Column Reprint: Cold Care
Somebody brought a cold germ to my birthday party, so I've been honking and snorking for a week. Seemed time to talk about cold care!
Summer’s gone, autumn’s here, the leaves are changing. You know what that means. Right,
the cold and flu season is upon us. Indeed, as I write this I have a scratchy throat, a snorky nose,
and a tight chest. Ugh.
So I thought it would be timely to fill you in on low carb cold care. Low carb cold care? Yep.
There actually are a few potential pitfalls, let me help you skirt them.
Please don’t decide, “I’’m sick. I deserve pampering. I may as well go off my diet.”
Nutritionists from Dr. Atkins to Ann Louise Gittleman, MS, CNS have long insisted that eating
sugar will weaken your immune system, and indeed a little research turned up a 1995 study
showing that the activity of immune system cells called leukocytes decreases significantly when
blood sugar levels rise. If there’s any chance that eating a lot of carbs will keep you sick longer,
you don’t want to do it!
Just as important, if you’ve been low carb for even a few weeks, you’’ve probably noticed a
dramatic increase in energy. Do you really want to give yourself one of those energy-sapping
blood sugar crashes that come after the blood sugar rush? Talk about feeling wretched.
Here are some ideas for low carb cold care:
* Juice is not your friend –– it’s a great way to take in tons of sugar, without any of the fiber that
would buffer its absorption if you were to eat the fruit.
* However, do drink lots of fluids. They'll help keep all that gunk in your nose and chest moving.
* You could always take vitamin C in pills, you know.
* Hot beverages are soothing to a scratchy throat, and loosen chest congestion. Tea is the
obvious choice (she said with a big pot of tea sitting close to hand.) If you’re used to honey in
your tea while sick, be aware that just one teaspoon has 5.7 grams of carbohydrate, all sugar.
There are a couple of brands of sugar free imitation honey on the market –– Steele’s and
HoneyTree. These are remarkably good, and available through online retailers.
* Beware of cold medicines! Cough syrups and liquids like NyQuil have a lot of sugar. Buy
NyQuil, DayQuil, and the like in soft gels, instead. Pharmacies carry sugar free cough syrups,
often labeled “diabetic formula.”
* You can find sugar free cough drops, too –– including the sort with menthol and eucalyptus
that help open up a stuffy nose. Again, your best bet for these is a pharmacy, not the grocery
store or a discount store.
* Chicken soup is standard for colds, but most packaged chicken soups have noodles or rice in
them. If nothing else will do, it’s good to know that Campbell’’s Chicken Noodle has 8 grams
of carb per serving –– not great, but not terrible. Chicken Rice has 7 grams of carb.
* If there’s a local Chinese restaurant that delivers, consider sending out for egg drop or hot-and-
sour soup. Though recipes vary, both tend to be lower carb and higher protein than canned
chicken noodle. Hot-and-sour soup –– my cold-care favorite –– has the added advantage of hot
peppers to help clear out your nose.
Can’t get delivery? With boxed or canned broth in the pantry, this egg drop soup is quick and
easy enough to make in your weakened condition.
Eggdrop Soup
1 quart chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon guar or xanthan (optional)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 scallion, sliced
2 eggs, beaten
If you’’re using the guar or xanthan, first put a cup or so of the broth in your blender, turn it on
low, and add the guar. Let it blend for a second, then put it in a large saucepan with the rest of
the broth. Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, and scallions. Heat over medium high burner,
and let it simmer for five minutes or so, to let the flavors blend. Have your eggs beaten in a glass
measuring cup or small pitcher –– something with a pouring lip. Take a fork, and start stirring
the surface of the soup in a slow circle. Pour in about a quarter of the eggs, and stir as they cook
and turn into shreds, which will happen almost instantaneously. Repeat three more times, using
up all the egg, then serve. 3 biggish servings, or 4-5 small ones; easy to double! Assuming 4
servings, each will have 2 grams of carbohydrate, a trace of fiber, and 8 grams of protein.
