CherryAA
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 2,170
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
I've been a little quiet on the forum recently. The reason is because three weeks ago I embarked on a backpacking holiday in Japan with my nephew. He adopted LCHF despite already being young, slim and fit, after reading up on the science I showed him. The result for him has been boundless energy.
Over the last 3 weeks, I have visited 11 cities in Japan, traveled 3,000 km, hiked mountains, climbed thousands of stairs to places of interest ( e.g. 600 at a go in a number of shrines ). Admittedly he had to wait for me a few times, but then I'm 5ft 5 and 60 not 6ft 4 and 24.
During the entire holiday I ate to satiety ( and occasionally beyond) every day, but for both of us breakfast was completely un-necessary and often lunch too. In the evenings I tried out all sorts of stuff and I often ate rice - largely the Japanese way - which is towards the end of the meal. My average daily blood sugars was 6.0 and I very rarely went above 7.8 mmol.
I have stayed in youth hostels, in Japanese pods, in traditional Japanese cabins, and a couple of luxury hotels where I checked out the weight lifting machinery. I have been to villages in the middle of nowhere and to some of the largest cities on earth, I have caroused until 2.00 am and still been ready to go do another adventure the following day.
On my return, I weighed myself - 1 kg less than when I set off. I also pondered a little because I realised that what I have just done is something I could NOT have done when I was 16 years old or any year thereafter. I have memories of myself being the one who lagged behind ever since I can remember. I also now recall with horror that my family made ends by becoming taste testers for Heinz............
I now have totally normal metabolic markers and I am still obese. For anyone out there, who is discouraged because the weight loss is slow, your health benefits will STILL be enormous by sticking to LCHF and eventually the weight loss will come ( I hope).
I have so many great memories, though the one thing that will stick in my mind is the Yokohama Cup Noodle Museum. Invented by a Chinese chap living in Yokohama with the unlikely name of Momofuku Ando, his breakthrough came when he realised that if you fry ramen noodles in a big vat of oil it dries them out. You can then add all manner of chemicals to the resulting crispy noodles and reconstitute the lot with water later.
Invented in 1958, pot noodles were first sold internationally in 1971 and the resulting chart of sales around the world goes an awful long way to explain why it is that traditionally carb. heavy nations are now suffering an unprecedented explosion of diabetes. Japan, China, Indonesia, India, in all these countries the pot noodle is ubiquitous.
Mr Ando is currently a national hero in Japan and the Museum has cookery classes to show all the kids just how to make their very own pot noodles. It is enormously difficult to keep your cool when faced with the stark evidence of what went wrong and why and the whole thing still being peddled to school children.
My adventures in Japan solidified one thing in my mind - I don't think it is the carbs that have given rise to the explosion in diabetes - I think its the seed oils. When one adopts an LCHF diet with under 30g carbs, then sure blood sugars go down dramatically and that is great, however to my mind just as importantly - because one gets rid of the processed garbage - seed oils automatically disappear and it is these that are inflammatory and lead to increased hunger and carb. cravings.
From a personal perspective understanding this about seed oils, has made it much much easier to simply ignore packaged products for sale quite simply because its poisonous. In any event eating a spiced octopus filled with an egg is way more fun!
On 22 August 2016 at diagnosis I would never have imagined doing what I just . Actually between 1967 ( aged 9) - when I was told off at brownies for trying to lie down instead of sit- in the brownie circle) and 2016 ( aged 58) I could never have contemplated what I just did.
I thank my lucky stars that on that fateful day, my frantic internet search lead me to this paper
https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-6-21
and within that these comments
"Patients on the CRD were permitted to eat as much protein and fat as they wanted, including saturated fat."
and this woman
"One female patient had an increased physical activity level during the study period in spite of our instructions. However, her increase in physical activity was no more than one hour of walking per day, four days a week. She had implemented an 11%-carbohydrate diet without any antidiabetic drug, and her HbA1c level decreased from 14.4% at baseline to 6.1% after 3 months and had been maintained at 5.5% after 6 months. "
That paper was in 2009. It is a crying shame that people are still having to discover this for themselves.
I am massively pleased that my own industry - reinsurance has now joined the fray big time, with a major initiative from Swiss Re to get the message out. I will be at their summit in June and I can't wait to see the outcome of their efforts in the British Medical Journal and hopefully the rest of the press.
