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Liver is possibly healthy and why supplements aren't always bad
One of the things that might be tried (to improve HCL) is to take in more SALT. (for the CL (NACL, H2OCL)
One of my suspicions is that many here are low adrenal, and low adrenal people need tons of salt.
My understanding of low HCL (I didn't have it, so my understanding isn't personal) is that you just need to top yourself up with it. And then you are good to go. Almost like it is a nutrient. You may run low again, if things like "not enough salt" keep happening. But I don't think you will back off on making your own.
Strangely, I'm also remembering something about baking soda and HCL... oh yeah the baking soda burp test. It was supposed to tell you about your HCL levels... Don't know if it works. https://loveleafco.com/blog/baking-soda-stomach-acid-test
In some ways, salt protects your gut. It's a bit sad that so many avoid it. I think our tastes will try to show us how much we need. We often over-ride our instincts--don't listen purposefully or ignore (distracted eating?). I think I actually sometimes have muscle spasms because I've overdone salt and NOT listened when my body was saying dude, that's a ton of salt. (cut to me eating huge salty pretzels and reading ggenereux.blog) Or maybe sometimes our needs are a bit cross-wired, where this organ needs more salt, while that organ doesn't! (it's called dis-ease for a reason!)
It is interesting to note that the salt shaker is right on the table so that everyone can listen to their own needs.
@joshz I used to supplement with betaine HCl. It was about 7 years ago and it helped me a lot. I think I took it for a couple of years and I then started reducing and then stopping it. I didn't have any trouble stopping it so for me it doesn't seem as if it down regulated my own HCl production. For me it was one of the clearest positive reactions I have had to any supplement.
@lil-chick makes an interesting point re salt. I developed POTS (postural orthostatic tachicardia syndrome), and one of the measures I use to control it is salt. I drink salted water throughout the day and generously salt my meals. I was taking about 10g a day for several years. (I have only recently been able to reduce this to 5 - 6g with no returning symptoms.) This (the salt loading) was after supplementing with the HCl but may have overlapped a bit, I can't remember. I seem to remember reading that salt could help with low stomach acid too.
I did do the bicarb burp test but didn't find it very reliable.
I found I was soon able to judge how many tablets to take with each meal.
Quote from tim on December 31, 2019, 7:25 pmHi Judy,
I like the first part of your article about the genome and the soma.
Interesting that you mention that it was Inuit men that ate most of the liver, would this mean that Piblokto may have nothing to do with VA or maybe liver consumption patterns varied among the different tribes?
Glycation: Don’t eat glucose. Your body can make all that you need.
The only long term zero carber I know about was Owsley "Bear" Stanley and he got both heart disease and cancer. It's hard to draw conclusions from one person's health though especially when Stanley had taken so many drugs in his life. My thoughts on zero glucose consumption are that a normal glucose metabolic state has scientific consensus on it being optimal compared with a ketogenic state. Carnivorous animals don't have a low protein ceiling like us and generate large amounts of glucose through gluconeogenesis, they don't eat the fat or much of it of their prey. We don't have the same capability for gluconeogenesis yet have large glycogen reserves that need to be constantly replenished and so obtaining glucose in the diet is much more efficient than any alternative. Optimally a meal contains plenty of glucose, saturated fat and mono unsaturated fat, these being the cleanest fuels for the body. Also, consuming zero glucose means quite a restricted diet micronutrient wise if one isn't consuming liver. Nutrients like Vit C, thiamin, folate, molybdenum, manganese are not supplied in adequate amounts.
Sorry to have taken so long to reply; I’m glad you liked part of my article.
As to glucose being one of the “cleanest fuels for the body:”
Advanced Glycation End-products are called by the deliberately chosen acronym, AGEs, because they contribute to aging when they accumulate in the blood. AGEs are blood cells that have sugar attached to them; the A1c test used by doctors to monitor diabetes control is a count of AGEs in the blood. You may have heard that glucose is “the body’s preferred fuel,” because it is burned first. It is burned first because the body wants to get rid of it as fast as possible to prevent glycation. Sugar (and starch, which quickly turns into sugar when ingested) provokes the release of insulin, the fat storage hormone. When we become insulin resistant, we can’t effectively remove the excess sugar, leading to metabolic syndrome, which includes diabetes, obesity, and CVD. Not so “clean” IMO.
