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Carbohydrate Intolerance

Carbohydrate intolerance causes digestive distress and metabolic fatigue when your body struggles to break down sugars or process blood sugar spikes.

Digestive Symptoms

Persistent bloating and abdominal pain:Gas builds up when gut bacteria ferment undigested carbs in your large intestine.

Excessive gas and gurgling sounds: Loud gut noises (borborygmi) and frequent flatulence often occur shortly after eating.

Common Symptoms

Digestive: Bloating, excessive gas, abdominal cramps, and diarrhoea.

Systemic inflammation from metabolic carb intolerance can manifest as joint stiffness, fatigue, skin flare-ups, and brain fog.

There is a family of veggies called nightshades that are very well known to cause inflammation and arthritis. Those veggies are potato, tomato, aubergine and all forms of peppers. Tomatoes give me psoriasis on my cheeks and scalp and my fingers and wrists achy.

I cut ALL simple sugars, foods including fruits, vegetables, and nuts completely; and starchy foods such as bread, potatoes and rice.

There are a few different types of simple sugars that are a part of the foods the general population eat every day. Some simple sugar examples include:

Fructose is found primarily in fruits like apples and pears, but also in some vegetables like onions and red peppers, as well as in honey, beetroot, and sugarcane.

Galactose is mainly found in milk as part of the sugar lactose.

Glucose comes from foods like honey and dried fruits, but your body can also make glucose by breaking down other carbohydrates.

Lactose is a disaccharide made up of galactose and glucose. It’s found in dairy products.

Maltose is a disaccharide made up of two glucose molecules. You can find it in some grain products, like bread, as well as molasses and malted drinks like beer.

Sucrose is a disaccharide made up of glucose and fructose. It’s the kind of sugar that table sugar is, and can also be found in some root vegetables like beetroot and carrots.

It’s generally easier for me to abstain from eating vegetables altogether because I don’t know how I will be affected.

https://badgut.org/information-centre/health-nutrition/intestinal-gas-from-complex-carbohydrates-or-lactose-intolerance

M&S Only…Ingredients Range

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You might have guessed, we eat as close to zero carbs as physically possible. We need to purely eat meat for our own health, but we do know that not everybody needs this. Some people feel fantastic just lowering their carbs, while others need to be under that therapeutic Keto level of 20g of total carbs daily.

We are always looking for clean ingredient food, that is convenient to buy when you are on the move, or maybe options for people who feel less confident in the kitchen, or just need something quick for convenience after a long day.

We have just discovered a fabulous range in M&S, it’s called “Only … Ingredients”. It is perfect for people wanting to clean up their diet, without giving up some of their favourite foods, and treats in some cases too. Clearly marked on each of the packaging, is how many ingredients are used in each product. When you turn over to check the ingredients, this tallies up, and as a result, there aren’t nasty additives, fillers and stabilisers that are found in the majority of processed foods, that fill our supermarket shelves.

We have bought their Heritage Gold Pork Sausages, Beef Burgers and Beef Meatballs, all from this range. These products are essentially meat, and a very small amount of seasoning. It is reassuring to see all of the meat in these products are from UK farms, as I personally like to support our UK farmers; which also means less air miles too. So it’s a win-win.

Not that we would eat it personally, I did spot they had crisps, bread, even ice cream and chocolate available, all with minimal very clean ingredients. So if you are genuinely wanting to take the nasty ingredients out of your food and body, this range is a great place to start.

Have You Been Blinkered To The Protein?

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You would have to be blinkered to not have noticed the current trend for high protein foods. By that I don’t mean the naturally occurring, bioavailable protein in meat. I’m talking about products that have labels shouting “high protein” in bold lettering.

If you look through the supermarket shelves, you will find highly processed foods extolling their “high protein” status. These include cookies, granola, and even pasta!

The latest dumbfounding addition to the “high protein” family, is beef mince which has added pea protein. Yes, pea protein added to already high protein, nutrient dense beef mince.

The nutritional info tells us that the protein level is higher than the standard beef, but it also tells you that carbs are now present too. The ingredients listed shows that this product only contains 60% beef, which in my mind, is not ideal, as this is minced beef, which should be made from 100% beef. Also, one of the ingredients listed is maltodextrin, which is a filler derived from glucose molecules. I personally don’t want sugar added to my meat, and the knock effects it causes.

In my opinion, this serves as a great reminder to always check the ingredients list on the back of the pack. Just to make sure you are actually buying, what you were hoping to buy. Or, if you can afford it, buy from your local butcher. They will be happy to talk you about their product, and will probably be able to tell you where it was reared, and reassure you that there is nothing random added to your food.

How much sugar do you eat in a day?

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How much sugar do you eat in day? If some of us are being honest, we know that we eat too much sugar. The biscuits or sweets that we tend to eat mid morning, and during that afternoon energy slump add up. I’m sure there are others who eat whole grains, with plenty of fibre, who would say that they don’t consume too much sugar.

Have a look below at an “unhealthy” day of eating, compared to a “healthy” day. The results might surprise you. The examples below are all taken from widely available UK high street retailers, though I haven’t named them, or the products specifically.

