[Kick 6]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

Being insulin-dependent diabetic, I'm relatively sure my cravings for sugar are NOT related to the sugar levels in my blood stream

After 40+ years with this condition I have a decent understanding of macros. BUT, my wife is Hispanic and does all the cooking, so I don't get the diabetes-friendly options. As she is getting more and more encounters with her own blood sugar levels, I'm hopeful she will eventually agree she needs to go WITH ME to see a nutritionist.

Type I diabetes is a different animal all together. Something made your pancreas stop working properly which limits your insulin supply. There are case reports of the Coxsackievirus doing that but there are probably others as well.

Originally Posted by M_Six

I see more and more folks pushing for avoidance of ultra-processed foods. We've become very conscious of what is in the food we eat. Avoiding ultra-processed foods entirely is difficult, but it's not too hard to greatly reduce your intake. Just read the ingredient list and avoid the "chemistry sets." Like this guy says...

If you had to rate the chemical reactions in our body from most important to least important, pH regulation would be the most important. IMO, processed foods usually have a slightly lower pH but it has so many chemicals that it can stress our pH buffering capacity. Our pH will be regulated at all cost so putting stress on one pathway causes issues with other pathways. Our body robs Peter to pay Paul so to speak. pH is the main determinant of our GI bacterial assortment, so eating overly acidic foods is detrimental to our longevity. (this is an entire thread in itself)

You have to think of what nutrients are you getting from the food you eat and processed foods just don't have a lot of valuable nutrients.

Originally Posted by M_Six

So it's possible to overwhelm your statin. Makes perfect sense. But that leads me to another question. If I have a lipid panel done and my LDL count is at or below 50 (what my cardio doc wants to see), does that mean I'm good to go? Or can you have a very low LDL count like that and still be clogging your arteries? As I understand it, LDL is a measure of the "bad" cholesterol level in your bloodstream. So it would seem that a low LDL count would mean a low chance of building more plaque in your arteries.

Cholesterol is not the evil devil that they've made it out to be. It forms plaques on the interior artery walls to help the body, not hurt it. It eventually diminishes blood flow and causes problems, but it's a quick fix to micro arterial damage. It's related to GI intestinal bacterial assortment which affects bile acid and other factors that control cholesterol levels. There have been 23 types of commensal bacterial found in atherosclerotic plaques. There is a lot more going on there than what we've been told.

Originally Posted by orangetiger

With my family history, I'm always trying to learn more about keeping my heart healthy. If the LDL can be low but plaque is still building, that's definitely something I want to understand better.

Try to lower insulin spikes. That may mean eating less sugar, eating more complex carbs, or adding fiber or good fat to the meal to blunt the sugar spike. I am personally a fan of eating more fiber in the diet. There is solid research on its benefits.