About to return to Low-Carb after 7 months of Zero-Carb
Hello. I am new to this forum, though not new to LC.
I am a 54-year-old male. Starting sometime in my late childhood I developed chronic diarrhea and, slowly, found it accompanied with lots of burping.
In the late 1970s and onwards, I followed the latest "knowledge" and avoided meat. My symptoms slowly got worse.
Sometime in the mid- or late-80s I heard Elaine Gottschall, the creator of the so-called Specific Carbohydrate Diet on the radio. I bought her book (then titled Food and the Gut Reaction) and tried her diet.
She was not anti-carb. But she was anti-grain and anti-legume. In order to survive on her diet, I had to learn how to cook and eat meat daily. Her diet failed me miserably. I was pigging out on nuts and nut butters and fruits and vegetables. But I could sense that it was good to eat meat.
So, I went off on my own to experiment. At that time, I thought that the only reason to eat low-carb was to lose weight. I had been underweight my entire life, so I ignored the low-carb gurus.
I started experimenting with meat-based eating and noticed an immediate improvement in my diarrhea, though not in the burping. I also gained weight, and by "weight," I mean muscle. I looked much, much healthier once I started eating low-carb.
After going low-carb, I tried for a few months eating only meat and low-carb vegetables. But, if anything, my diarrhea increased.
Fast forward to about 2006. I read a book by Mark Pimentel called A New IBS Solution. His thesis is that people with digestive symptoms similar to mine have a bacterial infection in their small intestines. His theory is the same as Elaine Gottschall's. But his prescription was quite different.
First, I tried the antibiotic he recommends. And there was no help. Then, twice in 2 years I tried the artificial, factory-made "elemental diet" he recommends (Vivonex Plus). Again, no help.
He also recommends a diet that gave me significant benefit. The big insight I got from his diet was to stay away from whole grains. OK, I had done that before, and it didn't help. But, he said, refined grains, in amounts of 1/2 - 1 cup/meal can be good. And, lo and behold, he was right.
This diet, combined with the newly released probiotic called Align, by Procter and Gamble, completely ended my diarrhea. Though my burping remained.
Ever desirous to fix the burping, I decided in November 2007 to try once more to eat no refined grains, dairy, or legumes. For more than 6 months, my diarrhea and cramping got worse. I figured that my symptoms had to have been caused by the remaining carbs in my diet. So, on June 6, 2009, I went zero carb (ZC). I ate only meat. I had eggs a few times in the first 6 months, but, other than that, it was only meat and water.
After 6 months were up, I tried adding coconut oil. No help. I decided to take some very strong antibiotics--Flagyl (500 mg 3/day for 9.3 days and Cipro 500 mg 2/day for 7 days). Again, no help. It appears that for me LC with limited quantities of refined grain is far superior to ZC, VLC, or Paleo-type diets.
In the coming days, I will have completed 7 months of ZC. I just bought a blood glucose meter. I want to stay on ZC for a few more days so I can take frequent glucose readings and establish some data points for ZC. (I have to wait till the Flagyl clears my system before I can swab my fingers with alcohol.) After I am satisfied that I have some data, I am planning on leaving ZC and going back to LC with not much other than meat and fat with white flour or rice or potatoes.
Since I have had no grains for more than a year, I will introduce them very slowly and in tiny amounts.
I know that this was quite long-winded, but I wanted to give a thorough account of where I stand and what brought me to this forum.
I have learned an enormous amount from forums like this. I think it is important that I document my own experiences for others who might be able to learn something from them.
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. I still like you anyway, Moises!
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