I am having some real success lowering my fasting (I am pre diabetic) by drinking the PS mixed with kefir around 3-4 am when I hit the bathroom. I mix it up before bed and keep it on the sink. Over the past week my sugar has been 15 to 20 points lower even if I sleep in. This morning it was 84 and yesterday 91. It seems to be stopping the surge of glucose from happening. Whatever, I am really happy! I was originally going to shell out for the Super Starch, but this is obviously going to save me a lot of money. Thanks for that.
And finally, in a day or so, results from from other self-experimenters, complete with graphs.
Looking forward to the results with graphs as I am sure many other PS-experimenters are.
this is good news. I had (stupidly) using potato starch as I (wrongly) believed that it caused joint pain. Started using it again and feel *better*. Hard to describe, but just better, no pain. Cannot wait for more on resistant starch and the beans. I have two bags of beans but am afraid to get them ready. I just need to shake myself out of my paleo is the only way funk.
First, I presume her “fasting” is meant to be adjective to “blood glucose level.”
But I write, not as Grammar Gestapo, but suspecting Judy is wrong on a number of counts. Sorry, Judy, not trying to be a jerk, I just see a number of scientific and logical problems here.
First off, if she consumes any insuligenic foods at 3 in the morning, she would have to fast until 3PM to meet the protocal for FBG tests. Don’t forget potato starch still has a significant amount of non-resistant molecules. It’s not pure RS.
Second, since even RS has a digestible component, I suspect that maybe what is happening is that by the time she gets up and measures, she is in the “over shot” level of insulin production resulting in lower BG. Look at any BG/time charts postprandial, and the normal decline goes extra low and then back up to whatever is normal for that person.
Third, the BG benefits of RS come from feeding the bacteria, said bacteria then doing magical things in the blood stream. In other words, I doubt that the colonic bacteria are even getting the new dose that fast, then they have to do the magic thing. Now, I readily admit, this is just a “gut” sense of things scientifically, I have no citations or anything to lean on.
Perhaps try taking your RS twelve hours ahead, at the minimum. If your FBG goes up, that would indicate that previously your body was in “over shot” mode.
@ Cathy: I’ve been doing the bean thingy with the extra resistance creator of using a starch blocker when I eat them. I’ve been using canned beans but recently bought dried pintos and black beans. My favorites.
I soaked the pintos for about 24 hours, changing the water several times. As I’m sure you know, soaking beans allegedly diminishes some of the dietary nasties ascribed to them. After that long soak, they will cook in about 35-40 minutes.
Black beans are a lot smaller; I have a pot soaking since this AM and will probably cook them after what will be a 10 hour soak. Not sure what the cooking time will be.
A side story about beans: My father’s mother grew up in Austria in the earliest years of the last century. A very class conscious society, like a lot of Europe still is. I remember her not eating beans because she had been taught “Only poor people eat beans.” How sad.
Pzo
Thanks for raising those issues. I had thought basically the same thing (it’s not an FBG). I decided to post without mentioning that, to see what would happen. I still think it’s important. And thinking about it from an individual standpoint, if you get up 3-4, why not down it and give your gut a feeding? They’re 90 % of us and we have zero idea what’s best for them.
I’d like to see if Judy could repeat the results with just kefir or just potato starch. At any rate, I think with some people, something is happening while they sleep that causes high morning FBG.
I used to have FBG of 130’s while on LC Paleo. Switching to Perfect Health Diet levels of carbs brought it down to 110’s, and adding RS to the mix has brought it down to the 85-95 range. Back when I had the high FBG, I’d wake every night at 3am and be wide awake for an hour or so before falling asleep til alarm went off at 6. That never happens now.
I just have lots of RS foods and a scoop of potato or tapioca starch a couple times a week with meals. FBG is always 85-95.
In Judy’s report, I don’t know what’s happening, but agree it will be a false FBG in the morning, still, I’d bet if she is getting her A1C checked regularly it will be lower–and that’s really what matters.
Back when I had high FBG, it would be 135 or so upon waking, then while still fasting, it would drop about 5-10pts an hour until I ate at noon when it would usually be around 100. Now, if I check upon waking, it’s like 88, then hourly checks only show +/- 2-3 pts. –very stable.
So, regardless of what is happening with Judy, I think it shows that RS has an impact on BG.
I don’t know about you cunts, but my mental clarity has gone up about 5 fold following the kefir + rs regime. My brain is like a fucking train now. Nothing stops it. It was only good for 2 to 3 hours a day before. My poops are cleaner than ever too – no mess down there and almost no need to wipe any more.
@bornagain: I’m not a cunt. The readers here who have one aren’t necessarily cunts. Even Richard doesn’t throw that one around often, and usually for a specific event and person.
Would you use this endearment with your mother or any sisters? I didn’t think so.
Pzo. Clearly you spend your life playing by other people’s rules. Good for you. The word in question by is just a word like any other. The fact that you can not read from the context of my comment that my use of the word contains no malice tells me what a brain washed clone you are. I get more out of life playing by my rules. People like you are my pawns.
@bornagain – I don’t care what words you use, I thought it was funny. But, to what you really said about mental clarity…I don’t want to say too much, I really didn’t want to say anything, but, yes, I’m experiencing it also. Mind fog is a real thing. When people first try LC or keto diets they are warned they might get ‘brain fog’. I think a lot of us just have it anyway. Since burrowing into this RS rabbit-hole I can undoubtedly say that my mental clarity (is that the opposite of brain fog?) has been very sharp. I’m not claiming to have esp or Einstein like IQ, but just a feeling of alertness. My wife says I am ‘nicer’ now, whatever that means.
