Why do some foods make us feel bad?


(M) #1

I was thinking about this after a thread about nuts. Even if it doesn’t take us out of ketosis, why are there some foods which seem to make us feel bad? I mean mentally more so than physically. I am talking about whole natural foods by the way, nothing processed.


(KM) #2

By “bad”, do you mean guilty? (As opposed to foods that might be a physical cause of anxiety, depression, constipation, eczema etc?)

Foods with a very high calorie count make me uneasy / guilty. I’m still not convinced my weight loss goals will be met with egregious disregard for calories, even if the foods are not spiking insulin / glucose and so ok for my health goals. I also still wonder about ideal diet.

I wish I was totally confident. I could eat a pound of good butter. SHOULD I?


#3

I snacked on butter today, I enjoyed two mouthfuls of salted butter, and then I realised it was the salt I was craving as I’d only eaten a chicken carcass which was all that was left from yesterday, eggs, prawns and fish and drunk some raw milk today, and had none of my usual bacon. So I sprinkled my favourite pink himalayan rock salt into my hand and ate it, and after that I was satisfied. It’s funny how we start to fancy certain things, but there’s usually a reason for it.


(KM) #4

Why didn’t you just go on eating butter? I’m not saying you should have, just curious. Does the high fat / calories make you a bit nervous, like it does me?


#5

Well I’m nervous it would give me heartburn for one, as I wouldn’t want that, but also I had given up all my conventional dairy and replaced it with my raw milk in a bid to cure my roseaca) as I stopped taking my antibiotics) but I think a couple of mouthfuls a day of butter if I fancy it are probably fine. I much prefer my salty bacon though. As to high fat/calories, I was eating two tubs of heavy whipping cream a day (both had it in my coffee and whipped it for a dessert) and I didn’t gain anything, so no, fat doesn’t worry me, or make me feel guilty. To tell the truth I miss the heavy whipping cream, but since giving it up and drinking raw milk instead I am a lot less bloated. I seem to be doing much better with raw than pasteurised dairy. I did look for raw cream, but the one I found costed £3.20 for 500ml and I would’ve had to pay postage on top of that so that’s a no.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

I like the taste of butter on things. The taste of it by itself is insipid and not very attractive. I have eaten a couple of teaspoons of it here and there, as needed, but I have to be pretty hungry to do so. And if I’m that hungry, I generally cook something, if at all possible.


#7

It was nice salted butter, I like such things🙂I must admit today I learned just how dependent I am on meat. I decided to take a break from meat because I couldn’t afford to buy everything grassfed (possibly I could get some organ meat if that’s cheap enough), and I wondered if the grainfed meat was aggravating my roseaca. So today I just ate a small bit of chicken, eggs, prawns and fish instead. And thought surely I could go a day without meat. By the end of the day I was thinking about meat so much that I wrote a new list full of meats for next week. To think I could get by on just fish and seafood for even just a little while was well, silly of me, fish and seafood never satiates me like meat does. In any case, I am thinking about getting some grassfed organ meats (if they’re affordable) as they are a good source of magnesium. I am running out of my magnesium citrate, and instead of buying more I thought I’d see how I did one night without them, and the leg cramps returned, which is disappointing. So perhaps including organ meats would address this deficiency leading to leg cramps? They’re also meant to be a good source of selenium, which is neccessary for proper thyroid function. I will probably settle on a compromise, of buying grainfed muscle meats, but also grassfed organ meats, if achievable.


#8

Seemingly good food with low carbs and high fat can make me feel bad. By bad I mean bloated with a swollen stomach that won’t go away or with pain next to my stomach (liver??), or sometimes an uncomfortable swelling close to the sternum.

I can actually eat good quality cheesecake in small slices and feel ok. Mixed nuts too but again larger amounts make me bloated. Peanuts are the worst. I can tolerate almonds a little better but not much.

I’m ok with Greek Feta too but good quality Emmental is better. Most cheeses, especially hard ones in volume can cause stomach/organ pains too, probably because it’s easier to overeat them.

I think it’s figuring out which foods are right and in what quantities is the problem.


