No Carbohydrate Diet - Part 4

Continued functions of carbohydrates.

FBS  123 this morning.  I am getting more and more convinced that this runs about 24 hours behind.  When I ate bad the next morning I was okay - Friday.  But today I am high and that is after a good day of eating yesterday.  Must continue to monitor.

Today I will finish on the functions of carbohydrates and why we should have them in our diet.  The final series will be a discussion of the different types of diets and what we might want to do as diabetics.

There are two remaining functions that are worth discussing.

Dietary Fiber

Dietary fibers such as cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, gum and mucilage are important carbohydrates for several reasons. Soluble dietary fibers like pectin, gum and mucilage pass undigested through the small intestine and are degraded into fatty acids and gases by the large intestine. The fatty acids produced in this way can either be used as a fuel for the large intestine or be absorbed into the bloodstream. Therefore, dietary fiber is essential for proper intestinal health.

In general, the consumption of soluble and insoluble fiber makes the elimination of waste much easier. Since dietary fiber is both indigestible and an attractant of water, stools become large and soft. As a result, feces can be expelled with less pressure. However, not enough fiber consumption will change the constitution of the stool and increase the amount of force required during defecation. Excessive pressure during the elimination of waste can force places in the large intestine wall out from between bands of smooth muscle to produce small pouches called diverticula. Hemorrhoids may also result from unnecessary strain during defecation.

I know it is a crappy subject but worth noting and understanding how our body tells us when something is not right.

The disease of having many diverticula in the large intestine is known as diverticulosis. Although diverticula is often asymptomatic, food particles become trapped in their folds and bacteria begin to metabolize the particles into acids and gases. Eventually, the diverticula may become inflamed, a condition known as diverticulitis. To combat the disease, antibiotics are administered to the patient to destroy the bacteria while the intake of fiber in the diet is decreased until the inflammation has subsided. Once the inflammation has been reduced, a high fiber diet is begun to prevent a relapse.

Besides the prevention of intestinal disease, diets high in fiber have other health benefits. High fiber intake reduces the risk of developing obesity by increasing the bulk of a meal without yielding much energy. An expanded stomach leads to satisfaction despite the fact that the caloric intake has decreased.

Beyond dieters, diabetics can also benefit from consuming a regular amount of dietary fiber. Once in the intestine, it slows the absorption of glucose to prevent a sudden increase in blood glucose levels. A relatively high intake of fiber will also decrease the absorption of cholesterol, a compound that is thought to contribute to atherosclerosis or scarring of the arteries. Serum cholesterol may be further reduced by a reduction in the release of insulin after meals. Since insulin is known to promote cholesterol synthesis in the liver, a reduction in the absorption of glucose after meals through the consumption of fiber can help to control serum cholesterol levels. Furthermore, dietary fiber intake may help prevent colon cancer by diluting potential carcinogens through increased water retention, binding carcinogens to the fiber itself and speeding the passage of food through the intestinal tract so that cancer-causing agents have less time to act.

For my green drink I do not juice, I use products and have a Nutri-Bullet.  It allows my body to get a significant amount of fiber in the morning and I think is one of the major reasons I get better balance throughout the day.

Biological Recognition Processes

Carbohydrates not only serve nutritional functions, but are also thought to play important roles in cellular recognition processes. For example, many immunoglobulins (antibodies) and peptide hormones contain glycoprotein sequences. These sequences are composed of amino acids linked to carbohydrates. During the course of many hours or days, the carbohydrate polymer linked to the rest of the protein may be cleaved by circulating enzymes or be degraded spontaneously. The liver can recognize differences in length and may internalize the protein in order to begin its own degradation. In this way, carbohydrates may mark the passage of time for proteins.

God's Amazing body at it again. 

As I mentioned, the final post on this series will be a discussion of the different diets and why they may or may not be good for us.

May God grant us the ability to understand our bodies and feed it the fuels it so desperately wants and needs.  Let us give thanks to him for this amazing body of ours - even if it is inflicted with Diabetes.

