Sorry, I'm just so confused. This topic seems to have been beaten to death but I still don't know what is even reasonable. There are so many constraints that it's hard to believe this is actually healthy. After a few months of trying to change my diet there are issues I keep running into. Below that are some questions.
Issue #1) Before there was such great science and before we screwed up the oceans and the cows, lots of people just ate what they had and nobody had diabetes or Alzheimer's. What about those diets? I mean, the discussion on krill oil is very interesting, but I'm not a whale. I'd rather not need any supplements. That just seems to be messing with nature, and that's dangerous, kind of like margarine.
Issue #2) In order to get below 50 carbs a day I would have to increase my fats to between 150-200 grams/day. If that were just olive oil I would blow my Omega 3/6 ratio way out of the water. If it were salmon I'd burn out my kidneys. I don't believe there's any combination that would work.
Issue #3) Few carbs means few sources of fiber. Half of a cabbage gives me a third of the fiber I need. So 1.5 cabbages would conflict horribly with eating in a short window or my stomach would explode.
Issue #4) Balancing omega 3/6 ratio really means little nuts/seeds because they're all really high in O6. And that sucks because I really like nuts and seeds.
Issue #5) Low saturated fat removes everything but avocados, olives, and things that are unsustainable or full of mercury.
Issue #6) I tried one meal a day. I probably need to eat at least 2500 calories a day and that won't happen in one meal. I realize some people just want to lose weight but I'm at the point where I just want to gain weight. The fasting is not too hard, it's all I have to eat in a short time that is really difficult.
So, while I respect the science, is it possible we're just a bunch of blind guys around an elephant and aren't looking at the whole picture? Have we come up with so many limits for each part of the elephant that we've lost the big picture?
Some questions to maybe push people in a different direction.
Q1.1) Back in the 50's very few people got Alzheimer's or diabetes. What changed? We know there was less sugar, grains, and junk food, the cows grazed, and the people didn't. If we went back to that would we be okay?
Q1.2) There are Asian countries that used to eat high carb, very low sugar, low fat, lots of fish. How was their diabetes/Alzheimer's?
Q2.1) We've never eaten a lot of fish. Most of our O3s came from grass fed cows. So what O3/O6 ratio do we really need?
Q2.2) Is the problem with saturated fats the O3/6 ratio? i.e., if the ratio is kept healthy (whatever that is) are higher levels of saturated fats okay?
Q2.3) Why does anyone say nuts and seeds are healthy, given how much they totally screw up the O3/O6 ratio?
Q3) If a person can limit their food to a 4 hour window will they go into enough ketosis, no matter what they eat, to do okay? Just a thought experiment: If someone eats low fat and high carb/fiber in a 4 hour window and just sucked up the hunger pain, would their insulin be okay? Is this what the Nigerians do?
Q4) What are the lipid panel goals? and what tests are important?
Thanks!
More questions about diet
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Re: More questions about diet
Your questions are exactly the ones I am asking myself. I just turned 65, am female, and have for about 2 years tried to only eat in a 6 hour window. I am apoe3/4. My mother died from Alzheimer's. My weight has dropped from 140 to 118. I dont need to lose more. I eat low carb but struggle with what fats to eat.
I hope others will comment and shed some light on the saturated fat question.
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I hope others will comment and shed some light on the saturated fat question.
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Re: More questions about diet
I think eating a Mediterranean diet is appropriate. Lots of plants, some fish, little meat. Personally I am not doing a keto diet. I eat plants, whole grains and legumes. You might also consider the DASH diet, though the Mediterranean diet is the one that is backed by the most research in terms of Alzheimer's prevention.
Q1.1) Back in the 50's very few people got Alzheimer's or diabetes. What changed? We know there was less sugar, grains, and junk food, the cows grazed, and the people didn't. If we went back to that would we be okay?
Yes, I think that we would be better off. But it's not just the food and sedentary lifetyle; it's the air pollution and the quantity of toxins we are exposed to today.
Q1.2) There are Asian countries that used to eat high carb, very low sugar, low fat, lots of fish. How was their diabetes/Alzheimer's?
From what I've read, Alzheimer's was a rarity (don't know about diabetes).
Q1.1) Back in the 50's very few people got Alzheimer's or diabetes. What changed? We know there was less sugar, grains, and junk food, the cows grazed, and the people didn't. If we went back to that would we be okay?
