Yes.

According to today’s Parade magazine supplement in my local newspaper, governments are already finding ways to influence peoples’ weight and waistline – gun-toting doctors probably won’t be needed just yet, because government knows what’s good for its citizens, right?

The article lists a number of countries that already have programs in place, or plan to institute programs soon. For instance, health officials in Japan check the waistlines of those over 40 yoa, and diet counseling is the reward for too much “tape”. Restrictions are in place against fat people immigrating to NZ. Some UK cities are recruiting people to wear electronic tracking tags to monitor movement and calories burned, with store coupons and days off work as rewards for exercising. NHS already pays for 30,000+ people to take weight loss classes.

Germany is going all out, spending $47 million on “healthy” eating and sports programs; enacting “tougher” school lunch standards (my guess is they’ll probably emphasize low fat – there goes whatever good traditional German cuisine remained in kid’s lunches); the German gov’t is also requesting candy makers to not target young children (guess parents have no role anymore) and they want software companies to make games that force players to move (I can see it now, Aerobic PacMan).

At the end, Parade Magazine asks readers, “Does the US need a government-backed effort to end obesity”. Vote at parade.com/intel.

My vote will be no, the US government has done enough damage already, thank you very much.

Ok, I was with you until this part. Now you seem to be advocating arming Doctors with guns to force us to lose weight?

The rebellious part of me is saying “Eat some tacos” and the emotional self is saying “eat some cake” and the trusting part of me (who is feeling very betrayed right now) is saying “Eat some cake tacos and wash it down with a 2 liter of Pepsi”.

In all seriousness, this reminds me of the Big Mind Big Heart process a bit. We are made up of many selves all with their own jobs. Maybe we also need to make piece with the self whose job it is to get us to eat lots of food?

Powered Splenda tested at 140…as I wrote before, yikes!

Spenda with Fiber (sucralose + soluble corn fiber) tests at 43. Bulkier than Splenda, no discernible taste or texture.

Organic Zero (erythitol fermented from organic sugar cane juice) tests at ‘lo’. This has only 70% of the sweetening power of sugar, but it looks exactly like sugar (I’ll never put it in a container, I might forget *G*). Yes, it’s an -itol but it’s metabolized differently so that it is pretty much gone before it hits the part of the gut typically results in the ‘trots’…no problem for me and I’m pretty sensitive to -itols. At one pkg, I can’t discern a texture or taste but I did with 2 (in my hot cocoa) so I use the Splenda w Fiber in my hot cocoa. Oh, it’s expensive. Cargil used to market their eythitol as “Eridex.” Other mfg market it too.

Diabetes educator called after seeing my emailed BG log & notes re dropping Januvia and gave me the lecture that my monitor is not intended to ‘read’ these ’sugars’…yeah yeah yeah (the tech guys haven’t replied yet), well if my monitor gives me a number and it’s higher than what my BGs should be as I told her & it causes a rise in my BG, then it’s not going in my mouth. Let somebody with better glucose control eat it *G*.

See if you can get a hold of a BG meter, the symptoms may be associated with BG lows or rapid drops, and checking for ketones at the time may also be a plan. In my case it was the rapid BG drops following on from excess carbs causing postprandial spikes which set off the gnawing hungers

Otherwise it is possible something in your diet is affecting you in a different way, eg. IBS or GERD, which is not being triggered by the high carb diet (no-one said you are only allowed one illness at a time!)

Whenever I try to go back on a low carb diet it is not cravings that get me, but I begin to feel increasingly uncomfortable until I start to feel physical pain in my stomach. I also have increasingly powerfull hunger pains that meat and vegtables don’t put a dent in.

Do I just need to hang in there for weeks before that will go away? I am not sure I can do that.

I’ve never had this question presented to me. I don’t know what to tell you. Maybne other readers have suggestions.

Heh, good point! Maybe the fish stops you dying of cardiovascular disease so since you have to die of something (believe it or not) it lines you up for cancer instead . . .

Just curious, in newsgroups and forums there appear to be responders and non-responders, do you see that in practice and is it related to other meds they may also be taking? I have a suspicion that if you’re already taking metformin it doesn’t have any extra benefit. Either that or it only affects certain individuals’ IR and not others and most of the ones it doesn’t affect are already on met or a TZD?

Another one that got caught in the spam filter. ALA performs a multitude of beneficial duties. It helps with carb metabolism, it is an water and fat soluble anti-oxidant, it stabilizes one of the main inflammatory factors, it chelates heavy metals, it reverses diabetic neuropathy and it helps get glucose into the cells. It is only this last activity that might also be performed by metformin. I’ve seen pretty good results with ALA, and although metformin is my drug of choice if I have to give a drug for blood sugar elevation, I’ve had such good luch resolving blood sugar problems with diet, that I haven’t had a lot of patients on both metformin and ALA.