As my housemate Bow loves to say, often, I am on a journey to find myself.

Let me start by assuring you that my intention in this post is not to get ‘preachy’. You know I do not like pushing any particular way of life, belief system, opinion or practice. I am simply including you in my musings. 

I was advised and guided by a very qualified nutritionist, naturopath, biochemist earlier this year, with the clear consent of my General Practitioner (GP Doctor Evs) and the NeuroImmunology Team at RPH, to attempt a diet reliant more on Ketones than Carbohydrates. This style of diet is known a Ketosis and has been a viable way of life for many people since the 1970’s. Allow me to elaborate:

Ketosis: A normal metabolic process, something your body does to keep working. When it doesn’t have enough carbohydrates from food for your cells to burn for energy, it burns fat instead. As part of this process, it makes ketones.

If you’re healthy and eating a balanced diet, your body controls how much fat it burns, and you don’t normally make or use ketones. But when you cut way back on your calories or carbs, your body will switch to ketosis for energy. It can also happen after exercising for a long time and during pregnancy. For people with uncontrolled diabetes, ketosis is a sign of not using enough insulin. (Excerpt from WebMD)

Ketones: Naturally occurring substances that are made when the body breaks down fat for energy.  If your body cannot use glucose for energy-for example, if your body doesn’t make or use insulin-ketones are formed. You might also have ketones if you are not eating enough carbohydrates and your body uses fat for energy instead. Your body wants to get rid of ketones through urine. (Excerpt from WebMD)

Carbohydrates:  Carbohydrates are the sugars, starches and fibers found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products. Though often maligned in trendy diets, carbohydrates — one of the basic food groups — are important to a healthy life. (Excerpt from Live Science)

At this point you may be thinking I am concerned about my weight. I am not. Full disclosure here for the sake of a genuine research project. My full factoids have been recorded at the base of the page for reference. I am also not ashamed.

I was given the names of four different scientists in four different countries and a handful of unrelated research projects. I was not told to try this, I was just told to read about it. You know I like reading. I was intrigued. The research didn’t lie and the most compelling part was the fact that none of the data was new. It was directly attributed at easing some of the big issues I was having and it was supported by institutions that did not seem to have hidden agendas.

I know, I looked.

SWISSE ULTIVITE has hidden agendas and all their ‘research’ is internal. rant over.

It wasn’t the fact of eating better. I have been eating well since my Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura diagnosis almost over ten years ago. It was what helped me to keep my spleen in my torso. I haven’t been to most take away restaurants in years and the only drinks I buy when I am out are bottled water and that is only if the day is SO HOT and I have forgotten my bottle from home. Snack food is often green produce or nuts and my only vice is coffee, no sugar (unless I’m on the roids).

I’m a good girl I am.

So our dinners have always been healthy, food prepared and served in a way that resembles the Nutritionists Healthy and Active campaigns, if not putting them to shame. But I conceded I could cut down on my occasional biscuit. I could remove the bread in my sandwich and have more salads. I could change my cereal out for bacon, eggs and mushrooms. I figured it was worth a shot.

Ketosis is recommended for autoimmune diseases, Diabetics, Epileptics and other Neurological condition.The adjustment of the cerebral electrical functioning during ketosis is significantly away from that of a Carbohydrate diet and so has shown improvements in the brain ailments, as well as benefits in those who struggle with glucose and insulin. There is also this concept of the low and high Glycemic Index (GI) Carbohydrates playing a role in inflammation, and those with inflammatory diseases (Hello!!) needing to avoid foods that at are High GI, which then spins off into this deeper, more suspect microlevel of a macronutrient…undigestible DNA.

Sounds big? Yep this is it.

Everything is made up of DNA right? And so we eat this food as a macronutrient, chew it so it is broken down, the stomach breaks it down further and sends it into the intestines to be absorbed. Chemicals come out and mix with bacteria (remember this bacteria for later!) and we absorb the micronutrients, found in this food, and everything else is left for waste.

Nuf Sed.

Have you ever noticed the larger amount of waste we have with carb-loaded foods? Carbohydrates (apparently) have an indigestible strand in their DNA. They also have LOTS of quick burning energy. We try to burn, we cannot burn all of it so we send it to store. It is hard for our body to get the energy out of the new grainier stuff, so we feel bloated. The bacteria works on it and what it can break down comes out with …souvenirs… What it cannot break down is stored with all that other energy for another point in time.

Picture this:

An autoimmune body is filled with dazed cells that don’t know who it’s friends are. They are suspect of all and freeze at sudden movements, pausing to contemplate if they are being attacked. As it is they mistakenly get this wrong more often than the host would care for, but as the host lives a typical day they may unknowingly be aggravating their immune system. The carbohydrates are absorbed and travel about flaunting their indigestible parts through the body like nobodies business. The Immune cells, already on tenterhooks flip out and start waving shields and batons everywhere. They are not letting anything past and they will put a stop to flow as good as any platelet has ever done in a vessel. More Immune cell buddies come as back up and soon we have a minor case of Inflammation.

Imagine this happening small scale in your body every time you had that third slice of cake at that party (as well as all that other food).

No wonder you feel like crap.

Height: 157cm

Weight: Between 53kg & 62kg depending on medications, lifestyle activity and how many cakes mum has made recently. I don’t worry so much about it.

Sleep patterns: (It’ll come in later I promise!) bed at 9, lights out 10:30 with reading in between. Wake at 7:30-9am. Solid deep sleep.

Activeness: active 2-6 days a week depending on moods. 15-75 minutes, depending on moods

Lifestyle: Largely 90% sedentary.