What Got Better

I mentioned a few things in last night's post that got better when I went LCHF.  It wasn't only weight loss, blood pressure, and lipid panels. 

I wanted to go over some of them in greater detail.

Acne

I've suffered from pretty bad acne from way back.  As a teen, I was told repeatedly by doctors and dermatologists that it had nothing to do with my diet.  It would clear up as I passed through puberty. It's hormones causing it.  Yet, at 40 I still had it.  I'm pretty sure a 40 year old has finished going through puberty.

I will grant the contention that it was hormones causing it, just not puberty hormones.  Insulin is a hormone.  A powerful one at that. Guess what causes your body to over produce insulin.  Carbohydrates.  Any carbohydrate consumed quickly converts to blood glucose once consumed.  Even so called "healthy whole grains". This causes your body to produce insulin. 

Photo by Siona Karen

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Hypertension has been billed as the silent killer, displaying few if any symptoms.

My hypertension was first brought to my attention when I started regularly donating blood while in the service.  Every 60 days I was eligible to donate again, and was strongly encouraged to do so.  So, every 60 days or so for 4 years I heard yet again that my BP was a bit too high.

So, this isn't something that started because I got older, it's been with me throughout my adulthood at the least. Additionally, while I was in the service, I was fit.  The USAF has constant checks on that. There is no doubt that at that time, I was not overweight. So, my hypertension was not caused by obesity.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

Arthritis

Also while in the service, I noticed frequent swelling and pain in my knees. Fearing an injury of some kind, I had the doctors check it out.  Not being able to find anything obvious, they performed an arthroscopic examination of my knee joint.  This involved injecting a dye into the joint and taking pictures of the insides, to see if I had any tissue damage.

The diagnosis?  Simply arthritis. I was dumbfounded!  Arthritis?  I was 21 years old!  I thought only elderly people got arthritis?

Apparently I was mistaken, and it only got worse as I got older, I ached all the time, and it spread to more and more joints, eventually turning into gout in knees and toes. 

Gout

Everything I read on this disease blamed it on the consumption of meat and protein.  From the Wikipedia entry on gout:

Dietary causes account for about 12% of gout, and include a strong association with the consumption of alcohol, fructose-sweetened drinks, meat, and seafood. Other triggers include physical trauma and surgery. Recent studies have found dietary factors once believed to be are, in fact, not; including the intake of purine-rich vegetables (e.g., beans, peas, lentils, and spinach) and total protein. The consumption of coffee, vitamin C and dairy products as well as physical fitness appear to decrease the risk. This is believed to be partly due to their effect in reducing insulin resistance.

I see something new has been added to the Wikipedia. There's hope after all if studies are finally looking at insulin resistance as a cause.  If you've read anything I've posted, you'll know I believe insulin resistance (precursor to type 2 diabetes) is caused by carbohydrate consumption. 

IBS

I'm going to go again to the wiki for this one. 

The primary symptoms of IBS are abdominal pain or discomfort in association with frequent diarrhea or constipation, a change in bowel habits. There may also be urgency for bowel movements, a feeling of incomplete evacuation (tenesmus), bloating or abdominal distention. In some cases, the symptoms are relieved by bowel movements. People with IBS, more commonly than others, have gastroesophageal reflux, symptoms relating to the genitourinary system, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, headache, backache and psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety. Some studies indicate that up to 60% of persons with IBS also have a psychological disorder, typically anxiety or depression.

I'm not going to go into more detail, but, yeah, it's nasty, painful, and embarrassing. 

That clip reminded me of another condition that has vanished.

Acid Reflux

I practically lived on Tums. I went through at least one, sometimes, two giant bottles of extra strength every month.

Depression

I didn't mention this one, but depression has been a constant companion throughout my life.  It's something that I always denied, but it was there. Many people will tell you that I'm a much happier person these days.  Most of them will attribute it to Kristen and the kids.  I do attribute it to Kristen, but it was the changes she made to my diet.  Real foods, chock full of nutrients.  

During our junk food extravaganza of Kristen's pregnancy with Honor, both of us battled with depression.

Then there's depressions frequent companion. 

