[SueAndHerZoo]

#1060171

I think this topic has been touched on before but since there are so many new people on the forum I thought I’d bring it up again.

Does anyone notice they have a problem eating carbs? I did a low-carb diet 9 years ago and remember that I had never felt better in my life. They are hard to stay on indefinitely (I made it 9 months) but I felt and looked great that year. I also remember distinctly waking up one morning and exclaiming that my dark eye circles were gone. Well, last Tuesday I started with the awful sunken eyes and dark circles and they aren’t budging. Can’t help but wonder if going low carb would improve that so I’m going to start again immediately.

I have been doing a little research (and will do more when time permits) but it does seem that a lot of people suffer from carb intolerance and it seems to be more prevalent with people who have hypothyroidism or no thyroid. Not sure how validated that data is yet – will continue to research it.

For the past week I have noticed that I feel especially bad about an hour after eating carbs….. probably not a coincidence. I should know in about a week or two if cutting back drastically makes any difference in the way I look and feel.

Anyone else feel better cutting out the carbs?
Sue

[ibminlou2]

#1180943

Sue,

I love carbs, and I do mean LOVE, but heavy bread intake has made me sluggish for the past few weeks.

Please, please post your finds or links to some light reading???

My eyes look scary and my face, slightly puffy, so I would be willing to give this a shot, if there is some more information on the topic.

Take care!

[Ellen_B]

#1180944

Good morning.
I don’t feel so good either if I eat a lot of pasta—I don’t know why. I eat a lot of potatoes instead. For some reason eating my carbohydrates in potatoes does not bother me. Is there something else in the potato? Do I absorb the carbohydrates differently—more slowly in the vegetable form because my body has to process it? Pasta is preprocessed food.
I have an anecdotal story about circles under the eyes. I have a Venezuelan relative who was raising her daughter in her own country–Venezuela. Her daughter developed deep circles under eyes. She was otherwise healthy and rested. No one in her Venezuelan family ever had circles under her eyes. She took her daughter (maybe in her early teens) to the doctor in Venezuela. The doctor said the deep circles were due to allergies! I had never heard of such a thing. Sometimes for no reason I have deep circles under my eyes. They come and go. I do not think they are necessarily sleep related. I remember that one of my brothers when he was growing up also at times had deep circles under his eyes. Is it a family trait? I would be glad to hear from someone else their thoughts on circles under the eyes.–also more about carbohydrate metabolism.

Ellen

[SueAndHerZoo]

#1180945

1. Dark circles: I have heard of and seen people who get circles under their eyes from allergies, and I agree that it’s not always lack of sleep because even on weekends when I’m getting 10 hours or so the circles are there, 24/7. I don’t THINK mine is an allergy issue but it’s possible. But they came on pretty suddenly after surgery and they aren’t budging no matter what I do. I recall how great my eyes looked when I was low-carbing so I’m hoping to see an improvement in my eyes in a week or two. If I do, we’ll know I’m onto something. Yes, I think dark circles can also be strictly hereditary, but I was checking out my sisters this weekend and they don’t have them and I had these once before but then got rid of them. Time will tell but I am really sick of looking sick.

2. If you Google carb intolerance you will find much reading about the different affects that different carbs have on our individual systems. And it seems to be VERY individual. Some can tolerate one thing that another can’t, and some can tolerate small amounts of something but only occasionally and not a big quantity. If I can stay fairly low carb for the next two weeks then I will start slowly testing items back in to see what I can tolerate and what I can’t. I also think that after taking a break from carbs for a while you can get away with some better than you can when you’re loading them on daily. When I was doing Atkins I would behave Monday through Friday and cheat on weekends…no problems.

Hope we hear from others about this….. I’m betting there are a lot of people who could feel better if they started noticing a connection between what they ate and how they feel. It amazes me how a few modifications in my life have changed how I feel in a big way. I apparently don’t do well with fruit. I miss it, but I don’t miss the way it made me feel.
Sue

[Harpy]

