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.