Low Self Esteem

Yeah, I didn't think much of myself. After all, conventional wisdom says that calories in less than calories out is all it takes to lose weight.  It's just my weakness of will that causes me to be fat.  It's all my fault for not getting my lazy ass off the couch and exercising more and eating less. 

Yeah, anyone who still believes that needs to watch Fat-Head The Movie.  Or, simply go read the stuff on Mark's Daily Apple, Fat Head, Diet Dr., Dr. Eades, and many others that their blogs link to. Willpower doesn't have a damned thing to do with it.  If you've become insulin resistant from eating a high carbohydrate diet, your body is forcing you to eat because your cells are starving!

Your body is also slowing your metabolism in an effort to keep from shutting down completely from starvation, hence the total lack of energy, or inclination to get that lazy ass off the couch.  It's a vicious cycle.  Which leads to the next item nicely. 

Lack Of Energy

It got to the point where I rarely got out of my chair. Between a lack of energy and arthritis, I always took the elevator at the office, and there's only basement, main floor, and 2nd floor. 

Conclusion

I've likely left out something, but those are what I can recall easily this morning.  I'm not trying to say that LCHF will cure everything that ails you.  However, more research continues to be published that many of our modern illnesses are dietary.

Actually, some of the research is quite old, like the work of Dr. Weston A. Price and Dr. Pottenger. Dr. Price's work was dental in nature, the problems he researched are also problems I've had.  I do not yet know if my changed diet has helped those issues, but Richard Nikoley recently posted an article describing his recovery from everything that has plagued my mouth. So, I know it's helped at least one person.  

My suggestion is simply this, if you're having any of these issues, follow some links, read some blogs, read some books, be another n=1 experiment.  Just make sure you do it right, LCHF is not about counting calories.  Don't do it. If you're hungry, eat.  Just make sure you eat real food!  No protein bars made in a lab.  Nothing prepackaged.  LCHF is more about what you eat than how much you eat.  Don't starve yourself, you'll doom your experiment if you do.

 

Quick Link for Sunday

The Diet Doctor posted a link with comment to a very nice infographic that explains How Carbs Make You Fat.  Check it out!

Why I'm Living Low Carb High Fat

I've posted quite a bit on this blog about low carb high fat (LCHF), Paleo, Primal, Wheat free diets. I tend to write quite frequently about it. I also tend to talk quite frequently about it. I'm actually quite certain that many of you friends and family are probably sick of hearing about it.  You probably look at me, still overweight, and think to yourself, yeah, he'll get over it eventually.

I won't get over it. And, I will probably continue to preach it. I have to. Maybe what I'm about to post will help you to understand why I've become passionate about this.

Back in 2002 I tipped the scales at 265lbs.  For someone 5'7" tall, that's 100lbs overweight (according to some sources, even more so). I would turn 40 next year.  That's me over to the right. 

My doctor prescribed me lisinopril for hypertension, and a statin for cholesterol. I took myself off the statin after only a few months, fortunately, because I probably would have been fired if I had kept taking it any longer.  I couldn't think straight anymore, and it showed in my work. Please read my other post on statins if you're taking one.

On the plus side, I was also sent to talk to a dietician.  She suggested that my IBS might in fact be celiac. Additionally, she also told me that the biggest reason I gave up on the only successful diet I had ever tried, might not have been the diet, but actually have been an allergy to soy (she was right about the soy).

Following her advice, I went wheat free.  I also gave up drinking everything except coffee, tea, and water.  Following this advice, I dropped to 248 lbs. There I stopped. Of course, at that time I was still eating plenty of carbs.  Corn and rice especially. I had chosen not to again try the Atkins diet, even though I had successfully lost weight in the past with it.  I just didn't quite believe that soy could be the problem, after all, that's a health food, isn't it? Or, that's what we're told.  Of course, we're also told grains are healthy, but I digress.

Then in 2008 I married Kristen.  She introduced me to real food.  She had read a book called Nourishing Traditionsthat changed her way of thinking about food.  She also insists she wants to keep me healthy for a good long time, something about seeing our children grow up and have kids.  We now have five of them. 