- Dana's blog
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Puzzling question
Do antibiotics make you gain weight or stall weight loss? Here's why I ask.
I have been losing weight steadily for almost 6 months, and got from 247 to 217. I recently came down with my semi-annual bout of bronchitis. When it first hit, I had no time to go to the doctor, so I started taking 2T of cranberry concentrate four times a day, in addition to doubling my water and hot tea intake. It helped, and I did not stop losing or gain anything.
Ten days later, I finally made it to the doctor, and he put me on doxycycline. Within three days, I'd gained back the last five pounds I lost. I AM NOT HAPPY. I can breathe, and I feel better, but I am regaining my hard-lost weight.
Is it the doxycycline, or is it a delayed effect of the cranberry concentrate and increased water/tea?
It might be that it worked
Well one thought here. This might be in part a direct result of the desired effect of the antibiotic. Don't forget that when you are sick you body is less efficient and uses some energy to support the infection. Get rid of the infection and the same about of input, and the same output in energy usage might not have the same balance and so might have excess available now to add weight. But you were use to needed the old amount of input.
Vit D for strong immunity
Dana,
Take some Vit D3 ASAP for a few days, take a lot, and see if that helps. Have you have your Vit D levels tested [25 (OH)D test] ? You should, everyone should.
For the past couple of years I have been aware of how important Vit D is for a strong immune system, resistance to colds/flu, and lower risk of many diseases and conditions. www dot. vitamindcouncil dot org is a great source of info on the need for Vit D. It's hard to get enough in the diet, as humans are meant to get the majority of their Vit D from sun exposure, not food. Vit D is a fat soluble vitamin and so is found in the fat of animal foods. The richest food sources are liver and other organ meats, lard, beef fat, egg yolks, butter, and other full fat dairy products, but ONLY if from grassfed animals (which is not what is found in typical supermarkets, even if labeled "free range" or "all vegetarian feed". Animals confined indoors and/or fed primarily grain instead of fast-growing pasture and grasses do not make much Vit D either, not surprisingly.
And nearly no one gets enough of the right UV exposure to make enough Vit D anymore with modern lifestyles of indoor work, sunscreen use, clothing, etc., so they are deficient all winter (sometimes all year), which gee, happens to coincide with cold and flu seasons (coincidence? probably not!). Additionally, persons with hypothyroidism, diabetes, and other metabolic health conditions, and/or over the age of about 40 do not synthesize Vit D very efficiently and are at increased risk of deficiency.
Even living in Sunny San Diego, I was surprised to learn Vit D deficiency is common. My levels were tested twice and mine was in the bottom of the normal range, no where near the optimal range of 55-65 ng/mL (the range is 30-100 ng/mL). I'm also hypothyroid and have impaired glucose tolerance (prediabetes) and I'm over the age of 40, so this isn't too surprising. I had a basal cell carcinoma removed 10 years ago so for many years I avoided all sun exposure and probably was very deficient. Testing is the only way to determine Vit D stores, not level of tanning or skin color (dark skinned people in northern lattitudes are most certainly deficient and their higher rate of poor health statistics indicate this, too). The blood test is called 25 (OH) D and is easy for any doctor to order (not expensive, either). Increasingly, this test is becoming a routine test to order as part of a lab workup during checkup physicals.
Three local women friends were tested and were very deficient, in the 20-30 ng/mL range, and two of them spend most of their leisure time outdoors! The other one is elderly and has many health issues, so stays home indoors most of the time (her levels weren't surprising to me, though she was surprised because she's taken a low dose prescription D2 with her calcium for years). Low 25 (OH)D levels raise the risk of osteoporosis, dental decay, CVD, colds and flu, and 11 common cancers (a strong immune system is critical to protection from cancer). A childhood friend of mine living her adult life in Seattle as diagnosed with breast cancer last year; at the time of diagnosis she was 47 yo and had a Vit D level of 17 ng/mL, which is very common with breast cancer.
