Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 28 October 2023…
Hey Y’all!
Good evening and happy Saturday from Air2Ground Farms! The rain arrived! It rained a bit the past couple of days which prepared the ground for the real rain today and tomorrow. It’s unfortunate that it’s going to get down to the low 20s Monday and Tuesday nights, it will certainly slow down the grass. Nevertheless, the rain is good and the grass greened-up within a couple of hours. The animals are doing well and they are starting to grow winter coats. The below-freezing weather this coming week will kick-start their hair growth. We’ve been standard busy, not crazy busy the past few days. Thursday was a BIG day! We picked up the 5 hogs from the processor and busily distributed. By Thursday evening, we had delivered 2 1/2 hogs whole hogs, a whole lamb, 50+ pounds of beef, 11 chickens, 5 gallons of milk, and 2 dozen eggs. We had an awesome farm tour Friday and enjoyed spending time with new customers/friends. Due to the bad weather they cancelled the last farmers market of the season today. We had a couple of customers that wanted an order, so we made a delivery to the town square, a prequel to our winter ops. It worked very well. This week’s podcast is doing well. Folks seem to be liking Rebekah’s story of resilience and hope. I’ll paste the link below, if you haven’t had a chance to watch. The bottom 2 pics are the video’s thumbnail and the candid shot that shows you our new podcast studio. It is really comfortable and works well. The top pics are the last pics of the leaves this fall, the rain is causing the big shed with all of the trees dumping their leaves. The next pics are my make-up from Fast-jet Friday, the Mighty Mighty F-15E Strike Eagle. By the way, Hannah is doing really well, not flying as much as she should be but there’s nothing she can do to control that. Her flight-lead upgrade program is going well and she only has a couple more rides to complete it.
In the last blog, I promised a discussion regarding a real study dealing with diabetes, so that’s where we’re going. I’m still frustrated with the news sites for publishing the study we discussed with no further investigation, as multiple sites ran a similar article. Oh well, we live in a time where it’s a requirement to figure out for ourselves whether or not what we read is truth or spin. On to today’s discussion. In May 2020, published by the DiabetesJournals.org, corresponding author Jennifer Merrill wrote an article titled From Research to Practice: Low-Carbohydrate and Very-Low-Carbohydrate Diets in Patients With Diabetes. ( https://diabetesjournals.org/spectrum/article/33/2/133/32999/Low-Carbohydrate-and-Very-Low-Carbohydrate-Diets ) The goal of the article was to “review the claim that low-carbohydrate diets have been advocated as an effective method for promoting weight loss in overweight and obese individuals and preventing and treating type 2 diabetes. The article reviews the differences between various low-carbohydrate eating plans and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of such a diet based on available research.” I’ll discuss a few highlights from the article. Obesity is a growing epidemic with almost 40% of adults worldwide being overweight and over 650 million obese, which has tripled since 1975. This elevated body weight increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is largely a lifestyle-mediated chronic disease, thus there is growing emphasis on dietary modifications. Before exogenous insulin was developed, very-low-carbohydrate diets were the common treatment for type 2 diabetes. Entering the story is the villain I’ve discussed in blogs in the past…Ancel Keys. Using junk science (actually worse than that we discussed in the last blog) Ancel convinced the American society (Drs., Presidents, common folks like all of us) that cholesterol is bad and is at the root of heart disease. A commonality of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet is high cholesterol and since everyone was convinced that high cholesterol is bad, low-carb is obviously bad. That started the shift to a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet we, as a nation, are enjoying today…and in fact have exported across the globe leading to the 40% global obesity we already highlighted. In the 1970s, studies linked high-carbohydrate diets to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. In my opinion, and evidenced by the global epidemic with obesity and diabetes, the 1970s studies were largely ignored. Instead, Drs. and patients preferred to use insulin to control the blood sugar issues caused by type 2 diabetes rather than a low-carbohydrate diet. Low carbohydrate diets force our bodies to burn a different kind of fuel, ketones rather than glucose. There’s lots of science about how that happens and the benefits, all in the article. The Standard American Diet (SAD) consists of 2,200 kilocalories per day, with roughly 35% fat, 15% protein, and 50% (275g) from carbohydrates. Low-carbohydrate diets are 60-135g of carbs per day while very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets (VLCKD) are 20-50g of carbs per day. Probably the most well-known VLCKD is the Atkins Diet, introduced in 1972, which emphasizes a level of carbohydrates that maintains ketosis. This study has a lot of data, to include 1 and 2-year outcomes, a synopsis of which is that both low-carbohydrate and VLCKDs reduce weight, improve A1C, and reduce the effects of type 2 diabetes. (Check out Virta Health if you’d like to learn about VLCKDs reversing type 2 diabetes.) One highlight is medication management, and this is one that we’ve seen in folks we know. If a person is on medication to control type 2 diabetes and then begins a low or VLCKD, the dosage of medications (to include insulin) changes and frequent medication adjustments are required, especially in the early stages. The most commonly reported adverse effect of low or VLCKD is hypoglycemia resulting from inadequate reduction of insulin or other medications. The summary is “low and VLCKDs can be attractive options for treating patients with diabetes and obesity. These eating plans are associated with at least as much weight loss as other diet strategies, but have the added benefit of being associated with significant reductions in the need for insulin and other diabetes medications.” My logical question to all of us is that if low and VLCKDs are effective at reducing weight and alleviating type 2 diabetes, why wait until it gets that bad? It’s time to shed the SAD and “just go keto!”
Episode 13 Dust’er Mud Podcast with guest Rebekah McGlamory—Brain Injury to New Beginnings: Journey of Hope
Local Farm Report for 25, 26, 27 October 2023:
Harvest:
5 whole hogs in our/customers’ freezers
41 Chicken eggs
31 Duck eggs
9 3/4 Gallons of milk
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
As a long-time "carb king" I did not think it possible for me to go low carb.
I never even tried. duh!
Once I gave it an honest effort, I was shocked at how simple, and effective, low carb was.
In a little over 4 months I lost 30 pounds, and that was without changing my activity level at all.
My chronic heartburn is GONE. Without drugs.
Clothes that were too tight, are now too loose (if that is possible, LOL).
I also find I can work longer/harder and am not ruled by my stomach.
I also try to get most all my calories in about 8 hours of the day...and it works when you fuel your body with the…