My transition from LCHF to a whole plant based diet !

[namaha]

Please find attached my blood report during my LCHF journey in 2019.... All my lipid profile parameters were out of control..my hsCRP was very high indicating inflammation in my Arteries ..

My blood sugar was no good....fasting 122 PP144...HBA1c was 6.9 .. and my doctor put me on a statin for heart as per my doctor , I carry a high CV risk ... .... In fact these numbers were one of the best set of readings during my LCHF journey, after practised to perfection under able guidance of veterans.......... with all due regards for all ....not blaming anyone🙏 .....I learnt a lot from LCHF diet...In other words I had still worse set of readings when I started my LCHF journey...when Fat was at its highest...

As per doctors advice I took medications for heart & kidney .... only to stop after a couple of months due to side effects . Which made me to read more as to how to get rid of these medications and how to protect heart and kidney through diet !🙏

Those of you , who would like to know carbohydrate vs Fat for diabetes and for those of you , who missed my previous posts, I would like to clarify the science behind this as per research carried out by Cyrus Khambatta and a dozen of others and what worked for me ! I had given relevant links in my previous posts. Briefly to summarise here once again for benefit of all.

(1) once diagnosed with Diabetes, It is very common that all people around you would advise you to reduce carbs - people would say carbs is the culprit, so reduce carbs ....... and so on .......this is going on since time immemorial......it is not a rocket science that some one would teach you .....👍though nowadays most doctors would advise you to eat a Balanced diet .. which is sensible...all reputed international organisations such as ADA/ AHA/ WHO/ CDC and all Nations Health and family welfare dept would recommend a balanced diet. Please Google "balanced diet" to understand what it is ?

(2) But you normally follow advice based on Hear-Say from people all around you and you reduce carbs , increase your Fat & Protein .....and most would tend to eat protein and fat from animal sources to satisfy their taste buds ..

(3) But your body cells need Glucose and it is easy for your body to convert Carbs to glucose ..... but you are not eating enough carbs.....so your body is forced to convert a part of your protein and fat in to glucose by a complex process called Gluconeogenesis. So finally whatever you eat , body would convert it in to glucose as required..so while your PP sugar may be ok, but finally your body would get glucose from protein / Fat and you may not get much benefits out of it or may be some benefit for some ... But my conditions in fact worsened.

(4) when someone rejoice that he is able to reduce his blood sugar spike temporarily with a low carb diet , but he is not looking at his other health parameters..which could affect his heart and kidney......The fact is that when you minimise carbs and maximise Fat & protein , your lipid numbers goes up because of high fat , your kidney is put under pressure to clear out the nitrogenous waste.....so the result is Heart failure & Kidney failure....which are the Top two killers among diabetes in today's Low carb high fat kind of diet which most diabetes resort to.

(5) Not only this, once you eat excessive fat in your diet , your muscle cells get clogged with Fat molecules ..and the body cells do not allow glucose molecules to enter in these cells. .this is how you develop Insulin resistance - as per the research carried out by Cyrus Khambatta , ph.d, and a dozen of others.....excessive fat and protein are the top 2 reasons of progression of insulin resistance! Links to this research is available in my previous posts .

(6) How to know that you have developed IR ?

It is very simple , if by eating a small amount of carbs , your blood sugar spikes, and by eating a fruit if your blood sugar spikes. it means you are having a strong IR and your muscle cells are clogged with Fat. That means you are eating a lot of fat especially from animal sources. Naturally, These kind of people would hate carbs, fruits , plant foods ,in the process they may be able reduce HBA1c in the short term to some extent , but they may continue with IR and their IR may get worsened.... and they may carry heart / CV and kidney risk in the long term .

(7) so what I learnt what is the best way to manage your diabetes , at the same time , avoid heart and kidney failure ? Avoid / Minimise Fat, Protein from animal sources which are known to cause IR as per research by Cyrus Khambatta, Neal Barnard , Esselstyn., And many others...... . All links are given in my previous posts along with long term diet trial results that were carried out at various countries for 10-20-30 years.