The important detail to know is that ALL carbohydrates turn into sugar when eaten, this may not be immediate, but it will happen. Also, this is the case for all of our bodies, NOT just diabetics. So when a label says carbs, read that as sugar.

Unhealthy day’s eating:

Breakfast:
3 crumpets, without jam – 58.2g carbs
Pure apple juice. One glass, 150ml – 16.7g carbs
Total breakfast carbs – 74.9, 18.7 teaspoons of sugar.

Lunch: A meal deal.
Chicken mayo baguette – 62g carbs
Ready salted crisps 45g – 23g carbs
Can of fizzy drink – 35g carbs
Total lunch carbs – 120g carbs, 30 teaspoons of sugar.

Dinner:
Four cheese pizza 330g – 93.4g carbs
Mini cup leading brand ice cream, 81g serving – 22.8g
Total dinner carbs – 116.2g carbs, 29 teaspoons of sugar

Total daily 310.9g of carbs, 77.7 teaspoons of sugar.

Healthy day’s eating:

Breakfast:
Superberry granola 50g – 31.7g carbs
50ml skimmed milk – 2.5g carbs
Banana, avg flesh weight 100g – 23g carbs
100% pure squeezed orange juice, with bits. One glass, 150ml – 15g carbs
Total breakfast carbs – 72.2g carbs, 18 teaspoons of sugar.

Lunch:
Tuna and sweetcorn sandwich, on malted bread – 44.5g carbs
120g portion of mango chunks – 16.3g
Smoothie drink, with added vitamins and no added sugar – 33g
Total lunch carbs – 93.8g of carbs, 23.4 teaspoons of sugar

Dinner:
Chicken breast – 0g carbs
Sweet chilli dipping sauce, 29g serving – 12.2g carbs
Brown rice, 75g uncooked weight – 65.3g carbs
Leading brand steamed vegetable bag – 9.8g carbs
Total dinner carbs – 87.3g of carbs, 21.8 teaspoons of sugar

Total daily – 253.3g of carbs, 63.3 teaspoons of sugar

Please take a look at the YouTube we have linked, Richard Smith explains extremely well the impact of sugar on our body. Each time we consume over one teaspoon of sugar, which is just 4g, our body has to use insulin to offset the glycemic load.

I have been told in the past that a Ketogenic lifestyle is unhealthy and dangerous. The NHS recommendation for daily “free” sugar intake is no more 30g, and to eat a therapeutic Keto diet is to have no more than 20g of total carbs a day. I don’t believe that our pancreas can detect a difference between a naturally occurring sugar, and an added sugar. So the insulin responds to the glycemic load. So can eating 10g fewer carbs in a day than the Govt advises be dangerous? Please have a look for Dr David Unwin, he is lovely NHS GP, who has made a hugely positive impact in his practice. He is, in my mind, showing the NHS how it should be done, showing how beneficial lowering carbs can be for our health.

I have lost over 6 stone since I realised that eating fat wasn’t the problem, it was eating low fat and high sugar that was hurting me. Simon, my husband, put his Diabetes type 2 into remission by eating this way. His T2 diabetes has not been “cured”, because if he were to start eating high carb, therefore high sugar again, his blood glucose would increase quickly. This is why it is only in remission, not cured. So I don’t see how the Keto diet can be dangerous.

Don’t blame the fat for what the sugar did.

Yet again, these are purely my own thoughts, based on our experience and research. This is not medical advice, just sharing what has helped us.

What does breakfast mean to you?

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Breakfast very simply means the first meal after you have fasted, when we break our fast. You might be thinking, “I don’t fast”, but we all do, to a greater or lesser degree. We all fast when we sleep, which hopefully for most of us will be 6/8 hours, depending on what our individual bodies need. If you eat your last meal at 6pm, and do not consume any food or drink that contains calories until 8am next morning, you will have fasted for 14 hours. Which is classed as IF, an intermittent fast.

Our bodies understand that we will naturally fast overnight, the dawn phenomenon is activated each morning to help us prepare for the day.

Our blood pressure rises a little, to help us to not feel dizzy when we stand up, after lying down for hours overnight. Our blood glucose levels increase marginally, to give us energy; this is why it is inadvisable for diabetics to use the pinprick test to check their glucose levels in the morning, as it will give a false high. For those of us who don’t eat carbs, the liver will not have stored sugar to release. So it will activate gluconeogenesis (production of new sugar made from naturally occurring amino acids) to give our bodies the energy boost.

I used to eat cereals or toast for breakfast, maybe even crumpets if I felt like a real treat. Which I now understand is high in carbs, and therefore sugar. When our body consumes over a teaspoon of sugar, just 4 grams, our pancreas needs to send insulin to stop the blood having too much sugar circulating. Eating carbs too early in the day, when we already have a naturally occurring rise in blood glucose, puts extra strain on the pancreas.

When I first started Keto, I changed to having bacon and eggs for breakfast. Very quickly, once I became more sensitive to ghrelin, the hunger hormone, I found I didn’t need breakfast, as I genuinely wasn’t hungry. My body can then carry on fasting a little longer, and can utilise the benefits of autophagy.

Click here to read about autophagy.

As ever, the above is not medical advice, just what I have researched and learned from my own experiences over the last six years.