Over the last 3 weeks, I have visited 11 cities in Japan, traveled 3,000 km, hiked mountains, climbed thousands of stairs to places of interest ( e.g. 600 at a go in a number of shrines ). Admittedly he had to wait for me a few times, but then I'm 5ft 5 and 60 not 6ft 4 and 24.
During the entire holiday I ate to satiety ( and occasionally beyond) every day, but for both of us breakfast was completely un-necessary and often lunch too. In the evenings I tried out all sorts of stuff and I often ate rice - largely the Japanese way - which is towards the end of the meal. My average daily blood sugars was 6.0 and I very rarely went above 7.8 mmol.
I have stayed in youth hostels, in Japanese pods, in traditional Japanese cabins, and a couple of luxury hotels where I checked out the weight lifting machinery. I have been to villages in the middle of nowhere and to some of the largest cities on earth, I have caroused until 2.00 am and still been ready to go do another adventure the following day.
On my return, I weighed myself - 1 kg less than when I set off. I also pondered a little because I realised that what I have just done is something I could NOT have done when I was 16 years old or any year thereafter. I have memories of myself being the one who lagged behind ever since I can remember. I also now recall with horror that my family made ends by becoming taste testers for Heinz............
I now have totally normal metabolic markers and I am still obese. For anyone out there, who is discouraged because the weight loss is slow, your health benefits will STILL be enormous by sticking to LCHF and eventually the weight loss will come ( I hope).
I have so many great memories, though the one thing that will stick in my mind is the Yokohama Cup Noodle Museum. Invented by a Chinese chap living in Yokohama with the unlikely name of Momofuku Ando, his breakthrough came when he realised that if you fry ramen noodles in a big vat of oil it dries them out. You can then add all manner of chemicals to the resulting crispy noodles and reconstitute the lot with water later.
Invented in 1958, pot noodles were first sold internationally in 1971 and the resulting chart of sales around the world goes an awful long way to explain why it is that traditionally carb. heavy nations are now suffering an unprecedented explosion of diabetes. Japan, China, Indonesia, India, in all these countries the pot noodle is ubiquitous.
Mr Ando is currently a national hero in Japan and the Museum has cookery classes to show all the kids just how to make their very own pot noodles. It is enormously difficult to keep your cool when faced with the stark evidence of what went wrong and why and the whole thing still being peddled to school children.
My adventures in Japan solidified one thing in my mind - I don't think it is the carbs that have given rise to the explosion in diabetes - I think its the seed oils. When one adopts an LCHF diet with under 30g carbs, then sure blood sugars go down dramatically and that is great, however to my mind just as importantly - because one gets rid of the processed garbage - seed oils automatically disappear and it is these that are inflammatory and lead to increased hunger and carb. cravings.
From a personal perspective understanding this about seed oils, has made it much much easier to simply ignore packaged products for sale quite simply because its poisonous. In any event eating a spiced octopus filled with an egg is way more fun!
On 22 August 2016 at diagnosis I would never have imagined doing what I just . Actually between 1967 ( aged 9) - when I was told off at brownies for trying to lie down instead of sit- in the brownie circle) and 2016 ( aged 58) I could never have contemplated what I just did.
I thank my lucky stars that on that fateful day, my frantic internet search lead me to this paper
https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-6-21
and within that these comments
"Patients on the CRD were permitted to eat as much protein and fat as they wanted, including saturated fat."
and this woman
"One female patient had an increased physical activity level during the study period in spite of our instructions. However, her increase in physical activity was no more than one hour of walking per day, four days a week. She had implemented an 11%-carbohydrate diet without any antidiabetic drug, and her HbA1c level decreased from 14.4% at baseline to 6.1% after 3 months and had been maintained at 5.5% after 6 months. "
That paper was in 2009. It is a crying shame that people are still having to discover this for themselves.
I am massively pleased that my own industry - reinsurance has now joined the fray big time, with a major initiative from Swiss Re to get the message out. I will be at their summit in June and I can't wait to see the outcome of their efforts in the British Medical Journal and hopefully the rest of the press.
An incredible adventure and so positive regarding LCHF-ing on your travels around Japan. Although I'm not sure about the cow stomachs, lips and ears (best leave the latter to doggie-chews?) 
!!