Yes, I think that we would be better off. But it's not just the food and sedentary lifetyle; it's the air pollution and the quantity of toxins we are exposed to today.
Q1.2) There are Asian countries that used to eat high carb, very low sugar, low fat, lots of fish. How was their diabetes/Alzheimer's?
From what I've read, Alzheimer's was a rarity (don't know about diabetes).
e3/4 MTHFR C677T/A1298C COMT V158M++ COMT H62H++ MTRR A66G ++ HLA DR
Re: More questions about diet
Hello tmoody1119 and welcome to the forum. This community is so full of knowledge, experience, and support and the website is loaded with information.tmoody1119 wrote:Your questions are exactly the ones I am asking myself. I just turned 65, am female, and have for about 2 years tried to only eat in a 6 hour window. I am apoe3/4. My mother died from Alzheimer's. My weight has dropped from 140 to 118. I dont need to lose more. I eat low carb but struggle with what fats to eat.
I hope others will comment and shed some light on the saturated fat question.
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It is so wonderful that you lost over 20 pounds by practicing intermittent fasting, congratulations! As you know managing weight is so important when promoting cognitive health.
The Primer which can be found on the Welcome page is full of great information and links that may answer some of your questions.
How we nourish our bodies varies from person to person based on our health, past medical conditions, environment, food sensitivities, lab results, genetics, and other contributors. You may want to consider connecting with a health coach to explore options based on your needs. A health coach will collaborate with your physician and provide information, education, and guidance. You can learn more about health coaching and find a practitioner here.
The Wikki page has many links filled with information regarding diet, lifestyle behaviors, and much more.
I hope this help!
Again, welcome to the forum.
PJ
Think Positive Be Positive
Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach
Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach
Re: More questions about diet
Why are you trying to eat OMAD if you are not trying to lose weight? Is your Insulin Resistance bad? Are you trying to induce Autophagy? Fasting can be good, just make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. There is not much consensus on diet here, except maybe that low carb/mild keto is good. As to your questions, yes it seems there was much less AD and Diabetes in the past, and in Asia, it does seem to be correlated in the rise of sugar consumption. Many here follow Gundry or other mostly vegetarian diet. ApoE4 is the original version, and man had long since developed large brains and smaller intestines and was therefore eating a significant portion of meat. They also did not have much EVOO handy. I'm personally dealing with 20 years of Diabetes, and am restricting carbs to around 35 g / day. I'm eating a modified Carnivore diet - I add dairy since it does not bother me, and I add low carb above ground veggies. I've been on this diet for 4 years. You need to figure out what works best for you - there is no one size fits all.MattCo wrote:Issue #6) I tried one meal a day. I probably need to eat at least 2500 calories a day and that won't happen in one meal. I realize some people just want to lose weight but I'm at the point where I just want to gain weight. The fasting is not too hard, it's all I have to eat in a short time that is really difficult.
Sonoma Mike
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Re: More questions about diet
Thanks, Plumster. I think either the Mediterranean or dash diets are the logical conclusion of the the constraints I'm after. Limited saturated fat, balanced PUFAs, low glycemic index, and as little of a eating window as I can be comfortable with. I must admit, I looked at the dash diet and their definition of low fat is 30% of total calories. To me, that's like taking a dip in cream. When I started this 30% was really high for me.Plumster wrote:I think eating a Mediterranean diet is appropriate. Lots of plants, some fish, little meat. Personally I am not doing a keto diet. I eat plants, whole grains and legumes. You might also consider the DASH diet, though the Mediterranean diet is the one that is backed by the most research in terms of Alzheimer's prevention.
I'm 60 and my insulin and triglycerides were going up. I lost 25 pounds since March and don't want to lose anymore. I need to test my lipids again. I read everything here and just assumed the diet described in the primer was not too hard. Namely, 7% saturated fat, 50% total fat, 20% protein, and 50 grams in low glycemic vegies and fruits. I just couldn't make it work and I'm starting to think it won't work. It's not that I didn't like the food, it's that I couldn't find a combination of anything that would fit those constraints. Remove the 50% fat and 50 carb constraints and all of a sudden all sorts of foods become available.tmoody1119 wrote:Your questions are exactly the ones I am asking myself. I just turned 65, am female, and have for about 2 years tried to only eat in a 6 hour window. I am apoe3/4. My mother died from Alzheimer's. My weight has dropped from 140 to 118. I dont need to lose more. I eat low carb but struggle with what fats to eat.
