Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Dr. Atkins

Question:

I’m a big fan of stevia myself.  Stevia is of course not an artificial sweetener.

Cyndi,  We’ve missed you at chat! <G Do you use the green form of stevia?   To my mind, the white powdered stevia is as processed as white table sugar. One is from the stevia plant, the other is from a sugar cane plant. cya, Lynne 170 pounds lost the lowcarb way–maintaining since Feb ‘97

Response:

:One other thing to consider is that aspartame (and possibly ther artificial sweeteners) can act in your body as if it were sugar, for :some people.  Try cutting out all AS if you use it and see if that helps. : r. Bernstein stated that artificial sweetners (all of them) in powdered form :contained glucose. Actually that would be d-glucose aka dextrose, a common carrier. K in Cali

– d-glucose (dextrose) *is* glucose.  There are two stereo-isomers, l-glucose and d-glucose, which relate to the shape of the molecule ("right handed" and "left- handed" glucose). Marion 205/193/145 Atkid since 1/18/99

Response:

I’m a big fan of stevia myself.  Stevia is of course not an artificial sweetener. Cyndi,  We’ve missed you at chat! <G

I’ve been preoccupied…taking care of my sick cat (who is starting to get better, btw, and the tests today show everything she has is treatable). Do you use the green form of stevia?  

White. To my mind, the white powdered stevia is as processed as white table sugar. One is from the stevia plant, the other is from a sugar cane plant.

I know you have a thing about stevia being refined and therefore evil but I really don’t understand why.  I mean, I haven’t heard you tell me I shouldn’t use Vit C powder even though I use about 50-100 times as much C as stevia and the C is far more refined.  Or calcium? magnesium? potassium? salt? they are all refined foods/herbs/additives. The problem with refined foods is that they take the place of real food. White flour is evil not because of the refining persay but because it takes the place of whole grain flour (or plain whole grains).  Not only do you lose the nutrition in processing but your body has to steal nutrients from itself in order to digest the refined flour.  White sugar has similar problems. There is perhaps 1-2 grams of stevia in one large baked good (cheesecake, almond roll, etc).  And we use more stevia than most.  Some weeks I average a piece of dessert a day (one dessert has 6-10 pieces).  My SO makes an average of 1-2 desserts a month.  That’s pretty much it for my stevia consumption.  I really don’t see how the fact that it is refined can be a problem here. Another concern with refined foods is that they may be too strong.  White sugar is a prime example here since it gets sucked into the body faster than most things (minus the fiber and minerals found with sweet things in nature that slow the glycemic hit down).  So we’d want to ask if refined stevia shows any of those problems.  And the answer is no.  There have been tons of published studies about refined stevia, not just the raw herb (they are mostly in South American and Japanese journals).   I could understand your point of view better I think if you went out of your way to eat only pure whole foods.  But you don’t.  You eat AS, you eat chocolate, you eat other things like that.  Your arguments against stevia seem empty to me and I wonder why you are so adement about them.  Or maybe you are just like that with me because I do argue strongly for using only natural foods.  Whatever the reason, I assure you that I am one of the pickiest eaters that ever lived (my mother would confirm this if she were still alive), have done my research on stevia (refined and whole), and believe it to be safe in small quantities and probably safe in large quantities (too much of anything isn’t good). See ya around when I’m able. Cyndi 160/150/135 — men’s jean size  38/34/32 or? Low-carb vegetarian + seafood since 7/28/98 http://www.immuneweb.org/lowcarb/ "There’s nothing wrong with me.  Maybe there’s                     Cyndi Norman                                                  http://www.consultclarity.com/

Response:

I’ve been preoccupied…taking care of my sick cat (who is starting to get better, btw, and the tests today show everything she has is treatable).

Cyndi,  Yeah!!!  Glad to hear it! I know you have a thing about stevia being refined and therefore evil

No…I don’t think of refined stevia being ‘evil’, I just don’t think of it as any better than any other sweetener based on the issue of it’s being natural. And heck, we all know that I enjoy sweeteners…all types, really, just never tried stevia because it hasn’t come up. The Vitamin C and other supplements provide a nutritent to the body, sweeteners change the taste of different foods…. that’s two different issues. Another concern with refined foods is that they may be too strong.  White sugar is a prime example here since it gets sucked into the body faster than most things (minus the fiber and minerals found with sweet things in nature that slow the glycemic hit down).  So we’d want to ask if refined stevia shows any of those problems.  And the answer is no.  There have been tons of published studies about refined stevia, not just the raw herb (they are mostly in South American and Japanese journals).  

