Well, simply, yes it does. It means you need to eat something.

My food of choice when I’m facing something like that is to nibble on a lump of cheese, maybe dressing it up with some sort of mayonnaise, homemade of course. If cheese isn’t your thing, as DaddioM said, make sure you fill that hunger with protein and fat.

Obviously the warnings from others about being careful what you eat have great merit and should be taken note of. The thing to remember here is that when we start on a low carb diet, we’re not only retraining our bodies, we’re also retraining our minds and frankly, our bodies will retrain a lot quicker than our minds will.

One of the things I liked about the low carb diet was the fact that you could get excellent nutrition to eating smaller portions. This in turn, does mean of course, that our stomachs shrink, meaning we become satisfied with a lower quantity of food. However, if we pig out like we’re inclined to if we go out for a meal,  that can temporarily expand the stomach giving rise to those naughty little hunger signals being sent up to our brain.

Thus far as eating out is concerned, my advice is very simple, if you don’t know what’s in it, don’t eat it.

Hope that helps,

Mark

high blood pressure

by | Jan 15, 2013 | How Your Body Works, Low carb diet | 0 comments

This is a copy of the post at forums.about.com where I have commented on regarding high blood pressure

 

Post from Pennyhalfpenny:

I am on a low carb high fat diet to try and get my high blood pressure down.

Does anyone have a similar experience?  So far my blood pressure came down the first few weeks and went back up a little.?  I would appreciate any discussion on this subject.  Thanks.

 

My reply:

Hi Pennyhalfpenny,

Yes, in general, a low carb diet will help bring your blood pressure down, particularly, if you add into that some form of exercise, whether that’s a formal exercise or  social exercise like dancing or that sort of thing, even walking and as you got a lovely dog, I’m sure it must be a joy to take her for a walk. I noticed too that you have discovered that there seem to be a link between going on a low carb diet and your arthritis improving, now that’s due not so much because you’ve gone on a low carb diet more of the side effects that being on a low carb diet your cutting out carbohydrates including red potatoes and refined sugar obviously.

Various studies throughout the world have seen a link between people who suffer from arthritis and other inflammatory type disorders and high consumption of carbohydrates. Of following that chain through they have discovered that many of those carbohydrates are commonly contaminated with fungal toxins. They can read more about that in a brilliant book by Dr. Dave Holland and Doug Kaufmann called the Fungus Link. They also got another one out called the Fungus Link Volume 2 and I think it’s in chapter 8 of that book that they go through the direct link between a fungal infection of the digestive system and arthritis.

Now, of course, we can’t forget that high blood pressure can be due to the fact that we are suffering stress in one form or another. Then the fact that our bodies aren’t working 100% some of the time is one of those clear causes of stress. So maybe, there is a link even between a fungal infection and high blood pressure.

Hope that helps,

Mark

 

 

 

ME and low carb, high fat

by | Jan 15, 2013 | Carbs, Fat Loss, How Your Body Works, Low carb diet | 0 comments

Here is a copy of the  post I have commented on over at forums.about.com about chronic fatigue syndrome

 

Olive24 Posted:

Hello, I have been on the low carb high fat diet for two months now. I have ME and was hoping the diet would help the condition. I read that you are supposed to have more energy . My symptoms have improved alot but i still have the fatigue.

Does anyone have any experience with having ME and going low carb? I would be grateful to hear your experiences, if you recovered or about any improvements in health, thankyou.

 

My Comment:

Hi Olive24,

ME can also be called CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) but it’s also known as CFIDS or Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome that showed quite a wide spread problem.  There are upwards of about a million people in North America who suffer from it, but probably more that that one now. There is quite a lot of research gone on for this which may be of interest to you. One of the conclusions that many of these researches have come to is that there is quite a connection to diet as a cause, or a certainly an aggravator of CFS. One of those is a yeast sensitivity that can also be a linked to wheat sensitivity as well as sensitivity to milk. There are a number of things you can do to help with CFS. You’ve already discovered one of the biggest things and that’s “start eating a proper diet” but it doesn’t actually end there as far as diet goes. There were some excellent studies done back in 2007 and again in 2010 which you can get the abstract for on PubMed. Basically they showed there is definitely a link between acute infection of the gastrointestinal tract that can lead to a manifestation at the time or even years later of chronic fatigue syndrome.

