Re: I know I'm braggin in the right place -

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:40:50 +1100, Alan S
<loralgtweightandcarbs@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My aim was to see if you would do what you just did, give
the broad brush over-view tying things together for those
lurking and learning here.

Hi Alan,

I decided to take a look at my diet from a few years back that I've
had on my website. It is by no means current. The range of fruit and
vegetables available varies with the growers and the season.

However it makes an interesting starting point for discussion.

Quentin's Diet

This diet was written out for a friend. I'm not a doctor and have no
medical training. It is as well for you to know that I have two rare
forms of cancer. They are not diet related. The first multiple
myeloma MM, is a chance occurrence affecting women 1 in 100 000 and
men four times that. The second non-Hodgkin's lymphoma may well have
arisen from the chemo taken in an unsuccessful treatment of the MM.

Recent changes,

I've not had the ready cash to afford the supplements I once did. Also
I've been rather slack with my breakfasts so flax fibre consumption
has gone down and haven't made my own bread for years.


The diet could well be totally wrong for you. I know it would be wrong
for gout sufferers. Pregnant women would need to avoid the amount of
Vitamin A contained in the diet. There are bound to be many more
people for whom it is unsuitable that I don't know about.

Whatever you decide to eat is up to you.

I take oral medication for T2 diabetes and have regular lipid, liver
function and HgbA1c tests. I monitor bg on waking and at 9 pm daily.

My diet is eclectic. That means I have picked what works best for me
from other diets.

You may discern the influence of traditional diets from Crete, Hunza,
Okinawa or the modern low carbohydrate influences of Swarzbein,
Atkins, Challem. More significantly it reflects a selection of food
available to me here in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.

I have no idea what percentage of my calories come from carbohydrate,
fat or protein or what my total calorie intake is. My reason being I
haven't needed to know to continue achieving the results I was
seeking. which is control of blood sugar, weightloss, improved blood
lipids etc.

For those who are curious here are our weekly household consumption of
major food items. Who actually eats them isn't entirely determined. I
eat more than my wife.

Our two dogs eat their share.

Almonds 500 g
Virgin olive oil 500 ml
Flax fibre 500 g
Yoghurt 5 litres
Wholemeal bread, about half a loaf.
Capsicums, 1 bucket when in season.
Green vegetables. 2 leeks, 4 onions, 2 spinach, 2 endive, 2 lettuce,
Fruit eg apricots, persimmons, pears, guavas, tamarillos, kiwis. ?
perhaps 0.5 kg
Free range or Omega-3 enriched eggs 1 dozen.
Breakfast:

1/2 cup of berries, raspberries, blueberries, loganberries.
Heat in microwave for 1 minute.if frozen
Add two heaped tablespoons of flax fibre and lots of hot water.
Stir immediately.
Add a dollop of real yoghurt

1/2 cup of berries.
1 cup of full milk yoghurt.
A few walnuts.
Omelet. with a lot of green vegies (spring onions, leeks, broccoli,
courgettes) on weekends.


Morning tea:

1 small non-tropical fruit. Eg guava, tamarillos, kiwi.
I slice of Dovedale linseed and rye loaf.
Whole mandarin skin and all preferably.

Lunch:

1 cup of full milk yoghurt
1 fistful of almonds or nut mix.
1 fruit.
100g of canned salmon, kippers or sardines or smoked fish.
A fresh sweet yellow or orange capsicum or pear
Slice of Vogel bread preferably barley. (Not soy)
(My own bread includes buckwheat, barley, spelt, rye or kamut and rice
bran )
Half an avocado and one slice of bread.
Feta style cheese preferably goat or sheep.
Sliced salmon
Three dried tomatoes.
2 stir fried onions with virgin olive oil and turmeric
Afternoon tea:

One fist full of nut mix.
Sliced salmon on a cracker.
Smoked mussels.
I am strict about carbohydrates for afternoon tea.



Tea:

Angel Bay gourmet burgers and salad.
Thai salad. Schnitzel on bed of fresh spinach or lettuce.
Stir fry broccoli, spring onions, leeks with an egg or tinned salmon
added.
Curried lean meat with onion, canned lentils, coconut milk, turmeric,
cloves, garlic, cinnamon.

Mediterranean style baked capsicum, fennel bulbs, eggplant , red onion
with olive oil.
Feta cheese and salmon. Avoid bread with this meal.
Stir fry 95% fat free lamb, onion and watercress.
Lamb's fry with Cajun spice and one slice of toast and tomato sauce.
Liver of some sort once a week does wonders for B complex vitamins.
Desert is now called supper. I don't eat two meals at once. Allow two
hours.
Supper:

Eat entrée size portion of any meal I feel like.
Yoghurt and almonds
Rarely 1/4 cup of rolled oats micro-waved with a pinch of cinnamon.
One slice of my bread.
Two large strawberries and feta cheese.
A few hazel nuts cracked straight from the shell.


Carbohydrate raises serum insulin levels and that prevents the body
using its fat reserves. Carbohydrate is meant to be kept below 50 g
per day. Recently I have increased this to about 100 g per day.