No  more foods that were created in a lab for me.  We also discovered Mark's Daily Apple and bought The Primal Blueprint.  We put me back on a low-carb diet. My weight moved slowly down to 212 lbs. And, stopped. 

My weight was not where I want it.  The good news, however, was that my blood pressure was.  As a matter of fact, my doctor (a new one, my old one having decided he wanted to work exclusively with geriatric patients) was actually a little alarmed that my blood pressure was 106/60. She suggested I should stop taking lisinopril that I had been taking daily for five years.

This was right around the time that Galen was born.  A little over 3 years ago.  My weight fluctuated up and down between 212 and 220.  Refusing to budge lower.  This continued pretty much until Honor was conceived.

Frustrated with my lack of progress, and (no, I'm not blaming you Kristen) giving into the temptations of Kristen's pregnancy cravings, I stopped being low-carb and rocketed back up to 240 lbs. 

Honor was born In May, and Kristen put us both on a low-carb, and this time high fat, diet about two weeks after.  

Here's why I'm passionate about LCHF.  Three years ago, when I was down to 212 lbs. my lipid panel was still not great, triglycerides were 203.  That's the number that I've learned is actually most important.  Additionally, I was stalled at 212 lbs.  It was as if I were still eating sugar or something.

This fall my lipid panel came back with a triglyceride reading of 74.  That's awesome!  The difference?  High fat diet!  Real fats, no frankenoils.  I've also dropped back to 220 lbs.  All arthritis is gone.  Gout is gone.  Acne is gone.  All these things came back during Kristen's pregnancy with Honor.

I'm convinced.  LCHF is not a diet, it's now the way I eat.  We'll see if it also gets me past that 212 lb. barrier. I suspect it might, as the high fat part of the diet satisfies my hunger better, and our continuing studies in nutrition have taught us that your body can actually turn proteins into glucose (sugar), which I suspect is what my body was doing, which is why I was finding it harder and harder to resist eating carbohydrate heavy foods.

 ~Scott

Snow Day Saturday

Change is the only constant. 

I remember one of the first things Kristen taught me about raising kids was to not tell them what we're doing tomorrow. Today proves the wisdom of that. 

We both feel it's pretty important to not lie to our children. The thing is, telling a child "tomorrow, we're going to build a storage bin for our recycling containers as a group project" and then having plans changed by the weather is a lie.

Take a look at the picture on the left, that's the front of the house early this morning, and it's still snowing. Sadly, it was precisely to keep the snow out of the recycling bins that I had planned this project.

I do plan on attempting to begin the project, but it's going to be more planning, drawing, and measuring than working on it … today anyhow. Oh, if it goes smoothly (hah!) I might get to some actual cutting today.  My point is, since they have not been told that we're going to be doing this, they're not A) disappointed, and 2) haven't been lied to in their eyes.  

I can hear the argument without anyone saying it.  "They need to learn to handle disappointment." To that I say, life will deal that to them, it doesn't need my assistance.  Additionally, they will have ample opportunity to see momma and daddy handle their own disappointments.  

Feel free to post your own thoughts on this in the comments. 

Quick quote

Seth Godin has the ability to say something meaningful in short bursts.  I enjoy reading his blog, and recommend it.  Todays post: The honest broker. I hope you enjoy it, and recommend adding his blog to your own RSS feed.

The Value of Jobs

Interesting point of view on the mantra of we need to create jobs.  I really liked the way that Adam Gurri changed that to Create Value Not Jobs in this post. 

The point is, our goal should never be to “create jobs”. Our goal should be to enable people to contribute something valued by other people. The value is the point, not the work. If someone finds a way to provide value to hundreds of millions of people and it requires no more effort from them than batting their eyelashes, that would be a win.

I like that. It ties in well, I think, with a letter that Donald J. Boudreaux sent to the New York Times. Companies want value for the money they spend. I think Prof. Boudreaux nails it in his final paragraph. 

Put differently, your report, like Mr. Obama, insinuates that low-wage jobs overseas (and jobs currently performed by machines) would, if transferred to America, somehow become the same – but higher paying – jobs for workers here.  This insinuation is wrong.   If Apple followed Mr. Obama’s suggestion, there would soon be no Apple and, hence, no “iPhone work” that the U.S. could possibly “lose out on.”