#9

Hi Mr_Red_Fox, I very much agree with the problem being having to figure out which foods are right, and in what quantities, and the fact that this is no simple task. Our bodies are complicated. I have oftentimes tried to keep a food journal to try and find out what triggers my roseaca, but it seems to be everything under the sun, and I gave up on that endeavour. Bloating, I’ve experienced myself. It’s never fun, with me it was the heavy whipping cream, the bloating doesn’t happen when I drink raw milk, I drink a glass of raw milk now daily. Other foods don’t bloat me, but I can get joint aches, like when I eat bell peppers raw or cucumbers. Vegetables that are cooked, fried or steamed seem fine. Though I do eat those in very small quantities, as I do with nuts and berries. And I don’t eat them everyday, but I will have a few almonds in the morning if I fancy it. I think keeping a food journal is the best way we can track how various foods make us feel. And small quantities are always better than large quantities in my opinion, so more of an accompaniment to a dish, rather than the central food.


#10

Hi Never, I think the closer I can get to exclusion the better. It’s hard as you don’t know what’s bad for you until you give it up.

Exclusion helps identify what’s affecting me the most. I’m feeling mentally (primarily) and physically better after excluding Cheese this week. I’ve stopped a stall too - I can see and feel the weight moving from my hips and thighs.

Excluding caffeine for a few months has helped as I’m no longer cramping. I think too much caffeine on top of IF caused dehydration hence cramping (not salts).

In a Dave Macleod video there’s mention of stopping cravings on a beef pattie diet experiment (8wks). Maybe this is sublime- a hard place to get to but I think it proves that exclusion is a good approach.


#11

Hi, Mr_Red_Fox. I don’t think such an exclusion diet is for me. As it is, my WOE is animal meat based, with raw milk, pastured eggs, and some grassfed butter. And I seem to be doing alright on this, but I’ve come to realise that my two conditions roseaca and lipoedema may never be cured. So I can only do my best. I am mobile, I go for a daily walk, enjoy the fresh air and countryside. I don’t crave any foods ever really except meat. If I stay away from meat it makes me crave it for sure. I have also come to realise that the dream of eating everything pastured or grassfed is a futile one. I might be able to make some improvements, but in order to satisfy my desire for meat I would still have to buy grainfed meats. Such is life, we cannot chase perfection. As to dairy, which some are fine with on keto, carnivore or ketowore, and some are not, I experienced that switching to raw milk (from a local grassfed farm) really helped, I no longer suffer bloating, so I do believe dairy of the right kind can be beneficial. I am experimenting with eating some of my KerryGold butter daily, as well as some hard cheddar cheese, to see if the bloat returns. As to coffee, I’m only drinking one cup plain a day, but I do get cramping if you are referring to legcramps? Even though I eat plenty of salt. So perhaps it’s more of a dehydration issue.


#12

are we talking you eat some foods and feel ‘more depressed, as in mental decline’ to anxiety or something like that? Triggered into a mental state change maybe thru that food?

or are we talking the ‘ol’ guilt complex’ laid at our feet’ which is just cause society calls anyone who eats ‘xyz’ on a diet is a fat loser who can’t handle any self control or moderation and more and it is slammed into us since hearing this stuff this birth? cause we know diet shaming and fat shaming is alive and well out there.


#13

This thought didn’t cross my mind as I am never guilty when I eat something…

Mentally, more like the food makes us another person. So I am chill, eating my carni food… Eating carbs may give me odd desires, I am less satisfied with my meal (I can enjoy it but that’s different, I just want more… even if I don’t need it), I just act differently from “normal”. I have that.

Nuts aren’t carby enough for this effect though. I just can overeat peanuts and it’s not right as it’s not proper food to me. (This overeating is about 10-25g, I came a long way.)

I don’t get physical problems unless I overdo carbs especially sugar especially without fat afterwards to mitigate problems.