So, I give due importance to the carbs that it deserves, I stick to whole plant foods, complex carbs , whole grains , legumes , vegetables, fruits, some seeds /nuts ....I don't count any carbs ... .no calori count either...eat to my heart's content..whatever I like within the whole plant food universe......eliminate animal food from my diet ...... blood sugar easily gets cleared ...they get easy entrance to the cells......as cells don't get clogged by fat molecules.....so high way is clear...no traffic jam ...🙂 and do physical exercise , yoga, Pranayam.. which keep me fit.. ..post meal physical exercise I do as I mentioned in my previous post. Though physical exercise I have been doing right from my diagnosis of T2.

.....whole plant foods have a lot of fiber, vitamins , minerals , phyto nutrients, which not only reduces spike, but gives protection against different viral infections...enhances body immunity ...protection against CV risks and kidney failure .......select the whole plant foods which suits your body.... the entire plant kingdom is yours.....

...initially for the first 3-6 months , I had spikes since I had IR due to my low carb high fat diet... but gradually I had overcome ....I still keep changing my different food items , cooking process.....but within the universe of Whole plant food ....zero processed food.

I have come a long way ....and this is what worked for me....may or may not work for everyone....but it is not my discovery ...😀

There are at least a dozen of nutrition experts / doctors from USA have done some research on whole plant foods..and I had given such links pertaining to research work in my previous posts..

Having said that most people tend to forget that everybody's diabetes is different.....depending upon his genes, Race- Asians vs USA/ Europe / Africa. Some are obese with excess insulin and some are lean and thin with low BMI and with extremely low insulin.....and vice versa....all permuation and combinations are possible..even best of the doctors get puzzled at times.

So one should speak what worked for him for diabetes control rather than directing others to follow a specific diet followed by him and give an opinion - none of us are experts I believe...but what we can share is our experience.

If you have a look at my blood report during my LCHF days...vs Now ...you would find a big difference 🙏

healthunlocked.com/diabetes....

healthunlocked.com/diabetes...

(8) On fruits , I had made one comprehensive post...and I have nothing more to add. There is everything in it...who should eat and who should avoid, what are the limitations .. .everything is covered ...there is nothing much to debate ...if you have read fully. .and understood the contents there in.

[vyas123]

Excellent.Whatever you said is very normal thing believed and proven in labs since immemorial times as you said correctly. High carbs are bad and high fat is even worse but lchf used to say fat is super food and many many people fell for it. Per lchf, except fat there is nothing good in this world. There was quite a lot of abuse on whoever questioned lchf.

Better late than never, excellent work, experiences, articles are up now in support of plant based foods to save the humanity, as per me at least.

[vyas123]

Steamed Bendi, brinjal, bitter gourd, onion, garlic, capsicum, I started taking daily. Moderate in root vegetables once in a while. Also have been taking nuts, increased walks. And taking lemon guava, pears kind of fruits. Will update the results after couple months. Ver possible that vegetables will not have any effect on some. Seems all look to be dependent on the body and effects differ from body to body. There are popular people that did lot of work and supported lchf too similar to the people that worked on plant based foods. On some people, fats have negligible bad effects it seems but on some, very bad effects. No experienced cardiologists in my experience and knowledge, who have seen and treated thousands of patients have ever said any oil including olive is good. I have watched some videos of Dr Devisetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya, and he too said so.

[sandybrown in reply to vyas123]

Hi,

I looked fro video clips found this one below:

youtube.com/watch?v=FUMohmy...(Not working as expected?)

Would it be possible for you to provide video clips to answer this point:

"No experienced cardiologist who has seen and treated thousands of patients will never say any oil including olive is good. I have watched some videos of Dr Devisetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya."

From my research, oil, from coconut, avocado, olive and Gingelly oil are good for hearth's health also the fruits!!. How the oils are made is also important.

Pure butter in cooking is excellent, in cooking heating the oil to a higher point can be bad.

Thank you.

[vyas123 in reply to sandybrown]

Thanks for sharing your opinions and experiences. I will certainly trace the clippings and share. I will modify the wording no cardiologist to no cardiologist in my experience and knowledge. Would be great to know that the information you shared about oils, is that direct advise by doctors to you or from the internet? Asking only for category of information and not judging or concluding anything. Extra Virgin oils and low flame cooking, I too believe, are better than other types but did not know they are good for heart in absolute sense. Was under opinion they are relatively better.

