Dealing with food and diet trends - my experiences
- Hans
- Jun 12, 2024
- 9 min read
In this blog post, I explain in detail my experience with following diet and nutrition trends. Specifically, I explain with what intention I started this, what lessons I learned, and how I commit to motivating myself in my search for my ideal diet.
My goal is not to contribute to the mass of information about what is best and what to do or not to do, because I don't have a one-size-fits-all answer to that. Every body is different. Rather, let this be an invitation to look for what works best for you, based on your preferences and your lifestyle. Nutrition is just one piece in a complex puzzle of health.
Table of Contents
Influenced by online trends
About a year ago my Youtube page was full of videos on Keto diet, carnivorous diet, low-carb diet, intermittent fasting, top 10 things to eat - top 10 things to avoid, ... and so on. The more "gripping" the title, the more inclined I was to watch the video, looking for the solution or panacea for my type 1 diabetes, including my fluctuating sugar levels. If the advice was presented by a "doctor" or "specialist," I was more easily persuaded or inspired to get started with things from the videos.
The more videos I watched, the more I began to think, "As a type 1 diabetes patient, my body has lost the function of breaking down carbohydrates - so maybe it would be better to save my body from any challenge - and myself mentally the trouble - by eating fewer to no more carbs?" At the time, it seemed like I could be smarting my Type 1 diabetes off more than most, and I had fallen into the trap, but didn't realize it at the time....
Carbohydrates: is less better?
It started about a year ago when I decided (after reading the book: Diabetes Solution - written by Dr. Rickard K. Bernstein) to limit my amounts of carbohydrates. For me, the conclusion of his book was: avoid carbs, and your sugar levels will stabilize.
Now, of course (and I should know this by now, as a psychologist), context is hugely important. Dr. Bernstein wrote this book in the context of living and eating in the United States of America, and there many foods there are loaded with added sugars.
In that context, it is interesting to be selective about food, look at food labels carefully and preferably avoid added sugars. In my opinion, he writes his book socially critical as a reaction to the Standard American Diet (SAD), in which he (as a patient with type 1 diabetes) revolts against the idea that carbohydrates are essential in the daily diet, even though he just experienced it as poison since it detracted immensely from his health.
He and others believe that humans only began to increase in weight and overweight and obesity occurred after the agricultural revolution, when we decided to stop hunting, live sedentary lives, and eat grain. According to many, this is where we went wrong, and the solution is to scale back our diet to that of the hunter-gatherer, with a focus on eating meat, fish, fruits, and nuts.
Here, by the way, I found my first stumbling block, because what about fruit? There are carbs/sugars (fructose) in that too, right? When I went to see if eating fruit for someone with type 1 diabetes was good or bad I came up with a variety of answers that managed to argue both extremes (why eat fruit / why not).
That aside... This diet, and thus the diet recommended by Dr. Bernstein, is characterized by an increase on eating natural fats, replacing foods with carbohydrates.
Fats: is more better?
Besides the hunter-gatherer diet, I noticed that the ketogenic diet was also known for emphasizing the intake of fats rather than carbohydrates (max 50 grams of carbs/day). I found it rather contradictory, because I thought eating more fats would actually cause me to gain weight, and I wanted to avoid that.
The reasoning is that intake of fats is healthier than intake of carbohydrates - since the unused energy from carbohydrates would otherwise be converted to fats in our bodies anyway (from which, in the long run, we gain weight).
At this point, I was largely sold and began making changes to my diet. Sandwiches were replaced with low-carbohydrate crackers, fruit was no longer purchased, and in its place I purchased things like high-fat foods: nuts, MCT oil, coconut butter and ghee (clarified butter) - products that I saw were idealized online ("Top 10 things to eat on the keto diet!" - you know the drill). Every morning I drank some coffee with a few drops of MCT oil, and I made a high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet my own.
That worked well for several months, with stabilization of my sugar levels due to reduced intake of foods with carbohydrates as a result.
In addition, I found out after blood tests that my LDL cholesterol showed risky elevated levels. I conducted more research and found out that there were many contradictions about cholesterol as well. These are the contradictory things I read online:
"There is no such thing as bad cholesterol" - "LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol, HDL is the good cholesterol".
"Elevated cholesterol is not an indication of increased risk of heart and blood failure" - "Elevated LDL cholesterol increases the risk of cardiovascular disease"
"Elevated cholesterol is normal with a ketogenic diet, and would decrease again after a longer period of time, or not, but that too would be ok, and pose no risk" vs "Elevated cholesterol levels, especially in people with diabetes, should be treated as soon as possible with statins (medication)"
I decided from my own conviction to listen to the advice of the YouTube "professionals," against the advice of my endocrinologist to take cholesterol-lowering medication. This was further also because from this medication, when taken, I suffered from cramps and hands/feet falling asleep. Very impractical, since I was doing strength training in the meantime. This, as I continued to attack my diet, led to cholesterol levels that also continued to rise.
After a long time, I found out that the biggest cause of elevated LDL cholesterol is not an intake of fats in general, but mainly the saturated fats - exactly those fats that I was taking in excess (what a surprise).
