Trim Healthy Mama Plan (34 page)

When this realization hit the dieting world, instead of adding back healthy carb choices there was a frenzy to go in the complete opposite direction. In an effort to heal thyroids and restore adrenals, there is a new trend to eat nightly ice cream before bed, drink generous glasses of juice and milk, eat more fruit than veggies (in fact, vegetables are considered second-class citizens), and even scarf down a candy bar without guilt. Sadly, this is the new “healthy thyroid and adrenal-nurturing diet” followed in some extreme camps.

If one of the remedies for thyroid sluggishness is sugar, then Americans should have thyroids that work like purring Ferraris. Instead, according to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, twenty-seven million Americans are burdened with thyroid dysfunction. Subclinical hypothyroidism is estimated to affect an additional twenty-four million Americans. It is sobering to think that more than fifty million Americans are inflicted with some form of thyroid disorder.

Refined sugar and blood sugar–spiking carbs are not the answer for the thyroid gland just like they are not the answer for the adrenal gland. Thyroid problems are 90 percent autoimmune in nature. Sugar battles against your white blood cells and makes them
ineffective against battling toxins for five hours after a sugar spike. This destroys your natural immune defense. Research shows that thyroid disorders are more prevalent in diabetics and those suffering with obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Both extremes of low- and high-carb diets have booby traps waiting in the wings to strangle the thyroid. Studies reveal that the repeated insulin spikes that lead to insulin resistance destroy the thyroid gland in people with autoimmune thyroid issues. On the other hand, insulin is needed for the conversion of the inactive T4 hormone into the active
T3 hormone. While our T4 hormone does have use in the body, T3 is approximately four times more potent than T4. We need robust T3 levels so we're going to have to eat some carbs to get them. But…diets high in sugar and the chronic inflammation they promote stop the conversion of T4 to T3. Do you see the conundrum here? We need carbs for a well-working thyroid but excessive carbs cause the thyroid to break down. There has to be a sensible middle ground.

There is another key player in all this thyroid madness called
reverse T3 (rT3). It is synthesized from T4. It binds to thyroid receptors and blocks the action of T3. BOO!!! This means it lowers the metabolism and promotes fat storage. It is not the hormone someone who is trying to lose weight wants to have in charge.

Diets too low in glucose (for too long), commonly known as low-carb diets, have proven to inactivate the wonderful T3 hormone and give rise to overly high levels of rT3. The body recognizes there is not enough energy being consumed to furnish the brain and slows down the metabolism and many other bodily processes to conserve this vital nutrient. Remember, T3 is something you want. And rT3 is something you don't want.

The biggest take-home point in thyroid health is to avoid drastic blood-sugar fluctuations. This means stay away from high sugar “spikers” but don't get stuck in S ruts, either. Keep those E meals a regular at your Trim Healthy Table and throw in a few Crossovers or S helpers as your weight-loss journey permits.

Again and again it comes down to that beautiful seven letter word: BALANCE. Seven speaks of perfection. But remember your perfect balance might be different from someone else's. A Mama who swings kettlebells and nurses a set of twins will need more glucose nourishment than a sedentary office worker who is postmenopausal. Listen to your body and remember that healthy gentle carbs are an integral fuel to keep juggling in your
Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle. For more info on thyroid health and important thyroid testing, check out
Chapter 24
, “Heads Up: Turtle Losers!”

The new approach of using simple sugars like fruit juice, table sugar, honey, and refined carbs to soothe the adrenals makes no sense to us. Yes, there is truth to the underlying principle that carbs are needed for well-functioning adrenals, but the extreme approach that is all over the blogosphere right now is what doesn't make sense. We've really tried to wrap our minds around it…to give the idea a fair chance. But after months of study on it the facts are still the facts. High blood-sugar levels deplete
cortisol levels and burn out the adrenals. That is one of the main jobs of the adrenal gland and cortisol: to balance blood sugar. Indicators of adrenal fatigue are usually seen in tandem with
glucose intolerance and insulin resistance in lab testing.

