RE: People diet for endurance (long reply)

[Marlene Moss <marlene.moss@wcom.com>]

I originally responded privately to Kristene, but I'll go ahead the repeat
some of it to the list since it supports what Carolyn said and may help a
lot of other people.

I have problems with low blood pressure (90/50 typically - the stairs can
make my ears ring) and low blood sugar - hypoglycemia.  I've heard that
hypoglycemia is a pre-diabetic reaction in some cases - and that is reason
that I figured I'd better respond to all.

What Carolyn says about a diabetics diet (which in many ways is similar to
Atkins or other low carb diets) makes sense.  I used to get hypoglycemic a
couple times a month.  Any time I missed a meal, delayed a meal after a high
carb meal or any of that combined with sudden activity.

I got into an Atkins type diet for weight loss reasons - which worked, I
lost a pound every other week for 3 months.  The first week was hell, low
blood sugar daily, but instead of binging on carbs, I had to binge on
protein.  Slower response, but still worked.

I was on the diet a little over a year and after the first week didn't have
a single bout of hypoglycemia.  I've had friends with similar responses.  I
found that I could work back up to a reasonable level of carb intake w/o
losing the benefits.  I could also pig out consistently for a time
(Thanksgiving, Christmas) w/o problem.

I've been real bad the last year, I am not a big fan of most meat, so my
diet choices were limited and I just couldn't take salads any more.  But I
have definitely seen the degradation in my health.  This diet isn't
something to start during the ride season - that first week is bad!  But I
will probably start again as there is some occurance of diabetes in my
family and I don't need that!

So as Carolyn says, carbo loading isn't a solution - exacerbates the overall
issue ultimately.  But once your body gets used to efficiently creating
energy you won't have the cyclic blood sugar behavior to each meal and it
will remain more steady.  And Atkins isn't for everyone, but I think
modifications of it can help most people's health.

Not a help for blood pressure, though!

Marlene