I hope others will comment and shed some light on the saturated fat question.
Good question, mike. I do not need to lose more weight. My understanding is that some level of fasting is just as important as diet. It exercises the switch between glucose and fats? And that has to be good for my 3/4 brain, no? How much, I have no idea and am open to suggestions. I tried omad for a few days and, to be honest, it took 4 hours to eat that much food anyway so I don't know if it's omad or just a 4 hour eating window.mike wrote:Why are you trying to eat OMAD if you are not trying to lose weight? Is your Insulin Resistance bad? Are you trying to induce Autophagy? Fasting can be good, just make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. There is not much consensus on diet here, except maybe that low carb/mild keto is good. As to your questions, yes it seems there was much less AD and Diabetes in the past, and in Asia, it does seem to be correlated in the rise of sugar consumption. Many here follow Gundry or other mostly vegetarian diet. ApoE4 is the original version, and man had long since developed large brains and smaller intestines and was therefore eating a significant portion of meat. They also did not have much EVOO handy. I'm personally dealing with 20 years of Diabetes, and am restricting carbs to around 35 g / day. I'm eating a modified Carnivore diet - I add dairy since it does not bother me, and I add low carb above ground veggies. I've been on this diet for 4 years. You need to figure out what works best for you - there is no one size fits all.
35gr of carbs a day? That's amazing. Now that I've been following what I eat it's clear I was eating a lot of carbs before. 35 is like a slice of bread. If you don't mind my asking, after 4 years how is it going for you?
Thanks everyone, it's good to know there is lots of variety in diets here.
Re: More questions about diet
There are different kinds of fasting. Some swear by intermittent fasting (IF) which is usually done on a 24 hour cycle. How much time is spent fasting and how much eating varies with OMAD being the extreme. But even getting your fasting window to 12 hours is more than most folks do. Others try an 8/16. The longer the fasting window, the better your liver can clear the decks and maybe get rid of some visceral fat. Dr Jason Fung has his diabetes patients do three 36 hour fasts in a week, which is another form. I don't know if a 24 hour IF is enough to switch to fats, since your body stores enough Glycogen to last close to that. I myself has tried 3 longer fasts (13, 17 & 19 days) to lose weight and to stimulate autophagy. But to introduce more fats and less carbs will switch you over to a state where you have both ketones and glucose to feed body and brain, without fasting. What natural fats you use will not matter for this. Some folks like to add a bunch of EVOO to their lettuce. I get along fine with Dairy, so I get much of my fat that way. I also add avocado and EVOO, but that is certainly not the majority. We've been so conditioned not to eat fat, but in reality, it is all of the non-fat stuff out there that is bad for us with all the added carbs. I use full cream with my coffee to avoid the sugar in milk. So you ask how it is going, but that requires a little background. I'm almost 60, and I've had diabetes for 20 years. For the first 15 i tried to cut down on carbs and with meds kept my A1c in reasonable territory for a T2D. Five years ago I had a small brainstem stroke, which messed me up in a number of ways, one of which was to cause my meds to no longer work. I went on a new med, and 4 years ago it put me into the hospital for 10 days. They put me on insulin after that, but it did not help, and I proceed to gain weight. I'm 6'3" and at 270 lbs, I said enough. I dropped the insulin and quickly lost 10 lbs without change to blood sugars. I started a diet that starts by setting your protein based on lean body mass, approximated by sex and height. The level is your MINIMUM protein, which you can go over by 50%. For me, that level is 160 gr / day. Carbs are also set, but this is your max - for me it is 40 gr / day. Your fat is set as a range. Where in the range depends on what you are trying to do - if you want to lose weight, then you choose a level near the bottom and you'll supplement your body's energy needs with your own fat. You will set it differently if you want to maintain or increase your weight. They also encourage extended fasting to encourage autophagy and stem cell activation. It is assumed that you will gain at least half the weight back. On my last fast, I did not start gaining weight back, even though I was doing resistance training, so I added in Macadamia nuts, which have the best fat/carb ratio for nuts. That did the trick too well and gained all the weight back plus some, and I've had to cut back, and now I'm close to my pre-fast weight again at 215 lbs. I did this diet because of my diabetes, not for AD, but I notice that I no longer get brain fog. I had a recent MRI done and went in for a baseline AD checkup at UCSF. I did fine cognitively and after comparing my after stroke MRI to the new one, the neurologist said there was no change, and I had the brain of a 40 year old! I believe this diet kept me from continuing down hill and dying.MattCo wrote:Good question, mike. I do not need to lose more weight. My understanding is that some level of fasting is just as important as diet. It exercises the switch between glucose and fats? And that has to be good for my 3/4 brain, no? How much, I have no idea and am open to suggestions. I tried omad for a few days and, to be honest, it took 4 hours to eat that much food anyway so I don't know if it's omad or just a 4 hour eating window.
