Abstinence from carbs and sugar reduces weight loss

Editor,

I opened up the Daily Lobo a few days ago to find a column that was music to my ... err ... well, eyes: a UNM doctor discussing the dangers of carbohydrate consumption.

The good Dr. Peg laid it all out in an understandable way, and though I would say she missed a few key points (perhaps intentionally to keep it simple), on the whole she hits the nail on the head. I have two Type 2 diabetics in my family. My uncle has been successfully battling the disease for almost 10 years now, and my mother was just recently diagnosed. I myself am probably pre-diabetic.

As much as I would like to say we are blameless victims, it just isn’t true. At the end of the day, if you stuff your face and get fat, you’re putting yourself at risk for a huge number of diseases, including diabetes. We are all, well, “fluffy.” However, a culture of carbs hasn’t helped.

Ten years ago, when my uncle was diagnosed, the doctors, in his words, essentially said to him ‘Here’s some insulin, now get the f**k out.’ He was rolled into the hospital nearly dead with insanely high blood-sugar levels, and that was the best they did for him. No one mentioned carbohydrates. He might have gotten one of the colorful pamphlets containing the same tired advice. That was it. The life of a diabetic on insulin isn’t a happy one. Shoot up, eat, test, shoot up, eat, test, rinse and repeat.

Yet that’s the way we generally treat the disease in this country: with insulin injections and pills, despite the changing attitudes towards carbs. In desperation my uncle turned to the internet. He stumbled upon a book by a man named Richard K. Burnstein, an M.D. and a Type 1 diabetic who had been successfully treating others for many years. His approach is nuanced but it relies on one simple concept: stop eating carbs. With the help of that book, my uncle has since managed diabetes through diet and exercise alone. He takes no insulin and no pills.

Five months ago I weighed around 300 pounds. It hurts to admit it. I have always been the “fat kid.” I have made attempts to lose weight in the past, but I was never able to sustain weight loss for more than two months. I tried to do the “right” things: exercise and count my calories. Yet the right things made me feel so awful. When I was dieting, I couldn’t sleep. I felt tired and irritable all the time, and oh, oh so hungry. It was just unsustainable.

Then I stopped trying to do it the right way. Today I weigh 236 pounds. I had bacon and eggs (cooked in real butter) this morning, and as I’m typing this, I’m chugging down a heavy whipping cream latte from Starbucks. That’s right, heavy whipping cream. The stuff that’s 50 calories per tablespoon. My diet consists of fat, fat, protein, and more fat. I’m getting skinny by eating fat.

As it turns out, we aren’t what we eat. The trade-off is that I eat very, very few carbs. Typically less than 30 net (carbs — insoluble fiber) a day. All of those come from high-fiber veggies and dairy. I try to limit natural sugars as much as humanly possible, and I abstain completely from processed sugars. No fruit, and “sweet” veggies like carrots in moderation. Many doctors today will tell you I’m killing myself, and that I will have high cholesterol, high blood pressure and eventually heart disease later in life. Yet newer research into fats (saturated fats in particular), high cholesterol and heart disease is increasingly skeptical of the implied links between those three things.

Ten years ago many doctors told my uncle he was killing himself too. I can tell you that I feel better than ever. I have more energy, I am able to consume calories at a deficit without feeling hungry, and best of all, I feel empowered because I took control of my health. At the end of the day, that is what it is all about.