Originally Posted by LAwoman75

Wow, oddly enough, as I increased my fruit consumption about 6 weeks ago, I dropped a few pounds (even though I am in maintenance) and have maintained that loss........... all the while eating 2 fruits everyday... including the dreaded pineapple. Delicious!... I hate to see people fear things like veggies or even fruits.

Originally Posted by SueT

I think Vit C will vary by person. I can take 1000 mg no problem, while my husband is bathroom-bound after a couple of hundred.

Originally Posted by Valtor

Yes it varies a lot and also it depends on your health status.

See this thread: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=401802

Since starting ZC, my bowel tolerance for Vit C is very close to zero. Even with my current cold, it's still very low.

Patrick

Originally Posted by Valtor

2 fruits per day is nothing, so of course you're perfectly fine. A small glass of orange juice contains the sugars of 6 oranges and some people drink fruit juices all day long instead of soft drinks, because it's "healthy". Yeah right !

So I have nothing against fruits and veggies, really! What I hate is that our society has made people think that fructose is fine just because it comes from fruits.

Patrick

Originally Posted by LAwoman75

Where did that come from? I wasn't referring to fructose or juice or making any such comparison.

But since you think the 2 fruits each day is fine, why are you living on meat and water only?

Originally Posted by AJCole

I can't tolerate fruit. A daily carb load of higher than 50g, and I gain. An occasional high day and I'm ok, but not daily. I try to stay ketogenic.

I have to disagree with the supposition that carbs are not toxic. I will say that the level matters, but GCBC goes into detail about the effects of excessive blood glucose on the body via glycation. Add to that the damaging effects of high insulin. I'm not talking about excess fat storage, but other effects that even skinny people get. Let's remember, thin does not equal healthy.

Beyond that, there are the simple effects of blood glucose on the immune system and the effects of inflammation on cancer growth, etc.

After drinking one regular soda, white blood cells can only kill 5 organisms an hour for 6 hours. In an environment of normal blood sugar, white blood cells can kill about 14 organisms and hour. This is a loss of about 60% efficiency. I tell my kids that sugary foods put there immune system in a sugar coma and keep thier carbs very low when they are fighting illness. (I believe this blood sugar/white blood cell chart is found in "Trick then Treat" by Barry Groves.

Originally Posted by kdill

Intersting, cuz my AIC, fasting glucose and basal insulin levels are much lower in "The Zone" then on a ketogenic diet. My liver and kidney functions also show more favorably as well.

Originally Posted by Citruskiss

This is very interesting. Congratulations!

I backed off on the fruit after reading stuff around here about fructose. I still have a small serving of berries once in awhile (in early summer), but that's it for fruit for me these days. Good to know it didn't cause you any trouble, and in fact helped things along.

I am one who is still 'leery' of vegetables. It's ridiculous, but true. This is why I have to actually make an effort to include them. Today is *not* one of those days. Sometimes I revert to the 'fallback' option - very low in carbs. As in, no vegetables at all. Oh, well - there were some green onions in there, and there's a 1/4 avocado here with my late dinner.

Not good.

Why?

I do better with the vegetables in my diet.

And I am one of those who did stall out at a certain point. It wasn't until I increased my carbs in the form of low carb vegetables and the occasional bit of fruit that weight loss picked up speed again. I do not know why this is - it just is. I bought into the 'if low carb is good, then lower is even better' idea. Result? Stalled.

I think Jenny is *onto* something here.

Meanwhile, I'm particularly curious about this thryoid angle mentioned in Jenny's blog post - because after a couple of years on very low carb, my husband now has a thyroid problem. I am not too thrilled about this, and it isn't the first time that I've had inklings of 'long term very low carb' resulting in thyroid issues. I've heard this before. I just didn't believe it.

Well...here we are - and what I didn't want to hear or read - has turned out to be an issue.

I remember reading Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss Handbook - and in there were recommendations to increase carbs up to at least 100 grams every several weeks or so - this was intended to help 'upregulate thryoid hormones' (in the face of a very strict diet). While I was impressed with this book, I didn't end up following that particular diet (way too hard for me)...but still....this 'upregulating thyroid hormones' thing nagged at me.

I wish I'd paid more attention.

....

Meanwhile, here's the thing - it's been awhile since I read Good Calories, Bad Calories and so on - and while I realize it's true that we don't 'need' carbohydrates to survive...

I am interested in more than just surviving.

I don't 'need' to go on a walk to survive. Does that mean going on an afternoon walk is somehow unhealthy? Likewise, I don't 'need' to go to the gym and do some weight training in order to survive - do I then somehow translate this to mean it's unhealthy?

There are a lot of things I don't 'need' - and, in hindsight - I take this kind of thing to mean a bit of reassurance. I don't have to exercise to lose weight. If I don't want to eat vegetables, then I don't have to do that either.

But, I am not buying that these are unhealthy behaviours.

Originally Posted by Nancy LC

I don't give SB much credit due to the hypocrisy of the author, as I've told you before. He knows that people shouldn't eat grains, he follows a more paleo diet himself as you reported after going to one of his seminars, yet he doesn't put that in his book because he wants to sell lots of copies and put his trademark on diet food and we all know that you have to eat healthy whole grains or you'll asplode.

Originally Posted by astrogirl

What's SB?

Originally Posted by Merpig

South Beach Diet.