My theory is it is the improved sleep. I have vivid dreams that I can remember in detail, and that was a rarity for the last 30 years or so. I would hate for anyone to start up with RS just to get mental clarity, I certainly wasn’t expecting it and I’m not sure how you could quantify it, but I think others may chime in with the same reaction.
“Only poor people eat beans.” How sad.
I’m of European descent and we were told the same thing as kids, but with respect to rice.
I often questioned my grandparents why they didn’t serve anything starchy other than potatoes with their meats and vegetables. I always got the same answer – “rice is for poor people, people who have work in rice paddies with water up to their knees”.
My family wasn’t necessarily class conscious (we were blue collar), but very conscious of living in the developing world vs. the third world.
Interesting – and oh by the way, I still can’t help but mention we are now back to my grandparent’s diet….(but of course, they were cool before it was cool) – grass fed meats, free range chickens laying regular eggs in nests, potatoes (eaten hot the first time, cool when served as leftovers)..green/red/orange vegetables…iced tea, water or coffee.
Their daily sins were a slice of toast or a pancake at breakfast, maybe a slice of pie after dinner – but upon rising, they rarely sat down again until dusk.
That was about it – no soda, no chips, no pizza, not much from restaurants. All born around the turn of the last century and lived to about 90.
Oh I wanted to mention something else – no diabetes in the family, but all of them started to develop atherosclerosis after retirement – in their 70s, in the 1970s. I am not sure why, perhaps the lessoning of physical activity or introduction of margarine and Crisco to their diets.
@MMG
In about 1968, one of my dad’s uncles from Germany visited.
He was initially horrified to be served corn on the cob along with the steak and baked tater. Pig food. But the family got a pic of him chowing down on a cob, butter & salt & all. He took the pic back to Germany with him, amused.
Gotta love them French:
In France and elsewhere, the potato was accused of causing not only leprosy, but also syphilis, narcosis, scronfula, early death, sterillity, and rampant sexuality, and of destroying the soil where it grew. There was so much opposition to the potato that an edict was made in the town of Besancon, France stating:
“In view of the fact that the potato is a pernicious substance whose use can cause leprosy, it is hereby forbidden, under pain of fine, to cultivate it.”
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813), a French military chemist and botanist, won a contest sponsored by the Academy of Besancon to find a food “capable of reducing the calamities of famine” with his study of the potato called Chemical Examination of the Potato. According to historical account, he was taken prisoner five times by the Prussians during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and obliged to survive on a diet of potatoes. He also served dinners at which all courses were made of potatoes. Many French potato dishes now bear his name today.
In 1785, Parmentier persuades Louis XVI (1754–1793), King of France, to encourage cultivation of potatoes. The King let him plant 100 useless acres outside Paris, France in potatoes with troops keeping the field heavily guarded. This aroused public curiosity and the people decided that anything so carefully guarded must be valuable. One night Parmentier allowed the guards to go off duty, and the local farmers, as he had hoped, went into the field, confiscated the potatoes and planted them on their own farms. From this small start, the habit of growing and eating potatoes spread. It is said that Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), Queen of France and married to Louis XVI, often pinned potato flowers in her curls. Because of her, ladies of the era wore potato blossoms in their hair.
When I had a health food store (mainly supplements) there were three types of people who would come in. Younger kids in their 20s and 30s, doing the whole food thing. They looked pretty good. Of course they were young. Then the older folks in the 60s and up. They, for the most part, were healthy and vital-looking. I figured because they grew up with real food and/or on farms. And they were still into good food, but knew that with the food that was available, they’d need some supplements. And then there were the middle-aged people, who, like me, had grown up mainly on processed food, and were trying to catch up. They definitely didn’t look as good as either of the other groups, the youngsters and the oldsters. And the difference was striking.
Still doing the RS thing. The sleep has improved dramatically. And lately my temperature has been going up. I’m hypothyroid and am generally cold all the time, but that’s going away. Energy and mood both very good, but there are some confounding factors there, so can’t attribute it to the RS. FBG higher than I would like (98-104-ish), but stable under challenge from carbs. Looking forward to an HbA1C measurement in a month or so to see what’s going on. Digestion definitely better.
The sleep thing is the most bestest of all though. How many articles have we read in the last couple of years, both in the Paleo blogs and elsewhere, talking about the importance of sleep? “To sleep, perchance to dream…” though hopefully without the death part.
Thanks tatertot, et. al. This has been a good one.
Charles, I’d be interested in knowing about your hypothyroid results, too, especially FT3, Rt3 and WBC. My impression is that RS seems to be relieving some hypothyroid symptoms. But this could be mistaken as well. Some of us just may have Raynaud’s Disease, in which case the cold fingers and toes might be relieved. I’m not sure to what extent the body temperature might be affected by Raynaud’s, which is an epidemic among certain VLC dieters, as common as hypothyroidism is.
I’d also be interested to know whether RS normalizes some of the hormones that may have become dysregulated by VLCing, like high cortisol, low leptin, and low IGF-1.
@Spanish Caravan:
I don’t have Raynaud’s. My ex has that, and I definitely don’t. I just seem to be warmer, and going into the cold season, that’s unusual. And my temp seems to be going up. But I don’t have enough info to really say whether this is a “real” phenomenon.
But let’s hypothesize that it is. Where might it be coming from? If RS create fatty acids that are burned in the lower intestine, that could explain both the increased temperature and the better sleep. Longer, sustained energy burns could affect both positively.