Thanks Cyndi, this makes sense…as I’ve said, I don’t have anything against stevia, just wondered how it could be considered BETTER than any other refined sweetener…for sure, just about anything is better than sugar, since sugar sucks nutrients. btw, this was an honest query, not a personal attack against your choice of sweetener.  For the most part, I think both of us choose to use as many whole foods as possible…I go months and months without a sweetener in sight, and then go through a two week chocolate phase or so.  Because of the nature of lowcarb dieting, sweeteners seem to occupy more attention and bandwidth than…umm…chicken wings. Hmmm… maybe not. <G cya, Lynne 170 pounds lost the lowcarb way–maintaining since Feb ‘97

Response:

:One other thing to consider is that aspartame (and possibly ther artificial sweeteners) can act in your body as if it were sugar, for :some people.  Try cutting out all AS if you use it and see if that helps. : r. Bernstein stated that artificial sweetners (all of them) in powdered form :contained glucose. Actually that would be d-glucose aka dextrose, a common carrier. K in Cali

Response:

One other thing to consider is that aspartame (and possibly other artificial sweeteners) can act in your body as if it were sugar, for some people.  Try cutting out all AS if you use it and see if that helps. Dr. Bernstein stated that artificial sweetners (all of them) in powdered form contained glucose.  Maybe not enough to affect calories, but enough to affect IR in some people.  He recommended getting tablets instead or trying Stevia.  

While this is true (well it’s dextrose) there is another factor.  In some people, the aspartame itself (not the fillers) triggers an insulin response.  Some people (right here on asdlc) report carb/sugar cravings after using aspartame.  Some diabetics get blood sugar readings that are as if they ingested sugar.  There are studies somewhere (perhaps case studies, I’m not sure) that show that aspartame can indeed mimic sugar in some ways. I do not know if this effect has been found in any other artificial sweetener. I’m a big fan of stevia myself.  Stevia is of course not an artificial sweetener.  It is the only natural sweetener that is suitable for diabetics or people on a lowcarb diet.  It definately does not cause any of the problems mentioned above.  In fact, there are many published studies that show stevia normalizes blood sugar levels so it is *good for* diabetics and hypoglycemics, not merely neutral. Cyndi 160/150/135 — men’s jean size  38/34/32 or? Low-carb vegetarian + seafood since 7/28/98 http://www.immuneweb.org/lowcarb/ "There’s nothing wrong with me.  Maybe there’s                     Cyndi Norman                                                  http://www.consultclarity.com/

Response:

Hey Lynne, I was reading one of those sites on stevia, and it said that the plant has an abundance of helpful benefits, but that processing it into powder removes many of the healthful attributes. But, they said the tea and ground leaves are supposed to be good, although I don’t quite remember what the benefits are. Christina

Response:

What’s your opinion on sucralose?  As far as I can tell, there is no group for which it is contraindicated, such as diabetics.  And it tastes a helluva lot better, as well.

Sucralose?  Is that Splenda?  I don’t follow the details of the various AS’s.  Personally, I don’t touch artifical food because I react badly to a lot of it (allergic to most preservatives, for instance) and because I don’t want to take any chances.  I think that people are better off using 100% natural products.  Of course not all natural products are safe or good for you but it’s where I choose to start. As anyone who’s seen me post on the topic knows, I consider aspartame to be one of the top 10 edible evils of the universe.  But I don’t have strong opinions about the other AS’s other than I don’t want to use them.  As far as I know, none of them have major side effects (although some seem to have some long-term effects…higher cancer rates and etc) but why take risks if you don’t have to? Splenda is new so it’s hard to say what kinds of risks it will turn out to have.  Even if I trusted the FDA testing process (and I don’t) I would be wary of anything without an established track record. If sucralose is not Splenda then never mind and tell me what it really is . Cyndi 160/150/135 — men’s jean size  38/34/32 or? Low-carb vegetarian + seafood since 7/28/98 http://www.immuneweb.org/lowcarb/ "There’s nothing wrong with me.  Maybe there’s                     Cyndi Norman                                                  http://www.consultclarity.com/

Response:

I’m a big fan of stevia myself.  Stevia is of course not an artificial sweetener.  It is the only natural sweetener that is suitable for diabetics or people on a lowcarb diet.