Most people don't want to increase their sun exposure very much, though a good 10-15 minutes of strong sun on a lot of skin daily will help to replenish Vit D stores without risk of burning or skin cancer (ironically, sun exposure reduces risk of more lethal cancers, but everyone fears the typically non-lethal but common basal cell cancers). It's important not to take so much sun as to burn, though. Additionally, in middle age the ability to synthesize the Vit D precursor in the skin is diminished; the elderly make very little Vit D. In the winter it is near impossible to get enough sun exposure (midday) so supplementation is wise (in the past, humans ate a lot of liver and other organs from grass-fed (outdoor) animals, so their intake was higher than now).
The RDA of 400iU is much too low, by a factor of about 10 or more. That low dose is just enough to prevent rickets in children. And the D that is added to milk and many inexpensive multi-vitamins and calcium supplements is usually the cheaper, synthetic D2, which the body must convert (inefficiently) to D3. D3 (cholecalciferol) is the natural Vitamin D that the body makes in response to UV exposure. So Vit D researchers and other are calling for higher Vit D minimums; the American Academy of Pediatricians just doubled their recommended dose of Vit D3 for children. The Vitamin D Council (a non-profit organization fo Vit D researchers) has even better guidelines on their website.
To get my Vit D levels up, I am now taking 4-6K iU per day with Carlson's D drops (2000iU/drop dose). I'll test levels again in late winter/early spring (BTW, Vit D toxicity fears are largely overblown, usually at 50,000 doses for a prolonged time or industrial exposure/mislabeling, etc.). Taking this amount of Vit D3 is quite safe, especially if Vit A intake is adequate (they need to work together). My husband takes a similar dose of D3. I give my 10 yo son 3000 iU per day during the school year (1000 per 25# of weight as recommended by the Vit D Council). At the first sign of a cold, I have taken 10,000 a day (what a healthy human makes daily with full skin exposure in strong midday sun) for several days. Every time, if I am consistent with the big dose of D3, the cold fails to develop beyond the first signs; it just peters out. Additionally, I don't get a flu shot. A strong immune system with good Vit D levels is the best defense against the flu (the elderly are almost always deficient in Vit D and are at much higher risk of flu and flu season is when UV exposure is reduced - get the picture?).
Hope you feel better soon!
www.againstthegrainblog.com
Vitamin D
I've been aware of the vitamin D problem for years; I consider modern sun-phobia to be as wrong-headed as low fat/high carb diets. As long as the weather allows I sit in the sun for an hour every morning, preferably in shorts and a tank top. This does terrific things for my sleep disorder; I've had a much easier time sleeping since I started systematic sun exposure.
(It's important to know that cancer rates across the board drop as you go south from Canada to Mexico, and it appears to be the additional vitamin D from sun exposure that is protective. There are now researchers who feel that for every case of skin cancer we've prevented by avoiding the sun, we've caused ten cases of breast, prostate, and colon cancer. Further, only actual sunburn has been proven to be causative in skin cancer, so far as I've been able to suss out. Just getting some sun is not just safe, but healthful.)
Now that the sun's going away again I've been planning to pick up a bottle of vitamin D caps; tomorrow is 10% Tuesday at Sahara Mart, my favorite health food store.
is it maybe the burn
I have always wondered if the reason for skin cancer is not normal sun exposure, but sun burns. I have a acquaintance who years ago literally was a cast away on a shipping pallet for three days near the equator. He ended up with second degree sun burn and almost did not survive this. At the time they told him anyone with this type of sunburn has a 100% chance of multiple skin cancers, and he has proved they are right :-(
A also have seen some studies that talk about the increase in skin cancer from other forms of burns that were not done by UV. Bad RF burns have a high link to skin cancer. It would be hard to study the real connection as people with high exposure to the sun also have almost automatically a high incidents of sunburns. But I was wondering of actually always avoiding sun burns would not be a lot more important than avoiding the sun in avoiding skin cancer.