As to glucose being necessary:
There are thousands of people who avoid dietary sugar. There are also many who are raising children who have never eaten it. Check out Dr. Jay Wortman, a doctor who is half Native American, who practiced in Vancouver, BC. Many of his Native American patients developed diabetes after giving up their ancestral hunter/gatherer lifestyle. To his dismay, he developed diabetes from following his own dietary advice. He knew that carbohydrates raise blood sugar, so he cut out all sugar and starch to buy some time while he figured out what to do—predictably, his diabetes symptoms went away. He started to advise his patients to follow his example: the results were made into a documentary film called, My Big Fat Diet. Fitness expert, Professor Tim Noakes, and diabetes expert, Dr. Richard Bernstein, reported similar experiences after becoming diabetic while diligently following conventional medical advice.
Dr. Wortman’s, daughter, Isobel, is one of several children I know who were raised without sugar. Isobel was never exposed to sugar or starch, even in the womb. She was skiing the men’s slope at Whistler when she was two. I met her when she was about three when he brought her along to a conference where he was speaking. I have to agree that she was an exceptionally calm, polite, and spirited child. Here is one of his blog posts about his “low-carb baby trial:” http://www.drjaywortman.com/blog/wordpress/2010/09/12/low-carb-baby-trial-n1/
The DRI (Dietary Reference for Intake), the document on which the USDA dietary guidelines are supposed to be based, says “the lowest level of carbohydrate compatible with life is zero,” in other words, we don’t need any but rather than go into a long discourse here about why I don’t think starch or sugar are essential to health, I will refer you to science writer, Gary Taubes. Here’s a review of his latest book, The Case Against Sugar:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/books/review/case-against-sugar-gary-taubes.html
(Gary’s first book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, was a sensation when it was published in 2007. That was 6 months after my first book came out, and he gave me a nice bump in sales!)
But there is a major caveat that might explain why Mr. Stanley did not find a sugar-free diet helpful (or maybe it could have been the previous 50 years of drug abuse?). Most of the low-carb advocates promote eating a lot of foods that are high in preformed vitamin A and are unaware of the pitfalls of following such a diet for a long time. A low-carb, sugar-free diet can certainly be low in vitamin-A as well, but you are not likely to hear that from most of the keto advocates. I’m testing such a diet. I don’t know if it is necessary to stay as low in carbs when you eliminate the vitamin A, but I want to find out if there are more benefits to be had from also cutting down on sugar.
Lastly,
I don't know much about Piblokto, but I did see that it is often observed in dogs as well as women, which might leave out the food connection altogether.
Hi Judy,
Thanks for your reply.
Stanley only endorsed eating liver very occasionally. He said that he would sometimes go without it for two years at a time. I think he did consume butter and eggs though.
Glucose is present regardless of if it is present in the diet or not though. In a healthy person excess glucose doesn't hang around for long. If we don't eat any then making glucose from protein creates waste products that are an unnecessary stress on the body. Also the liver has to work harder producing glucose from protein than if it didn't have to which is why Inuit had larger than normal livers. It is very simple for the body to absorb glucose and then store it as glycogen. Perhaps some people are genetically more suited to very low carbohydrate diets but I really don't see it as optimal based on how our physiology works. If it was optimal for energy and strength then it would be adopted by the best athletes because athletes need every advantage they can get.
I'm definitely on the salt thanks for the tip! Am doing White Sea salt after Grant smith said pink salt is contaminated from the processing which is what causes the pink. Just food for thought.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I will definitely look into that more.
My research on Glycation and AGEs shows that fatty foods, high protein foods and meat products have the highest AGEs while fruits and vegetables have the lowest. Please let me know if you think the research is wrong. I will post a link.
https://thepaleodiet.com/rage-of-ages-advanced-glycation-end-products/
Here's a shortcut to the AGEs score chart for foods.
https://thepaleodiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/RAGE-OF-AGES-TABLE-2.jpg
I totally believe that all people should look back at their ancestors to help them figure out their macro nutrient ratios. An old guy that is my ancestor told me that he felt that sugar and starch were much different from one another. Starch being something normal and good, sugar NOT.
This didn't jibe with all the theoretical stuff I'd read, but in PRACTICE it works for me.
My ancestors went to great pains to have starches at each meal. I actually have very little sweet tooth and get a bad taste in my mouth after sugar, stomach ache sometimes too. Fuzzy teeth.
Starch (such as yeast bread or white rice) gives me even mood and energy and no bad taste or stomach ache.
I have been low carb and ultra low carb (albeit, I was VA toxic at the time). Low carb might have been doable. With ultra low carb (under 30 g) I lost too much weight, stopped mensing, and my hormones went spastic.
