Questions for You

Hey Everyone,

With a new year just having begun, I’ve been giving some thought to how I’d like to proceed in participating in the low carb nutrition and health community.

This might surprise you, but I consider myself a writer first and a nutritionist second. When people ask me what I do, I tend to say I’m a writer who mostly writes about nutrition and health, rather than a nutritionist who also happens to dabble in writing. I love writing. I’ve always loved it. (Even majored it in in college.) I am fortunate that I get to do it for a living: fortunate that someone out there thinks I’m good enough at it that they actually pay me to do it.

However, even though I do enjoy it, for me, writing is an arduous process. It’s not easy, and it never has been. However long you think it takes me to write a post, triple it, and that might come close to the ballpark amount of time it typically takes me to write. (Not including the time it takes to read relevant papers, if it’s one of my more science-heavy posts.) I can’t claim credit for this phrase, but it is absolutely 100% true for me: “I don’t like writing; I like having written.” Meaning, the process of writing—staring at a blank page, filling that page with incomplete, out-of-order, fragmented notes and thoughts, and slowly, painstakingly, turning it all into something coherent and readable—is a struggle and not fun. The fun part comes after that’s all done, and I get to hit “Publish” on my blog. (BTW: the two links in this paragraph are to a blog I had in a former lifetime, long before this nutrition gig.) 

Let's Talk About Thyroid -- Intro: Thyroid Function & Testing (Pt. 1/3)

Long time readers of this blog know that I have been dealing with a low functioning thyroid for quite some time. Even longer than I, myself, realized, now that I look back and think about how long I’ve been plagued by the signs and symptoms. It’s been about five years that things were noticeable, including two and a half during which they were downright unbearable, but in evaluating back even further, individual symptoms popped up here and there going back longer than that. (Why did I let things go on for five years? Details on that in part 3.)

Being that I have far more personal experience with this than I wish I did, and being that I’ve had several clients with thyroid issues, it’s time for me to write in detail about thyroid function. I’ll start off with a general overview of thyroid function and how to properly assess the various hormone levels. In part 2, we’ll look at the potential effects of low carb or ketogenic diets on thyroid function, and in part 3, I’ll talk specifically about my own history and what I’m doing now. Those of you with no interest in any of this, move along; nothing to see here. (I do feel like I write too much about myself, but I think sharing my personal experience can be informative for those who are dealing with similar problems and who’d like to see the struggles and stumbling blocks I encountered, and how I emerged on the other side feeling much better. So yeah, part 3 will be about me, but my hope is that it will be helpful for others.)

On with the show!

What's in Store: Changes are a-Comin'!

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in new blog posts. (But hopefully the cute picture of the eggs on the previous post makes you smile when you see it.)

There’s a reason I haven’t posted anything new in the last couple of weeks. I’m redoing the site and it’s best if I don’t add anything new until the transition is complete. Sometime in the next week or two, the site will look completely different. Don’t be confused! You’ll be in the right place, even if everything is unfamiliar. It’ll take me a while to settle on colors and fonts that I like, so you might continue to see some changes there until I’m happy with the appearance, but since I don’t want to keep you (or me!) waiting on new posts, I’m going to go for it and sort out the details later. As much as I’d like everything to be pretty and shiny and well-organized right away, if the rest of my life is any indication, making things pretty, shiny, and well-organized is not my forte, so if I’m going to wait for that to happen, you all are going to be waiting a looong time for new posts. And since writing is my forte (or so I’m told)—not to mention I like doing it and sharing with you all the cool things I learn—I might as well just jump into the new setup and take you all with me without waiting for things to look perfect.

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s in store on the site in general, and the blog, specifically. Some of the blog posts will happen sooner rather than later, but they all will happen eventually. (Sadly, it’s looking like another entire year will pass before I crank out another post in the series on the metabolic theory of cancer.)

Coming up:

My Top 10 Favorite Posts

I missed my four year blogversary!

My blog has existed since August 2012. I would have celebrated sooner, but August 2016 blew right past me. (Probably because I was mired in a deep and longstanding depression, which I thought I was starting to come out of, but which is actually back in full force and only lifted temporarily.)  As of this writing, there are 242 posts. I don’t think I hit my stride until sometime mid-2013, but there are a couple of gems going back as far as September 2012.

