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EventsInsulin, the obesity epidemic and a giant German baby
The obesity epidemic starts early in life: Germany has a new record for “heaviest baby”: 13,5 pound Jasleen. She was delivered without the help of a C-section.
- Huffington Post: Baby Jasleen, Born At 13.47 Pounds, Is Germany’s Heaviest Baby Born Vaginally
- CNN: Oh baby! Mother gives birth to 13-pound girl in Germany
The cause of heavy babies is often maternal obesity and gestational diabetes – conditions with abnormally high insulin levels. Insulin is a fat-storing growth hormone that does not just affect the mother but also the unborn child. The mother to Jasleen, not surprisingly, had gestational diabetes.
The most common cause of abnormally high insulin levels resulting in obesity and diabetes (and heavy babies) is eating excess carbs.
The smartest way to avoid these things is to avoid eating excess carbs. Why? A low-carb diet is an effective way to lower insulin levels. And normalizing the fat-storing hormone insulin tends to normalize weight for most people (and any present unborn babies).
So here’s another reason to do low carb: You won’t have to deliver a 13,5 pound baby.
If people don´t eat grains or sugar it´s really hard NOT to lowcarb (that is, get over 130 gr. of carbs a day, see http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/what-is-a-low-carb-diet-researcher...). There is nothing of nutritional value in grans or sugar so no one is missing out on anything although most run-of-the-mills nutritiononists and dietitians seems to think whole grain to be a bit magical. ;-)
I eat low carb but not ketogenically so. Berries, fruits, tubers when I feel like it and in any amount I want. I have yet to reach 130 gr of carbs in one day. :-)
Now that may not be a very low carbohydrate diet and probably not ketogenic BUT compared to the 300+ grams of carbs most folks eat on the Western industrial diet or SAD it IS low carb :-)
LOW carb does not equal NO carb.
There are NO currently identified essential dietary carbohydrates* (essential in this context meaning that we must eat it because our body cannot make it). Not that I am advocating a zero carbohydrate diet but please try to list those nutrients which would be missed by not following your advice?
As for your opinion of Dr Eenfedlt offering poor advice, you might look at previous blog posts regarding his wife, who recently went through a very healthy and successful pregnancy while eating LCHF :-)
*http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/75/5/951.2.full
Is dietary carbohydrate essential for human nutrition?
Hack your own body and find out what works best for you. I've had two kids and am pregnant with a third. Grains give me high blood pressure in pregnancy and a myriad of other health problems. The difference in my two pregnancies was astounding.
@KIRK -- I have not yet listened to that podcast but I understood that breast-fed infants were in ketosis.
Given the strong association (only) between GD and Type 2 Diabetes it suggests, at least to me, that the infant's intrauterine environment is not shielded from the Mother's high Blood Glucose (BG) and/or high Insulin levels... potentially giving them, in effect, an head start on years of an high carb SAD diet; during a crucial stage in their development.
This may help to explain why Weston A, Price in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html outlines how it takes around 25 years for the transition from a traditional diet to a Western industrial one before the harmful effects become apparent, or why Type 2 Diabetes used to be known as "Adult Onset" Diabetes but why both these things are now increasingly seen in younger and younger people.
There are programs in some poorer parts of India to ensure that young women (especially when pregnant) are well nourished. Otherwise these women may go hungry in order for other family members to eat well. These programs recognise how vital it is to enure adequate nutrition for the unborn.
HeatherB was diabetic and likely on an insulin supplementation schedule. She needed carbohydrate because of the medication schedule, which she misinterpreted as necessary for the health of her baby.
Being forced to eat carbs, so the insulin you're told to take doesn't kill you or cause hypoglycemia?
Whatever happened to using a glucose meter to adjust the insulin dosage to your food and not the food to match your fixed insulin shots?
Anybody involved in medicine / nutrition handing out such information should get a different job.
I believe you are spot on with your speculation.
It is hard (sometimes impossible) -- even with a continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion or "insulin pump" to attain normal BGs at all times of the day. Some medical professionals rely on their past experience and prescribe both diet and insulin levels that has worked before for others and while it may seem self-evident that with fewer carbs per day the amount of insulin can similarly be adjusted down, sometimes it is safer not to tinker too much with what you know works :-)
Sorry, but I almost don't care, because I never eat pure carbohydrate for breakfest. Actually, nobody does. We eat food like steak, tomatos or avocados. Only bodybuilders think about isolated proteins and carbs. So, I think this "cabs are not essential" message is misleading. In nature carbs are usually bundled with micronutrients and often with a bit of protein. If you say that "carbs are not essential" it does not say anything about nutritional value of potato, brocolli or apple.
