Hola page

[IanG]

Hi All
I've posted in the "obligatory questions post" and thought I'd post a little intro. I stumbled on this website by accident really but I'm looking for a change. I've got loads of questions that will no doubt keep cropping up and if I'm honest I find even the info on this site overwhelming and I've not looked anywhere else! But I'm determined to give it a shot. I'm trying to stop eating cereals and bread for a start. ( it was kinda nice making an omelette this morning.) I love exercising but I'm more a tennis, football and running guy than going to the gym. I'm really going to miss pasta though! Is there a substitute that I can use in my legendary carbonarra?

So any tips on where to start would be good. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, when I remember a personal trainer once saying to me, "fat only burns in a carbohydrate flame" True? to lose the spare tire ( more bicycle tire than tractor!) I have to exercise having taken on board carbs? When should I eat if I exercise? I go for a run every morning and eat afterwards, not sure if thats the right way round.

Looking forward to a better, energy filled life.
Ian

[Lewis]

I love exercising but I'm more a tennis, football and running guy than going to the gym.

That's a difficult matter. Activities that tend towards the anaerobic are going to require more carbohydrate. You can do aerobic activities -- you can run a marathon, or swim, or long-distance cycle -- on very few carbs at all. That kind of thing has been done. Peter Attia for example does it:

The Eating Academy | Peter Attia, M.D. The Eating Academy | Peter Attia, M.D.

But tennis and football seem more like sports that require periodic bursts of quite intense activity. I think you might need a few more carbs for that. However, if you find that's so, stick to more paleo-friendly sources of carbohydrate, such as sweet potatoes and fruit, you're likely better off than with pasta and bread.

I'm really going to miss pasta though! Is there a substitute that I can use in my legendary carbonarra?

Spaghetti squash if you can get it, perhaps.

So any tips on where to start would be good. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, when I remember a personal trainer once saying to me, "fat only burns in a carbohydrate flame" True?

No. That's a saying that goes back to something like the 1920s. It's not true. Still, I doubt the question of "how many carbs" is anywhere near settled for you. You personally may require more carbohydrate than most on account of the kind of activities you're doing.

[IanG]

thanks for the reply. I'll just have to see how it pans out. I'm definitely going to cut the grain out so, whilst I might be taking on board a few more carbs than most, I'm sure I'll see the benefit of removing grain from my diet. Will try and update when possible.

[IanG]

I've been thinking a little more about my carb requirements. My daily exercising is a run of between 3-10 km, average about 5km. Probably 2-3 times a week I'll play tennis and swim about twice a week. Would I really need loads of carbs for that?

[Lewis]

I don't know. I'd have thought not, but I guess it depends on how fast you run and how competitive the tennis and soccer are.

I'd have a look at Mark's Carbohydrate Curve:

How many carbs should I eat each day? | Mark's Daily Apple

My feeling would be that it's probably best to err on the lowish side and then add as necessary.

[Scott F]

You really want to cut out the fructose & fructans. Fructans are a polymer of fructose that bacteria in you gut breaks down into fructose. The main source of fructans in the diet comes wheat.

You really have to pay attention and read ingredients to know where fructose is used in the food industry. For example, I used to go to Applebee's and order their salads with the dressing it came with. That dressing is made with fructose. The last jar of pickled herring I bought listed high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient. There's [more] HFCS in that jar than onions. Gatorade used to be made with dextrose (two glucose molecules bound together). Because glucose/dextrose isn't very sweet to the taste back when I was a tee we called it tiger piss. Then Pepsi bought the rights and change it to HFCS and/or sugar. Table sugar is half fructose. Consequently, Gatorade is nolonger the sport's energy drink it originally was. Your muscles use glucose not fructose.

So what's so bad about fructose? Apparently, and some of this ever very new, from an evolutionary POV our ancestors, like bears and other animals, were eating fruits in the summer and fall. Fructose converts into triglycerides in your liver and raises uric acid. Uric acid flips a switch inside your cells that down regulates your mitochondria ATP production to lower you energy output. The whole point of this is to send a signal for your body to put on fat for the lean winter months. But now people are eating fructose year round. That elevated uric acid is causing the obesity epidemic, diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver, and about 6 other issues.