For those of you who found me a few years into my blathering blogging, and since new people stumble upon my blog every week, I thought it would be nice to start the new year by sharing a selection of my personal favorite posts for those of you who have only recently tuned in, as well as for any of you who are wondering what the “must read” posts are. (In my opinion, anyway.) I tried to purge all my low carb and keto-related anger in a few posts prior to the close of 2016 so that I could start 2017 on a more positive note. I can’t promise I won’t post any more rants in the future (I think we can all agree I’m not physically capable of holding it in), but I am going to try to stick to things that are a little more scientific, as well as posting tips and insights that are helpful for following these types of diets in the real world.

With no further ado, here are my top ten favorites, in no particular order, except that the first one is probably nearest and dearest to my heart and resonates with me, personally, the most deeply:

Obesity is (mostly) a Hormonal Issue: Let's Stop Pretending it's Solely About Calories

When doctors or nutritionists see someone with gigantism or acromegaly, is their first thought, “Clearly, that person just needs to grow less and shrink more”? No. Obviously not. Because it is clear—like, crystal clear, beyond-the-shadow-of-a-doubt, smack-you-upside-the-head clear that these conditions result from hormonal irregularities. You can no more control what results from the hormonal effects of a pituitary tumor hemorrhaging human growth hormone than you can control what results from the hormonal effects of a fourteen year old boy who found a special magazine hidden away in his dad’s nightstand. (Do kids still do that these days, or do they just find it on the interwebz instead?)

People with gigantism or acromegaly aren’t abnormally tall or large because they want to be, or because they somehow willed themselves to be. They are at the mercy of hormones. Like I said, to anyone with half a brain, this is obvious. No one questions this. No one blames these individuals for needing custom-made clothing or other accommodations. No one says, “Well, if they had just not grown so much…if only they hadn’t let themselves get so tall, they wouldn’t be in this situation.” “They'd be fine if they were just less tall and more short.” No one says idiotic things like this because people understand that this is not within someone’s control.

So why, then, when it comes to the outward, rather than upward, expansion of the human body, does it all of a sudden become about willpower, discipline, and “calories?” Why is not more widely recognized that the horizontal growth of the body results from hormonal irregularities just as the vertical expansion does?

Why do so few people get this?

Back to Basics (a.k.a. Things I Didn't Learn in Nutrition School)

Hey all!

Didja catch the news story not long ago about the kid who subsisted solely on graham crackers and chocolate milk, and whose doctors ran a kazillion expensive and fancy-schmancy tests only to finally, finally figure out this poor little guy had scurvy? SCURVY, for crissake. In the United States of America, circa 2016. This didn’t happen on some British Royal Navy ship 200 years ago, where all the sailors started having bleeding gums and a ship’s doctor realized lemon and lime juice seemed to put a quick & easy end to that. It happened here. Now. (All I know is, as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, the second I saw “bleeding gums” in the headline, I said to myself, “scurvy.” I read the whole article only to confirm what I already knew.) I can only imagine if this boy’s diet was so absolutely devoid of vitamin C to the point that he landed in the hospital with freaking scurvy, that there are probably several other essential nutrients he’s deficient in. I would love to write a scathing post about child nutrition someday, but that will have to wait. (Plus, since I don’t actually have any children, I sort of figure I’d be attacked like crazy for daring to even suggest that I have thoughts on the matter, so I’ll hold off for now. [But really, what does that even matter, anyway? What makes someone an “expert?” There are lots of male OB/GYNs. They don’t even have vaginas! But I digress…])

Since we’re on the topic of the most basic, obvious, fundamental aspects of nutrition, let’s talk about something I am an expert on: ME!