Don't get me wrong, I'm big fan of LCHF. My ketones were 1.2 last week. I'm just tired of this "essential" argument.
BTW, recently I've adopted a new rule for my diet. It goes like this: "If you need artificial micronutrient supplements to feel good then your diet is wrong."
"Shame on you for being a doctor and posting this and potentially causing harm to mother's and their babies while they carry them" - this is heavy accusation
I am waiting for the name of that nutrient HeatherB -- seriously.
I also agree that what we need to focus on is "real whole food" which as you rightly say, tends to come "bundled", rather than some deconstructed view of food as macronutrients.
My point was simply to address Heather's notion that by reducing our intake of foods with carbs, we were somehow in jeopardy of missing essential nutritional elements. I'm sorry if you are already well versed in this idea and you find it tiresome to hear it repeated... but it seems that it bears repetition for a great many others out there :-)
As for what people eat for breakfast.. you and I might eat steak (when money allows), bacon, eggs etc... but how many chow down on cereal, toast, jam, OJ, waffles, syrup..?
Granted the 1% milk, "heart healthy" margarine on the toast or vegetable oils in the waffles might ensure it is not a 100% pure carbohydrate breakfast but it is still massive shot of sugar and refined starches at a time of day when it seems so many our bodies are least able to tolerate it.
When the mainstream message, shouted across the media, food adverts, food packaging, cooking shows, government policy and health professionals is that: a diet rich in carbohydrates is essential to health then what recourse do we have except to point out that they are not only incorrect but are potentially offering damaging advice?
I would tend to agree and I also rely on good food, locally sourced and generally home prepared rather than any supplements. I take nothing personally.
That said, unless you get enough sun exposure (especially if you are a darker skinned immigrant to a Northern latitude) then your Vitamin D may be lacking.
A person's previous diet over many years or decades, may have left them long-term metabolically damaged (as mine has) in which case you may require some supplementation no matter what you eat.
My rule is that there are no hard and fast rules that apply the same to everyone :-)
BTW, did you see this article?
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/the-vitamin-myth-wh...
I found it interesting.
Not that I am advocating it for everyone but if I only ever ate steak from grass fed & finished cattle, plus eggs from hens raised on pasture, then what nutrients am I missing?
Again this does not deny any value that may be found in vegetables... taste, texture, micronutrients etc... but is there anything I cannot get from the steak and eggs?
Look to examples like Vilhjalmur Stefansson spending years among the Inuit (Eskimos as they were then called by Europeans) eating nothing but raw, frozen, or occasionally boiled fish for many moths of the year. Or his later trial under medical supervision, in New York where he and a colleague ate nothing but "meat" (fat and protein including organs and not just muscle) for a year... coming out as healthy of not healthier than before.
http://www.biblelife.org/stefansson1.htm
"Zero carb" is not a realistic scenario at least for me, as I do enjoy to cook, and eat a variety of tasty meals but it in my view it is a valid option for those who might chose it. There is an huge range of available foods out there in the real world.. from insects to potatoes.. I'm NOT telling anyone what they may or may not eat.
I was simply trying to respond to the fallacy that "unless we eat carbs we will die!". My response is NOT the same as saying we should not eat carbs :-)
BTW Inuit is already a plural word... the singular is Inuk :-P
Can't you avoid posting non-metric units????
That said I might try to include BOTH.
The non-fibre carb content in a lot of vegetables is negligible. With leafy greens for example, assuming a healthy gut flora you likely get more fatty acids from bacterial fermentation of fibre in the gut than carbs. And other gut bacteria might consume the negligible amount of sugar or starch in vegetables such as leafy greens and even celery.
Absolutely !!.
Sodium, maybe.
Lack of dietary saturated fat? Really? Why do we need saturated fat?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambooge
I find a lot about small veight losses and Hepatoxity!
Soo.. it could altso remove your liver!
Eat the fruit occasionaly if you find it delicius!
huh?
She stuffed herself with food and her husband would not have relations with her because Muslims do not have sex during pregnancy, so she used this to cover her frustrations. Meanwhile this huge baby is born naturally because on socialized medicine she would not be offered a c-section until she was nearly dead. The baby is hideous, I hope she will not be the next Arab child fed to near death like the boy in Saudi Arabia, but hey, keep the Men happy!