35gr of carbs a day? That's amazing. Now that I've been following what I eat it's clear I was eating a lot of carbs before. 35 is like a slice of bread. If you don't mind my asking, after 4 years how is it going for you?
Sonoma Mike
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Re: More questions about diet
So a few things...people DID have diabetes and Alzheimer’s back then, we just didn’t know how to diagnose them as such. I’ve seen historical pieces that reference sugar in the urine in the 17th century. Also, people didn’t tend to live such an old age, so this may not be much of an argument to hang your hat on.
Also, people in coastal areas DID eat a lot of fish. Even today many do. For example, my cousin married into an Inuit family in Alaska that lived mainly on one of the Aleutian Islands. They primarily eat what they catch—seal, salmon, etc. The farming season is very short, so their diet is high in fish. His family do well, health-wise. I know my ancestors from coastal Scotland and Nordic regions ate a lot of fish.
That said, I learned a lot from the primer, and I continue to refer back to it—but it isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The basics seem to be to eat more vegetables than meat. To avoid most forms of sugar. To eat more fatty fish. Get lots of olive oil. Exercise more. Fast at least a little. (Bredesen says 12 hrs minumum, which is easy to do.) Sleep well. Avoid excessive saturated fats.
I’ve found these parameters can be applied to most diet paradigms, depending on your personal genetics and needs. I lean towards a low carb Mediterranean diet. I eat some grains, but I keep them high fiber and no sugar added. If I have fruit it’s fibrous. I eat 8-10 servings of plants a day: vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, etc. I eat meat only once every week or two, sticking to plant proteins or fish proteins. I fast 14-16 hrs a night, following time restricted eating.
There’s room for adaptation here! I was fasting more and stressing more, but my Epigenetics minded GP took me to task for it. My numbers are good, but the stress of managing it all was making my HPA axis crazy. So I backed down, reprioritized, reviewed my Epigenetic profile, and things have been good. Each of us can adapt this our own way.
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Also, people in coastal areas DID eat a lot of fish. Even today many do. For example, my cousin married into an Inuit family in Alaska that lived mainly on one of the Aleutian Islands. They primarily eat what they catch—seal, salmon, etc. The farming season is very short, so their diet is high in fish. His family do well, health-wise. I know my ancestors from coastal Scotland and Nordic regions ate a lot of fish.
That said, I learned a lot from the primer, and I continue to refer back to it—but it isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The basics seem to be to eat more vegetables than meat. To avoid most forms of sugar. To eat more fatty fish. Get lots of olive oil. Exercise more. Fast at least a little. (Bredesen says 12 hrs minumum, which is easy to do.) Sleep well. Avoid excessive saturated fats.
I’ve found these parameters can be applied to most diet paradigms, depending on your personal genetics and needs. I lean towards a low carb Mediterranean diet. I eat some grains, but I keep them high fiber and no sugar added. If I have fruit it’s fibrous. I eat 8-10 servings of plants a day: vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, etc. I eat meat only once every week or two, sticking to plant proteins or fish proteins. I fast 14-16 hrs a night, following time restricted eating.
There’s room for adaptation here! I was fasting more and stressing more, but my Epigenetics minded GP took me to task for it. My numbers are good, but the stress of managing it all was making my HPA axis crazy. So I backed down, reprioritized, reviewed my Epigenetic profile, and things have been good. Each of us can adapt this our own way.
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Re: More questions about diet
There are too many constraints. I suggest not following them. I was in your shoes when I found out a couple years ago, hopefully my responses can help.MattCo wrote: Sorry, I'm just so confused. This topic seems to have been beaten to death but I still don't know what is even reasonable. There are so many constraints that it's hard to believe this is actually healthy.