Funny story:

I am a proud carrier of O-negative blood, which makes me a “universal donor.” This means that anyone with any other blood type can receive my blood and be good to go. (Unfortunately, the reverse is not true: O-negatives can receive only O- blood. Heaven forbid I were in some sort of accident and needed blood, stat, if I got any kind of A, B, or AB blood, I would quickly face some seriously fatal juju. As an O-, my blood is in serious demand in blood banks, hospitals, and vampire drive-thrus. (Also, mosquitos. Those things love me. My blood must taste something FREAKING DELICIOUS to them, because if I’m outside for more than four seconds without being covered in a protective coating of industrial-strength DEET, I will receive no less than 8 to 10 mosquito bites. But I digress. Again.)

My point: I am a regular blood donor at the American Red Cross. As someone who is not routinely engaged in heroic acts nor generally doing anything positive whatsoever for mankind (unless ranting on my blog counts), donating blood is probably the single most important and satisfying thing I do. (Plus, as they say, “The life you save could be your own.”)

SO: I went to donate a blood several weeks ago and I got rejected because my hemoglobin was too low. (Not hemoglobin A1c, just regular hemoglobin.) This was the second time this has happened this year, and probably the third or fourth time overall. According to the Mayo Clinic, the “normal” range for hemoglobin in adult women is 12.0 to 15.5 g/dL. In order to be eligible to donate blood, the American Red Cross requires that you be at or above 12.5 g/dL. During this attempt to donate, the first reading was 12.0. They ran it a second time, taking the blood from a different finger, because, well, the human body is just funny like that sometimes. The second reading was even lower: 11.5.

Seriously?

Seriously?   

Me?

Low hemoglobin?

Um, it’s not like I’m a vegan or anything. I eat plenty of red meat. I don’t eat a ton of it, but I certainly don’t avoid it. So I was pretty stunned when I left the office with all my blood still inside me, and without my free cookies and juice. (KIDDING, of course. I usually just take water and then leave. No need to load up on liquid glucose when you’re pretty well fat-adapted. [See here.]) As far as I knew, I had no signs or symptoms of low hemoglobin, but considering it had happened a few times before, something had to be up, and I wanted to know what that something was.

I Love You. Now *You* Love You, Too. (a.k.a. Everyone Okay Out There?)

Hey everyone,

Today’s post is a slight departure from my usual offerings. It’s not about insulin, or cancer, stubborn fat loss, or junkfood masquerading as health food. Oh, no. It’s much, much more important than any of that. It has a little something to do with diet, nutrients, supplements, and other stuff you (maybe) come to my blog for. But it’s mostly about something else, and that’s totally cool, because it’s my blog, and that means I get to write about whatever I want. I do like to keep my readers happy, but I also have to follow my heart and write and share what speaks to me. And right now, something is telling me to write this. (Actually, no. Telling? More like compelling.) Something powerful that I don’t want to ignore, even though part of me is saying this is stupid and humiliating and I shouldn’t bother. I have one thing to say to that demon inside my brain: SHUT UP! I’M PUTTING THIS OUT THERE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!

Also, there’s that saying, “You don’t regret the things you do; you regret the things you don’t do.” So with that in mind, I don’t want this to become a regret because I didn’t post it.

Before we proceed, though, I must direct you more emphatically than ever to an excerpt from the disclaimer that appears at the bottom of my posts: Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition and is not to be used as a substitute for the care and guidance of a physician.

Okay. Now that you can’t sue me, here goes.

Food for Thought Friday: Shut Up, Judgey McJudgerson

Humans: we’re a funny, scary, crazy, strange, terrible and beautiful lot, aren’t we?

Case in point:

I was walking along a scenic trail not far from where I live, enjoying the bright blue sky, the greenery, the fresh air, birdsongs, and generally just feeling grateful to be alive, healthy, and strong, when a man jogged past me. Well, it was more of a shuffle than a jog. Before he passed me, while he was still behind me, I could hear his feet scraping along the ground with each step, almost as though the effort to fully lift his feet was too much. I got the sense that he was struggling. It sounded like he was struggling. And when he did pass me, I got a look, and I continued looking for a while when he was in front of me, until he turned the bend and was out of sight. Indeed, it looked like he was struggling.

The man was very thin, and was sporting two knee supports. (The ones that look like thick, rubbery ACE bandages.) He had the physique of the semi-emaciated marathoner: not a lot of muscle mass, skin hanging loosely, pale pallor to his skin. His face struck me almost as gray, in fact. He looked like he had—in the words of that great phrase—“been rode hard and put away wet.”

