--- Claudia Vander <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 1) In order not to have acne, bloating and gas I
> have to limit my carbs 
> severely.  The subsequent lack of energy and brain
> fog seem to never go 
> away.  I never get to that point others do where
> they know their body is 
> burning fat for fuel.  I try as long as I can until
> I am a lifeless mess 
> and then I give up.

You know Claudia, I can give you my best advice but
everyone here may not agree with me. This advice comes
from 10 years of experience eating low carb and
reading various newsgroups several hours a day for
those 10 years and seeing what other people have
success with and don't.  

Also from tons of hours reading technical articles and
doing my own experiments with my own body.  I strongly
believe your problem is an overgrowth of candida, or a
systemic yeast infection.  

When you eat carbs you feed the candida, and keep them
happy, and they in turn wreak havoc on your system
with bloating and gas, the same way yeast makes bread
rise.  

The acne is caused by bad bacteria in your body, and
not enough good bacteria because the imbalance that
candida causes.

Then when you stop eating carbs, your candida start
dying off, but they release a by-product when they
die-off that is like alcohol being released into your
system, just like the yeast that cause beer to ferment
and give it the intoxicating qualities it has.  This
causes your brain fog and fatigue and can also mimic
hypoglycemia.

Cheese and peanuts probably don't do this to you
because they still have a fair amount of carbs in
them, but enough to be low carb, sort of striking a
balance.  

When you eate moderate carb, you are still feeding the
yeast so they are not dying off and giving you die-off
symptoms, but you aren't feeding them enough so they
bubble up and make gas and bloating and perhaps giving
you acne.  

But still you have the candida overgrowth and will
probably never feel any better or get the results you
want until you cure your candida issues.

I hope that this explanation makes sense to you.. I'm
betting that you are nodding your head right now. 
When I learned of these things it was sort of an
epiphany for me.. things just clicked and made sense.

The next thing you need to do is go about treating
your candida issues, which the remedy for is basically
a low carb paleo diet, with some additional
supplements and restrictions.

There is a great support group that covers this
information in depth that I would like you to consider
joining:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/candidasupport/

The moderator there, Bee, has cured her own candida
issues and has spent the last 20 or so years doing
extensive research on the topic, and she is a wealth
of information.

The basic diet principles are Paleo, just a bit
stricter.  It's all fresh meat and veggies, but no
fruit, nuts or dairy.  

She also suggests natural supplements to get your body
back in balance, like megadoses of Vitamin C, garlic,
coconut oil, and personally answers questions, and she
is someone everyone trusts for answers.. you can just
tell this gal is very knowledgeable.

So check out that group, and follow the advice there
(you will get a few files to read, that will run you
through the diet and other suggestions).  

Then once you've read the introductory files, feel
free to ask questions and feel free to write to me
privately if you have further questions.  

Stick around here too, because the two diets are the
same, except the anti-candida diet is just stricter. 
You will still get lots of valuable information here.

Paleo is still the best way to eat for humans and
always will be, but when you have used too many
antibiotics, birth control pills or have a weakened
immune syste, prolonged illness, too many carbs for
too long, etc., you can often get a system candida
overgrowth which requires a stricter version of Paleo
to offset the imbalance in your body.

The solution for you is probably going to be to
gradually lower your carbs so that your die-off
symptoms are not so intense, and to add supplements in
gradually as well.  

But at some point you are going to have to be strictly
abstinent for a good length of time, so you'll want to
prepare yourself for that emotionally and physically
and how ever else you have to.

For dealing with the emotional aspects of a carb
addiction, falling off the wagon, dealing with having
to eat a restrictive diet, I highly suggest this
website (my favorite - it has helped me tremendously):

http://www.leadwiththediet.com/

As far as not liking meat, I don't know if I can be
much help there, as I *adore* meat.  But I can't say
that sometimes I wouldn't love to have a piece of
cheesecake, but I don't eat it because I have to take
care of my body.  

But still, I don't have experience with not liking
meat so I can't speak from that place.  The only
things that pop into my mind that might help you is to
try different kinds of meat, and if there is at least
one kind you like eat that kind.. it's better than
nothing.  I eat almost exclusively beef and it works
for me. :)

You also might want to try different ways of cooking
it.  I like my meat best when it's undercooked because
it's much softer and juicier.  You might like it on a
grill, and you might want to invest time each week
doing batch grilling.

Or you might want to cut up your meat really small and
mix it with a ton of veggies so that you taste the
veggies more.. like a stir fry.  

You might also want to try strong seasonings that
might cover up the meat taste so you are mostly
tasting the seasonings.  I love to eat stir fried beef
with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, sauteed onions and
red peppers on a bed of fresh spinach leaves with a
lemon juice dressing.  

The seasonings (ginger, lemon juice, garlic) are so
strong in this recipe you don't taste much else.. very
tangy and yummy.

Hope this can help you..

Luv,
Debby
San Jose, CA



Website for my son Hunter Hudson, born 10/11/04:
http://debbypadilla.0catch.com/hunter/