I recognized my stubbornness and mistake, and began taking the medication, first every other day, and then every day thereafter when a new type of medication was prescribed, which caused less cramps and drowsiness in my hands and feet.
Doing further research on saturated and unsaturated fats, I replaced MCT oil, coconut oil and ghee (packed with saturated fats) with olive oil, and eating avocados, nuts and salmon (packed with unsaturated fats).
By now, we were almost six months into my journey of entering into a ketogenic diet (with the necessary frustrations from my girlfriend, who loves sweets).
By performing strength training, my metabolism was working faster (in response to the increase in exercise) and my appetite had also increased as a result. I was constantly very hungry. Combined with my diet, this led to a habit of eating a lot and high-fat food in the evening. I was still searching for a balanced diet, and what that meant for me.
Carbs vs fats
How I currently understand it (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that carbohydrates and fats provide us with different types of energy. Energy in our bodies is often viewed by the caloric values in food, so you would think that eating more high-fat (calorie-rich) foods would provide more energy. I think that's true, in part...
If fats are the diesel in the car, carbohydrates are the "nitro" in the car. Just as a car would not use up diesel fuel until it runs out of nitro, the same works with the body. From the moment all carbohydrate energy is consumed, the body starts using energy from fats.
To make things more complex, when carbohydrates are not consumed by the body through exercise, carbohydrates are converted to calories that can be consumed by the body later, as a kind of "reserve energy." Seems convenient, right? Convenient insofar as you can tolerate an added fat accumulation in your body, of course, because this reserve energy shows up in accumulated visceral fat in your body.
So what is the best kind of energy source, carbohydrates or fats? - I asked myself. Also since I was sitting with an increase in appetite and struggling with other physical symptoms (of which I share more below).
In my opinion, it depends on what kind of energy I need. If I am planning to perform an intense physical activity, I would choose something with carbohydrates, like fruit or oatmeal (that way I also save myself hypoglycemia). By the way, I see this with elite athletes and bodybuilders, who consume something packed with carbohydrates shortly before or after their workout. Would I rather rely on a stable source of energy for activity that is less intense? Then I find high-fat foods more interesting. For example, I always take some nuts with me when I go for long walks - ideal considering their amount of calories.
Proteins
In addition to my gradual increase in high-fat foods and decrease in high-carbohydrate foods, I had also begun to increase foods with protein - which I learned is of great importance in increasing muscle mass with strength training. So my meals were not only high in fat, but also packed with protein, which often included red meat. After several months, this diet began to bring more and more physical complaints:
Swollen belly after my evening meal;
Increased blood sugar levels through the night.
After experiencing discomfort for weeks, I had this investigated by my family doctor and on referral performed an ultrasound of my abdomen/intestines. This revealed that I had a severe form of constipation in my bowels. I was given medication that was laxative, but did not adjust my diet further as I had not yet connected the pellets.... Only weeks after that I decided to adjust my source of protein from red meat (minced meat, beef, veal) to fish and chicken. This made a big difference, with my bloated feeling gradually decreasing.
In addition, I learned that within a certain period of time, the body can only break down a limited amount of proteins. Once that limit is exceeded, proteins are converted into glucose through a process known as gluconeogenesis. This rang a bell, because it explained why after an evening meal full of fats and proteins, without carbohydrates, I still saw elevated blood sugar levels that spread throughout the night.
More and more, I began to question aspects of my diet, given my body's signals.
Customized diet
Now that I read this blog myself from the beginning I think to myself: how silly that it has taken so long for me to learn (again) the most important and obvious lesson: listen more carefully to your body's signals, Hans!
It was enormously tempting for me to embark on a quest to optimize my diet, and live a life that made me less dependent on insulin administration. I initially thought that by adjusting my diet I would experience more freedom, but instead I ran into numerous physical complications and symptoms. I learned that it is tempting to take advice from people who can give a logical explanation. In addition, I recognize that there is a big difference between the short-term versus long-term effects of a particular diet. Simple example: a bag of chips a week is good for a few weeks, but if I maintain that habit for several years I am easily stuck with weight gain.
By "customized diet," I mean a diet formulated with foods tailored to my unique lifestyle habits. Just as I used the metaphor of the car with different energy sources, I now look at this in the broadest interpretation. Food is fuel, and there are many different types of fuels I can take in and use, based on my activities throughout the day. Am I running low on fuel? Then my body lets me know that pretty well, and it's up to me to recognize my body's signals and understand what kind of nutrition I need.
My lessons
Listen to your doctor and be transparent: clearly communicate your physical symptoms
Ask for more information when you don't understand something
Dare to question sources (that seem reliable)
Listen to your body and your sensations
Eat a varied and balanced diet
I continue my search for the ideal diet, while further recognizing that an ideal diet can change from day to day, depending on what all I am doing that day.
What does my diet look like today?
Pretty varied: Sufficient (healthy) fats (avocados, olive oil, salmon, nuts), sufficient - but not too much - protein (chicken, fish, turkey, occasional red meat), variety of vegetables, simple carbohydrates (brown rice, oats, bread and couscous) and yes, occasional fast food!
Far from perfect, but I further recognize that putting myself on a strict diet detracts from my mental health.
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