Carbohydrate Withdrawal

I have recently started listening to the Healthy Mind, Fit Body podcast. I have enjoyed their take on how a lot of our eating habits are learned behaviors from childhood. At a very deep psychological level, we reward and punish ourselves with the nutrition (or lack thereof) we give our bodies, and diet is in a large way a manifestation of our self-esteem.

Background aside, I was intrigued by the evidence in favor of eliminating complex carbohydrates (cereals, breads, grains, etc.) in favor of more fat and proteins. Eating foods with a large concentration of complex carbohydrates causes your body to produce insulin to counteract the increased levels of blood glucose. It stimulates your liver and muscle cells to store glucose in glycogen. It also stimulates fat cells to form fats from fatty acids and glycerol. Meaning that if you eat a high carb meal with a complement of fat, the carbs are ensuring that the fat will not be used for immediate energy, but will rather be converted and stored. Burrito with sour cream, anyone? Bread and olive oil?

Plus, your liver will always produce slightly more insulin than is needed to deal with the blood sugar spike. Which means that after decades of spiking your blood sugar, there is a good chance that it will spike you. Type 2 diabetics have an abnormal glucose-tolerance test and higher than normal levels of insulin in their blood. Their body does not respond to and cannot use its own insulin. Yikes!

To test the effects of this, I have been consuming a vastly reduced amount of carbs in my daily diet. And today I felt like I must have been coming off of heroin. I was shaky, fatigued, weak, famished, and I could think of nothing but doughnuts and cookies. I craved them. And this is highly unusual, considering I rarely eat sweets. I reached a point of unbearable physiological (and probably psychological) discomfort and compromised with a sweet & salty trail mix. I felt instantly better and my mood was elevated.

Hello, my name is Nick and I've been addicted to carbs all of my life. I had never realized how much my energy depended on them. And I also understand that to be so dependent is to risk all sorts of diseases, among them Type 2 diabetes and cancer. I am leaning toward adopting a low-carb lifestyle based on how this trial period is playing out.