From my own experience  of having a number of, I used the term digestive problems, I found that one of the things that totally alleviated a lot of the problems I had and as a side effect gave me more energy, was sorting out, firstly, my stomach bacteria, which I did through the use of probiotics. Then also sorting out my intestinal enzymes which I did very simply by using enzyme supplements. The advantage of doing that, of course, is that it more or less resets your digestive tract and helps it to work at full efficiency, firstly by building up the level of good bacteria in your stomach and the level of enzymes in the rest of your digestive tract. At the same time, because of the good bacteria will then outnumber the bad bacteria; the bad bacterial will get pushed out.

Going back to the reports I mentioned earlier, as I have said, they are quite worthy and technical; fortunately, Dr. Mercola has produced a much more readable article.

So if you are looking for ways to improve not just your energy levels but your health in general, firstly, do consider, neatly taking probiotics and again I would encourage you to use good quality ones not just the generic types you can find in the drugstore and enzymes, again, quality is the name of the game there. They are a little bit expensive but think of the benefits you’re going to get from them and do please, take time to read those articles from Dr. Mercola and the reports on PubMed.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Exercise is NON-NEGOTIABLE

by | Jan 14, 2013 | Exercise, How Your Body Works, Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Yet another copy of a post I just commented to at forum.lowcarber.org about exercise

KristyRusi Said:

So.. i’ve been reading my Atkins New Diet revolution book. (i’d slacked on that focusing only on getting induction down but as i’m done with my 2 weeks tomorrow i figured i should get crackin’) And i came to chapter 22 titled “Exercise: its Non-negotiable”

The very first line is ” Calling all couch potatoes: if you’re not getting regular exercise you aren’t following the Atkins Natural Approach. It’s that simple.”

(the chapter goes on to give reasons why and how much and what exercises to do, but non the less, it is non-negotiable)

The reason i bring this up is because i’m new, i want to do this right, and i’ve all but said that no diet works without the same key ingredients. reduction (in food types or quantities), staying on path (if you stop you gain, in all diet types) and exercise was my big question mark. I’ve assumed at some point exercise would be required even calorie reduction (which he also says YES you eventually if you stall may have to count calories too), no one can expect to eat a list of ingredients limitlessly and lose weight by laying on the couch. Maybe at first but not for a real long term goal. At least i know the book clears it up. (i know i know everyone said read the book >.<)

My biggest reason for posting, is that so many people make a big deal about how they did no exercise and lost all their weight.

Well, good for you. But it’s not realistic, and you aren’t following the plan per Dr. A. No matter what i wouldn’t have exercised during induction anyway i felt horrible, i still dont’ feel back up to my old energy level either, but for the future i want to give it the gung ho try, so i guess exercise it is. For me this only adds a bit of self doubt. Can i not eat carbs? sure. that’s easy… will i keep an exercise plan?… i dunno, it never worked in the past. It sounds like old times again (old long failed but never forgotten diets).

No one should promote this diet to work without exercise (or gloat giving a new person false hope). At least it makes sense to me now. At least the fog (not just induction fog) has lifted and i see it clearly. This isn’t about being Low Carb or Low Calorie, this is just a mind trick to get me to realize i can not be thin without sacrafice, and hard work. I can’t be a couch potato and reach my goals.

I guess i just needed reassurance that its okay to work this into your lifestyle slowly, and mold it to work for you food wise as best you can stand as far as eating, but as he said.. exercise.. it’s non-negotiable. *gag*.. I will say that i hope that this won’t be another failed diet. I hope this will be the one that worked for me. I hope that my attitude (though pretty grumpy and depressing verbally as of late) stays positive towards sticking with it and with that said…. here we go phase 2 bring it on.

 

My Response:

I used to do loads of exercise, mainly weightlifting and circuit training. The reason behind that was at the time, I needed to be strong for the job I was doing. Yet, the problem I found with the conventionally suggested diet was that while it indeed gave you the nutrients your body needed in order to make up the muscles that you are building up, along with it came a lot of extras that you didn’t need and this led to not just muscle gain but also fat gain at the same time. The picture however changed drastically when I switched to low carb, as I think I have mentioned elsewhere.