As he passed me, several ugly, judgmental, closed-minded thoughts crossed my mind:

Food for Thought Friday: Modern Medicine Rant (Part 2!)

“I know many physicians who enthusiastically endorse a low carbohydrate diet for many medical conditions. The great majority of them have experienced personal health benefits from actually adopting the diet for themselves and that includes me. Although physicians are taught to ignore anecdotal evidence, it is difficult to do when it applies to oneself.”

                          -Keith Runyan, MD, Why Your Doctor May Question a Low Carb Diet

I have the utmost respect for doctors. Not all of them, but most. Getting through medical school, an internship, a residency, and more, is certainly no joke. Heck, just preparing for the MCAT is a challenge. Medical education and subsequent professional life is not for the lazy. There’s a reason I’m a CNS and not an MD. (Yes, I recently earned the CNS designation. Woohoo! I am now among the ranks of such greats as Jeffrey Bland, PhD, the founder of the Institute for Functional Medicine.)

And while I envy the paycheck and the cachet that come along with being an MD (much more impressive at a dinner party than being some lowlife nutritionist), I don’t envy the actual tasks that come along with being a doctor. This is particularly true for those who work in emergency rooms or emergency situations, so I’m not talking just doctors, but nurses, orderlies, paramedics, EMTs, cops, firemen…the whole crew. At my old office job, if I made a mistake, maybe the printer got jammed, or I spilled coffee on my keyboard. (Or accidentally hit “reply all” when sending a particularly scathing email about the boss, hehheh.) In an ER, if someone makes a mistake, someone dies. Someone’s kid bleeds to death. I can’t imagine being halfway through my lunch when someone gets rushed through the doors with a limb three-quarters of the way severed off, or with some kind of freaky implement impaled somewhere you really don’t want anything—freaky or not—to be impaled. I would not want to be tasked with walking out of an operating room to tell a family that their child “didn’t make it.”  

Bottom line: modern allopathic medical professionals see and do things on a daily basis that I cannot imagine in my scariest, don’t-want-to-take-responsibility-for-this nightmares. While I wish I were cool under pressure, and I have lots of daydreams in which I am a totally confident, take-charge-and-save-the-day kind of person, the truth is, I do not want to be the person responsible for knowing exactly what to do in a matter of seconds when someone is literally going to die unless I remember the correct procedure. 

I love medical doctors. Love em!

In the right context, that is. When it comes to trauma, please, for the love of all that’s holy, get me to the nearest modern, big-city, suped-up technology hospital you can. Do not—repeat, do not—call a naturopath, or a chiropractor, or an osteopath, or a nutritionist. I want someone to stop the bleeding, stop the pain, and stop them now.

Really, MDs are pretty awesome. (Especially ones like this, who get it.)

So why do I rail against them so much?  

Thank You.

So the blog’s been quieter than usual, eh?

Sorry about that.

I have many posts in various stages of completion, but I haven’t been able to get myself to finish any of them. It may or may not have been reflected in the blog, but for the last six to eight months or so, I have been experiencing the worst depression of my life. The long-time readers among you may have gathered by now that I am not, and never have been, a happy-go-lucky type. I’ve always been pessimistic and gloomy. Definitely an Eeyore, as opposed to a Tigger or Piglet. (At least, when it comes to myself, and my life. For other people, I could see roses and rainbows and magical unicorn happiness, no problem.) Anyway, so yeah, I’ve always been this way to some extent, but the past few months have really been awful. To the point that, for the first time in my life, I was actually worried about myself.

Food for Thought Friday: Modern Medicine Rant

Pop Quiz:

The failure of institutions such as the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, and American Medical Association not just to acknowledge the undeniable efficacy of carbohydrate restriction for myriad chronic health complications, but also their failure to do what they should be doing—which is shouting it from the rooftops louder than any ol’ no-name blogger, and actively encouraging people to give it a try—is the result of which of the following:

A)  Stupidity

B)  Willful Ignorance

C)  Conspiracy

D)  Narcissism

E)  Malpractice 

F)  All of the above

Yeah. You can see where today’s rant is headed.