What’s your opinion on sucralose?  As far as I can tell, there is no group for which it is contraindicated, such as diabetics.  And it tastes a helluva lot better, as well. Regards, Alan 244/202/180

Response:

Hiya, Cyndi.  FYI, Splenda is the brandname for Sucralose which is the propietary product.  Sucralose is a chemically modified (use chlorine in some fashion IIRC) sugar molecule, so goes ‘unrecognized’ thru the digestive tract (a sort of ‘left-handed’ sugar).  There are studies ongoing which claim to detect some small breakdown in the tract, but not yet definitive. With your metabolic sensitivities, you are probably doing the right thing by staying away. HTH – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – What’s your opinion on sucralose?  As far as I can tell, there is no group for which it is contraindicated, such as diabetics.  And it tastes a helluva lot better, as well. Sucralose?  Is that Splenda?  I don’t follow the details of the various AS’s.  Personally, I don’t touch artifical food because I react badly to a lot of it (allergic to most preservatives, for instance) and because I don’t want to take any chances.  I think that people are better off using 100% natural products.  Of course not all natural products are safe or good for you but it’s where I choose to start. As anyone who’s seen me post on the topic knows, I consider aspartame to be one of the top 10 edible evils of the universe.  But I don’t have strong opinions about the other AS’s other than I don’t want to use them.  As far as I know, none of them have major side effects (although some seem to have some long-term effects…higher cancer rates and etc) but why take risks if you don’t have to? Splenda is new so it’s hard to say what kinds of risks it will turn out to have.  Even if I trusted the FDA testing process (and I don’t) I would be wary of anything without an established track record. If sucralose is not Splenda then never mind and tell me what it really is . Cyndi 160/150/135 — men’s jean size  38/34/32 or? Low-carb vegetarian + seafood since 7/28/98 http://www.immuneweb.org/lowcarb/ "There’s nothing wrong with me.  Maybe there’s                     Cyndi Norman                                                  http://www.consultclarity.com/

– ICQ 4120171 seaDrake    196[30.7%] 157.5[24.7%] 150[ % ?]  1998.07.13

Response:

To my mind, the white powdered stevia is as processed as white table sugar.

Sure it’s processed, but I’m inclined to believe that the refined stevioside is probably safer than artificial sweeteners, just because the artificial sweeteners don’t exist in nature.  Granted there are many poisons that exist in nature, especially when refined, and I’m not one who assumes "natural" is necessarily better, but there’s no evidence AFAIK of a down side to refined stevioside (other than it doesn’t taste quite as good as artificial sweeteners IMO).   My personal opinion on artificial sweeteners is that they are probably all not good for the body, but — the typical human body (and Cyndi’s sensitivities are atypical) has a remarkable ability to handle small amounts of toxins and not-good-for-you chemicals.  IMO, it’s better to use an assortment of sweeteners, rather than all of one kind, to ease the load on the body of any one sweetener chemical. I keep forgetting to get back to my mother on what she said about aspartame.  She’s a nursing supervisor of a convalescent home, and several months ago the cafeteria supplier switched from Sweet-n-Low to Equal. She said something to the effect that patients started having drug interaction symptoms after the switch occurred, but I keep forgetting to ask her which drugs.  I suspect that it might be drugs for Parkinsons. —                 "There’s a seeker born every minute."

Response:

I have been on his diet for 10 days and have lost 13 lbs.  Put my blood sugar has gone up, I only eat 20 carbs a day in the form of a green salad. I am not in ketosis either.  Anybody have any ideas why this is going on? Kitty

Response:

I have been on his diet for 10 days and have lost 13 lbs.  Put my blood sugar has gone up, I only eat 20 carbs a day in the form of a green salad. I am not in ketosis either.  Anybody have any ideas why this is going on? Kitty

Of course, you’ll want to check with your doctor if this continues. But in the meantime, check what you’re eating for hidden sugars, like sweetener packs (.9grams each), coffee (.8 grams per cup), cream (.4 grams per tablespoon), cheeses (.5 grams per ounce for hard, 1.0 grams per ounce for the soft ones). Also, sugar-free jello has a small amount of dextrose, which can really add up if you eat a lot of it during the day. And check your labels, if something reads "0" grams per serving, it very like is more like .5 grams per serving, because of the USDA allowing food manufacturers to round down. Hidden sugars can make it harder to stay below 20 grams for the day. And if you  don’t already, get a good food-counts book and check out everything you eat and drink, at least until you get a good idea of the carb counts on food you commonly eat. So check for hidden sugars, check you food counts, and be sure to check with your doctor if you can’t figure out what’s causing it. Hope this helps, Arlene 276/262/160 —started Atkins 2/21/99   http://people.delphi.com/elizjack/lowcarb.txt   http://www.grossweb.com/asdlc/asdlc-faq.htm   http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/LowcarbingDream/MiniFAQ.html

Response:

Need more details. How are you having your blood sugar tested? What is it now? What was it before? Were you fasting when you had the tests done? — Debbie Cusick I plan to be a procrastinator some day if I ever get around to it. Check out the asdlc FAQ at: http://www.grossweb.com/asdlc I have been on his diet for 10 days and have lost 13 lbs.  Put my blood sugar has gone up, I only eat 20 carbs a day in the form of a green salad. I am not in ketosis either.  Anybody have any ideas why this is going

on?