Oh. Even if I don’t feel quilty, in THAT impossible case I would be :slight_smile:
I dislike waste, that’s still not guilt but butter is luxury food, I shouldn’t waste money that extremely boldly… Drinking coffee is bad enough (that costs money and it’s not food). Or eating sweeteners but I am a way, way worse and more frequent offender when it comes to coffee.

But a pound of butter probably would make almost all of us sick so nope, we shouldn’t :slight_smile:


#14

Interesting. Butter tastes the same to me either way but if I don’t eat it alone, I usually barely feel it or not at all, doesn’t worth it mixed into things*, it’s fine on my sponge cake muffins I use as buns.

*Except when I use it instead of cream in egg milks… It has an important role there.

Butter alone, that’s nice. It’s always a joy to allow myself 1 gram or two! Once I had 100g as snack on a motorbike ride… I didn’t find anything better in the shop. I probably lived my vegetarian keto times. No idea why I didn’t buy cheese, probably wanted to try eating butter for a meal :slight_smile: Never did it again but it’s tasty, sure.


#15

But that’s meat… Not the eggs but the rest… Even if someone doesn’t consider seafood meat, I know there is that odd thing where not every animal corpse are meat, they are to me… Chicken is very much meat.
Just saying.

Your experience isn’t surprising, many of us just can’t feel these items as substantial than our main meat. Eggs are substantial to me but I can’t just eat those and a little dairy, I kind of need my pork too or things get less ideal. I obviously could live my life as a vegetarian if I had to, my past proved it but I wouldn’t like it anymore.


#16

I definitely think certain foods can cause a change in our moods. Such as shop bought cake, with long ingredient lists that makes most people’s eyes glaze over, I believe ingesting too much of that food will impact you both physically and mentally. Sugar can definitely affect the brain negatively, and so can gluten and wheat, in not so large quantities even. But as to nourishing, keto-friendly whole foods set aside from carnivore foods such as plants, I think the toxins in them can affect people differently at different amounts, depending also on the health and function of your gut. I can well believe a plant toxin could also affect us mentally and not just physically, if we are particularly sensitive. That’s highly individual. But as to cake and such processed foods, I can’t see a single positive thing about them for anyone, but perhaps that’s a bit biased. My mom believes her homemade cheesecakes which I enjoyed on several occasions back on my HC/LF WOE can be nutritional. And well, although it contains cheese and eggs and berries which are of course nutritional, she also used to put in a hefty dose sugar, and there ends any nutritional value. As sugar will not let you enjoy the benefit of any nutritional food, it is known to leech vitamins and minerals, calcium etc from the body. I think of sugar as a thief that robs you of your nutrition, the strength of your immune system, your youth, and, eventually, your mental health/mind/memory. But it’s important you enjoy your WOE otherwise you will begin to feel adrift, and possibly lose interest in the WOE. Earlier on I needed the heavy whipping cream and lots of it, to get the most enjoyment and thus benefit from my WOE, now I no longer require it.


#17

Hi Shinita, yes I definitely need my pork, it’s my favourite meat. But beef too. And I would love to eat wild game, but that’s just too pricy. I do love my pastured eggs, they taste so much better than those we used to get in the supermarket. I always thought eggs were dull, bland and even tasted a bit bitter at times. But this morning I fried my pastured farm eggs in my iron pan, added generous amounts of butter and salted liberally, and it was literally the best breakfast I’ve had in a good long while. I never thought eggs could taste that good, so I guess I’m becoming an egg fan after all.


#18

Definitely agree, butter on its own is delicious. I eat KerryGold, yes I know they were sued for not being 100% grassfed or grass finished, or whatever the issue was, but the butter nevertheless is delicious. But I only eat salted variants of butter, I just love that combination.


(KM) #19

Gallbladder?


(KM) #20

Yes. I’m not sure what the deal is with that, but unsalted butter is simply not the least bit interesting to me. It doesn’t matter whether I need more salt in my diet or not, salted butter is glorious, while unsalted butter is just another cooking ingredient, I wouldn’t eat that alone anymore than I’d be excited to drink a tablespoon of olive oil. My new favorite actually comes from Costco, New Zealand grass-fed butter. Very similar to Kerrygold in taste and color.