Being Fat Adapted Versus "In Ketosis" (Pt.3/3)

Now that the issues of fat adaptation and fat loss versus ketosis—or the lack thereof—have been clarified, let’s move on to a related issue that drives me crazy: newbie low-carbers freaking out if they eat something that not only takes away that beloved purple, but—gasp!—causes the scale to go up a few pounds.

When a low-carber who doesn’t understand some basics about human physiology gains weight after indulging in a pile of something sweet or starchy, they go absolutely apoplectic. Not knowing any better, they step on the scale the next day, see that their weight has gone up a few pounds, and they Just. Freak. Out. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen people post to forums and message boards either in tears or in a raging anger, because they ate a donut, or a bagel, or two slices of pizza, and gained, say, four pounds the next day. They then fall into thinking that their body is so fundamentally carbohydrate intolerant that after indulging in one carbohydrate-laden meal, they gained, overnight, four pounds of fat. (Never mind that the total weight of the amount of food they consumed for the entire day probably didn't even weigh four pounds, let alone that one bit of carb splurge, so I don't see any logic to how they think this works, but I digress.)

I’m not really sure how to talk about this without expressing grave concern over these well-intentioned folks’ ignorance as to the inner workings of their own bodies. (And by “expressing grave concern,” I mean, “shaking my head at the utter lunacy out there.”)

Time for a quick lesson in glycogen storage. 

Being Fat Adapted Versus "In Ketosis" (Pt.2/3)

In the previous post, we established the difference between fat adaptation and ketosis. Now, let’s revisit the “got kicked out of ketosis” thing. 

People new to low-carbing—and also people not-so-new, but who just don’t understand how this all works—will utter that dreaded phrase when they pee on a ketostick and don’t see their beloved dark purple, or—gasp!—not even a little pink. No color change at all. They will then assume that whatever they ate sometime prior to testing “kicked them out of ketosis,” and they will summarily cross that food item off their menu forever, banishing it to their ever-growing list of forbidden foods. (They will also spread tales of woe on forums far and wide, thereby terrifying other newbie low-carbers into avoiding these foods as well.)

But here’s the thing: ketostix are fickle things. Elevated ketones in the blood, urine, and breath, are fickle things. What else was going on before testing? Was this person very acutely stressed? Did they do an intense workout? Both of these can cause a temporary rise in blood glucose (albeit a smallish one), which might trigger a temporary rise in insulin, which could put a temporary stop to ketosis. Temporary. Note: it will not put a stop to being fat-adapted; only to having excess acetoacetate in the urine or elevated beta-hydroxybutyrate in the blood at that particular moment in time.

Being Fat Adapted Versus "In Ketosis" (Pt.1/3)

UPDATE!! (9/20/2017)
I have a new post that explains how and why the body produces ketones, It will help you understand much better the difference between burning fat and having a fat-based metabolism, versus being "in ketosis." It's very long, but I think it's worth reading if you'd really like to understand this -- and if you want to stop freaking out about your ketone levels. (If you click over to that post and want to read only the section that explains the difference between ketosis and running on fat, scroll way down to where it says Ketogenesis: How and Why Do We Make Ketones? Also: Fat Adaptation versus Ketosis.) Happy reading!

“I got kicked out of ketosis.”

If I never hear or read those six words, in that order, ever again, I’ll be one happy individual.

Based on what I come across on low-carb forums, blogs, and videos, there is a lot of confusion about the correct use of urine ketone test strips (which I’ll sometimes refer to as ketostix, since “ketone test strips” is a mouthful, even when you’re only reading). So allow me to ‘splain a little bit about how to interpret these things, and what role they should play—if any—in your low-carb life.

First and foremost is the most important thing you will read in today’s post. (And it is so important that I will likely repeat it in all the posts to follow in this little series. Plus, you can tell it’s important because it’s red, bold, in italics, and all caps, hehheh.)

You can be in ketosis and not lose body fat, 

and you can lose body fat without being in ketosis.

  

Chronic Constipation (a.k.a. The Poop Post!)