Bob,

No Carbohydrate Diet - Part 3

What are the functions of carbohydrates?

FBS - 104 - wow I ate like a Hoover Carbohydrate Vacuum cleaner yesterday.  Actually I practiced the art of grazing - taking 1-2 hours to consume all of the food slowly and this year I filled my first plate with the meat to get my body ready and get the First Insulin response going a little faster.  Might be something I try in the future.

BG after the meal - 158.  For what I ate - OMG that was a great number and no medicines!

I want to continue on with what carbohydrates do for our body.  I tried a no carbohydrate diet and it did lower my sugar levels - but at what price.  I want you to know these fad diets are not good for us and the more you know about yourself and your body - the better you can be at controlling the beast within you!.

Two more functions of carbohydrates will be covered in thsi post.

Sparing Protein and Preventing Ketosis

So why are carbohydrates important if the body can use other carbon compounds such as fatty acids and ketones as energy?

First of all, maintaining a regular intake of carbohydrates will prevent protein from being used as an energy source.  Gluconeogenesis will slow down and amino acids will be freed for the biosyntheses of enzymes, antibodies, receptors and other important proteins. Furthermore, an adequate amount of carbohydrates will prevent the degradation of skeletal muscle and other tissues such as the heart, liver, and kidneys. 

Muscle tissue actually makes our bodies more efficient so we do not want to be consuming it for energy.

Most importantly, ketosis will be prevented. Although the brain will adapt to using ketones as a fuel, it preferentially uses carbohydrates and requires a minimum level of glucose circulating in the blood in order to function properly. Before the adaptation process occurs, lower blood glucose levels may cause headaches in some individuals.   When I drop down to 70 BGthen I break out in a sweat that looks like I just excercisaed for hours and ran a marathon.  I am lucky to get the warning - my neighbor does not and she just passes out.

To prevent these ketotic symptoms, it is recommended that the average person consume at least 50 to 100g of carbohydrates per day.

Although the processes of protein degradation and ketosis can create problems of their own during prolonged fasting, they are adaptive mechanisms during glucose shortages. In summary, the first priority of metabolism during a prolonged fast is to provide enough glucose for the brain and other organs that dependent upon it for energy in order to spare proteins for other cellular functions. The next priority of the body is to shift the use of fuel from glucose to fatty acids and ketone bodies. From then on, ketones become more and more important as a source of fuel while fatty acids and glucose become less important.

Flavor and Sweeteners

A less important function of carbohydrates is to provide sweetness to foods. Receptors located at the tip of the tongue bind to tiny bits of carbohydrates and send what humans perceive as a "sweet" signal to the brain. However, different sugars vary in sweetness. For example, fructose is almost twice as sweet as sucrose and sucrose is approximately 30% sweeter than glucose.

Sweeteners can be classified as either nutritive or alternative. Nutritive sweeteners have all been mentioned before and include sucrose, glucose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, and lactose. These types of sweeteners not only impart flavor to the food, but can also be metabolized for energy. 

In contrast, alternative sweeteners provide no food energy and include saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame, and acesulfame. Controversy over saccharin and cyclamate as artificial sweeteners still exists but aspartame and acesulfame are used extensively in many foods in the United States.  Aspartame and acesulfame are both hundreds of times sweeter than sucrose but only acesulfame is able to be used in baked goods since it is much more stable than aspartame when heated. 

I cover the true aspects of Sweeteners in a previous post -  I Crave Sweets. 

May God grant us the ability to know when we need some energy added to our diet and may he also give us bodies that can let us know when we are having problems.  May he grant us the ability to come to know and understand the balance of nutrients our body's need.

Bob,

No Carbohydrate Diet - Part 2

What Do Carbohydrates do for us

FBS - 11/2/7/2013 - 122

FBS - 11/28/2013 - 106 - still fluctuating with stress and work - not totally out of the woods yet

BP - 139/87  home machine and is slightly above 110/70 at this reading / HR - 61

I want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.  I know for my international readers this a United States holiday but I think we all have something to be thankful for - so we can all call this a Day of Thanksgiving.  Give it up to your higher power(s) and thank them for what they have done for you today.

