Glycerin for a better mood

I read somewhere online that glycerin helps with pressure in the brain and eyes. For many years I have noticed that during my worst depression bouts I have had pressure in my head. I went ahead and picked up some vegetable glycerin from the lotion section at my local health food store.

I put 20 grams of the syrupy liquid into my first protein shake of the day. I noticed within an hour that my mood was changing. I pay real close attention to this all day anyway because my mood dictates if I will go around people or not. By the end of the day I had used around 40 grams of glycerin and was now kinda on the up side. I also had a difficult time going to sleep. This is usual if I'm in an up mood. The next day I lowered the dosage down to 30 grams and stopped taking it 6 hours before bed. I was able to sleep better that night. The best part of using the glycerin is my head doesn't feel like a balloon. I do think it has helped out with swelling and I did have some swelling behind my eyes that has come down. It is important to keep Polyunsaturated fats out of the diet to help with keeping inflammation down. Check out my post on Polyunsaturated fats for more info.

Of course there is some things that I noticed on the side. I am a bit more thirsty, nothing to bad though, I simply need to drink a little more water. I get a tiny bit dizzy, nothing like too much coconut oil, that stuff really makes me dizzy if I eat too much of it. So I think the trade off is well worth it with the glycerin. Around 40 grams a day spread out in the first part of the day is enough to help me out. My moods are still changing however I do notice a positive difference. I'm glad I experimented with this.

If you suffer from depression and feel swelling in your head this might help you out. Glycerin is glycerol the backbone of triglycerides fats. Be sure to check the label for food grade, most will be that. You will find the pure vegetable glycerin in the cosmetic section in a health food store.

Coconut Oil Insomnia

I discovered coconut oil was keeping me up at night. I was taking in about five grams with each meal and my last meal is a few hours before bed. I was lite up at night and wide awake laying in bed. I could be totally exhausted and still it didn't matter I could not fall asleep.

Since I figured out it was the coconut oil, I'm not sure why the coconut oil keeps me up. I do notice a difference in my metabolism. Maybe it has something to do with the adrenal glands.

So I backed off from using so much. I still use some because of the positives that come with it like a healthier gut and having more energy through out the day.

The best part about having some coconut oil in the front part of the day (so I can sleep at night) is the difference it makes on depression. I'm not going to give it too much credit, it does make a remarkable difference in my mood. This is if I'm keeping track of the million other things that mess with depression good or bad.

In total I would say I use around 10 grams total a day of coconut oil in my first two meals. Any more than that and it is too much. I only buy organic extra virgin. 

Casein in dairy is problematic

Do you know about casein? Casein is a protein found in cow milk. So it is in dairy food abound. Yes, your favorite yogurt has casein in it. Cheese, etc.

I would like to cover casein and the problems it has gives me. I first discovered issues when I was using a supplement called calcium caseinate. I was about half way through a tub of the protein and I was going ill. Of course if i'm going ill I'm also getting depressed. I finally figured out that it was the casein that was causing me to feel very tired and miserable. I also was having stomach (inflammation) issues and throat issues on top of it.

If I have milk or cheese I will want more milk and cheese and before I know it I have the same problems. The absolute worse is calcium caseinate. Micellar casein or any casein is an issue. Protein powder supplements are starting to use a lot of this casein in their products because some casein proteins like calcium caseinate is low cost. This is where you could end up getting a lot in your diet if you are not looking out. The other being straight dairy products. Casein is added to foods like imitation meats and a super long list of more foods you can look up with internet search.

One super horrible thing about taking in a lot of casein is awful breath. Do you have bad smelling breath? Check your diet for casein. Eliminate dairy and give it a few weeks and you might find yourself with nice smelling breath once again.

There are thousands of reasons why people choose to stay away from dairy products. There is also a slight difficulty to give up dairy and it could be because casomorphin which is what your body can produce with casein. It has opiate like functions. Drug opiates are about eight times stronger than what casomorphin is capable of. Still it is there and will have some withdraw symptoms when you remove the dairy. So expect to not feel so great once you remove it. Once you get over the bad part you will start to feel much better without the dairy in your diet.

Being mindful of what foods contain casein will take time to learn. Check labels at the store and figure it out before you throw it in the cart. Dairy is not going to say that it has casein included on the label. It simply goes that all dairy has casein. Searching out other food items for added casein is what I'm referring to. Eating out will be difficult to know what is in the food. Menus should list ingredients and experience and knowledge will help you decide what to avoid.

I will note that eggs are excluded from since it is considered a dairy product.

Fructose certainly makes me depressed

I am 100% absolutely sure that fructose makes my depression much worse. For years I have stayed away from pears because they always made my head feel bad. This is before I figured out what depression was. Pears are high in fructose. Raisins, and apples are also high in fructose. Even though fruit is known to be healthy and such, for those like my self it is the exact opposite. F.Y.I. the sugar in honey is half fructose and for those that have jumped on the agave wagon, agave has more fructose than honey.