I think stress and lack of processed junk food (i.e., full of strange chemicals and oxidized oils) is the biggest factor. Sure, they had things to worry about (e.g., food, surviving winter, etc.). They were more active, didn’t stare at synthetic light screens after the sun went down and therefore got better sleep, didn’t stress about random things on the internet.MattCo wrote: Issue #1) Before there was such great science and before we screwed up the oceans and the cows, lots of people just ate what they had and nobody had diabetes or Alzheimer's. What about those diets?
Why are you avoiding carbs? Because this website and a couple doctors suggested it? Some people here interpret some studies to argue that you should avoid carbs, but you can find many differing opinions elsewhere. Just eat carbs from whole natural sources (e.g., grains, tubers, etc.), and don’t worry about it.MattCo wrote: Issue #2) In order to get below 50 carbs a day I would have to increase my fats to between 150-200 grams/day. If that were just olive oil I would blow my Omega 3/6 ratio way out of the water. If it were salmon I'd burn out my kidneys. I don't believe there's any combination that would work.
You’ll get enough fiber if you eat whole natural foods, and don’t eliminate grains and tubers (some of the most fiber heavy foods).MattCo wrote: Issue #3) Few carbs means few sources of fiber. Half of a cabbage gives me a third of the fiber I need. So 1.5 cabbages would conflict horribly with eating in a short window or my stomach would explode.
Keep eating nuts and seeds, and don’t worry about the 3/6 ratio; it only matters if you’re eating loads of rancid fats or processed oily junk (which contains rancid fats).MattCo wrote: Issue #4) Balancing omega 3/6 ratio really means little nuts/seeds because they're all really high in O6. And that sucks because I really like nuts and seeds.
Don’t worry about this. Saturated fat has long been associated with heart disease, but this was after people started eating processed modern diets.MattCo wrote: Issue #5) Low saturated fat removes everything but avocados, olives, and things that are unsustainable or full of mercury.
Consider this: a typical 8 oz bad of chips contains 24 g of saturated fat. Do you realize how many people eat multiple bags a day?
Compare this to an 8 oz steak, which contains 20 g of saturated fat depending on the cut. This is a lot of steak, you’ll be much fuller from eating this compared to a bag of chips.
My point is that it’s hard to get too much bad stuff from natural sources. Eat natural whole food and don’t worry about it.
Fasting has been shown to have some benefits, but it isn’t necessary. An active lifestyle is way more important.MattCo wrote: Issue #6) I tried one meal a day. I probably need to eat at least 2500 calories a day and that won't happen in one meal. I realize some people just want to lose weight but I'm at the point where I just want to gain weight. The fasting is not too hard, it's all I have to eat in a short time that is really difficult.
Yes, this is the case. People often look for the “easiest” fix, and for some people simply changing their diet is easier than getting outside, exercising and sweating, and working on their relationships and happiness, all of which have a stronger impact on overall health.MattCo wrote: So, while I respect the science, is it possible we're just a bunch of blind guys around an elephant and aren't looking at the whole picture? Have we come up with so many limits for each part of the elephant that we've lost the big picture?
We’re more inactive, stressed, sleep deprived, and disconnected from ourselves and each other.MattCo wrote: Q1.1) Back in the 50's very few people got Alzheimer's or diabetes. What changed? We know there was less sugar, grains, and junk food, the cows grazed, and the people didn't. If we went back to that would we be okay?
They were healthy because they ate natural whole foods, before they were introduced to processed junk food.MattCo wrote: Q1.2) There are Asian countries that used to eat high carb, very low sugar, low fat, lots of fish. How was their diabetes/Alzheimer's?
People living by the coast have been eating fish for ages. People living on land have been eating land animals for ages. We’re a diverse species, and we can eat anything. There is no magic O3/O6 ratio.MattCo wrote: Q2.1) We've never eaten a lot of fish. Most of our O3s came from grass fed cows. So what O3/O6 ratio do we really need?
Refer to my above comment on saturated fats. Eat whole foods and you’ll be fine.MattCo wrote: Q2.2) Is the problem with saturated fats the O3/6 ratio? i.e., if the ratio is kept healthy (whatever that is) are higher levels of saturated fats okay?
Because nuts are healthy, and the O3/O6 ratio is not important unless you’re eating inordinate amounts of O6 via unnatural means like processed junk and rancid oils.MattCo wrote: Q2.3) Why does anyone say nuts and seeds are healthy, given how much they totally screw up the O3/O6 ratio?