Response:

Hi! Congrats on the 10#s. First if you’re using one of the personal testers, make sure the strips aren’t outdated and that the code on the strip container matches whats programmed into your machine. Second…are you drinking water? If you don’t drink your water your readings will go higher too. **** Posted from RemarQ – http://www.remarq.com – Discussions Start Here ™ ****

Response:

I have been on his diet for 10 days and have lost 13 lbs.  Put my blood sugar has gone up, I only eat 20 carbs a day in the form of a green salad. I am not in ketosis either.  Anybody have any ideas why this is going on?

There are a lot of possible reasons; what others have said already is good advice.  You may also wish to tell your doctor (especially if the readings are high).  One other thing to consider is that aspartame (and possibly other artificial sweeteners) can act in your body as if it were sugar, for some people.  Try cutting out all AS if you use it and see if that helps. How is one green salad adding up to 20 carbs?  What exactly are you eating? If you post the entire day’s menu people can help you find hidden carbs and get them down. Cyndi 160/150/135 — men’s jean size  38/34/32 or? Low-carb vegetarian + seafood since 7/28/98 http://www.immuneweb.org/lowcarb/ "There’s nothing wrong with me.  Maybe there’s                     Cyndi Norman                                                  http://www.consultclarity.com/

Response:

One other thing to consider is that aspartame (and possibly other artificial sweeteners) can act in your body as if it were sugar, for some people.  Try cutting out all AS if you use it and see if that helps.

Dr. Bernstein stated that artificial sweetners (all of them) in powdered form contained glucose.  Maybe not enough to affect calories, but enough to affect IR in some people.  He recommended getting tablets instead or trying Stevia.  I myself having been just drinking more water instead of the tea I used to drink flavored with NS. <html<P ALIGN=CENTERCathy (to email, delete spamslam) <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cottage/8060/index.html"My Web </A <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cottage/8060/PCOS.html"PCO page </a</P</html

Response:

Hey all. I’m new to this newsgroup and see many people praising Dr. Atkins.  I am a fan of Suzanne Somers who is a low-carb eater as well.  Does anyone else here read Suzanne’s books?  What book of Dr. Atkins should I read first? Thanks.

Jason, If you are a fan of Suzanne Somers style and it is working for you then why change?  there is no problem in reading Atkins, Protein power or any of the other plans to familiarize yourself.  Knowledge is great. Sid…

Response:

Hi Jason.  A couple of books that could help you.  First, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution is probably the best source of information regarding low carb diets.  Protein Power by Michael Eades is also good.  Finally, once you get started, The Protein Power Lifeplan Gram Counter would be an excellent source of information regarding carbohydrate, protein, and fat contents in food items. They are all rather popular books so you should have no problem finding a copy.  Try Amazon. — Tom Steinke Rx-Pharm http://www.rx-pharm.com

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hey all. I’m new to this newsgroup and see many people praising Dr. Atkins.  I am a fan of Suzanne Somers who is a low-carb eater as well.  Does anyone else here read Suzanne’s books?  What book of Dr. Atkins should I read first? Thanks.

Response:

Hey all. I’m new to this newsgroup and see many people praising Dr. Atkins.  I am a fan of Suzanne Somers who is a low-carb eater as well.  Does anyone else here read Suzanne’s books?  What book of Dr. Atkins should I read first? Thanks.

Response:

I just finished reading Dr. Atkins new book ‘Atkins for Life’, but it’s aimed more at experienced Atkins users who are moving to lifetime maintenance.  For a full understanding of the Atkins program you should start with ‘Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution’.  It explains the program and the science behind it.  It’s available in paperback or at your library. BillJ 254/174/168 Atkins since 6/20/01 – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Hey all. I’m new to this newsgroup and see many people praising Dr. Atkins.  I am a fan of Suzanne Somers who is a low-carb eater as well.  Does anyone else here read Suzanne’s books?  What book of Dr. Atkins should I read first? Thanks.

Response:

Filed under: PCOS

Related Posts

• Question about Repronex (pg ment)
• could this be the gloucophage?
• IVF #2 is over. (pg/God ment)
• I think its over... (pg ,m/c ment)
• Metformin and period length
• Aphrodisiac? sp???
• REZULIN AND WEIGHT GAIN
• Silly to most, exciting to me.
• Good Endo in Raleigh/Cary, NC area?
• Sofia's Birth Story (ridiculously long and xposted by request)