Re: [fast5] Back to IF -- I think

Blood sugar is a tricky one, for sure.

One of the things I found out, via a lot of reading, is that *high iron absorption* is one of the causes of high blood sugar. This seemingly doesn't make sense, since high carb intake seems to be one of the culprits in the US. But, in the US, most high carb foods also have added iron. Iron in a meal acts very much like sugar does, except that the iron sticks around forever, while the sugar goes away.

Anyway, one of the things I did was to watch the iron content of a meal, and if a meal has, say, red meat, to have an iron-blocker with the same meal. Usually a cup or two of tea, and something with chili in it. Or an IP6 pill. Also I started donating blood, and we switched our diet to more fish, eggs, and poultry, less red meat. Using vinegar with meals (salad dressing: vinegar has some odd effects on iron). Avoiding Vitamin C or fruit or pop WITH meals (between meals is fine). In studies, even just donating blood a couple of times helps with T2 diabetes. Anyway, it worked. Our meals are mostly based on vegies (lots), fish/eggs/poultry, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes. Fruit for snacks.

I don't eat processed carbs much at all these days, but I have noticed some of them have a huge amount of added iron. Esp. the "healthy" cereals, which might have the entire recommended dose in one tiny serving. Natural iron, like the kind in brown rice, isn't very absorbable, but the kind that is added (ferrous sulfate usually) can be over-absorbed by some people, esp. if it is in a meal that has meat in it.

The thing about "carbs" is this: Most of the world is on a high-carb diet, esp. the billions who live mainly on rice. Rice is a high-glycemic carb, and there are also soft drinks and HFCS in those areas too. But that part of the world does not get diabetes or obesity much, and when they do, they associate it with "Eating American food". This is one reason I started researching why "carbs" might be an issue in the US: it just doesn't make sense. The main carb that causes problems is wheat, which wreaks havoc in many ways, and iron, which is basically toxic even though we need a little of it. The hallmarks of "the American diet" is mainly that it rotates around wheat, white potatoes, and beef. All of which are high-iron foods, and wheat and beef might both promote iron absorption. Soda pop and orange juice, more common in America, also promote iron absorption. Your average Japanese, Vietnamese, or Thai meal though, is low in iron. So is your average French meal, since they don't add iron to bread and they don't eat much beef.

There is a good paper about how iron affects diabetes:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12145144

Emerging scientific evidence has disclosed unsuspected influences between iron metabolism and type 2 diabetes. The relationship is bi-directional--iron affects glucose metabolism, and glucose metabolism impinges on several iron metabolic pathways. Oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines influence these relationships, amplifying and potentiating the initiated events. The clinical impact of these interactions depends on both the genetic predisposition and the time frame in which this network of closely related signals acts. In recent years, increased iron stores have been found to predict the development of type 2 diabetes while iron depletion was protective. Iron-induced damage might also modulate the development of chronic diabetes complications. Iron depletion has been demonstrated to be beneficial in coronary artery responses, endothelial dysfunction, insulin secretion, insulin action, and metabolic control in type 2 diabetes. Here, we show that iron modulates insulin action in healthy individuals and in patients with type 2 diabetes. The extent of this influence should be tested in large-scale clinical trials, searching for the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of therapeutic measures that decrease iron toxicity. The study of individual susceptibility and of the mechanisms that influence tissue iron deposition and damage are proposed to be valuable in anticipating and treating diabetes complications.

Also, high blood iron levels put you at risk for infections, since the infective bacteria tend to be iron-lovers. The way some antibiotics work is to chelate iron, keeping it away from the bacteria. You can get a blood test for ferritin to see what your stores are: just a plain "iron blood test" doesn't say much, since free iron, like glucose, goes up and down. But the things I've done to make us healthier are perfectly safe for most anyone, and it's a pretty easy experiment.

On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 11:07 AM, susieq_az1 <susannauw2010@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

I posted here some time back but have been away from IF/FF for about a year. The reasons are important, as they affected my overall health: I had pneumonia twice over the winter (the last time was March), with chronic congestion and asthma-type symptoms. I discovered in March that it was due to a severe hidden mold problem in my apartment. Needless to say, I haven't felt my best. In addition to being very sick for weeks at a time and feeling crappy the rest of the time, I was trying to keep income flowing in (I'm self-employed) and seek new clients, which was stressful. I've now moved into a new (brand new) apartment, and am slowly starting to feel better.

I didn't cope very well with all the stress, and developed very bad habits of eating way too many carbs and sugar, including liquid sugar in the form of coffee drinks. Of course, I gained weight, about 15 pounds.

Now that I'm starting to get settled in my new place (with a pool and gym), I am committed to being more fit and healthy. So the first thing I did was to start FF. It has been a fairly easy transition so far, even though I've only done it for about 3 days. The first two days, I ate anything I wanted. Yesterday, I started focusing more on healthy (lower carb, protein, veggies, fruits) food and planned meals.

Here's my concern/question. I also started checking my blood glucose, because it's motivating to me to see the levels stabilize, based on http://www.phlaunt.com, which I read about here. Generally, my levels are in the high normal range and they stabilize into the normal or low normal range.

However, now my blood glucose levels are much higher than they've ever been and they stay high. Though I only have a few days, the pattern seems to be roughly:

First thing in the morning: 140-185
Before break fast (approx 2-3 pm): 95 (high normal) (this is lower than day 1, which was 107, so there is a positive trend)
1 hour after dinner: 165
2 hours after dinner: 175-180

Clearly, my illnesses and foray into high carb has not been good for my system, as I've never experienced these levels before. It is taking at least 14-16 hours for my blood sugar to return to normal after dinner, when it should be taking 1-2 hours. From reading, it appears this indicates insulin resistance? This also helps explain why I'm still not feeling terrific even though my lung symptoms have decreased substantially.

I know that I've read here that people have reported higher readings with FF at first, though I think my higher readings are due to the high carb period, as I haven't been doing FF or lower carb long enough to help. I remember reading that FF and low carb have helped people lower their BG levels, and my own limited experience supports that.

My plan is to continue FF, choose high quality foods higher in protein and fairly low in carb (mostly meat, non-starchy veggies and some fruits) at two planned meals during my window. I also plan to resume taking probiotics to help with digestive issues I've experienced since taking the strong antibiotics, as well as a high quality multi-vitamin, calcium, and vitamin D. (I was diagnosed as D deficient a few years ago, but have fallen off the supplement wagon, which I know doesn't help.) Exercise wise, I'll start off easy at first with a few strength training sessions each week and walking in my new neighborhood, which has trails.

I'm going to go back and read the older blood glucose posts over the next few days. I guess I just need a bit of encouragement to stay the course and not get freaked out by the "you must eat every few hours" mantra I've been reading while researching blood glucose issues.

Any advice or encouragement is appreciated.

Thanks.

Susie

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