That was many decades ago and things have changed now, whereas once upon a time I was happy to spend an hour and a half, two hours in the gym building up my lovely muscles. Age, wisdom and the consciousness of time have made me realize that perhaps, those two hours could be better spent. Now, instead, I do 10 minutes of simple body weight exercises everyday. Things like push ups, pull ups, Hindu squats and that sort of things and I find it gives me more than enough strength to go through my day to day activities and I can still surprise some of the youngsters around me, able to lift things that they would only just look at; all that, without ever finding me in the gym.

For the last 10 years, my exercise of choice has been salsa and jive dancing. So you can imagine, I’m fully behind cnmLisa where she says exercise is movement and that can be as mild as a walk or something that challenges your muscles.

The thing about the gym is while, yes, it may challenge your muscles, it doesn’t really challenge the rest of you. Whereas, something like dancing means that you have to challenge your brain for remembering patterns of movements and so forth, stamina, (yes, I can dance from 7 pm right away through to 2 am), your sense of timing, your sense of balance and a whole host of other things.

But the really great thing about an exercise form like that is that it is social, you’re not just looking at the machines screen or something like that. You’re interacting with other real people and enjoying yourself. So if anybody’s got their mind to, why not take the challenge, why not go out dancing or find yourself another physically active yet social activity to join in with?

Hope that helps,

Mark

Ketosis with low BF%

by | Jan 11, 2013 | How Your Body Works, Low carb diet, Metabolism | 0 comments

Here you will find my comment regarding a post at Jimmy Moore’s about body fat

 

SeriousTyro said:

Excerpt from Lyle McDonald’s “The Ultimate Diet 2.0”:
One problem may be that lean individuals can’t make enough ketones to exert a protein sparing effect; this is a consequence of the difficulties in mobilizing fatty acids in the first place. Even during total starvation, when you’d expect ketosis to have the greatest impact, ketones aren’t protein sparing in lean individuals (<15% bodyfat or so). Perhaps this is the shining moment for MCTs (Medium-Chain Triglycerides), by producing ketones in larger amounts, we can exert a protein sparing effect beyond simply providing quick fat energy. Assuming protein intake is sufficient in the first place, I still tend to doubt ketosis has any huge advantages in this regards. If it does, it simply hasn’t shown up in real world experience.

When you have less fat to begin with, it becomes more difficult to mobilize the body fat because the body needs it as a survival mechanism. In turn, the body resorts to using protein in order to produce the glucose needed. Ketosis is more of a “side-effect” of fat loss for lean individuals due to the high rate of glycosis due to low insulin levels on a low-carb diet.

Quote from Arti
Quote:MCTs are mentioned because they break down faster than Long-Chain Triglycerides (commonly found in meat), and can be mobilized into energy much faster. The former can be found commonly as Coconut/Palm Kernel oil, and butter has a small amount of it as well.

A small amount of glucose provides a small sparring effect (as well as limiting ketosis), as well as increasing protein intake. The former is more efficient. That’s why “no carb” is relatively worse than “low carb”.

My take from this is:
So less body fat -> less oxidation of fat -> less ketones -> less fuel for body -> body gets fuel from protein -> if not enough protein then get from muscles?

To counteract this, consume fast burning fats, i.e, MCTs such as Coconut Oil?

What are your thoughts on this?

 

My response:

What are my thoughts on this? Well, I’m tempted to say, eat more cheese. I’m now running around with a 32-inch waist. A 50-inch waist wouldn’t let me do that. I much prefer to keep the 32-inch waist so I guess in many ways, I’m like nzmegs other half. Although I have to be honest, I haven’t got a clue what my body fat is. All I know is, it looks okay in the mirror. 

And nzmegs , you are exactly right! Your other half’s body will encourage him to eat more fat and protein. That’s exactly what mine does. If I’m working out in the yard, then I’m more likely to have a chunk of cheese with my cup of tea. Yes, they do go together, actually. Compared to when I’m sat in front of the computer, where a break might be accompanied with a slice of meat or two. And don’t forget, the body is clever and as a general rule, it won’t start breaking down muscles that are used on a regular basis, which leads me to the conclusion that we all know. A low carb diet is the only diet that works with the body and when we listen, our bodies will provide exactly what the body needs at exactly the right time.

Hope that helps,

Mark