[sandybrown in reply to vyas123]

Hi,In UK, doctors listen to your problems, do tests and give medication only, no advice on diet given. Diet advice is another department. I used to go to conference where Asian doctors speak on diet, take notes and ask questions and learn.

When it comes to cooking oil, ghee and butter, I learned a lot from TV medical program. In cooking program, both butter and oil are used together to control the burning of oil.

I do not use veg spread, this is because I saw a TV program how it is made!!!!

I cook, leeks in butter, spinach boiled end towards the end butter, Methi leaf is also cooked in butter.. The taste is different. I have seen my grand mother towards the end of cooking will fry many things in burning oil and spoon 2 or 3 to all curries, my father did not like that as burnt oil used to up set his stomach.!!

Please do not use good quality oil for cooking, use it is food like ghee on lentil.

In UK, my wife to this for lentils.

[sandybrown in reply to vyas123]

An interesting report on cooking :

dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...

Excellent reading.

[vyas123 in reply to sandybrown]

I too believe ghee is good as I somehow have more faith in our ancient methods.After seeing constantly changing opinions, research results, lost faith in every theory. Going by own experiences after checking certain kind of food and effects on various health parameters. Believe in having anything quite moderately even if it is known to be great product as per some researchers. Of course need to keep in mind overheating oils kind of things but by minimising oils intake, we may be saved from things that are done wrongly (like over heating, type of oils kind)

[vyas123]

I am telling about my experience only. Pardon if there is some language problem in the expression. Nobody can know the experiences of everyone. Not said anything about nuts. I have been taking nuts for many years. It is horrible to get in conversation with lchf supporters for many years now. You give your opinion I give my opinion. Once lchf comes in, fight starts. People take it personal why? Very objectionable language and reaction I see with lchf supporters, I don't know why. Other people in the group, please advise and express your opinion on my post if there is anything objectionable or offending things, will surely correct. Whatever anybody says is their experience, that's all I meant. I also said, body to body, things can can differ too. Unless exceptions, I feel, my experience is general too. Again it is my opinion. When you are entitled to your opinions, I think I too am entitled to my opinions and also to express my experiences. My understanding about olive oil is it may be lesser bad compared to others. I have no basis, no research nothing just opinion from lots of reading and my experience as a patient, definitely not reliable, based on one experience. All my statements are from my experience, family experience and the doctors that I have seen but not on the basis of doctors writings and videos on the internet. Not saying they are right or wrong.

[vyas123]

Though it is such a general thing but now facing questions, who, where, it is said that all fats are bad. Agree the quantum of effects may differ from body to body, fat to fat.

[sribri]

Thanks Namah for the wonderful post. For last two months I am following plant based whole food with almost no diary. Yesterday I got by blood test report.Fasting 96, PP 78, A1C 6.0.(Ok numbers)

However my cholesterol is high. It was a little lower when I started plant based whole food diet.

Now it is

Total 217, trig 227, ldl 153

Completely out of normal range.

How did you bring your cholesterol down? I would appreciate if you can share your experience.

Thanks Regards

[AkhilG in reply to sribri]

Did you try cutting all oils, from your diet? According to Cyrus Khambatta, Jeff Novick and Dr. Neal Bernard, when you are on WFPN (Whole Food, Plant-Based), try to cut all animal products, oils, and eat minimal nuts so that your fat % should not exceed more than 15% . If you feel comfortable try doing that and see if your overall Lipid Profile improves.

[sandybrown]

Human body makes 80 % of cholesterol for the body to function, the other 20 % is from what goes into our mouth!

Plant based diet has no cholesterol!!!

This is a medical question to your doctor why? the cholesterol has increased.

[AkhilG in reply to sandybrown]

Plant based does not mean that you can eat fatty plant based foods and oils such as Olive oil, Coconut oils, nuts. While they are all plant based but they are very high in fats and specifically Saturate Fats which can mess up your lipid profile.

[AkhilG in reply to sandybrown]

Did you or someone else has ever been advised ..oh your fat levels are low so start having fatty animal or plant based foods or oils in your diet? No Dr. has ever advised me to start taking more fat because my fat levels are drastically low. Just my opinion based upon my experience.

[sandybrown in reply to AkhilG]

I do not take any notice of any advice from people, I take a note of guidance!!!

