The Unfficial and Completely Unauthorized Blog of Patrick Waites

Initial post: So as not to clutter up the main page, here is a side page for what I am thinking about nutrition and diet at the moment. Stream of consciousness. Runs new to old but did not start when I started getting interested in the topic, so older stuff is less sequential

First though briefly about me and what I eat (or don’t eat). I am diagnosed T2D. I was on a high dose of Metformin and recently also Victoza. I changed my diet on or about January 15, 2019. I now adhere to the following:

1. No sugars.
2. No rice, grains or starchy vegetables.
3. No processed foods.
4. No seed oils.
5. Time restricted eating. Most days I follow 20:4 or OMAD. In other words, I eat when I come home from work in the evening. Other that that I don’t eat.
6. Recently – switching / thinking about switching to lower saturated fats. Less dairy and less red meat.
7. Alcohol – none since I started this. Not saying I won’t resume but have not.

Here is what this has done for me:

1. Stopped all T2D meds within three weeks of starting.
2. At physical just one month in, A1C was down by 0.4 and lipids had improved.
3. At about two months in stopped BP med. BP remains in normal range.
4. Down about 18 pounds at the two month mark. Rate has slowed, as expected.

Ok so here is what I think about all this. As noted, new stuff on top [but separate updates at the bottom also] but I added a lot at the two month mark that is in no particular order.

1. New study from NIH: if you eat processed foods you will eat more compared to eating real foods. Lesson: eat real foods.
2. I have yet to encounter anyone who really has any interest in changing what they eat. This despite weight and other health problems. This informs me somewhat on why it took me so long to have my “aha moment” about all this.
3. I recently saw a man talking (not to me) about his poor health interfering with his ability to work. Diabetes he said. I really wanted to say something to him. Diet! What is the right thing to do there? I don’t know.
4. Fasting is easier than you’d think once you are off the carb addiction. Your body switches to burning fat, and most of us have plenty of that.
5. Eating whole foods and not buying meds is cheaper than eating processed foods and buying meds, especially with fasting.
6. Fasting is free.
7. Why does the government promulgate rules about a “healthy diet” when that diet is unhealthy for someone with T2D given that over half the population has T2D or is in a pre-T2D state? If T2D weren’t blamed on lifestyle then we’d be amazed at the mobilization of resources to combat it.
8. It is odd to me that there seen to be two main “sides” in the diet wars. There is the Keto/LCHF camp and there are the vegans. Both agree the Standard American Diet is bad. Really they agree on a lot of things as far as what not to eat. They just disagree with what to replace it with.
9. I routinely see doctors and scientists cherry pick the good studies or the good parts of a particular study to fit their narrative. So unless you have access to the study (sometimes I do) and can understand it (sometimes I do) it is hard to know what to believe.

UPDATE – May 23, 2019

1. Four months in – have adhered to diet. Decided not to avoid grass fed beef but am recently emphasizing more fatty fish. Had a brief spell where drank alcohol consistently but stopped that after about a week. Did not feel good when did that.
2. Fasting insulin levels at the 4-month mark are half what they were at the 1-month mark. HOMA-IR score of 2.0.
3. Basic lipid panel is all good though HDL could be higher.. In normal but not “optimal” range.
4. Inflammation markers still high so this is a focus.
5. On a CGM, daily averages of BG range from 101-104 and follow what I understand to be the normal pattern of falling throughout the day. For me the fall recently starts about noon.
6. Interesting because recent A1C was 6.3. This suggests a recent breakthrough. THat matches up with the next item.
7. After plateauing for a long time around 216 pounds have started to lose weight again. Today was 214.2.

October 2, 2019 update: After a sustained period of weight loss, I experimented to see if alcohol, specifically spirits, could be reintroduced without major impact. I think the evidence proves the negative. What suckered me in is that my blood sugars did not initially seem to be impacted, though over time they were. However, my weight loss stalled and reversed by about ten pounds. What’s worse, it kept going up even after I stopped alcohol, when I was otherwise adherent to my dietary plan. Then I got some labs and my insulin was far higher than it had been. I was actually pretty proud of how I had reduced it from double-digits down to a HOMA-IR score of 0.7. Well now it was HOMA-IR around 7. But the good news is that my sugars seem to have returned to their prior pattern, and a bit of weight has started to come off again. I expect the insulin levels have decreased.

My two cents: EVERYONE should have their insulin levels tested. Even if your blood sugars are “normal” (and “normal” does not mean good; it means in line with other people), it may be only because your body is producing extra insulin to keep the blood sugars in line. It is a sign of illness that doctors simply do not test for.

Call it my stream of consciousness party platform.  A party of one.  Most recent additions on top.  Hint: Whatever quick assumption you made about me based on a single tweet is probably mistaken.  Also scroll to the end for some little known facts about me.