#1180946

Carbohydrates by definition are sugars, starch and fibre, what most people refer to commonly are the glucose and starch components.
I’ve posted a bit of stuff on the corrolation between chronic disease and malfunction of glucose metabolism (blood glucose), this relates to diabetes, CHD, Thyroid and many other modern diseases.
The Glycaemic index is often used as a guide for sugar levels, many people don’t realise that bread has a higher GI than pure sugar, the starches in flour are readily converted to glucose and are a straight hit to blood glucose levels, whereas sugar is a di-saccharide of Glucose & Fructose and hence is only about 55% Glucose.
Regarding the Pasta Potato thing, there is another factor at play there, pasta (&cereals) is what is known as an acellular carbohydrate, basically pure uncontained starch, potato on the other hand is a cellular carbohydrate, starch contained within cell walls This simple distinction means the carbohydrate in potato is absorbed slower as the body needs to break down cell walls (fibre) to get access to the sugars, in addition potato also contains a lot of solouble and insolouble fibre which travels to the lower intestine and feeds our precious microbiota ecosystem that converts much of this fibre to short chain fatty acids which the body absorbs and uses for energy as well, that’s another story.

I do believe most western societies have a problem with carbohydrates, but I don’t think carbohydrates are bad, IMO the problem lies in the continuous drip feeding of carbohydrates, which means our bodies lose some of their ability to manage fat metabolism and we effectively become sugar “addicts”.
Carbohydrate consumption needs to be managed better, you don’t need to be low carb, but try to restrict carbohydrate consumption to one meal per day, this leaves rest of day for your body to burn fat for energy.
One of the biggest issues is how saturated fat has been demonized in our modern society, yet there is no tangible data to connect it to any of the diseases that it has been associated with, another story, but as a teaser try look up “Ancel Keys” and “Lipid Hypothesis”, you should find some interesting reading.
Eat lots of wholesome food, more Fruit, Veg, variety of meats and don’t be too afraid of fat, except be wary of vegetable and seed oils, they’re probably not as healthy as we have been led to believe.
Manage stress as best you can, be good to yourself, strive to have fun and exercise a bit.

[SueAndHerZoo]

#1180947

Thanks, Harpy…I know carb intake and metabolism is a VERY complicated topic and I’ve only scratched the surface of pretending to know much about it. But I do know that I feel much better when I limit my carbs and it seems I look better, too.

I’m not being finatical about cutting out carbs (not like I was 9 years ago) but I have substituted vegetables, proteins and healthy fats where I used to live on bread, pasta and white rice. And will I have a slice of bread occasionally? Absolutely, but I will definitely not eat as much of it as I was a week ago. Breakfast has been switched from carbs to eggs and lunch is now still the same healthy sandwich but without the bread. I’ll still have a little chocolate to quiet my sweet tooth but it won’t be an unmonitored amount. Last night I counted myself out 10 peanut butter M&M’s.

My eyes are definitely looking better . . . no idea if it was the carb reduction or if whatever other reason it happened has left, but it’s nice to not look like I just crawled out of a grave.

Thanks for the information….. as with most everything, the answer to carb intake is moderation.
Sue

[ibminlou2]

#1180948

Hi Sue,

Please continue those updates. Pre TT, I had slightly dark circles under my eyes. Very much like your description, my circles under my eyes got very big and deep that afternoon of my TT.

Do you or @Harpy, have any links on nutrition and Thyroid disorders.

Thanks all!

[Harpy]

#1180949

Regarding links for Thyroid & Nutrition, I haven’t really seen anything specific that I would quote, it is mostly individuals opinion and experience.
Not being able to find anything specific for thyroid I just broadened my search to determine what is the healthiest way to eat and live, as you can imagine there’s a lot of opinion and biased research to lead one in all directions, after a while we found what works for us, still fine tuning and researching, but I don’t see our dietary path changing much.
The one thing I can say on that front is eat the freshest most nutritionally rich foods you can get and reduce processed foods as much as possible.

A specific note on Low Carb diets, I don’t think there is anything wrong with them and my diet is generally lower in carbs then most people, but if people reduce their carbohydrate intake too rapidly without giving their bodies time to adapt, some people may risk down regulating metabolism which can have similar outward effects as being Hypo and will add confusion to dosing of either ATD’s or Thyroxine.
So if you do have Thyroid (or any other) disease dietary changes should be slow & steady, give yourself 6 months+ for a significant dietary transition.
My preferred approach is to tell people to just gradually transition the pantry, over time just buy more of the healthier stuff and gradually eat what’s left of the not so healthy, this way there will be less impact on ones psyche and issues of craving, it will also work in with learning to cook different meals, so just take it slow and keep it positive.