My dad left me with three basic things to be thankful for:

1. When you wake up in the morning, give thanks to God for he brought you through the night and you are looking down at the ground and not up at it.
2. When you go to bed at night, give God thanks for every second he gave you during the day to experience the life he meant for you to experience.
3. But most of all, thank God for the people he put in your life - and I thank God for each of you.  Strangely enough - I have to thank him for my diabetes because without it - I would not know any of you.

What are the functions of carbohydrates in our body.

According to most sources there are really six functions:

1. Providing energy and regulation of blood glucose
2. Sparing the use of proteins for energy
3. Breakdown of fatty acids and preventing ketosis
4. Biological recognition processes
5. Flavor and Sweeteners
6. Dietary fiber

I will take each one and provide some detail information  and at the end of the series, will wrap up with why we should not go without them.

Providing energy and regulating blood glucose

This might be considered the most important function and why not having them in our diet can be a major risk.

Glucose is the only sugar used by the body to provide energy for its tissues. Therefore, all digestible polysaccharides, disaccharides, and monosaccharides must eventually be converted into glucose or a metabolite of glucose by various liver enzymes. Because of its significant importance to proper cellular function, blood glucose levels must be kept relatively constant.

Among the enormous metabolic activities the liver performs, it also includes regulating the level of blood glucose. During periods of food consumption, pancreatic beta cells sense the rise in blood glucose and begin to secrete the hormone insulin. Insulin binds to many cells in the body having appropriate receptors for the peptide hormone and causes a general uptake in cellular glucose. In the liver, insulin causes the uptake of glucose as well as the synthesis of glycogen, a glucose storage polymer. In this way, the liver is able to remove excessive levels of blood glucose through the action of insulin.

Type 2 diabetes may have two problems - our cells do not recognize and take in the glucose thus leaving large amounts in our blood - or we do not produce enough insulin to manage the glucose produced.  This is much the same problem of a Type I diabetic.

In contrast, the hormone glucagons is secreted into the bloodstream by pancreatic alpha cells upon sensing falling levels of blood glucose. Upon binding to targeted cells such as skeletal muscle and brain cells, glucagon acts to decrease the amount of glucose in the bloodstream. This hormone inhibits the uptake of glucose by muscle and other cells and promotes the breakdown of glycogen in the liver in order to release glucose into the blood. Glucagon also promotes gluconeogenesis, a process involving the synthesis of glucose from amino acid precursors. Through the effects of both glucagon and insulin, blood glucose can usually be regulated in concentrations between 70 and 115mg/100 ml of blood.

Other hormones of importance in glucose regulation are epinephrine and cortisol. Both hormones are secreted from the adrenal glands, however, epinephrine mimics the effects of glucagon while cortisol mobilizes glucose during periods of emotional stress or exercise.

Despite the liver's unique ability to maintain homeostatic levels of blood glucose, it only stores enough for a twenty-four hour period of fasting. After twenty four hours, the tissues in the body that preferentially rely on glucose, particularly the brain and skeletal muscle, must seek an alternative energy source. During fasting periods, when the insulin to glucagons ratio is low, adipose tissue begins to release fatty acids into the bloodstream. Fatty acids are long hydrocarbon chains consisting of single carboxylic acid group and are not very soluble in water. Skeletal muscle begins to use fatty acids for energy during resting conditions; however, the brain cannot afford the same luxury. Fatty acids are too long and bulky to cross the blood-brain barrier.

Notice through fasting or starving, our bodies start to find a different source that is not as good.  Leave it to our "smart brain" to know this is not good for us.  If the brain knows not to consume fatty acids, then we should be smart enough to feed our brain some real glucose.  No carbohydrates - might be a danger to our brains.  When I went on my "no carb" eating; it might have saved my life but what did it do to my brain?  Oh yeah - forgot I do not have much of one anyway - I am okay!