Since I write a lot about nutrition and health, I mostly talk about what we put into our bodies: food, beverages, supplements, etc. Today, let’s change gears a bit and talk about what comes out of our bodies. Or, rather, what doesn’t come out. Yes, that’s right: we’re talkin’ chronic constipation. It’s the poop post!

Well, not really all the poop. Just constipation. It is beyond the scope of one lil’ post to cover all the details of what does or does not happen in the small and large intestines (and the gallbladder!) that could result in diarrhea, gas and bloating, steatorrhea (“fatty stools,” a.k.a. science-speak for oily poop), black or tar-colored stool, or even clay-colored/whitish stool. (Yikes!) If you want to learn more about different kinds of stool and what they mean, start with the Bristol stool chart. You can find modified versions of it in two of my favorite health books: Paul Chek’s How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy, and Diane Sanfilippo’s Practical Paleo, in which she paid homage to Chek’s version, which was the inspiration for her own.

We’re going to leave all the other poop stuff aside and just talk constipation. I have to assume that if you’re reading this, you experience chronic constipation or want to help someone who does. So there’s no point in me going on about diarrhea or “ideal stools” anyway. If you had either of those, you wouldn’t be wasting your time with this blog post. Unless, of course, you just enjoy my writing and would read anything I write (in which case, thanks! [And you obviously have good taste]), OR, you have an odd fascination with difficult defecation, even when you, yourself, don’t experience it (in which case…well, perhaps I’m not the blogger for you; there are lots of other people who specialize in freaky fetishes, hehheh).

Talk in West Virginia!

WEST VIRGINIA PEOPLE!

I’m giving a talk on Thursday, January 21^st at 6pm, at the Clarion Hotel in Shepherdstown. If you’re in the local area, come on out and say hello! There’s a $13.95 charge, but that covers your enjoyment of an all-you-can-eat low carb buffet. (I receive no speaking fee. Just doing this for fun and to help lots of low-carb newbies!)

The event is a meeting for a low-carb support group run by Mark Cucuzzella, MD. I reached out to Dr. Cucuzzella after hearing him on episode 1005 of Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ la Vida Low Carb Show. Listening to him talk with Jimmy, I felt like I was hearing a kindred spirit. Not only is he in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, but he’s a LCHF-fueled distance runner as well as a low-carb-friendly physician bringing the low-carb and real food message to the bigwigs who decide what recruits eat at basic training. Can you imagine the fighting force we’d have if more of these young people were eating low-carb? As if that weren’t enough to keep the guy busy, he’s also on a mission to transform the health of people in West Virginia (which has the sad distinction of being one of the most obese states in the nation).

Turns out, Dr. Cucuzzella heard me on Robb Wolf’s podcast, and had been planning to contact me as well. Go figure!

I’m told the group I’ll be addressing will be about 50/50 low-carb newbies and people who’ve already been doing it for a few months. So I’m planning to give a (funny and educational) general talk about why and how low-carb works. It'll be sort of the live version of my fuel partitioning series. (If you’ve read that, you’ll probably recognize some of my slides, hehheh.) So I probably won’t be saying anything you don’t already know, but if you’d like to come eat some yummy food, see me in person, and meet other low-carbers in your area, come join us! Plus, we’ll have a Q&A, so if you want to ask me something more advanced or off-topic from the talk, this is your chance.

See the flyer below, and if you’d like to attend, please RSVP to Melanie Miller, at melaniemillerconsulting@gmail.com.

Remember: Amy Berger, M.S., NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition and is not to be used as a substitute for the care and guidance of a physician. Links in this post and all others may direct you to amazon.com, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through my affiliate links.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight on LCHF? (Pt.4 - Effect a Change, a.k.a. The DIScomfort Zone)

Since I might not have been clear about things in the previous posts in this series on stubborn fat loss, allow me to clarify something before we add another post to the pile:

When I talk about carb and caloric intake, nutrient deficiencies, and thyroid function as factors that may be interfering with body fat loss, please know that I’m writing for the folks with significant amounts of body fat to lose: 30, 50, 100 pounds, or more. This series isn’t really intended for people who are looking to get rid of “the last ten pounds” (or five!). Of course, some of the concepts I write about might well be applicable to people who are in the home stretch, and if so, great. But to be honest, getting those last few pounds off—and keeping them off—may require slightly different methods than those that led to an initial, much larger loss. (Most of us recognize it’s very hard to lose those last few pounds, so if that’s all you’re trying to lose in the first place, you might face an even tougher battle than someone who wants to lose 100 pounds, but for whom the first 75 melted off relatively quickly.)