Every time I hear talk of raising minimum wage, I can't help but think, what that really means is that the value I get for my work is about to go down. Raising the minimum wage doesn't mean that those of us who make more than the current minimum will also be given a raise, quite the contrary actually.  However the goods and services I consume will undoubtedly go up in price, meaning that I will need to cut back on what I purchase. I won't be alone in this by any stretch.  So, all the people who have to trim expenses because the price of everything went up, will stop buying what has now become a luxury widget that was made by some minimum wage, unskilled laborer.  Which means the company that made that widget is now out of business. Which means that laborer is now out a job completely. 

So, contrary to what the economists say in that Huffington Post article, I think what would actually happen is the economy would ultimately slow down even more. You don't create jobs by making it harder for the widget makers who employ people to stay in business!

Each and every time the government artificially attempts to redistribute value, they only succeed in making the situation worse. As unpopular as this probably is, what I think should really happen is that minimum wage should be eliminated altogether. 

 Photo by Images_of_Money

 

Changing Back

Life is sand on the beach, always shifting. 

I just wanted to give a brief post about the fact that I've decided to remove the FB commenting app, and go back to the blogger commenting system.  If I had seen a great increase in comments, I probably would have left it in place, but I didn't, and blogger has implemented threaded comments, so you can now comment on other people's comments.  I like that feature, now I just need to get you readers to comment.  ;-)

Statins

 Dr. Eades has written a post, and posted a video that I think everyone who has been prescribed a statin drug, who has not already had a heart attack needs to read and watch. Statins and diabetes.  Go watch the video if nothing else, it's less than 12 minutes that will be well spent. 

Photo by Jamiesrabbits

 

Kairos Time

I just read a great article that I would like to share.  Don't Carpe Diem

I just wanted to add my own, as Glennon Melton calls it, Kairos Time.  When I walk through the door two hours late, after having spent the last four hours on the phone troubleshooting a database issue, and not getting it fixed, and then had to walk home in a blizzard, exhausted, hearing my three year old holler "Daddy!" and the thumping of his little feet as he tears through the house to wrap his little arms around me in a Galen sized hug.  Makes it all worthwhile.  Sigh. 

 

What do you think?

Christopher Buentello asked via Google+

Do you think the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will alleviate/exacerbate housing finance?

Gut response, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) being a government agency, will make things worse. I'm not in favor of more government. Frankly, I think we have too much government now.

I firmly believe that the government should provide defense of the country.  Should provide a police and fire force.  Should build and maintain roads, rails, bridges, etc (infrastructure). And, yes, should write laws.  Sadly, basic human nature is selfish, and people, in my not so humble opinion, only ever do things for selfish reasons, so you have to make it to their benefit to get along with one another.

The problem with yet another "Bureau" is built into the whole definition of what a bureaucracy is.  I can't for the life of me recall where I read it, but I once read a definition of bureaucracy as "Government by Desks".  The way a bureaucrat works is that he has power only by the number of "desks" that work under him.  Each of those "desks" increases their power by getting "desks" under their supervision.  Of course, this also increases the power of the top "desk", etc.

What you end up with is a bunch of people creating reams of paper and reports, who basically do nothing but supervise other people who produce their own reams of paper, so they can get to the point where they need to hire someone to produce ... to infinity.

In other words, it's a pencil pushing, paper shuffling, waste of taxpayers money.

After going to the site I linked above, it looks like a beneficial thing. I'm sure that the people who created it had good intentions.  The goals certainly sound lofty.

The central mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans — whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products.

The thing is, as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Who is this agency protecting the consumers from?

Like a neighborhood cop on the beat, the CFPB supervises banks, credit unions, and other financial companies, and we will enforce Federal consumer financial laws.

Hmm ... but it wasn't the banks, credit unions, and other financial companies who ultimately created the mess, it was the government.

Uh, oh.

So, the government encourages banks, credit unions and other financial companies to do loans to high risk consumers.  Then, when the consumers who shouldn't have been loaned the money in the first place default on the loans, the government blames the banks, credit unions, and other financial companies for the mess, and, creates yet another government agency to keep watch on ...