I'm a person who needs tons of calories (high metabolism). Possibly shows that my thyroid is stronger than my adrenal. Perhaps low carb might be a better fit for low thyroid people?
One thing I've noticed though: almost all special diets end up low calorie! The old fashioned square meal is pretty good about being high calorie. Matt Stone (don't know if he still thinks this) believed that high calorie was the road to higher metabolism.
IMO calories are the most important thing we get from our food and it is easy to loose sight of that!
Quote from joshz on January 4, 2020, 7:51 amMy research on Glycation and AGEs shows that fatty foods, high protein foods and meat products have the highest AGEs while fruits and vegetables have the lowest. Please let me know if you think the research is wrong. I will post a link.
https://thepaleodiet.com/rage-of-ages-advanced-glycation-end-products/
I have never heard that EATING AGEs is harmful. I do know that when people go on a low-carb diet, their A1c number (the count of how many AGEs are in their blood) goes way, way down very quickly. I have no idea why Cordain thinks they are harmful in the diet. Perhaps glycation is only bad when it affects our living tissues and damages our cells. Eating it would just be like eating protein and sugar; you would just digest it and it would not attach to the living cells in your body.
Quote from tim on January 3, 2020, 10:08 pmHi Judy,
Thanks for your reply.
Stanley only endorsed eating liver very occasionally. He said that he would sometimes go without it for two years at a time. I think he did consume butter and eggs though.
Glucose is present regardless of if it is present in the diet or not though. In a healthy person excess glucose doesn't hang around for long. If we don't eat any then making glucose from protein creates waste products that are an unnecessary stress on the body. Also the liver has to work harder producing glucose from protein than if it didn't have to which is why Inuit had larger than normal livers. It is very simple for the body to absorb glucose and then store it as glycogen. Perhaps some people are genetically more suited to very low carbohydrate diets but I really don't see it as optimal based on how our physiology works. If it was optimal for energy and strength then it would be adopted by the best athletes because athletes need every advantage they can get.
Keto is actually becoming very popular with athletes. Carb loading is passé. You can only store about 2,000 calories of glycogen, the storage form of starch/sugar. When you have used it up, you hit the wall and have to have a sugary drink like Gatorade to keep going. Those who are adapted to burning fat for fuel can run marathons using only their stores of body fat.
Stephen Phinney – who co-authored “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living” with his colleague, Jeff Volek – has spent decades studying the effects of a low-carb, high-fat diet in endurance athletes. Phinney’s work, along with a growing body of research, suggests that the human body can sustain high-intensity workouts for longer periods of time by using calories stored as fat, not the glycogen stores that most runners use that are loaded with tons of carbs and sugar before a race. “Keto-adapted athletes aren’t just telling us, they’re demonstrating this: Their recovery time is incredibly fast… More professional athletes, including LeBron James, Lindsey Vonn and Carmelo Anthony, are learning the benefits of a low-carb diet,” which makes him just a little grateful that his extensive research is finally starting to hit the mainstream. He says, “I’m kind of getting released from academic Siberia…” https://nypost.com/2018/03/19/heres-how-to-crush-a-race-by-running-on-a-keto-diet/
One more advantage, that I mentioned in my post here: https://www.carbwarscookbooks.com/eureka/ is that you don’t need as much oxygen on a low-carb diet. From the Washington Times: “The military is looking into a ketogenic diet for Navy Seals so they can stay underwater longer (they need to breathe less on keto because less carbon dioxide builds up in their blood).”
When you go low carb you loose about 5 pounds of fluids. The low carb flu is the temporary upset of your electrolytes.
I just read a study that said that low carb can lead to afib. https://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2019/03/06/10/29/low-carb-diet-tied-to-common-heart-rhythm-disorder. I believe this! When I had the low carb flu if felt as though my heart was beating out of my chest. Perhaps sometimes the heart rhythm doesn't normalize.
It's all very unclear what happened when Atkins died at age 72. It is said: He hit his head. He blew up with swelling. He had a weak heart. He might have had high blood pressure.
It's probably a horrible idea to bob up and down with your carbs. (good bye keto, it's VACATION!!! good bye keto it's CHRISTMAS! etc)
I'm sure it doesn't help that most people who resort to keto are VA toxic and are going to eat more of their fave fats (and fats are where VA hide!). Butter Bob is a person I still worry about, since he got vertigo and disappeared from the web.