That being said, some of the general principles I’m going to address today could apply to anyone who’s struggling to lose body fat. Those among us who are working very hard to lose weight, but who aren’t making any headway, sometimes claim we’ve “tried everything.” We’ve “done everything” to lose weight, and “nothing works.”

Really?

Really?

You’ve tried everything?

Every single thing under the sun?

ITIS -- It's the Insulin, Stupid (pt 1 of 8)

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time educating myself about health, nutrition, and food. Whether I’m reading papers in the scientific and medical literature, keeping up with posts by intelligent bloggers, or learning more about human anatomy and physiology, a good portion of my week is devoted to ensuring that, as a nutritionist and blogger, I know what I’m talking about, and I provide my clients and readers with reliable information. There’s so much hashing and rehashing of old news in this field, and you can’t walk five feet without bumping into a dead horse that’s been beaten over and over—and over—again. So it isn’t often that something comes along that really blows my mind. (Like this. I am still fascinated by this.) Once in a while, something that’s actually very simple, and which should be totally obvious, blows my mind, if only because it makes me think about things in ways I’d never considered before.

With the help of some very cool people in the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) world, I have been introduced to a new concept—well, new to me, but certainly not “new” at all—and I’d like to share it with you. There’s a lot to talk about, but the overall theme boils down to this: by focusing almost exclusively on blood glucose, the medical and nutrition professions have been missing the boat on a much larger, much more insidious problem: insulin.

As you know, blood glucose and insulin are intimately related. It’s hard to discuss one without the other. But when was the last time your basic bloodwork panel included a measurement of your insulin levels? Have you ever had a doctor look at anything but your fasting glucose and maybe your A1c if (s)he was concerned about your blood sugar management? (Never mind that the A1c isn’t even included in a typical blood panel. You often have to specifically request it.) If you’ve ever been the victim of experienced an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), did your doctor measure your insulin levels, or only your blood glucose?

With a single-minded focus on glucose, glucose, glucose, we have distracted ourselves from what is really driving the ship in type 2 diabetes (T2D), metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, and many more conditions that we’ll explore in detail in part 2 of this series. Hence, the title of this post.

OH - EM - GEE!

HOLY.

CATS.

!!!!!!!!

http://robbwolf.com/2015/09/15/episode-287-amy-berger-nutrition-and-alzheimers/

Remember: Amy Berger, M.S., NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition.

Attention Fiction Lovers!

Hi Everyone,

If you’re reading my blog, I’ll go ahead and assume you have at least a smidgen of appreciation for my writing style. (And I thank you for that!) If you also happen to enjoy reading fiction, I’d like to present you with an opportunity to combine the two.

I’ve mentioned here and there in past posts that I’ve been working on a novel. (My undergraduate degree is in creative writing, in fact. While I do love talking about how the human body works, and introducing you to interesting and underutilized cuts of meat, writing fiction is my first love.) Well, I’m pleased to report that the very rough draft of this novel is complete. There are some weak spots, and the draft definitely needs work and revising, but there are also some lines that literally make me cry, and some sections that, upon re-reading, make me say to myself, “I wrote that? Damn, I’m good!”

So where do you come in? Well, what I need at this point is honest, unvarnished, unbiased feedback. I need a few people to give this thing a read and tell me what works and what doesn’t, preferably while providing suggestions on how to make the not-so-good parts better. Ultimately, a good professional editor will help me with this, but first, the draft needs to be good enough to catch the interest of a literary agent, who can then connect me with editors and publishers. I know I can self-publish if I want to, but I’d prefer to go the traditional route first and see if I can get this published through mainstream channels. (Including, one would hope, all the marketing bells & whistles and distribution channels that are not as easily accessible to me if I were to do it myself and sell it solely through, say, Amazon.)