 Therefore, proteins from various body tissues are broken down into amino acids and used by the liver to produce glucose for the brain and muscle. This process is known as gluconeogenesis or "the production of new glucose." If fasting is prolonged for more than a day, the body enters a state called ketosis. Ketosis comes from the root word ketones and indicates a carbon atom with two side groups bonded to an oxygen atom.

 Ketones are produced when there is no longer enough oxaloacetate in the mitochondria of cells to condense with acetyl CoA formed from fatty acids. Oxaloacetate is a four-carbon compound that begins the first reaction of the Krebs Cycle, a cycle containing a series of reactions that produces high-energy species to eventually be used to produce energy for the cell. Since oxaloacetate is formed from pyruvate (a metabolite of glucose), a certain level of carbohydrate is required in order to burn fats. Otherwise, fatty acids cannot be completely broken down and ketones will be produced.

It surely appears to me that these "No Carb" diets make no sense.  What I think makes a lot of sense is using these no carbohydrate snacks to help put a little fuel in our body.  Again, as I have stated many times, you must know what your body needs, on a regular basis on at the given moment you are ready to eat.

By the way, today is Thanksgiving and a day of coming together and sharing a great meal.  My family is not in Nashville and I have an ex-coworker, Steve Megow, who invites us to participate with his extended family each year.  See why my Dad said be thankful for each person God puts in your life.

Oh yeah - he smokes some great meet and none of his family are diabetics so they have a good time.  Lookout for my readings on Friday - for today I feast and thank God for every second he allows me to graze today!  Carbohydrates are in this blog and in the dictionary; but, they are not on a Thanksgiving table!

May God grant you many seconds each day for which you can be thankful.  May he watch over you at night while you sleep and bring you through those unguarded times.  Most of all, I ask that he opens my eyes and allows me to see the "real" person he put in my life today, not one based on race, religion, or political views; but, the one he created.

God bless each of you and have a most Thankful day!

Bob,

No Carbohydrate Diet - Part 1.

I did this once!

I am really thankful you guys stayed with me while I was out doing some heavy work.  I once again apologize but it had to be done.

FBS - 122 this morning.  I am learning that there is a magical mixture between sleep, a snack, and stress.  It seems that when I am stressed, getting little or no sleep, and I have a snack at night my body acts more consistent than when I do not have the snack.  Last night I did not have a snack and I was up today.  I shall continue the experiment.

My Story

You know that today I was featured in the e Newsletter from the American Diabetes Association - that was nice and I am grateful they think my story is worth sharing.  I am not saying I hope people follow my exact path; but, I do hope my story encourages one person to take up my challenge and take charge of their diabetes.

You also know that back when, I reached an A1c of 13.1 - probably dead and God was not ready to call me up.  I hit the panic button and knowing nothing more than carbohydrates are what causes our sugar levels to rise, I decided I would eliminate them totally from my diet - that should fix my problem.

So I turned to a great diet, chicken and stir fried vegetables - okay I was getting a little of those things called carbohydrates - but not many.  I had it for breakfast, lunch, and evening meal.  If I had a snack it was just a smaller portion of the chicken and very seldom any vegetables.  I drank a lot of water and stayed off the coffee.  I did however continue to smoke - call me crazy or what - but when a smoke sounds god - IT JUST SOUNDS GOOD!  Like right now!

Needles to say - I would now tell everyone the diet was as crazy as the smoking.  I have now learned a little more about what our bodies need and how it all works - I would say I was taking a big chance with this diet.

So I am going to share the more clinical information of the good and bad about carbohydrates.  Beware - this may get down into some real medical stuff that none of us can pronounce correctly but I find it fascinating how our body works - you all know I think this body of ours is amazing.