[SueAndHerZoo]

#1180950

I can’t share any decent links, either. The ones that seem scientifically based and credible are too darned hard to understand, and the rest are just people’s opinions and personal experiences.

I agree with everything Harpy said about low-carbing. Don’t do it severely, and don’t do it overnight. When I did Atkins 10 years ago I went by the book (literally) and went from being a carbaholic to under 20 grams a day. There is a syndrome they call the “Induction Flu” that occurs during the first two weeks because your body really does feel as if you’re really sick when you give them up that severely.

This time, I just cut back greatly, but not drastically. And I’m still taking in carbs but instead of two pieces of bread in a sandwich, I’m using half of one slice. Pasta? A taste or two, but not an entire serving.

My eyes did start to look much better after a few days but this morning they are going dark again. That’s either because I had mashed potatoes last night or because we started a new dose of Levothyroxine yesterday. Only time and more experimentation will tell.
Sue

[JEH]

#1180951

I have just had labs returned a month ago with seriously ramped up glucose. I was diagnosed with Graves in 1998 and have been on and off meds since. Went back on synthroid last August and a few months later the glucose numbers starting going up rapidly. I have read that excess thyroid hormone can cause excess glucose in the blood but don’t know if that has anything to do with me.

I have started down-sizing the carbs and uping the protein/fat and I notice that I don’t have to eat as often and my low blood sugar episodes, which I have struggled with for decades, have virtually disappeared. I will be seeing three different docs over the next couple of months and we’ll see what they have to say.

I believe there is a relationship since both diabetes and thyroid disease are metabolic but I would agree that whatever the relationship is it is complicated. I am not about to try to figure that out. I got a glucose meter and will spot check my values from time to time. I hope to be able to reverse this situation with lifestyle changes before it becomes irreverseable, hoping I can stay off meds.

Would love any insight.

Jane

[connypie]

#1180952

hi sue,i have to watch my carbs too.the more refined flour is the more tired and lumpy i feel.ive been putting my bread in the freezer and only taking out what i need.had chinese food for lunch,sweet and sour pork,ate half of it.was yawning for over 3 hours.ive been checked for celiacs 3 times.i get really sluggish and bad tempered and my digestion sucks for aw while.bought this cookbook.400 calories or less.i feel pretty good when i eat stuff out of there.

[Antony_62]

#1180953

I have a real problem with carbs as well. (I was diagnosed 12 years ago but have been symptomatic since I was 15.) I’ve had to learn the glycemic index and watch them closely just because of the extreme energy drain I experience after eating them (even a Tumuro wrap with 4 grams of carbs). I thought it was just me. I’ve even gone to the Dietz-Watson meats that have zero carbs and opt for high protein and dark green veggies. I had worked with a nutritionist who limited me to 30 gr. of carbs a day but it made insomnia worse, so I increased it a bit.
Plus, the carbs are instant weight gain right now, since my current endocrinologist changed me to Nature-Throid and started me out on a tiny amount…I’ve had to fight to get up to 3gr and still had a b/p of 91/57 last visit and a metabolism running in reverse.
Going to the Mayo clinic to get everything checked out; maybe Grave’s isn’t to blame for everything?

Antony

[snelsen]

#1180954

Harpy! How NICE to see you name again! Been a long time! You have a lot to contribute. I still lurk around the site. It was a lifesaver to me several years ago.
Shirley
Re carbs. I love them Seem like I am more sluggish after eating carbs, especially in the morning.

[Kimberly]

#1180955

Hi Shirely – Harpy was a different poster who was here on behalf of a significant other, but we are always happy to see former members return to the forum!

@Antony – As I mentioned in the other thread, I would suggest removing your e-mail address from your signature in order to keep spammers from getting that info, but it’s certainly your call as to whether you want to leave it in.

[Antony_62]

#1180956

Also have the same problem, pre-diagnosis, post, on tapazol and post RAI . Meds are a roller coaster but carb problems remain. I eat so little I should look like a jockey but am overweight. Carbs kill my energy for sure. Deity Watson makes brands of lean zero carb meats; no weight loss but I feel better.
Considering thyroid removal just because the replacement meds either have me claiming the walls or I’m packing on pounds with very low b/p. I think carbs are a separate issue.
Antony

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