King of carbs

Back in the AECC days, I was the king of carbs, no doubt it.

Breakfast – Cereal, toast, muesli
Such – Baguette/sandwich
Dinner – Pasta/pizza
Snacks – Chocolate, crisps, lager

Leaving aside the damage I was causing with my as yet I’m diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, my blood sugar levels were up and down like a yo-yo.

I did not know it at the time but my inability to concentrate and learn during lectures was a combination of neuro-inflammation from the gluten and blood sugar balance dysregulation from my incessant intake of refined carbohydrates.

Were it not for a ruthlessly efficient German housemate teaching me chemistry the week before the exam you might never be reading this newsletter.

After my diagnosis of inflammatory arthropathy, no starch/carbohydrate touched my lips many years.  These days I am partial to a modest amount of slow-release carbohydrates like a sweet potato.

I am also partial to a serving of resistant starch.

Specifically white rice and potato boiled and cooled becomes resistant starch (resistant to your digestive process). Thus you get no blood sugar spike from the carbohydrate within the potato & rice, but your trillions of friends in your intestines have the machinery to breakdown the resistant starch and use it as prebiotic.

I wrote about it last year here:

https://lessons.academyofchiropracticnutrition.com/how-to-feed-100-trillion-friends/

Those clever little bugs then make a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate which the cells of the gut lining use as fuel.

I wrote about it last year here:

https://lessons.academyofchiropracticnutrition.com/the-power-of-butter/

It all part of a beautiful symbiotic relationship: you feed your bacteria with prebiotics, they make butyrate which keeps the gut lining healthy creating a healthy environment for the bacteria to thrive, repeat.

But it gets even better,  not only do the cells of your gut lining use butyrate as fuel, so can your mitochondria to make energy for you.

As long as you have enough carnitine to shuttle the butyrate into the mitochondria you can burn this fat as fuel.

You can test this part of your energy pathway as part of a urinary organic acid test, when ethylmalonate is high, you are low in carnitine.

Anyhoo…..I like to keep my advice to patients simple and sustainable.

Plus whenever I can I like to treatment stack, one intervention, multiple layers of benefit.

So from last week newsletter, we are back to your favourite juice “with the mother”, we call apple cider vinegar aka ACV.

Next time you see a patient with blood sugar issues, maybe a pre-diabetic or full type II, it is worth getting then to try some ACV.

The research is pretty decent, check it out:

If you have heard it is good for weight loss, they are talking about blood sugar control helping with weight loss, so not weight loss per se.

If you have heard it helps with arthritis etc, there is nothing to support that.

Doesn’t mean it won’t help some, by a unknown mechanism but I would not suggest you offer it up for that reason, let it be an added bonus if it happens.

ACTION TO TAKE

– Try 2 grams of carnitine, see if you get more energy, it also helps people lose weight because they are burning fat.

– Try boiling white and potatoes, letting them cool then tucking in (you can reheat the rice), to let your good bugs tuck and make energy for you.

– If you are prone to feeling wobbly between meals, try 2 tablespoons of ACV with a meal.