Bowulf Network Admin Blog

Atkins Diet Misconceptions: Low Carb and Diabetes

This video comes out of another myth that gets propagated out by Atkins Diet bashers that somehow we are more likely to get diabetes by following low carb. Certainly there is no shortage of misinformation on the web:
http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/1…
http://www.diabetesuffolk.com/LivingW…

Part 1:

Part 2:

Some say we are dangerous for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics. Some just type 1 diabetics, but it really couldn’t be further from the truth. As all people, ESPECIALLY diabetics, could benefit from controlling blood glucose levels by carbohydrate monitoring or restriction.   There are two major proponents for Low Carb for diabetics:
Richard Bernstein, Type 1 Diabetic since 1946
http://www.diabetes911.net/about.php
Author of THE DIABETES DIET and Diabetes Solution

Mary Ross Vernon
Chairman of the board, American Society of Bariatric Physicians
Co-Author of Atkins Diabetes Revolution with Robert Atkins
http://tinyurl.com/cbjk76
2007 and 2008 Runner Up for Diabetic Educator of the Year Award

Mary Ross Vernon has been controlling diabetes with an Very Low Carb Diet (similar to Atkins Diet) for many years. She says both her Type 1 and Type 2 patients have benefited from carbohydrate restriction. She also notes that seeking quality physicians to handle the dramatic decrease in insulin requirements is paramount as some patients could be medication free in 3 days! See the attached quote (http://rjr10036.typepad.com/askdrvernon /2007/05/ron_of_sarasota.html).

The first video deals with case damning the existing treatment or recommendations to follow a high carb diet managed with ever increasing doses of insulin. This second video deals with the evidence for rather managing it with a low carb lifestyle. There are two great studies for advocating this method.

Dietary carbohydrate restriction in type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome: time for a critical appraisal
Nutrition and Metabolism(Lond) 2008; 5: 9.
Numerous authors including Richard Bertstein, Mary Vernon, Jeff Volek, Eric Westman
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/arti…
Conducted Multi-center trial in which 63 obese men and women were randomly assigned to either diet, 21 Low Carb, 21 Control, 21 High Carb for a one year study.
This discussion focuses on type 2 diabetes but many of the principles will apply to metabolic syndrome and possibly to type 1 as well[6,7].
1. Carbohydrate restriction improves glycemic control, the primary target of nutritional therapy and reduces insulin fluctuations.
2. Carbohydrate-restricted diets are at least as effective for weight loss as low-fat diets.
3. Substitution of fat for carbohydrate is generally beneficial for markers for and incidence of CVD.
4. Carbohydrate restriction improves the features of metabolic syndrome.
An important idea guiding current medical thinking is that clustering of seemingly disparate physiologic states, obesity, atherogenic dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and hypertension, termed metabolic syndrome (MetS) suggests a common underlying cause. A recent review showed that carbohydrate restriction improves all of these markers[24].
5. Beneficial effects of carbohydrate restriction do not require weight loss. It’s not simply a weight loss argument or due to people losing weight do they achieve the benefits.

Low-carbohydrate diet in type 2 diabetes: stable improvement of bodyweight and glycemic control during 44 months follow-up
Jörgen V Nielsen email and Eva A Joensson email
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com…

Conclusion:
There is now little evidence for the claim that a fat-reduced diet for weight reduction has any particular value beyond caloric counting [10]. Current dietary recommendations seem to be a major part of their problem rather than being part of the solution. Carbohydrate restriction, however, reverses or neutralises all aspects of the metabolic syndrome [20,21].

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New Youtube Atkins Diet Boot Camp Coming!

One of the best experiences I have had both as a new Atkins follower and as a goalee was being Boot Camp new recruit and the later being a Drill Sergeant.   In no other place did you get the in-depth education on how the Atkins Diet worked and get setup for true success.  With that in mind and with upcoming 2000 subscribers to my Youtube videos, I have started making plans to have an ADBB Youtube Atkins Diet Boot Camp.  Like the below video says, this is not your momma’s boot camp!  This is for people who want to learn, get involved, and become an Atkins success story.

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801 Grand Power Climb Firefighters’ Challenge - 2009 Edition

Sunday the 22nd will be date of the Iowa Lung Association 2009 801 Grand Power Climb.  I am doing the firefighters’ challenge again this year.

Last year, I did this challenge in the midst of dealing with knee pain due to poor running form and no stretching.  I hadn’t done any training to speak of before hand besides on the stair climber once.  I did reasonably well for my first time.   “My finish time was 11:29, which placed me 40th out of 96 firefighters and first among the Polk City members. It happened also to be the fastest time any Polk City FD had recorded in the last 5 years. Polk City FD placed 9th out of the 13 teams.”    I was so enthused with the event and how well it was run that I volunteered to help manage this year’s event.

This year I am determined to do better.  I am really hoping for a sub ten result this year (12% better).  Polk City FD also has a chance of winning the new volunteer division.  As you can see, my workouts have been amped up to achieve this goal.  The only thing left is doing the Climb tomorrow.  My game plan is simple - do two steps at a time through 30 floors (over 15 floors last time) and plough through the rest as much as possible.

Another change is fund raising effort this year.  Previous year you only had to raise $60 to Climb.  This year our group decided to raise the donation number to $100, which should encourage more fund raising and less just paying outright.  Did it work in my case?  Absolutely!  I baked cookies multiple times and sold them for $2 for 2 of my triple Chocolate fudge  or brown sugar cookies.   Even though I couldn’t taste my creations (non-low carb), I’m told they were delicious.  It worked extremely well, and I raised over $200 this year.

I will update this post with my results tomorrow.