Yup, sounds like the definition of a bureaucracy.

I think I'll stick with my gut reaction, the CFPB will only make matters worse in the end.  I think there are already plenty of government agencies watching over banks, credit unions, and other financial companies now, we don't need another one.  If anything, we could use less interference from government agencies on lending policy. Most especially, stop pushing lenders to loan money to people who are a bad risk.

If the government wants to truly help, what they need to do is first, become fiscally responsible themselves, and set a good example.

Photo by Khanele

Housing Bubble Explained

I want to thank Tom Naughton for recommending the Cafe Hayek blog to his readers. I've been really enjoying the posts there. This one titled Be careful what you wish for is especially good. Russ Roberts does an extremely good job, with links, of showing why it was the government that caused the whole housing bubble.

Of course I also think that an educated consumer could have protected themselves, and managed to use the opportunity created by the government policies to do what those policies stated intentions were.  I know it could be done from personal experience. I did it.  In 1995 I scraped together every last penny I could for the 5% down payment that was as low as most banks would go at that time.
I could have still easily lost my shirt.  The realtor tried repeatedly to push me into a house I would not have been able to afford the payments on.  I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the payments, but he was using the government's new guidelines to judge how much I could borrow, which did not mean I would be able to actually afford to make the payments. I had to be extremely firm with him about the price range I was willing to look at.

I'm pretty sure that my experience was not unique. I'm sure that quite a few people were talked into buying homes that they couldn't really afford.  Yes, the realtor was trying to maximize his profits. I really can't fault that, I know I prefer to make as much as I can for my work. The thing is, if the government, through HUD, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac weren't making it so easy for people to qualify for more loan than they could truly afford, this wouldn't even have been an issue.

There's a good reason why someone with only 5% down payment is considered a poor credit risk.  It's a lot easier to walk away when you can't afford the payment if you only have $5,000 invested than it is if you have $20,000.  This is especially true for someone who has been making payments for a couple of years on a 30 year mortgage, and has recently realized that he still owes almost as much as he did 2 years ago.  The principal reduction on a 30 year mortgage is a pittance at the beginning of the 30 years.

Insanely enough, I've heard tell that some lenders, again at the instigation of FNMA and FHLMC are actually offering a 40 year mortgage!

And there's the crux of the reason I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I could not afford to borrow the amount that the realtor thought I could.  There was no way I was willing to pay the interest charges that would accrue over the life of a 30 year mortgage.  At that time the best rate I could get was 8.875%.  I had every intention of paying that thing off by making a payment that would pay it off in 15 years.

Which was the reason I knew I couldn't afford the loan the realtor thought I could.  But even at today's low rates of say 4%, the total amount of interest over the life of a 100k, 30yr mortgage is $71,869.51 ($186,432.16 at the 8.875% I could get in 1995).  Change that to 15yr payment and your total interest is $33,143.83 ($81,231.93 at 1995 rates).  The 30 year mortgage is good for lenders, not borrowers.  Same 100k, but they make more than 2 times the income for only double the length of time.

Despite a minor setback in 2003, I did it in 16 years 2 months.

If I could have swung it, I would have paid it off in ten years. But, I couldn't, and it isn't near the savings either, as you're not upside down on the payment on a 15 year mortgage.

What do I mean by upside down on the payment?  Briefly, the payment on that 30 year $100k mortgage example was $477.42. Of that, only $144.08 of the first payment made went to the principal. Only 30% of the payment went towards paying off the loan ... way less than half.  That's what I mean by upside down.  Nice income for the lender.  

Compare to the 15 year payment of $739.69 (note, that is not double the 30yr payment). The principal paid on the first payment is $406.35. That's 55% of the payment.  In other words, more than half your payment is going towards retiring your debt.  You're not upside down.  And, the situation only gets better as you make payments. 

Whew ... I got a little long winded there, but it's a topic I'm passionate about. I firmly believe that if more people understood loans better, this country would not be in the financial straights it is.
Next time maybe I'll talk about credit cards, and why they love you for making the minimum payment.