High in fat, in reference to a diet based on traditional Mexican foods, means tortillas and refried beans and rice--not nearly as high in fat as in carbs.

At what point in the progress that is so painfully slowly being made to stop vilifying fat with the popular press knock it off?

Thank you MickiSue. I think my answer to this, today, is "Show them by example, without hoopla and hyperbole, that there are alternate solutions; not just one. Judge and persecute them not; Love them instead."

Or something like that.

I was a little annoyed at the beginning when the host read a comment from a person who had type I, saying that they were annoyed when people didn't distinguish between types I and II--saying basically, "I didn't eat copious amounts of sugar, I wasn't gluttonous, etc..." Because while I think yes, modern diet is obviously very much a factor, at the same time--the "punishment" doesn't always fit the "crime." It's not just the food, it's how the person responds to the food. The same habits that only made me a bit insulin resistant, made the guy next door a type II diabetic--I assure you that there was a time when I was eating as crappy as I knew how. I think this basically amounts to type II diabetic "shaming."

At any rate, a fair number of type I diabetics do become basically type II over time, it's just that instead of secreting excess insulin endogenously, they find they have to inject themselves with more and more insulin to handle the ADA recommended diet, so warnings vs. sugar consumption etc. apply equally well to type I's.

Remember Diet for a Small Planet? It was a book about combining foods which were incomplete proteins to create complete proteins. The National food most often talked about was Mexican, citing beans, rice and corn as examples. So. When carbs are eaten in combination at the same meal, do they really chemically become protein to the body? If so, are they no longer carbs? Hmmm. I'll bet Teaser knows.

That book was actually sort of wrong, just about any plant protein contains the full set of "essential" amino acids, it's just that the ratio of the amino acids differ, and we have individual requirements for each one that must be met--so if corn protein had half as much of the amino acid lysine as chicken did, for instance, if our sole source of protein was from corn, we'd have to eat twice as much corn protein as chicken protein to meet the lysine requirement. Combining plant protein sources doesn't actually increase the protein content so much as reduce the protein requirement, by matching the ratio of amino acids consumed more closely to the essential amino acid requirement.

One thing this leaves out is that there are certain amino acids that are conditionally essential that are never in plants. With I.V. feeding people (especially babies) can develop a taurine deficiency, as an example. And vegans tend to have lower levels of creatine.

If I was going to get most of my protein from plants, I'd probably skip the grains and just go with beans, they're high enough in protein that you can make up for the limiting amino acids by just eating slightly more.

Thanks, Professor. I knew I could depend on you. Thing is that poor people have grown and thrived on corn, rice and beans for centuries. I realize it is supplemented with meat, but the really poor don't get it that often. In Asia, the poor eat rice and fish and thrive. There must be something inside us that takes the food ingested and makes it work to the body's advantage. Otherwise the population would be much smaller, starved out of existence.

Have you heard of the Dutch Famin Cohort Study?

Toward the end of World War II, Germany starved the Netherlands. It was called the Hunger Winter; something like twenty thousand people died. As you’d expect, the women who were pregnant at the time gave birth to weaker babies. That part makes sense. But the surprise is that those children eventually gave birth to kids with the same problems. And so did their kids. Study of that is epigenetics.
Mothers pass changes to their offspring. The DNA doesn't actually change, but it changes the way the genes express themselves, the way they’re regulated. I'm thinking that works regionally with nutritional adaptation. "This is what we're going to get to eat, so we'll make do." When people from that region eat Westernized junk diets, they get fat and sick. Just a theory.

Back in my vegetarian days I used to be careful of mixing legumes and grains, then learned they don't have to be mixed in the same meal. Just a balance will do nicely to make sure the proper combination of amino acids are present. Glad I went back to meat eating so I don't have to worry about that.

Well, my good news is for the past two days fasting bgs have been in the 130's and the highest postprandials have been in the 150's. Still taking a half dose of insulin and will continue until I see numbers below 100.

I really need to extend a couple of fasts a week to 36 hours, but haven't made it yet. I think it would be much easier to fast supper to breakfast the third day, but with eating lunch at the senior center most days, that is difficult as I get the munchies in the evening of the second day. I just need to suck it up.

So as not to keep taking up room here with my personal journey, I started a journal. But I'll still be reading daily and occasionally posting here as well.

Abilene, can you bring your own lunch? Or, only eat the parts of the lunches there that conform to your plan?

For example: they're serving chicken noodle soup and sandwiches. Skip the soup, and ask if you can take 1 1/2 sandwiches. Then open the sandwich up, and eat the innards, not the bread.

It's not ideal. But it's much better than eating the things that are flat out dangerous for you.

Okay, a question to put out to all of you Fungers (lol). I feel like I'm coming down with something; started late afternoon (which was a fast day till dinner). General malaise, achiness indicative of a fever, but no fever. Some sinus drainage, and a little coughing. (my wife has been fighting something respiratory for about 4 weeks, so I probably picked something up from her).

Today is an eating day, and tomorrow would be a scheduled fasting day. I will say that between last night and today, I've determined that eating feels good and offers some relief. So I'm inclined to think I should eat, rather than fast, until I at least don't have the malaise and achiness. I'm thinking maybe the micronutrients are needed, but also, the act of eating just feels therapeutic.

On the other hand, we talk so much about fasting helping to "heal" our bodies of whatever ails us.

I'm curious what everyone thinks.

Thanks -- I agree and I never am able to eat the whole meal. The price of the meal is built into my rent so I need to eat there when I can. But the food is so carby that I really can only eat there 2 - 3 times a week, and even then never the whole meal. For example, today's menu was Chicken Strips with Gravy, Whipped Potatoes, Carrot Raisin Salad, Butterscotch Pudding, Whole Wheat Bread, Choice of Milk. I didn't bother to go since there was nothing I could eat. I'll go tomorrow as I will be able to eat the Swedish meatballs and green beans -- but nothing else. And no, we don't bring in food. I usually eat a green salad before I go.

Marvin -- Even though I'm new to Fung, I've fasted for religious purposes a great deal and never fasted when I felt sick. Like you, I wanted the comfort of eating plus the added nutrients. Sometimes I just drank nutritious liquids like soup. But I do know some who fast when they are sick to give their bodies a rest from digestion. I'll be interested in what other "Fungers" have to say about this.

Interesting. I just realized I have always thought of this team as 'Fungoids'.

When I did ADF, I was working to control insulin resistance and lose weight. When I had a cold, I ate smallish amounts at any one time, but ate to hunger (instead of muttering 'hunger is not an emergency' and ignoring it).

One day at the assisted living where my parents lived, I perused the menu: entree - battered chicken drumstick or mac-n-cheese, veg - mashed potatoes and/or potato chips, side - bread roll jam, dessert - fruit salad in sugar syrup over vanilla ice cream. All I could think was

I definitely like that better than the other thought I had. Fung-heads?

Funny you should mention. I am feeling a twing in my sinus like I'm gonna get a cold. I have not been sick since LC 9/30 last year. I will continue my fast and see how it goes (breaking friday morning) perhaps we can compare notes.

Withhold food from a fever, Starve a cold. Save a whale. - isn't that how it goes

I think you're right!!!!

Drinking bone broth would fit with FungFast guidelines and be good for feeling poorly.