Atkins/Stuart Trager on CNN

[Guest guest]

Watched the interview with Stuart Trager this evening. He is a compelling voice for the advocacy of a lowered sugar/starch approach to wellness. I had not heard him before, and as a orthopedist who came to the approach to improve his marathon/triathalon competition (he has done 6 Ironmans since 2001), I believed him. Yes, he is a "shill" now, but his zeal is as infectious as Dr. Atkins was in his January 2003 interview with King. By the way, for a 72 yr old man, I thought Atkins looked hale and hearty and very cogent. This was not long before his death. He most certainly did not look obese. His wife spoke of his intense interest in helping others to better health. When I read Atkins book this year, it was his zeal for helping others to feel better, live better and longer that came through more clearly than anything in his book.

Trager completely emphasised the need to eat more vegetables and a variety of vegetables, to eat fruits and to add better grains as one found the ability to eat them and maintain their optimal weight. Trager has eaten the lowered sugar/starch diet for four years and lost 30 lbs and has maintained his weight and kept up his athletic competitions.

On a strictly personal, anecdotal note ~ this weekend I was on a retreat with my husband and I did not have time to prepare my foods to bring with me. Not knowing what would be served there for 3 days, I was dismayed at the abundance of breads, pastas, sugar laden foods, all beautfully prepared, but not what I am used to eating. I was overcome, and like Francesca described the other day, I fell off the wagon ~ badly. By the end of the weekend, I found my desire for sugar and bread/flour products had mushroomed. My arthritis was so bad by Sunday morning, I was in agony. I have been trying now for 48 hrs to get back on my "program". Some of the things I noticed, and my husband noticed them too, were that my hands remained swollen every morning....and took hours to go down. I was stiff everywhere. As of today I have skin problems which go along with an autoimmune flare. I am determined to cut the sugar, cut the flour, lower my grains for a week or two until I get this back under control. My first day back at the gym after the weekend, I had lost more than half of my stamina to complete my routine. This was the worst I had felt in many, many months. This 3 day "experiment" in eating ad lib, and eating sugar and flour confirmed in me what I had discovered ~ eating simple sugars is harmful to me. Highly refined foods are also harmful to me. I was so sick I was willing to get my methotrexate and the needles out and start them up again...I refrained....and decided to really work on my diet. This will take patience to detox. This is my story, my odyssey and I don't mean to say that it works for everyone with autoimmune disease, but it works in an obvious and visible way for me, and it takes time. I expect this flare to take a month to die down if I am faithful. I just hope it doesn't drive me crazy in the meantime.