No matter what any modern backlash fad is teaching, wisdom, science, and common sense still scream the danger of refined sugar and the excessive consumption of carbohydrates. Suggestions like ice cream and glasses of fruit juice for thyroid and adrenal health simply don't hold water in the big picture. Spiking of blood sugar is one of the reasons adrenals are so weak these days. Using high sugar to repair what it already broke?
How is that a healthful remedy? Inflicting the
adrenals and thyroid again with the same treatment that helped send them down for the count is just plain cruel to them.

The “sugar rush” and flood of hyperactive energy from a high-sugar spike is not necessarily desirable sugar energy but more likely a desperate adrenaline surge in response to the crisis. You are actually experiencing an adrenaline rush. Dr. William Tamborlane of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation at Yale University reported on research showing that children had much higher levels of adrenaline after they were given sugar. He correlates their hyperactive behavior not to the energy from blood sugar itself but to these higher adrenaline surges. This clearly reveals that a surge of
stress hormones is consequentially leached from the adrenals with every blood-sugar spike.

This dire situation that the adrenals are faced with under a high-sugar load can be made very clear with the following four common steps.

STEP 1:
You guzzle a large glass of orange juice or down a hearty bowl of ice cream.

NOW YOU HAVE HIGH BLOOD SUGAR!

STEP 2:
Insulin surges to clean up the stressful situation of your spiking blood sugar. High blood sugar is destructive at a cellular level and the body responds to this emergency. Your body, intelligently realizing the toxic situation of high blood sugar, sends high doses of insulin and cleans it up overzealously, bringing it super-low, safe from the prior stressful high.

NOW YOU HAVE LOW BLOOD SUGAR!

STEP 3:
Low blood sugar is another emergency and the adrenals, our primary stress glands, respond with urgency. Adrenaline starts to pump, causing the liver to convert stored glucose and release it into the bloodstream in an effort to bring the blood sugar out of the dangerous dumps. Epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol are crucial stress hormones delivered to try to fix the stressful situation.

STEP 4:
The body, now in a traumatic state of low blood sugar, craves a high sugary meal to provide energy for the brain, and this vicious cycle repeats.

Repeating this situation over again with nearly every meal burns out your adrenals. During adrenal fatigue, when adrenal hormone levels are already compromised, it becomes extremely difficult to maintain blood-sugar levels.

If you relate to Adrenal Mess Jess, whom we met back in
Chapter 1
, nourish your adrenals back to strength with lots of rest, drink the Singing Canary, and do not leave E meals out of your fuel juggle. But don't fall back into the vicious cycle of those four steps. Sensible servings of sweet potatoes, ancient grains, whole fruit, and legumes are healers. These not only contain necessary glucose to soothe your adrenals but also offer it in a much gentler way to your body. Shoving more sugar fuel than your body can handle to try and nurture your adrenals is like eating dynamite. Soon something's gonna blow…maybe the buttons on your pants or your clean bill of health.

Lectins and phytates are two more newly convicted felons that need some defense. It used to be butter and coffee, but now it is the “Loser Lectins” and “Foul Phytates” that people are being trained to avoid like the plague. If you are a Drive Thru Sue you may not give a rip whether your food contains them or not. But these terrible two have really dealt a heavy burden to the purist who sometimes lies awake at night wondering whether her oatmeal's overnight soak will be enough to destroy their evil powers.

Let's take a look at both of these so-called menaces and see whether their bite is truly as bad as their bark.

Recent diets that tout that all grains are bad for us (something to do with Caveman Grok) point to lectins as one of the reasons. Lectins are proteins that are designed to withstand digestion and not be broken down by the intestines. One of lectin's purposes is to naturally repel pests from the plants they are within. All plants contain defense mechanisms designed to protect them from animals, bacteria, and fungi. Many have multiple systems in place and lectins are only one of these defenses that some health gurus are magnifying for now.