I understand the fat from nuts and fruits, Eating a hand full of nuts each day and having avocado, peanut butter, olive oil and coconut oil is not a problem for me as I am maintaining my weight and blood numbers.

We eat fish and chicken twice a week. WE both my wife and I, have reached 70, we are eating what we want for healthy life.

[AkhilG in reply to sandybrown]

As we all react differently to what we eat, so I believe whatever works to keep us healthy is OK. I am going to be 70 next year and had struggles for over years keeping my numbers in line with LCHF, eating eggs, fish and on occasions Chicken too. However, it was frustrating as my numbers used to be all over the board. Recently I switched to Low Fat High Carb, no I feel less inflammation, lost about 6 lbs. weight since 1st September and I had rare times to see my numbers like 84, 89 . I will keep on trying this one if it helps to control my blood sugar numbers and keeping my BP low.

[GVGnanasooriyam]

CONTRADICTING MEDICAL OPINIONS

The class teachers teach what is in the syllabus given to them and the students will be failing if looked differently from what was taught by the teachers. The very first one who insisted the earth was not ‘flat, but ‘globe’ was punished by poisoning by his King!

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Truth is only relative and not absolute, so we should look at Nature when we have conflicts with issues like this rather than citing the ‘research findings’ of innumerable scientists who themselves are not in unison on any issue they concentrate on.

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Let’s go to the very beginning of the habitations of humans. No Vaccine, No Cereal farming, No hybrid crops, No Birth control, No WHO…….but a well-balanced equilibrium was prevalent in anything ….They were very strong and healthy.

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Carbs are not poisonous nor are fatty foods. Since no two individuals are alike in any aspect, the twins included, each individual should work out the ideal mix of foods that suits the lifestyle of the individual. Marketeering of LCHF or Carbs has no place in our approach in selecting what we eat that gives us the best of comfortable lifestyle.

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I am into my 70s and I find it a great relief, after giving more weightage to LCHF with due recognition of the benefits of vitamins, minerals, and various other aspects derived from a range of foods we know including carbs and fatty foods.

[sandybrown in reply to GVGnanasooriyam]

Excellent example!

There is protocol, every country doctors follow that as per the license to practice.

I Am 74, retired I worked in networking used Cisco network equipment, I had to take industry exams, even if the answer to a question is incorrect, it had to be Cisco way.

In a class of 20 in a training course, one may have the correct answer but 19 disagree with the answer, there is no way this can be true.

In School , chemistry lesson, teacher put a question on the black board, what is the reaction with copper and water. Every one started to work on the answer, a few did not look for answer. Teacher asked for people who says there is no reaction to stand up, a few stood up and there was a loud laugh this is because the majority sat down.

Then teacher asked how many people go to the tea shop to buy tea and looked at the copper cylinder where the water is boiled!!! Today water and milk is boiled in aluminium pots.

The bottom line is, look at what is in front of you and ask question on food and drinks before to take both food and drinks for a healthy life.

[guru64]

Thanks for the post namaha, let me check your links. What's your diet like btw? When you say plant-based, is it vegetarian or is it plant-based meat you get these days? Thanks!

[AkhilG]

Hi Namha, It seems like I have been following the same path like you from LCHF to Whole Food, Plant-Based (WFPB) after learning about Cyrus Khambatta and bought into his research and program. I am in the initial stages of WFPB. The only challenge I have is cutting down the Oil completely and wonder what your experience has been. The only concern I have that in this initial stage I see my dawn phenomenon very strong as my fasting number is like 160 or around that and I hope it is all due to IR and overtime these numbers would improve. What are your thoughts about it? Is there anything I should do to control in this early stage or continue and hope that it would normalize later on? I also was fascinated by Jeff Novick the nutritionist who has worked Dr. McDouggal. He has very good Youtube Video (youtube.com/watch?v=0CdwWli...(Not working as expected?) learned a lot about Calorie density and what to eat and what not. Especiall , I was fascinated by Okinawa people's diet and the fact that they live the longest, healthiest and the sweet potato was the main part of their diet and they only had about 12% diet mostly from plant sources, the protein was 39% of their diet which was also mostly from plant sources.

[AkhilG]

By the way, here is the link for Dr. Neal Bernard: youtube.com/watch?v=BnHYHjc...(Not working as expected?)