Types of Carbohydrates

The American Diabetes Association

The American Diabetes Association lists three types of carbohydrates:

Starches  (also known as complex carbohydrates)

Foods high in starch include:

• Starchy vegetables like peas, corn, lima beans and potatoes
• Dried beans, lentils and peas such as pinto beans, kidney beans, black eyed peas and split peas
• Grains like oats, barley and rice. (The majority of grain products in the US are made from wheat flour. These include pasta, bread and crackers but the variety is expanding to include other grains as well.)

Sugars

Sugar is another type of carbohydrate. You may also hear sugar referred to as simple or fast-acting carbohydrate. There are two main types of sugar:

• naturally occurring sugars such as those in milk or fruit
• added sugars such as those added during processing such as fruit canned in heavy syrup or sugar added to make a cookie

On the nutrition facts label, the number of sugar grams includes both added and natural sugars.

Fiber

Fiber comes from plant foods so there is no fiber in animal products such as milk, eggs, meat, poultry and fish.
Fiber is the indigestible part of plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes. When you consume dietary fiber, most of it passes through the intestines and is not digested.
For good health, adults need to try to eat 25 to 30 grams of fiber each day. Most Americans do not consume nearly enough fiber in their diet, so while it is wise to aim for this goal, any increase in fiber in your diet can be beneficial. Most of us only get about ½ what is recommended.

Other Sources

Other sources or the more in depth scientific community lists 5 types of carbohydrates:

Monosaccharides 

The word monosaccharide is derived from mono, meaning "one", and saccharide, meaning "sugar". The common monosaccharides are glucose, fructose, and galactose. Each simple sugar has a cyclic structure and is composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in ratios of 1:2:1 respectively. 

Disaccharides 

Disaccharides, meaning "two sugars", are commonly found in nature as sucrose, lactose and maltose. They are formed by a condensation reaction where one molecule of water condenses or is released during the joining of two monosaccharides. The type of bond that is formed between the two sugars is called a glycosidic bond. 

Oligosaccharides 

Carbohydrates that contain more than two simple sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides, depending upon the length of the structure. Oligosaccharides usually have between three and ten sugar units while polysaccharides can have more than three thousand units. These large structures are responsible for the storage of glucose and other sugars in plants and animals. 

Polysaccharides 

Important oligosaccharides are raffinose and stachyose. Composed of repeating units of galactose, glucose and fructose, these oligosaccharides are of nutritional importance because they are found in beans and legumes. Because of their unique glycosidic bonds, raffinose and stachyose cannot be broken down into their simple sugars. Therefore, they cannot be absorbed by the small intestine and are often metabolized by bacteria in the large intestine to form unwanted gaseous byproducts. Commercial enzyme preparations such as Beano can be consumed before a meal rich in beans and legumes in order to aid the small intestine in the breakdown of these oligosaccharides.

Nucleotides

Polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates are usually monomers and consist of thousands of repeating glucose units. Naturally, they allow for the storage of large quantities of glucose. Starch is the major storage form of carbohydrate in plants and has two different types: amylose and amylopectin. Although digestible alpha glycoisidic bonds link both types of starch, each type is unique in their branching of glucose. While amylose is a straight chain polymer, amylopectin is highly branched. These differences account for the fact that amylopectin can form stable starch gels which are able to retain water while amylose is unable to do so. Therefore, amylopectin is often used by manufacturers to produce many different kinds of thick sauces and gravies. Sources of starch include potatoes, beans, bread, pasta, rice and other bread products. 

WOW, and I thought it was just simple to count carbohydrates and I was done!  No wonder our bodies appear to act differently all of the time - with all of these variants - it does make us and the carbohydrate world unique.  All the more reason to get to know our foods and how our body processes them.

I would say just on this knowledge - we need to consume carbohydrates.  In the next post we will discuss what carbohydrates do for our bodies and why they are important.

God grant me the ability to understand the complexities of what I eat and how it impacts my body.  Help me to understand I am unique and what works for one person may not work for me.  Grant me the courage to go on my journey with all the help I can get.

Bob,