What's wrong with lectins? Umm…pretty much everything, according to lectin-avoidance diets. They are thought to cause leaky gut, autoimmune issues, fibromyalgia, arthritis, stubborn weight issues…the list goes on and on.

If you buy into all that, you essentially have to believe that God created food to harm us. Lectins are not manmade; they are in foods that God called good and they have always been in these foods. They are not a new menace.

Another name for lectins is
glycoproteins. These proteins eventually find their way into cell walls in your body. Your body actually uses these glycoproteins on the outside of your cells for important messaging and signaling. Glycoproteins are an amazing and necessary bodily mechanism!

In the big picture lectins aren't losers, they are underestimated cool dudes that are necessary for a myriad of life-sustaining functions. For instance, lectins break down the membranes of hurtful invaders like cancer cells and help reduce the risk and growth of many deadly cancers. Lectins attack the membranes of fungi, bacteria, and viruses in the body and have been reported to be effective even against the HIV-1 retrovirus.

A 1997 study done on rats cited in the
British Journal of Nutrition
(rats again…we know…yawn) determined that the biggest problem with lectins comes when people eat an insufficiently varied diet. In one study, rats put on a varied diet showed significantly less damage from the inclusion of lectins than rats fed a continuous soy protein diet with the inclusion of lectins.

Eating a balanced healthy whole-foods diet prepared the right way is a more sensible answer than eliminating whole food groups in fear of lectins. The problem with lectins
is not the healthy balance in which they occur with natural whole food but the extreme concentration of them that comes from processed and finagled modern foods. This is where the balance of something healthy becomes toxic and disturbing to the flourishing environment of the body.

Carbohydrates aren't villains, but the overconsumption of refined ones can be very dangerous. The kiss of sunshine is the sparkle of health, but too much of this good thing leads to sunstroke and poisoning. Likewise we just need to harness the right balance of lectins by avoiding modern junk and using some traditional food preparations that naturally lower their concentration. Don't hate lectins; just respect their limits.

Lectins are found in all food, so avoiding grains for the fear of lectins does not really help you. The lectins in grains and beans can be mostly deactivated by boiling them for fifteen minutes, but some lectins in veggies cannot be cooked out. Dairy products, nuts and seeds, and many fruits and veggies carry their own fair share of lectins, the highest levels being among the nightshade family such as tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, bell peppers, chile peppers, and goji berries. Kale chips are a trendy health food and we love them, too; but they are probably more tainted with lectins than a well-prepared (soured or sprouted) whole-grain bread would be.

Don't give up the kale or the healthfully prepared grains for lectin's sake, though, as you would then have to give up most yummy spices, which also contain lectins. Oh, and you'd have to put chocolate and coffee on your elimination list while you are at it. All plants contain these defense mechanisms and we can trust our God who created us to eat them to also have equipped our bodies to DEAL!

Do opt for sprouted, soaked, or fermented grains and beans, as these methods decrease the lectins in many of these particular foods. Modern hybridized wheat is an exception: Sprouting is not able to cause a significant reduction of lectins in this form of grain.

Do choose
ancient grains such as einkorn, emmer, spelt, rye, farro, kamut, quinoa, and barley instead of modern hybridized wheat.

Do enjoy homemade gelatin-rich stock or supplement your diet with Just Gelatin or Integral Collagen that nurture the mucosa lining of the intestines and prevent negative lectin issues of the gut. There is a correlation between
celiac disease and lowered levels of glycine, which is a potent amino acid in bone broth and gelatin supplements.
It is interesting that celiac disease is on the rise in our modern world, where the ancient practices of eating glycine-rich cuts of meat on the bone and making homemade stock are forgotten.

Do try to fall in love with okra, which has the ability to bind with lectins and make them harmless to the intestinal cells. Okra is a BFF of anyone with leaky gut or severe gastrointestinal issues.

Don't eat regular “wheat” bread from the grocery store. Modern wheat is hybridized to be way higher in gluten so is therefore higher in lectins.