I don't know anything about Chris Kresser except from reading his blog, which I've been doing a bit of recently but I don't think it's quite fair to dismiss his opinion as being based on his personal experience. He sees patients in his day job, address questions and gets lots of comments on his blog and has a radio show too where he interviews people like the guy from the American Gut Project.

And it's certainly true that some people actually climb the carb ladder of Atkins, don't they? Or have success on South Beach, e.g. JudyNYC. They're eating "so-called-safe carbs" are they not?

Very low carb for me means insomnia, which is the circle of hell that Dante neglected to mention, imo. I'm also hearing more and more disquieting things about very low carb and autoimmune problems. I already have Hashimoto's and don't want another. OTOH I'm diabetic so I have to find a happy medium when it comes to carbs.

Some people are experimenting with potato starch. I did play with it a bit myself and noticed it I take it in water, with no other food, it doesn't do a thing to my blood sugar.

However, it seemed to elevate my BS when I mixed it with food (like in a smoothie).

If one wanted to get some starch to feed the gut, that might be a way to do it without upsetting your blood sugar.

The starch is unmodified potato starch, Bob's Red Mill. I found it for $4 in my local health food store.

I'm not currently taking it. I have no idea whether there's really any benefit or this is just another fad.

I've been experimenting with resistant starch for almost 3 weeks now. So far, I love it, lower blood sugars and improved mood being the main benefits. I don't think I'm in the optimal time frame/dose yet, from what I gather reading the Feed The Animal blog posts/comments since I started slowly so I am hoping for more. I stumbled across an early post in that series when I was surfing for info on gut bugs and read everything there along with a good bit on Animal Pharm with great fascination. I was going to post about it here at some point, especially for diabetics, but with someone like the the Diabetes Warrior trying it, I probably won't have to. http://www.diabetes-warrior.net/201...rch-experiment/ Preliminary experiments have all been remarkably encouraging.

I'm a believer in probiotics since I credit taking them with clearing up my seasonal allergies after a friend said they helped her. After reading on those blogs about soil based organism type probiotics, I'm going to try those too. The appeal there is that with the resistant starch to feed the good bacteria, you don't have to keep taking them continuously. It's amazing what the gut is connected to and how important it is to have a healthy one. If I had the $99 to spare, I would definitely get an analysis from the American Gut Project to get some idea of what's actually in there!



But you didn't actually test it? You're the first person I've seen say something like that. Do you mean you felt a rush to your head or something?

No, I measured my blood sugar after drinking the smoothie. It went higher, much higher, when I mixed in potato starch. It has been a long time since that experiment, so I don't recall all the details, but it was enough to warn me off taking potato starch with food.

Please, tell me how you're taking the RS (dosing and frequency). I might experiment again.

Carb tolerance is an individual issue, certainly. Which is why every time I climb too high on the carb ladder I get cravings, hungry spells, and weight gain. Yet I seem to be able to eat fruit, with a meal, without much difficulty, while others cannot, even though they get along with sweet potato.

By all means do what works for you. I just don't know anyone who can combine carb intake on the high end, approaching 100 a day, without a lot of physical activity. Which was my wry take on "resistant starch" advocates. Kessler certainly has people who enjoy great success with his guidelines.

In my own body, the starch doesn't resist at all. I seem to digest every bit of it.

I agree that's what he's doing from the standpoint of trying to get the book bought and read, but I'm glad on the one hand that WB was popular enough that someone would get a boost from it, and also glad that such a tactic seems to be working. I can't wait to read it.

Hmm...very interesting about the blood sugar spike with the smoothie. I have read every post and comment on FTA and nobody's reported anything like that.

I've been taking it with either plain water or sometimes with a spoonful of yogurt mixed in the water. Sometimes with probiotics, either the capsule or opening the capsule in the potato starch water. Sometimes with fiber, psyllium or acacia. Not a very good experimenter, as I haven't written things down or been at all systematic. Maybe once the holidays are over I can figure out the optimal time/dose for me.

The reason for taking it with probiotics or something like yogurt or kefir is, as I understand it, that the RS coats the bacteria so it winds up in the lower intestine, and the fiber when it accompanies it jets it along even farther into the end of the colon.

The one with psyllium was the least successful, or maybe because I took all 4 heaping TB at once. I felt a bit jangly after that one.

I have taken it before a meal but mostly before bed or first thing in the morning, or both, 2TB each time or sometimes 1 TB in the morning, 3 at night. Many people on Free The Animal reported better sleep and I am hoping for that in the long run.

I've had some slight, brief headaches with it, and increased flatulence as everyone has but not too bad really. I've seen opinion either way from the resident "experts", Tim Steele and Dr. BG from Animal Pharm, who btw, is a certified diabetes educator in real life and a pharmacist, that the absence of much flatulence either indicates already existing good bugs or virtually nonexistent good bugs. I'm anxious to try the SBO probiotics and see what happens. At least one person on FTA said her postRS headache went away and the good effects really only came about after she started the SBOs.

Here's Grace/Dr BG's list in her inimitable style, from somewhere in a recent blog post, sorry, didn't keep the link:



I can only guess of the horror that chemotherapy wreaks on the gut. It's been over a year and I feel like I've bounced back fairly well, but would like to keep my immune system up to par. That and the blood sugar regulation are the big draws for me with this measure.

When I first came to this community in 2008 I lost 60 lbs in 6 months averaging 100 carbs a day and around 1500-1800 calories. My Plan was like a new toy then, but I haven't been very diligent lately. I've had ups and downs since then but over all I weigh much less than I used to while definitely not qualifying as VLC.

Perhaps you are confusing resistant starch with what some call "safe starch". While it's true that some food contains resistant starch, such as raw potatoes, and cooked and cooled rice or beans, it's not necessary to eat the food that has it. Most people are simply experimenting with raw potato starch. As long as it's not heated, it doesn't behave as "starch" in the body.

That unmodified potato starch is pretty amazing stuff. I was surprised that it didn't raise my BG.

Now, if you go and cook it all bets are off.

Very interesting stuff; especially about the cold tolerance. I have to stick my feet out of the covers at night for heat regulation, because they often get too warm, yet supplementing with magnesium increased my cold tolerance.

Dr Oz invited Dr Perlmutter back to the show a second time.
Perlmutter is a clear communicator, if you saw his PBS special you know what I mean. Short and to the point "Butter is Back"

http://www.drperlmutter.com/never-forget-show

Clip of the show in two parts linked on the Grain Brain website.



Of course, if you watch part 2 you have to watch them in their safety glasses breaking the blood-brain barrier.

indeed. On one show he mixed red water and blue water and made purple water to demonstrate to the audience how some herb would help them lose weight. He's very proud of these helpful visuals, but I learned how to mix colours in preschool and it has nothing to do with herbal weightloss remedies

Dr Perlmutter is so clear and focused in front of a camera. Helps that he had that PBS a special, but watch this...even Kelly Ripa can understand the concepts of grain-free eating.

http://www.drperlmutter.com/icymi-live-kelly-michael/

Jey, I watched the TV show segment with Perlmutter that you linked to. It made me want to pound my head on my desk. IMO, he's making the same mistake that the previous generation of doctor nutritionists made: overreaching the findings of nutrition research and ignoring large amounts of (a) conflicting research and (b) personal experiences (now widely shared on the internet) for the sake of the public good.

As I mentioned in another discussion, the problem with carbs isn't black and white. I'm coming to the POV that as good as low-carb is for a portion of the US population, it's describing only a part of the elephant, and nobody knows how big each part is.

5th Anniversary! Already?
Fully revised edition now available for pre-order.



from Dr. Perlmutter's email today.