Ketosis is just a backup plan in case no carbs are available. We can be healthy on keto or off keto, our bodies are great like that. It’s not necessary, however, unless you have a medical condition. For me, carbs give more energy for more activity, what about you?MattCo wrote: Q3) If a person can limit their food to a 4 hour window will they go into enough ketosis, no matter what they eat, to do okay? Just a thought experiment: If someone eats low fat and high carb/fiber in a 4 hour window and just sucked up the hunger pain, would their insulin be okay?
Only anxiety-ridden people with too much time on their hands to worry about stuff on the internet think about these things. Anxiety is bad for your physical and mental health.MattCo wrote: Is this what the Nigerians do?
High lipids are associated with heart disease, and extremely low lipids are associated with other issues. Somewhere in the normal range is perfectly fine, and in that case these tests are not useful unless you have a medical condition that requires monitoring of certain biomarkers. These tests can be useful for people living unhealthy lifestyles (inactivity and processed junk food), since this is associated with abnormally high lipids, and it can serve as a wake-up call to people who need to make a change.MattCo wrote: Q4) What are the lipid panel goals? and what tests are important?
You’re welcome. Don’t stress too much about diet, but:MattCo wrote: Thanks!
1) Exercise your mind and body daily, but not so much that it’s stressful.
2) Prioritize rest and sleep to reflect and recover. Sleep is the best way to detox your brain.
3) Eat natural whole foods. Fruits & veggies, nuts & seeds, tubers, grains, quality meats and dairy. Avoid anything that you have a bad reaction to. Learn to cook, use spices and herbs, and enjoy your food. Treat supplements like medicine... If you don't have a medical condition then you don't need it.
4) Work on your relationships. A strong social circle promotes mental health.
5) Work on your happiness. Pursue your goals. All the previous points make this part easier.
These things are known to promote health. You can live healthily by eliminating entire food groups (e.g., carbs), but it’s not necessary unless you have a medical condition.
Re: More questions about diet
I signed on to ask a question, and having read this thread, perhaps my question is less of a concern. Nevertheless, here goes:
I have posted several times re my challenges with keto and weight loss. In 2020 I attempted keto and could not maintain weight. In 2021 I tried to regain weight but within the confines of the plan as much as possible, but loosening up a bit, with minimal success. In 2022, I had an accident that put me in the hospital for 5 1/2 days and within a week was way, way too thin. That was at the end of January, and I have a pretty intense work deadline coming up, and since the accident, it has been an issue of dealing with what is most urgent: the work task awaiting, rest for my healing body, weight gain.
I decided weight gain was the most important dietary issue for now. I have doubled down, eating bread 2 x per day. I have gained more weight in 2 months than I did in all of 2021, when I was attempting to gain weight without bread. This makes no sense to me. If a pound is about 3500 calories, then how can adding a couple of slices of rye bread make the difference?
Does bread do something that causes the metabolism to slow down? I am not that attached and can give it up and probably should since I have two sides of a gluten intolerant gene, (I take enzymes for gluten when I eat bread, in case enzymes help) but I have already determined that I cannot gain weight (in fact can barely maintain weight) on olive oil, avocados, and nuts alone.
Thank you for any insight.
I have posted several times re my challenges with keto and weight loss. In 2020 I attempted keto and could not maintain weight. In 2021 I tried to regain weight but within the confines of the plan as much as possible, but loosening up a bit, with minimal success. In 2022, I had an accident that put me in the hospital for 5 1/2 days and within a week was way, way too thin. That was at the end of January, and I have a pretty intense work deadline coming up, and since the accident, it has been an issue of dealing with what is most urgent: the work task awaiting, rest for my healing body, weight gain.
I decided weight gain was the most important dietary issue for now. I have doubled down, eating bread 2 x per day. I have gained more weight in 2 months than I did in all of 2021, when I was attempting to gain weight without bread. This makes no sense to me. If a pound is about 3500 calories, then how can adding a couple of slices of rye bread make the difference?
Does bread do something that causes the metabolism to slow down? I am not that attached and can give it up and probably should since I have two sides of a gluten intolerant gene, (I take enzymes for gluten when I eat bread, in case enzymes help) but I have already determined that I cannot gain weight (in fact can barely maintain weight) on olive oil, avocados, and nuts alone.
Thank you for any insight.