Healthy Eating and Appetities

I’ve noticed many odd changes in my body over the last two months, since I dramatically changed my eating habits in response to having non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH (non alcoholic steatohepatitis). Now, my normal doc acted like it was not good, but “Alot of people have it” as if that makes it okay. No big whoop. Well, a lot of people have AIDS and Cancer and Diabetes too. He’s not been against me dramatically changing my diet but he wasn’t exactly supportive. One thing he said was that I’d probably be hungry all the time.

In fact, when most people find out that I’m eating a (Goal) of 50% of my diet in veggies, and avoiding ALL refined carbs, ALL sugar, ALL sweeteners, all High Fructose Corn Syrup things (that is pretty much any and all condiments sold these days) and ALL pasta, bread, and other good tasting things…while cutting back on fats too, they usually assume I am hungry all the time.

Let’s clear something up.

NOT TRUE. My appetite has gone WAY down.

Now at first, when I went cold turkey off of all of the things I listed above, I was STARVING. I mean, I could eat like four cucumbers in one sitting (kinda makes me sick to think of that), plus a Jicama, a bag of apples, 5 bananas, and still be looking for more a few hours later. I was getting a little nervous as to what this was going to do to my long term grocery bill.

I was also dragging, because I was not sugaring up all day long. I really didn’t think I had much of a sugar problem. But, then I realized I had 2 Tablespoons (!!!) of sugar in my 24 oz. coffee cup, which I filled at least 7 times a day. I sprinkled a bit of sugar over my oatmeal (or added maple syrup). I always had either bread, pasta, or tortillas with pretty much any dinner.

I was now drinking my coffee black, my oatmeal unsweetened, and brown rice was as carby as my life got. A complete 180!

About two weeks into this “diet”, and avoiding High Fructose Corn Syrup, I noticed I was hardly hungry.

Actually, let me clarify: I suddenly noticed when I was really hungry and when I was full. Before I never really felt either. I wasn’t sure why.The longer I’ve been away from all that sugar, the more I’ve noticed those natural signals. My body is talking to me more clearly now.

Well, just tonight, while I sit here doing some work on the computer, I started to read an article on High Fructose Corn Syrup that someone sent me, and I realized that the very evil substance known as High Fructose Corn Syrup is part of the problem with hunger too.

High Fructose corn syrup does many bad things to one’s body, including harming the liver. But this article and these studies (not paid for by the corn growers’ association) seem to indicate that High Fructose Corn Syrup can mess up your natural hunger cues. It makes me wonder if this was what was going on with me. Huh!

You can read the full article here.

Other studies have shown that elevated triglycerides impair the transport of leptin across the blood brain barrier. The researchers hypothesize that the elevation in triglycerides produced by fructose prevented leptin from reaching the brain. If leptin does not reach the brain, the brain will not send out the signal to stop eating.

“The presence of high fructose alters the way leptin works, fooling the brain so that it ignores leptin,” Scarpace said. Consumers should be cautious about what they eat, checking labels to see how much sugar the items contain, Shapiro said.

The researchers hope to perform future studies to find out if leptin resistance can be reversed by removing or reducing the fructose content of the diet.

Let me offer my own vote on the matter: Yes, it can be reversed. In about 2 weeks, my appetite started to change rather quickly. I was noticing normal hunger and fulness signals. I was no longer tempted by nasty junk food (mostly).  I didn’t need 7 of my 24 oz. cups of  joe to have energy. I drink about 24 oz. of coffee total each day. Still probably too much, but babysteps, right?