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Atkins Diet Misconceptions: Ketosis vs. Ketoacidosis

This is the next one in my series of Atkins Diet Misconceptions where I combat all myths and misunderstandings regarding low carbing. Another one of the oft-misunderstood low carb concepts is the whole difference between ketosis and the diabetic condition of ketoacidosis. It should be rather clear what the difference is between the two:
* one affects low carbers who are eating very few carbs and have consequently low to normal blood sugar levels
* one affects almost strictly Type 1 diabetics who can’t produce any or enough insulin for their hyperglycemia (very high blood sugar)

Even though they sound the same and both involve ketones in the blood, they are dramatically different in terms of severity and cause. Here are the amounts I spoke of in the video:
Dietary ketosis vs. diabetic hyperketoacidosis
Normal state: 0.1 mmol/L
Overnight fast: 0.3 mmol/L
Ketogenic diet: 1-3 mmol/L
21 day fast: 10 mmol/L
Uncontrolled diabetes: more than 25 mmol
You can see where the uncontrolled diabetic has nearly 10-20 times the millimoles of ketones in their blood as the ketogenic diet follower.

Ketosis is safe natural state for the body to be in. Many hunter and gatherers were in a ketogenic state for most of the winter months. It is simply the body’s reaction to burning fat for fuel, and ketones are the normal by-product of that reaction. Everyone is in some state of ketosis every day.

Additional info:
http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/ketosis.html
http://www.lowcarbportal.com/archives/categories/low_carb_ketosis/index.php

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2009 State of the world address

I wanted to just post a state of the union or world message or where my life sits today type post. It is sort of New Year’s post 3 weeks late post to reflect with what 2008 meant to me, and where I plan to head this year.

Running:
My running in 2008 in many ways take a step back even though I set a marathon PR in September Quad Cities Marathon. I ran about 110 miles less this year than I did in 2007. Why were so few miles ran? Injuries and changing perspective. My knee and legs are finally getting healthy after the knee pain of the early year and the sprained ankle in November. It was somewhat frustrating as I saw my running get slower and more difficult. It definitely made me rethink what I was doing. I also started P90x a couple times, and its every day hour-long exercise also drained some of my long runs. I also did not participate in the Thursday night tempo group this year (it wasn’t offered), which I think really helped my speed last year. The only really good piece of running this year was meeting a bunch of new running friends and figuring out my electrolytes formula for long runs.

Where will 2009 lead? I am hoping to do 2 marathons. The one in the spring simply to keep my base up, and keep me running. After basketball season completes, I plan on helping the daughter train for her first half marathon or 20k (Dam to Dam maybe?). Until then, my mileage will be low in the winter. The fall race I really hope is my sub 4 hour race. It should be as QCM is now an experienced course. After that, we’ll see if I pace the full Des Moines Marathon 4:45 or the half again. I had a blast last year encouraging people to reach their goals.

Diet-wise:
I am right where I was last year at this time. 5 pounds over goal weight more likely due to the lack of exercise training time than anything else. There has also been a lot of stress lately, but all that is over. It is now time to buckle down and get to 220 for this year. I have 10 pounds to go and all the motivation to do it. My videos have taken off this year, and I produced over 40 videos in 2008. Low carbing is definitely coming back if my viewership is any clue. I also was just notified I will be featured in a weekly supermarket magazine not sure if web only or web and print feature yet.

Here’s my latest video:

Professional or Career-wise:
Same responsibilities at work - no change there in 2008. I did help Microsoft certify validate a number of their Windows 2008 exams this year. I also completed my MCITP: Server Administrator certification and started working on my VCDX certification by passing the Enterprise Exam. I really wish the VMware Design exam would be released.

One difference is I did complete my training commitments to Polk City Fire Department this year. In the first half of the year, I completed my fire fighter training program to achieve FFI certification. From there, in the second half I completed the twice week EMT program at Mercy College outreach. Shortly after the first of the year, I passed my final NREMT written exam to complete my EMT-B certification. I am glad that 2009 will feature a LOT, LOT less mandatory training to give me time to focus on other things. November and December were months I am not looking to repeat any time soon.

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New Live “How to” Atkins Diet TV show

Since the beginning of the year, the low carb and Atkins Diet lifestyle has once again exploded in interest.  My daily video viewership has exploded 3x what it was in the week’s before in December.  I have gained almost 50 new subscribers since January 1.  In that effort, I have decided to make a Live tv show called “How to” Atkins Diet TV show.

I will be streaming this TV show from Ustream.tv every Thursday night at 9 pm CST.  My goal in this endeavor is to be more interactive with those that watch my videos, answer the questions people might have who have not registered with Youtube, and generally help everyone to be as successful as I was.  The first few shows will be more QnA or topic-based shows with hopefully lots of audience viewership.  Future shows may feature me back in the kitchen.

I hope you guys attend and participate.  Here’s to a great 2009!

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Atkins Diet Recipes: Buffalo Wings

These wings are some of the best reasons to go on the Atkins Diet. They are completely legal for all phases of the diet and absolutely delicious. The Diet Coke is a unique ingredient, but it really does the trick. I think by adding the wings to the simmering sauce, the collagen helps thicken the sauce as well.

Ingredients
3 pounds chicken wings, separated at joints, tips discarded
1 cup Louisiana-style hot sauce (Franks Hot Sauce recommended)
1 can Diet Coke with Splenda
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste
1/2 tsp Thyme
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 TBS Dried Chopped Onions

Instructions:
* Cut the wings into pieces.
* Mix other ingredients into large pot and start simmering.
* Add wings to pot to give flavor
* Heat Oil to 350-375F degrees
* Add wings to fryer and cook until done (12-14 minutes)
* Add wings back to Buffalo sauce and coat thoroughly

Posted in Weight Loss / Exercise | 3 Comments »