This is an outstanding summary of Dr. Eades tips and tricks for starting low carb, it's a must read!! I've linked to it before, and finally had a chance to summarize his wisdom.
I highly recommend you read the whole post to realize what a gift it is to those of us starting, or helping others start, a low carb diet.
Also in his post - a recipe for bone broth and another for Tinto de Verano, his interesting formula for hydration on vacation!
Enjoy.
Tips and tricks for starting low carb:
**Crank up the fat intake!
**If you don’t like fatty cuts of meat, you can add a little medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) to your diet.
**MCT and/or coconut oil are absorbed more like carbohydrates and are used quickly by the body, are almost never incorporated into the fat cells, burn quickly, and easily convert to ketones
**The most common symptoms associated w low-carb diets are: fatigue, headaches, light-headedness or dizziness, and cramping
**Following a low-carb diet results in a rapid lowering of insulin levels, which – though a good thing – can create electrolyte imbalance
**Low carb helps to lower insulin levels, and increase insulin sensitivity, which signals the kidneys, and all cells, to stop retaining water
**It is great to get rid of the excess fluid but it comes at a cost, which is lost sodium; when sodium levels fall below a critical threshold you may suffer fatigue, headache, cramps and postural hypotension.
**Take more sodium and drink more water. Salt your food more. Do not fail to get enough sodium!
**An easy way to get extra sodium along with magnesium and potassium (a couple of other electrolytes we’ll discuss in a bit) is by consuming bone broth.
**Short of making your own bone broth, you can use commercially available bouillon, which contains plenty of sodium and makes a nice hot drink.
**Get some Celtic Sea Salt, Himalayan Salt or one of the other grayish, pinkish kind of grungy looking salts and replace your normal salt with these. And don’t use them sparingly. These salts have been harvested either from ancient sea beds or obtained by evaporation of sea water with high mineral content and contain about 70 percent of the sodium of regular salt (which has been refined, bleached and processed until it is pretty much pure sodium chloride, often with anti-caking agents added). The other 30 percent of the volume is other minerals and micronutrients (including iodine) found in mineral-rich seas. Consuming these salts is not just following a Paleolithic diet using modern food, but, depending upon the origin of the salt, it is consuming the same food your Paleolithic ancestors ate.
**Most people are deficient in magnesium. Good magnesium levels help regulate potassium as well, so keeping your magnesium adequate helps with your potassium as well. Nature has designed us so that approximately 300 plus of our enzymes require magnesium as a co-factor to make them work properly. I would bet most of it came from the water.
**One of the most common signs of magnesium deficiency is an increase in cravings. Often simply replenishing magnesium gets rid of many of the food cravings people have.
**Get a good chelated magnesium supplement and take 300-400 mg per day, take them in the evening
**If you get the "Milk of Magnesia" effect, simply reduce your dosage until your stools normalize
**Get a supplement of magnesium that ends in "ate" - aspartate or magnesium citrate or magnesium citrimate.
**About the only way you can really tell how much actual magnesium your getting is to look on the label on the back and see how much of the RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) the dose is. The RDI for magnesium is 400 mg per day so if you find the dose of the supplement you are considering contains 50 percent of the RDI, then you know each dose contains 200 mg of magnesium irrespective of what the dosage is on the front of the bottle. As I say, I recommend 300 to 400 mg of magnesium per day. Magnesium is natures relaxant. It makes many people sleepy, so we always recommend taking it at bedtime.
**If you lose a lot of sodium through the diuretic effect of the low-carb diet, you’ll ultimately lose a lot of potassium as well. Keeping your sodium intake up as mentioned above will help preserve your potassium as well. And keeping your potassium levels up helps to ensure that you don’t lose a lot of lean muscle mass during your weight loss. Plus, just as with sodium, adequate potassium prevents cramping and fatigue.
**Take four to five of the over-the-counter 99 mg potassium supplements you can purchase at any health food or natural grocery store
**Don't get dehydrated, and it's easier than you think! You can lose a couple of pounds during sleep simply by breathing water vapor away. I now drink anywhere from 16 to 32 ounces of remineralized water first thing in the morning. Then I head to the espresso maker and start my daily Americano regimen. But I consume at least 8 ounces of sparkling water after each cup of coffee. And I drink water after each shot of Jameson and/or glass of wine (or any other alcoholic libation)*
**Water has a lipolytic effect (fat burning)
**Those starting a low-carb diet are prone to dehydration because excess ketones are gotten rid of via the kidneys along with a lot of fluid
**Always remineralize my water by adding a pinch of Celtic Sea Salt or one of the other such salts to each bottle. I add enough so that the water just barely hints of a salty taste.
**We gave lipoic acid, CoQ10, Vitamin E, magnesium, a good multi-vitamin and a prescription for potassium, and now recommend vitamin D3. I see a good multi-vitamin (no iron) as the same thing – cheap insurance against any kind of deficiency
**ALA is, 300 mg per day, is a favorite supplement. It acts as both a fat-soluble and water-soluble anti-oxidant so it can pretty much weasel its way in anywhere in the body and stamp out inflammation. It protects fatty membranes and even acts as a cellular nutrient. It also helps the body deal with blood sugar, which helps the whole low-carb adaptation process along
**I recommend the more potent r-alpha lipoic acid, 100 mg a day
**COQ10 is a superstar supplement. If you’ve been taking a statin, I would take 300 mg per day of CoQ10. If you haven’t, 100 mg per day should do.
**Vitamin D3: 1000 IU per day of this nutrient
**People who tend to have carb cravings late in the day do well with 50-100 mg of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). It also helps with sleep. Best time to take it seems to be about 4 or 5 PM for those who go to bed at the standard 10-12 PM.
**It’s important to defat your liver to help you lose weight more quickly because the liver breaks down insulin. Avoid – or at least limit – coffee, tea, alcohol and OTC meds as able.
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