Berries and high water leaf vegies are safe sources where it is easy
not to exceed the limits. Root crops are avoided since plants store
their carbohydrate there. Grains except whole grains are out.

As I understand it most of the bad cholesterol is made by the liver
from fast carbs white bread, brown bread, pasta, potato, carrots,
peas. Worse, if blood sugar levels become elevated then the sugar
attaches to the LDL cholesterol and cloaks it from the normal
mechanism that remove it.

[Note] (Since writing these comments some research has thrown doubt
on whether the damaged LDL is more dangerous. Before reaching a
personal decision on this matter I intend discussing the matter with a
professional statistician to find out for whom it is significant and
for whom it is not. It could be that it is significant for
non-smokers but smoking so damages LDL that it doesn't matter what
size the LDL is. Sound decisions take time.)

At least three meals a week include fish, shellfish or flax to get a
type of fat called Omega-3. Walnuts are a partial substitute. Walnuts
we keep in the deepfreeze. Fish is low in saturated fat. Correcting
Omega-3 is a long but vital process. Results begin to show after 3
weeks but not fully before 3 months. Omega-3 protects the heart and
brain. They need protection from heat, light and oxygen. (Think first
berries and garlic, then kale, spinach, red-fleshed plums, brussel
sprouts, broccoli as defenders of the Omega-3)

Flax fibre contains about 1% polyphenols. This is equivalent to a
generous allowance of Vitamin E.

The only cooking oil we find acceptable is extra virgin olive oil.

[Note] (Avocado oil is brilliant but expensive. Rice bran oil is
inexpensive and has a high smoke point making it suitable for
cooking.)

We buy EVOO locally. It is fresh and we can select picual or leccino
which have a peppery aftertaste indication powerful
anti-inflammatories.

Fish, yoghurt and liver supply B12.

When dining out ask for "Cholesterol and greens."
Most people understand this.

Berries and greens provide antioxidants and fibre with low
carbohydrate.

It is the oxidized LDL cholesterol produced by the human liver that is
dangerous. It is doubly dangerous when it cloaked by glycation ie
preserved by elevated blood sugar levels. This is why getting a low
HgbA1c is so important. Low levels mean the LDL is unmasked and the
HDL can get rid of it.

Bitter greens eg endive, globe artichoke increase bile flow and cause
the body to eliminate cholesterol. Soluble fibre gives it a one way
trip down the alimentary canal

The nuts I have chosen provide magnesium, folic acid, B6 and vitamin E
to stabilized heart rhythm. One brazil nut every second day is
sufficient for selenium. If Vitamin E were called Batman, selenium
would be Robin. .

Peanuts are not nuts.

30g of nuts per day are sufficient to give heart protection and
improve longevity. People contracted to eat 100g of almonds daily and
free to choose the rest of their diet lost weight. It is certainly my
experience that knocking back 70 g or a little over two ounces a day
is fine so long as carbohydrates are restricted.

The nuts chosen are low in saturated fats, and bad PUFAs; high in
mono-unsaturated oil like olive oil. Think of them as extra, extra
virgin oil. Never been pressed. All nuts are raw and unsalted.

Avocados provide about 25% mono-unsaturated fat. When this excellent
fat is used to replace an equal number of calories of carbohydrate it
raises HDL while not raising LDL. It also lowers triglycerides.
Avocados are an excellent source of boron which help prevent bones
from losing calcium and for guys is known to reduce the risk of
prostate cancer.

Mandarins are satisfying foods. The skins are rich in antioxidants and
the white stuff is mostly pectin a soluble fibre which sponges up
cholesterol. I sometimes eat the peel and throw the fruit to the dogs.

Drink plenty of water, tea (My choice is Dilmah Ceylon Supreme or the
Australian Mildura Green tea) Nettle tea and red bush tea are
surprisingly pleasant and cheap antioxidants to boot.

Insulbalance vitamin and mineral tablets by Clinicians.

Nutri-life 10, 000 Milk thistle encourages the liver to destroy
dangerous oxidised crap.
It also provides artichoke.

Defenzol, a deep sea shark liver oil provides squalene which improves
skin texture no end and alkoxyglycerols AKGs. Squalene is a precursor
for cholesterol but in practice improves the clearance of cholesterol.

Salmon oil capsules supply DHA and EPA

DHA is important for brain function EPA is important for muscle tissue
and is recognised as a precursor for natural anti-inflammatory action.

Alpha lipoic acid is a very special antioxidant. It is water and fat
soluble so it gets around. It regenerates Vitamin C, Vitamin E,
itself, glutathione. Wait that isn't all.

It also helps normalise insulin and blood sugar levels if taken in
large enough quantities.

Guy things: Eating shellfish and/or pumpkin seeds provide zinc.

Drinking nettle tea once a day goes some way to inhibiting the enzymes
that cause prostate enlargement.

Disclaimers

I am not a nutritionalist. I don't even play the part of one on TV.

I merely share my personal experience.

Along with the rest of us you are the most unique individual on Earth
and I haven't the foggiest what is right and/or safe for you. You're
on your own kid.


I'd like this to be a starting place for further discussion.

Best wishes,



--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin
.