Since sucrose (table sugar) will be turned into half fructose and some milk sugar will be turned into fructose it is difficult to eliminate fructose from the diet. Even some vegetables have larger amounts of fructose in them. If I sit down and have an apple I will pay dearly. My head will go fuzzy and any feeling I had left in my brain is drained for days. Pretty much any fruit will do this to me. I can tell when I have had a high fructose food when my mind goes down the drain right after. This is possibly one of the main reasons I have mood swings.

Another thing fructose does is raise my hunger levels up the roof and I will binge eat my head off if I eat fruit. This leads to eating more sugary stuff that isn't fruit. Then my depression gets worse and worse. Also I get fatter and I can get all kinds of health issues from eating that way.

Fruit is a big part of nutrition for people and most people that eat a lot of fruit are diabetics and over weight. They think that they are doing good for themselves and since fructose raises hunger levels, this is detrimental to helping out people in the long and short run.

Fructose, Sucrose, and milk sugars are a major problem for depression and the addiction for these foods make it difficult to address the problem.

Taking the sugar out and taking sweeteners out will eventually stop cravings as long as you are eating enough calories. Sweetness leads to wanting more sweetness. Take the sweetness out, including chewing gum and all sweet items and the craving for sweetness will go and will be gone as long as you keep sweetness off the tongue. Once the cravings are gone you can get on with life. It is well worth enduring. Depression might still be there for me, however I know I can help it by doing this.

If I had to pick one reason why my depression can get so bad this is it.

Stevia is not so innocent

Stevia has caused me some serious trouble. I used the stuff for years and recently discovered that stevia has given the same results as cinnamon and turmeric. It's a lowered blood sugar feeling and I have a glucose meter resulting normal blood sugar ranges when I feel like I'm going to pass out.

I have put stevia in everything for years and most of the time I'm not eating any carbs and have adapted well to eating that way. However feeling dizzy and craving sugar like crazy was not my diet, it was stevia. If only I knew this a long time ago I might of saved my self some serious hardship.

Once I eliminated the stevia I had very bad headaches and felt awful for about three days. My food cravings went way down and now my cravings are gone. Now it is only a mental thing and not a physically going nuts for certain foods.

Stevia is the innocent sweetener on the market right now and is a lifesaver for people that are cutting sugar out of their diet. If stevia lowers blood sugar and also drives hunger up through the roof, it isn't saving the day, it is making the day more difficult to stay away from the sugar.

All sweeteners are a problem one way or another and  once the tongue senses sweetness the body reacts and starts things going.

It is challenging to keep all sweetness out of the diet. Life gets tricky because of what the majority buys from marketing ploys. In Asia they use stevia to lower blood sugar in diabetics. That is not what is being marketed over here in the states. Here it is being marketed as a product that doesn't raise insulin and doesn't raise blood sugar. The body will raise blood sugar if Insulin is lowering blood sugar. This will make you feel light headed and weak. So the way it is being marketed in the states is pretty much not the truth. The stevia sales are growing big and now it is in Sprite Green. In the next few years many people will be learning that they are getting fat from drinking heavy dosed stevia drinks and feeling very, very hungry for real sugary snacks. Stevia is also used to increase the appetite in livestock. In the U.S. you are definitely not seeing any advertisements touting appetite increase abilities of stevia.

Maybe you have experienced some of these symptoms from using stevia. The more I used (which at sometimes was a lot) the higher the symptoms would be. Over time I was putting more in my drinks and food. At first it was bitter tasting and after years of use I was adding more in. It is strange that since taking it out I have a very weird feeling like something is missing. That should not be an effect from an innocent sweetener.

Ketogenic diet helps a myriad of health issues

This is going to be a touchy subject and probably my most controversial post yet.

For the last two to three years I have been experimenting with carbohydrates. I read all I can because I must figure things out, It is my nature. I have found out so much about the body and nutrition over the last eight years and I'm glad I have. I still have infinite things to learn.

If you are a person that gets along fine with any food or any lifestyle and has hit the genetic lottery, you will not care so much as people that are suffering from very bad health issues. Still I think down the road you will pay from eating too many carbs no matter what body type you were born with.

Taking carbs out the diet is considered a fad or a diet that someone has made up. Their are cults for everything and there is science and history. Marketing and rumors keep carbs running strong in the world. America runs off carbs and it shows. I will not try to convince you that carbs are bad for most of us I will simply tell you my experience.

First I started experimenting with taking carbs down or out to get leaner. When I realized that glucose had something to do with my depression getting worse things changed for me.

If you take the carbs out, the calories have gone way down, so now I was eating more fat. This is where it gets complicated. Too much polyunsaturated fat bogs me down and too much fat period bogs me down. So I have to count my fat grams at each meal. Fat almost doesn't raise insulin levels at all and so the body doesn't really know when you have had enough of it. If I eat too much butter, coconut oil or palm oil I will get very sick at night when I'm sleeping. I will wake up feeling puffy and want to vomit. I fight it off for a half hour then get back to sleep. Butter, coconut oil plus palm oil have fatty acid chains that go straight to the liver from the small intestine and this is why I think this happens. It is a fat in the liver overdose. Going mild with these food products doesn't case a problem for me.

