Low starch dieters (make yourselves known!)

Hey hey dudes

Just wanted to network with other low starch...ers, and have a chat about how we do it, what we do eat, etc!

I for one believe in sugar but not starch, and currently view most ripe fruit, sugary dairy like ice cream, and honey to be some of the places I can "get my sugar"!

What about other low starchers? How do you do it?

I wanted to start this thread as although high sugar, low starch diets can be blissful, they can also be quite difficult particularly in countries like England where fruit is expensive and often unripe on the shelves.

So yeah erm... let's mingle!

Cheers,

Hoppi!

plus 1, but not sold on sugar either at this point

Yanks wrote:plus 1, but not sold on sugar either at this point

ah, you burn fat? or?

ah, you burn fat? or? Smile

Hoppi I think it's more complicated than that. The body has metabolic pathways which perform interconversion between fats, sugars, and proteins. For example, sugars are converted into palmitic acid in the liver.

imprisoned-radical wrote:

ah, you burn fat? or? Smile

Hoppi I think it's more complicated than that. The body has metabolic pathways which perform interconversion between fats, sugars, and proteins. For example, sugars are converted into palmitic acid in the liver.

but don't cells burn glucose?


EDIT -- On another note, you know in the last year I have tried intense starch diets (no sugar at all or incredibly little) and the inverse (high sugar, incredibly low starch). And I've personally found that the former gives me lots of bloating and gas, and the latter - as long as I don't go totally overboard on something like dates - makes me pretty much gas-free! It's odd I know, as we all get told that sugar feeds the bacteria and candida and parasites, but in my experience it seems to be starch that is the culprit, as it sits in the intestines.

Thanks abc123 for waking me up to this!!!

imprisoned-radical wrote:

ah, you burn fat? or? Smile

Hoppi I think it's more complicated than that. The body has metabolic pathways which perform interconversion between fats, sugars, and proteins. For example, sugars are converted into palmitic acid in the liver.

Agreed. I believe the virtue of the paleo diet (high protein, high fat) is that instead of feeding your body sugar, whether it be complex or simple, is your body relies on gluconeogenesis to convert whatever dietary protein you're eating to glucose. If the protein isn't sufficient, you'll catabolize muscle tissue preferentially. Its a survival mechanism. And its great for burning excess fat, but if you aren't taking in enough protein you'll lose muscle. I think its a good tactic to use intermittently, but not long term. Ori Hoffmekler has a ton of material about it.

But its not simply a matter of, if you don't eat sugar or starch, you're just burning fat. Your body will make glucose from your tissues if you don't give it some. I'm still confused about ketosis, however. A popular nutrition book I just read said that ketosis only occurs during starvation situations and scenarios of almost zero carb intake, but I've seen some "low" carbers ketostix and apparently you can become ketotic just through enough carb restriction. What I'm confused about is where the overlap of gluconeogenesis and ketosis lies.

anthonyspencer54 wrote:

imprisoned-radical wrote:

ah, you burn fat? or? Smile

Hoppi I think it's more complicated than that. The body has metabolic pathways which perform interconversion between fats, sugars, and proteins. For example, sugars are converted into palmitic acid in the liver.

Agreed. I believe the virtue of the paleo diet (high protein, high fat) is that instead of feeding your body sugar, whether it be complex or simple, is your body relies on gluconeogenesis to convert whatever dietary protein you're eating to glucose. If the protein isn't sufficient, you'll catabolize muscle tissue preferentially. Its a survival mechanism. And its great for burning excess fat, but if you aren't taking in enough protein you'll lose muscle. I think its a good tactic to use intermittently, but not long term. Ori Hoffmekler has a ton of material about it.

But its not simply a matter of, if you don't eat sugar or starch, you're just burning fat. Your body will make glucose from your tissues if you don't give it some. I'm still confused about ketosis, however. A popular nutrition book I just read said that ketosis only occurs during starvation situations and scenarios of almost zero carb intake, but I've seen some "low" carbers ketostix and apparently you can become ketotic just through enough carb restriction. What I'm confused about is where the overlap of gluconeogenesis and ketosis lies.

so... does that mean one should consume more protein or less sugar?

I find if I don't consume a fair amount of carbohydrate every day (be that from fruit or another sugary source, or rice or another starchy source), I crave it like mad and will crack after about 2 or 3 days and binge on the most carb-heavy thing I can find! lol

I tried it one time and ended up eating my way through about 2/3rds of a block of creamed coconut probably just to get at the carbs as it was the only food I had with carbs in it!!

Opinions on the carbs:protein:fat (vague) optimal ratio?

EDIT -- actually now that I think about it it actually does make sense - people on high sugar and low protein diets do end up quite skinny. I guess the body needs stuff to burn using all the energy given to it by the sugar o.O