1. They say you are not paranoid if people really are out to get you, but I think both can be true.
2.  Nutrition.
   1. Interesting unintentional personal experiment.  Drinking spirits did not seem to spike my blood sugar, but I think does explain a spike in my insulin levels, which correlates to a weight-loss stall and reversal.  Pleased to say now back going the right direction.
   2. You can find science to support whatever you want to believe, because most of it is belief-driven, poorly conducted junk science in the first place.  Specifically, I refer to the epidemiological studies.
   3. What they do all have in common is that sugars and refined or processed foods are not good for you.  The only question is when you cut those out, what should you replace them with.  On that question, there is little sound science to say that there is one answer right for all.
   4. Moreover, so many factors impact health, and diet is only one of them.  And we all have different genes or disorders and need different things.  For example, I believe that a carbohydrate-restricted diet for someone with insulin resistance is logical and that there is much clinical evidence to support it.
   5. Recent studies on the benefits of WHEN we eat, e.g., fasting, are also interesting.
   6. See further thoughts here: http://www.patrickwaites.com/things-i-think-diet-and-nutrition-edition/
3. “Two Steps Behind” by Def Leppard is the worst song to ever be a hit.  The lyrics are creepy and the music is inane.
4. Not a fan of Ocasio-Cortez or her policies but shaking things up is not bad.
5. All politicians are hypocrites.  Except for Jon Paul Bouche.  And he drives his own party nuts.
   1. Dems flipping on immigration
   2. Repubs flipping on individual mandate
   3. Both sides on federalism, etc etc.
   4. Someone please prove me wrong.
6. One side being wrong does not make the other right.
7. Surely there is a way that the majority of people in the middle can come together about what they agree on and marginalize the kooks on both extremes.
8. There is no reason to have insurance companies involved in routine healthcare.
9. Billions of dollars that we in the US spend toward “healthcare” each year are not used to deliver healthcare.  That money exits the healthcare finance system as health insurer profits.  I am almost always pro-market, but that is just bad policy.
10. Our healthcare finance system is broken but MFA is not the answer.
11. We need robust legal immigration and an end to the idea that illegal immigration is just dandy if it supports your party.
12. Both parties conspired to create the current immigration dilemma, Dreamers, etc.   Denying a path to citizenship for people we encouraged to be here by word or deed would be a national hypocrisy.
13. Trump and the media
    1. Trump’s rhetoric regarding the media is not appropriate, but he is often not wrong about it.
    2. The media is right to criticize Trump for attacking it, but too often it gives him a reason to.
    3. Jim Acosta.  Had to include him here because it is always about Jim Acosta.
14. Congressional districts should drawn by a computer program designed to minimize the average of the perimeter of each district
15. Suppressing disagreeable speech…
16. I would be happy to bake your gay wedding cake (if I knew how).  Just don’t tell me I have to.
17. It is very sad that we have raised a generation so capable of getting PTSD from an election.  I mean that sincerely.
18. If you make it about us vs. you then don’t expect us not to band together to defeat you.
19. Healthcare is not a right.  But I firmly believe that as a civilized nation – and one founded on Christian values if that means something to you – we owe it to each other to provide for each other’s basic needs where people cannot do it for themselves, especially access to healthcare.  But that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with a wealthy person being able to afford different care.
20. Remove insurance from basic healthcare.  Instead, we pay a doctor/hospital group directly for basic care.  The poor are subsidized for this.   Out of pocket is capped based on income.

Little-known facts about me.

1. I once fell asleep in the Pentagon.  During this visit, I met the Secretary of Defense and then, after that, went through a metal detector.
2. I always use the Oxford comma.
3. I left justify my documents.

With apologies to Peter King, here are 10 things I think I think about the Kavanaugh confirmation process.   This post is made on the day that he was voted out of committee with the agreement of a brief additional FBI investigation.  So it is likely not to age well.   Just look at it as a snapshot.

1. It is hard to find much of anyone whose opinions about Dr. Ford’s claims and the resulting process are not easily predicted by their broader political views and their previously-held views about Judge Kavanaugh.
2. Victims of sexual assault should be taken seriously and treated respectfully.  That said, there is a reason that these claims are so hard to prove.  And that can’t mean a presumption of guilt.  However, those two things are not mutually exclusive.  (That said, I do not claim to know the answer of how best to handle these claims.)
3. Something happened to Dr. Ford.
4. The Democrats used Dr. Ford as a political pawn, with her own lawyers keeping her in the dark and acting contrary to her wishes and her interests.
5. It is hard to argue that the way the Democrats handled this was anything other than an effort to cause maximum delay. [UPDATE: Immediately after posting this I see reports of “Dr. Ford’s lawyer” (see item 4) is arguing against any time limits on the investigation.]
6. Kavanaugh’s chippiness was not a good look for him but does not really say much about his “judicial temperment” or his fitness for office.   (As a lawyer who has prepared and presented many witnesses during testimony, I can tell you that the pressure of being questioned impacts people in different ways that don’t have any obvious connection to their character.)
7. There are a few possible scenarios that don’t depend on anyone lying:
   1. Kavanaugh was very drunk, did something along the lines of what Dr. Ford alleges, and simply doesn’t remember it;
   2. Something happened but it was not intended or perceived by Kavanaugh the way that Ford perceived it, and Kavanaugh therefore does not remember it;
   3. Ford was simply mistaken.  That said, I do discount as a significant possibility that Ford was lying.
8. Another possibility is that Kavanaugh did it, realized he went too far, and then lived an honorable life for the next 35 years, and feels justified and even righteous about lying about it.   [ALTERNATE HISTORY:  What if Kavanaugh had said, “Yes, it happened.  As it was happening I realized it was wrong, and I stopped.  I apologize to Dr. Ford for the pain I caused her.  It has haunted me for 35 years.  In those years I have always tried to do the right thing, and it has helped me to be a better man.    Would that Kavanaugh get confirmed?  UPDATE: It worked for Corey Booker, though he had to face the voters, and they decided.]
9. I think Jeff Flake did the right thing, though I am open to being proven wrong.
10. I hope that the FBI investigation will shed light on the following:

• Is Dr. Ford willing to disclose her therapy notes to the FBI?    What do Dr. they say about the assault?
• If there is a video of the polygraph and what does it show?
• What do Kavanaugh’s friends have to say about “Devil’s Triangle?”   The assertion that it is a variant of quarters is pretty absurd.
• What do Kavanaugh’s close male high school friends, especially Mark Judge, say about his drinking?  (Kavanaugh’s claims that he never had any memory lapses from drinking is not very believable to me.)
• Why was Ford’s social media scrubbed, and what did it say?
• Did Mark Judge work at Safeway in the summer of 1982?
• [Pretty sure there are more.]