Here's a better explanation from the University of California and from the University of Colorado. The two doctors are experts in their fields submitting their research to peer reviewed medical journals.

UCTV Prime The Skinny on Obesity
The Skinny on Obesity - UCTV Prime - UCTV - University of California Television

The Fat Switch by Dr Richard Johnson
Interview w/ Dr Mercola
The Fat Switch Book | Weight Control Guide - Mercola.com

Richard J. Johnson, M.D., has been a practicing physician and clinical scientist for over 25 years. His research has been funded by the National Institute of Health since the late 1980s. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and has published over 500 papers and lectured in over 40 countries. He has a special interest in the role of fructose in obesity and authored The Sugar Fix with Timothy Gower in 2008 (Rodale). He is currently a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver.

[Scott F]

BTW brewer's yeast and umami foods (shellfish) also raise uric acids. It's the brewer's yeast in beer that causes a beer belly. Beer drinkers have gone to drinking lite beers thinking that will keep them from getting fat since the calories are less then regular beer. How is that working out for them? As it turns out, even non-alcoholic beer cause a beer gut. Wine and liqueur don't have brewer's yeast so they don't cause a wine gut.

[IanG]

Interesting. I have not really taken a look into the ingredients of what I'm easting. I do have white sugar in tea, and have a 4 0r 5 cups a day so I'll be looking for an alternative I guess. Suggestions?

I've not eaten grains all week. Very hard considering the amount of bread I've been exposed to! It's been sat on tables at dinner and everyone else around me is still devouring the stuff. Breakfast has been omelette and bacon not cereals.

The carb issue is unresolved. This morning's run, 7.5 Km, was the first one for the month that I've felt I was running on empty for the last uphill climb. But I always run first thing, with no food intake beforehand and I didnt eat past 4;00pm the day before, save a couple of handfuls of salted peanuts.

[Lewis]

Interesting. I have not really taken a look into the ingredients of what I'm easting. I do have white sugar in tea, and have a 4 0r 5 cups a day so I'll be looking for an alternative I guess. Suggestions?

I'd just go without and let your taste-buds adjust. You get used to whatever you habitually do, so that after a very short time, it starts to taste normal to you. Some people have one cup of coffee in the morning and just reduce the sugar to a pinch. At that level I guess it's of little account, but a spoonful in up to 5 cups is getting a bit. Best not to use artificial sweeteners: some of them seem to have some nasty effects and even to be addictive. Besides, they make you keep a sweet tooth. I'd suggest giving green tea a try: you let the water cool off the boil (unlike black tea) and brew for a short time -- only about 2 minutes. It's very refreshing, needs nothing in it, and seems to have some quite interesting health benefits. (However, that may be partly down to the fact that much of the research on the health effects of tea has been done by Japanese researchers who tend to default to green.)

I've not eaten grains all week. Very hard considering the amount of bread I've been exposed to! It's been sat on tables at dinner and everyone else around me is still devouring the stuff. Breakfast has been omelette and bacon not cereals.

Make sure you get enough fat if you're cutting down the carbs, though. If you're feeling hungry relatively quickly you're probably not. i guess the omelette is fried in butter, so you get some there. You can of course have some veg -- steamed greens or something -- with the eggs and bacon and/or a little fruit. Many people here are a little cautious on the fruit, at any rate preferring stuff like berries and not going crazy on it out-of-season, though Mark himself is fairly friendly to it in the book. Just adjust to your needs and tastes.

The carb issue is unresolved. This morning's run, 7.5 Km, was the first one for the month that I've felt I was running on empty for the last uphill climb. But I always run first thing, with no food intake beforehand and I didnt eat past 4;00pm the day before, save a couple of handfuls of salted peanuts.

Sure. Keep experimenting, and you should get a handle on it. You might like to try a spoonful of coconut oil, which provides medium-chain triglycerides, which are easily metabolized.

Medium Chain Triglycerides: The little fatty acid chains that can do big things. - Eating Well on the Planet Earth

[IanG]

Thanks, been sat with friends arguing over what I need this evening!
Its all trial and error.