On Fri, 11 Jun 1999 09:41:17 EDT, "Janet L. Walbaum" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 1) Will this tryptophan ever kick in and allow me to sleep?  One of you
>mentioned this diet lets you sleep like a rock.  Hard to believe.  Sounds
>like a dream (heh).

This has more to do with restoring natural body rhythms.  Sleep is due to the
action of Melatonin. Tryptophan is a precursor of Serotonin.  Serotonin is
converted to Melatonin at the appropriate time, by the action of "cyclic AMP".
The thing most antagonistic to the action of cyclic AMP is insulin.

So, control of insulin levels is important in sleep.

To control insulin levels, keep your blood sugar even, which requires moderating
your intake of carbohydrates, and having many smaller meals and snacks, rather
than one or two big ones.   Also, eating fat along with carbs causing less of an
insulin spike.

BTW, another factor required for melatonin production is darkness.   Don't
expect to fall right to sleep, if you've had all the lights on brightly in the
preceding hour!

>3) I know this has been addressed, but I missed it -- with all this red meat
>consumption, isn't cholesterol a concern?

Have you ever heard of anyone dying of cholesterol?   On the news, do they say
"Famous entertainer Joe Blow died today of a cholesterol attack".

The actual problem is heart disease.

And it's been established by long-term scientific studies that the leading
indicator of heart disease is elevated insulin levels, not cholesterol levels.

Interestingly, what does increased dietary intake of cholesterol produce?  It
produces hypothyroidism.   Low thyroid levels also correlate with heart disease,
and increased insulin levels also correlate with hypothyroidism (by accelerating
degradation of T3).

Furthermore, it is known that high dietary intake of cholesterol when combined
with thyroid hormone supplements does not produce heart disease.

So, it would seem that cholesterol is not harmful, if insulin is controlled, and
thus hypothyroidism is prevented.

> And what about the amount of time meat takes to transverse
>through your intestines? This has for quite some time now been the argument
>against red meat -- that it stays in the lower intestine too long which might
>contribute to colon cancer.  Please explain.

This sounds like one of those vegan myths.   For more info on vegan myths, see:

www.beyondveg.com


--
Cheers,

Ken                         <*>
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