3 thoughts on ““My experience with a low-carbohydrate diet.””

1. Hi Dr.Jay,

   Good days to you Doc.

   Any significant effect of Embryo Rice for Diabetes Patience?

   tq

   Dr Jay’s Reply:

   I have had no direct experience with embryo rice but my understanding is that it is semi-refined to keep some of the nutrients that are normally lost when brown rice is refined to white rice. In either case, it is still a high carb food so would not be compatible with the LCHF diet being discussed here.

2. Hi Dr Jay,
   A question if you have any idea as to what is going on.
   My husband and I have been on the low carb diet for 2 years. We have been in Italy for the last 4 months and lately started having cramps.
   The cramps as not as bad as the ones I had when I began the diet 2 years ago (I didn’t know then about the big need for salt). But my husband didn’t get them at all when he started the diet.
   II have made up bone broth a few times that has stopped our cramps for a while and then they start again at basically the same time for both of us.
   We both eat plenty of salt and we have a potassium supplement and we both take magnesium citrate.
   I realise our diet is a bit different being in Italy but not that different, less veges and different water..
   Why these cramps are starting for both of us now after all this time? Any clues?
   It’s like both of us suddenly need more minerals for some unknown reason.
   Thank you
   Cassie

   Dr Jay’s Reply:

   I envy you your time in Italy. We used to vacation there in our pre-kid days. Our last trip was when our son was two and we took the nanny along with us. It was wonderful, of course, but we realized that, to him it didn’t matter if the beach was on the Italian Riviera or the one near our house, so we stopped flying around the world with all the gear children require and started vacationing closer to home (see picture on header). Still, I look forward to the day when we can traipse around the Italian countryside again.

   Your problem with cramps suggests to me that it may be the loss of Mg++ rich foods that you would normally be eating at home. Greens tend to be a good source and, typically, in Italy my recollection is that I tended to eat fewer big salads. Cooked spinach is a great source so perhaps you can find some of that to increase your dietary intake. Nuts and seeds are also good sources but I find it is easy to eat too many nuts. In terms of supplements, the best ones are the slow-release preparations like mag64 or SlowMag. They are magnesium chloride, not citrate. Perhaps, switching to that type of preparation would also improve things. I hope that helps.

   Buon Viaggio!

3. Hi Dr Jay,
   Thanks for your answer. Your right we don’t eat as many greens here.
   Italy is wonderful. It’s lovely and mad and loud and expressive.
   Sometimes though, looking at that tough, crusty sour dough is very hard. We have learnt to tell our waiters straight off that we can’t have gluten, ‘senza glutine’, because having a bread basket on our table is exquisite torture.
   Travelling and eating all the foods available always went together for us in the past, so it’s been a quite a learning in how to enjoy it all from a different non food prospective. I still absolutely enjoy my food but there is a different quality to the eating experience when so many foods are not OK.
   One thing that I find really interesting is we can only drink a very little wine now. We are very cheap drunks. This has happened since being low carb. And the other thing is one small black sugarless espresso goes a long way. Much more invigorating than before low carb.

   Cassie