Like I mentioned this is very tricky and there is way more to it than simply eating bacon. It is very involved and you have to put effort into it if you want to make it work right. The benefits are endless to count. The trade offs are there. Life is not the same with the carbs, life is better and you have to look at it that way. If you look at it like you are missing out, you are seeing it the wrong way. If there are family members hovering over a cake, look at their bodies and think about all the health issues they might tell you about. It is all around us and if you can live without carbs you will have to enjoy what you have in life instead of thinking food is the source of enjoyment.

He took the carbs out. CONVINCED?

I think the best way to learn about carbs is to go down to 200 grams a day counted each day along with one gram of protein per pound of lean weight that is on your body. Then take the carb grams down about 25 grams a week until you have gotten down to 150. At this point you have to decide if you want to go the extra mile and go through a tough week or two until your body has adapted to the fats instead of carbs. If you're ready to take the plunge any lower than this you're brain will be switching over to more ketones for the brain to function. Small amounts of coconut oil will deliver ketones to your brain to help out with transition. So each week continue to take 25 grams of carbs out until you are all the way down to 25 a day. At this point you are eating a little bit of green vegetables, your usual amount of protein and more fat. Each week you take away the 25 grams of carbs a day you will need to add about 25 grams of fat to your diet.
Once you have gone two weeks battling on 25 grams a fat a day you may decide to go back up to 75 grams or maybe even 100 grams a day. Your body will be adjusted now and you might get along better this way. Even at 100 grams of carbs a day you will still have the benefits of good health, much better than life before limiting carb intake. If you find yourself binge eating one day like I eventually do from time to time, try not to get down on yourself because looking back on months clear of binge eating is a triumph and you should be proud of yourself for what you have achieved. Pick yourself up and get right back on track. It's that simple.

 A Kitchen scale is crucial. Here is my favorite scale.

When you eat high carbs you eat low salt. When you eat low carbs you eat more salt. As you progress your way down the carbs each week up the salt a bit more. You will need it. If you don't take in enough you will feel like a zombie. This might lead you to think that you need more carbs which is not the case, you need more sodium. Trust me and do it, you will thank yourself later.

Since it is very detailed what must be done I recommend reading the art and science of low carbohydrate performance. Use the book as a guide and keep it close by to help troubleshoot problems. You may have to go back to it a hundred times until things are running smooth. The book has helpful recipes in the back to give you ideas of what to eat and might come in handy for you if you enjoy cooking. Everybody has a different body so take any health issues that you might have into consideration and figure out the best approach. 

Arthritis you might be making it worse

This is not a depression specific topic however if you have depression and arthritis life could become too much. If you have trouble with joints you may not exercise and if you're not exercising your health might decline and depression can become worse over time.

I'm going to share this with you and this is a major surprise I discovered. I have removed sugar from my diet and more important I have removed carbohydrates from my diet. Doing this is not that simple and is tricky to learn all and do all that is needed to keep going without running into serious problems.

So after about three weeks I realized that my joints and tendons are incredibly strong. I have trouble with one of my elbows because of an accident and my knees can get fragile and lifting weights becomes difficult because of these problems. Now I can lift weights and I have zero problems, I feel very strong in parts that I once had weakness. I was interested in why this improvement has taken place and found an article about glycation.

Glycation is caused by too much glucose in the blood. It causes joints to break down and other awful things like aging and eye sight going bad.

It is ironic that my mother is a nurse in a rheumatology department (arthritis). My mother is a sugar bug and helps doctors in the prescription drug world. Most of her patients eat diets high in fruit and sugary yogurt to supposedly get the right nutrients to help out their arthritis, yet their problems worsen even with medication. They blame it on age or genetics. Most drink alcohol or the supposedly healthy glass or four of wine a night and coffee in the morning. Both of these are diuretics and vasoconsticters which narrow blood vessels. This is a problem for smaller blood vessels that take blood in small amounts to areas of the body. Not enough blood is getting to these areas and this can contribute along with the glycation, causing severe gout or arthritis. Do I even need to mention nicotine?

Maybe your doctor has hit on some of these points and maybe he has not. Maybe he wrote you a prescription and went to lunch.

Check out my blog about sugar if you need some info to help kick it out. Getting carbs out is possible and it maybe worth it to you if you're suffering from arthritis pain. I do know people with spine issues and they eat sugar, drink caffeine, and alcohol. Surgery after surgery and no fix.

Could there be other reasons that arthritis could occur? I won't argue with that and have no need to. Sure there could be. I will put myself out there and say that these issues that I have covered are the main reasons.
You won't know unless you find out for yourself.

If you're interested in getting the carbs out check out my next post about transitioning.