I used a combination of Sweetleaf liquid stevia drops and Truvia in my coffee (which now I add cinnamon & ginger powder to), and either coconut cream or heavy cream, and often coconut oil.
I noticed I’d started with a couple of drops of the liquid, and kept increasing: 5 drops, then 10, then stopped counting and pretty much used half a dropperful— or whatever. Then added a quarter teaspoon of Truvia—or a packet.
I have Swerve in the house also, which I used in the “treats” I’d make. (My kids are using it now that I no longer indulge).
It’s been freeing to break myself of the sweet addiction. I’ll notice cravings for sweets when I’m stressed—it was my go-to coping tool for my whole life, if I’m honest, especially once I gave up alcohol and drugs. (But I’ve always had a sweet tooth).
So I take it one day at a time sometimes: just for today, I won’t have a sweet. Though on occasion I’ve had a half ounce of raspberries. They don’t seem to set off more cravings and I eat them with coconut butter and 100% chocolate.
Eating too much fat in the middle of my keto journey made me stall and even weight gain, so I cut out any extra fat aside from the fat that was already in my meat. Added nothing extra. I actually do carnivore now and more the P:E approach that Naiman and Shewfelt do. I prioritize protein over fat. No stall and actually overshot my bodyfat goal and weight loss goal. Now I am trying to put a bit more weight on am starting to implement more fat because I want to gain weight.
I’ve been behaving for the last 13 days - simple keto ingredients, no nuts, no dairy, OMAD and tracking.
I will continue to test my body, I think something shifted. My dog was waking me up in unspeakable hours, I’ve been grumpy, sleepy, angry, tired, so I can’t really know is it’s actual change or just me tired and hangry.
I used to feel satiated by fat, as I could eat and eat protein, I needed substantial and heavy foods to feel full. I’ve been reading Naiman’s P:E theory, since it’s been popping up all over the forum lately. I’ve been enjoying meats and more meats in these two weeks and I felt full, all good. Yesterday I had some pečenica (our version of bratwurst) and some liver, I have to say I felt a little hungry after dinner. This would fit with Naiman’s ratio, since sausages fit into the lower ratio. Maybe my body decided that now it needs protein to feel satiated? I’ll have to try this again, when I’m rested and centered
Scale’s been all over the place, but my pants feel a little loser, so I’m on the right track.
Interesting about sausage might contribute to the hunger. I have noticed meals where I had brats or something similar, I do get a tad hungry before the next meal time. Guess I need to pay some attention to Dr. Naiman now.
That article from MDA is a good old one (with such a fabulous long comments thread with many anecdotes on raw milk) - and near the end he did link to Chris Masterjohn PhD’s work on the Weston Price Foundation, which has great deep dives into natural vs. processed milk (linking them below). I’m not IR - but I do know that once insulin resistance is reversed, a fascinating angle to look at is the rejuvenating ancestral foods. And if one likes to drink milk - the benefits of switching to raw/natural/bioactive raw milk and eliminating high-heat pasteurized & homogenized milk cannot be overstated. In fact, those who consider themselves ‘lactose intolerant’ may well be intolerant to the denaturing done to milk - as lactose intolerance is a modern issue. Similar to how human breast milk changes when overheated (and when zapped with a microwave it tragically becomes neurotoxic to babies).
Easier said than done though - as the dairy industry has fought very hard to criminalize traditional small raw dairy farmers and thus normalize its business model: the bland and/or awful taste of processed milk, the metabolic disturbance of the cows given growth hormones + grain, the A1 milk of hybrid modern cow breeds like Holsteins vs. A2 milk of traditional breeds like pedigree Jersey and many native breeds throughout the global south, and the terribly inhumane treatment of dairy cows by the largest industrial producers.
I’ve been reading up on it a lot lately because of the enormous difference I experienced when I stopped using ultra-pasteurized HWC and started using instead a cup of raw milk in my morning coffee - along with continuing to use raw dehydrated whey protein (what remains when milk is curdled for cheese production - not hydrolosate or isolate) a few times a week in smoothies or to thicken cold keto cereal with almond milk. My muscle development and ongoing fat loss are going great, despite being in a slow-change category (midlife female).
Glutathione - an amino acid - levels are much higher in raw milk products, in a highly bioavailable form (absorbed way more than supplementing with it).
Very intriguingly, glutathione improves insulin resistance and fat burning!!! There is scant glutathione in processed milk compared to raw milk though.
Raw milk is structurally and biochemically “alive,” whereas highly processed milk is “lifeless.” But more than that, they have meaningful nutritional differences. Raw milk is actually soothing to the gut yet processed milk is highly inflammatory ( digestive stagnation + hormonal chaos + fat gain). Interestingly, non-homogenized grassfed milk yogurt with live cultures added after its heating and with no added sugar does well with my body too - (as many natural brands have started to do, like Kalona, Grazier’s, Organic Valley, in the U.S. to name a few).
Most of our agrarian great-grans just called raw milk “Milk” - and many had their own cow or access to milk sellers in the village. Raw milk fasts were used as immunity/recomp curatives (sounds so simple… 1/2-1 gallon of raw milk per day), and also anti-parasitic treatments in folk medicine dating back thousands of years. The Masai peoples’ main traditional diet is raw milk and blood, etc.
I’ve done n=1 personal experiments and found raw grassfed milk to digest very happily - quite different than the ultrapasteurized heavy white cream I used in my first 1.5 years of keto and which left me feeling slightly inflamed (and which ginger helped managed).
Raw milk is unfortunately very hard to procure in many regions. I feel very fortunate to have a seller in my area - and I’ve been feeling its measurable support in my ongoing recomp. I try to eat mostly raw cheeses too (cow and goat) - some of which I order online. Otherwise, if raw grassfed milk isn’t available, I forego milk and just have cheeses with wine or ginger or a little ACV in water for gastric support.
There’s more info on the forum about lactose carbs being used by the body differently than other carbs - but I don’t know much about that part.
This one’s rather ominous in its documentation of structural breakdown in industrially processed milk:
Especially after I lost 60# I simply need less food volume-wise. I am still learning this in fact and as I lose more it will probably decrease even more until I get down to maintenance. (at least 40# away) I don’t want to be static, in fact I want to lose weight so the opposite of static, but I sometimes feel a bit exhausted figuring this all out for me. Because I also agree that the longer you do it the more it comes down to N=1. I have to figure out what works for me. No one can do it for me.
Love a duck, imagine how many new issues you develop just being a head, nothing to do but think, ponder, analyze, overanalyze…ok, you need both, the body keeps the head occupied
Easier said than done though - as the dairy industry has fought very hard to criminalize traditional small raw dairy farmers and thus normalize its business model: the bland and/or awful taste of processed milk, the metabolic disturbance of the cows given growth hormones + grain, the A1 milk of hybrid modern cow breeds like Holsteins vs. A2 milk of traditional breeds like pedigree Jersey and many native breeds throughout the global south, and the terribly inhumane treatment of dairy cows by the largest industrial producers.
