Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

1

I have been full Paleo for about 9 months and recently diagnosed with Hashimoto's. So, in response to that diagnosis, I took out all nightshades, eggs, nuts,..etc. I decided to eat only meat products and one (or two) cooked squashes each day. But, after a couple weeks on that diet, I learned I would be best off to eliminate everything except meat/fat products for a few weeks. Low in behold, I came down with a headache after two days with practically zero carbs. Today, I ate my regular breakfast of meat, still sporting a headache and decided to eat 3.25 oz. beef jerky at (11 am) that contained about 18 grams of sugar and it cut the headache immediately. Unfortunately, around 2 pm I had terrible diarrhea likely from the jerky - so I won't eat that again. Aside from the jerky diarrhea, do you think I messed up ketosis by eating that amount of sugar? And, will eating 20 grams carbohydrate from cooked squash hinder healing of my gut/Hashimotos? Do you think it is worth while to go about healing with this meat diet/ketosis for a few weeks in a fashion of a couple days all meat and one day with a bit of carbs from one cooked squash? Or, should I deal with the headaches in hopes my body will adjust to ketosis and they will go away?

For more Paleo hacks: http://paleohacks.com/questions/5608/headaches-and-paleo-anyone-else-getting-meat-headaches#ixzz1LJuhE9Fk

edited May 5 2011 at 0:45

Dexter
10.9k●1●12●31

asked May 3 2011 at 19:51

Sheri
73●1●6

Deidre · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-03 22:12:27Z UTC

1

Sheri - I am on a group on facebook. It is called Stellar Health Through Ketosis. It is being run by Dr. Bruce Fife's wife, Leslie. He is an expert on ketosis. She is strict on the group wanting us to really be in ketosis. If you are interested, you may want to join and learn with the rest of us. I am sure that the headaches will go away soon. Stay hydrated, up the fat in the form of coconut oil!

answered May 3 2011 at 22:12

Deidre
1,447●1●3●12

	Thank you. I am anxious to learn more and will join now. – Sheri May 3 2011 at 22:36
	I am not sure what to do with the coconut oil and I'm certain I can use more fat. What do you do with it other than pour it over vegetables which I am not eating? – Sheri May 3 2011 at 22:42
	Ooh! I am glad you made it over there. I recommend you go through all of the posts. It is only about a week old. She is great! We hit it off and have been doing some 24 hour fasts together. I use coconut oil to cook eggs/meat with. I pretty much use it everywhere. IN LOVE! She recommends 5-6 tablespoons a day. I eat it off of the spoon. I use the Garden of Life Brand. Tropical Traditions and Nutiva are good too. She also has another page Health, by Coconut. I have one too. It is Health, it's a God thing. – Deidre May 3 2011 at 23:03
	Deidre, i can't find this group on FB..how do i search and add it? thanks – Paleo4ever Feb 22 2012 at 0:12

Dexter · Answer 2 · 2011-05-04 02:58:31Z UTC

1

You might want to look at this posting regarding body adaption to a low carb regime.

http://www.gnolls.org/1984/the-science-behind-the-low-carb-flu-and-how-to-regain-your-metabolic-flexibility/

Lots of folks report headaches in the comment section. I personally never experienced any problems converting to low carb/ketosis with my 75-80% fat, 10-15% protein, 5% or less carbs.

Dr Mike Eades also addresses the conversion problem:

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/lt-frederick-schwatka-and-low-carb-adaptation/

answered May 4 2011 at 2:58

Dexter
10.9k●1●12●31

	Thank you. I had a suspicion is was due to too little fat. I am eating meats such as bacon, beef, pork, chicken, and some oysters but they are mainly protein sources. I need to figure how to add fat without dairy, nuts, or vegetables... Dizzle meats with coconut oil, salt and pepper? I'm hesitant of seasonings and can not do vegetables for a while because of the autoimmune condition. – Sheri May 4 2011 at 12:27
	Each tablespoon of coconut oil contains 117 calories. I pan fry eggs in coconut oil and I precook yams til just soft in microwave, slice into rounds and then panfry til just slightly brown...again in coconut oil...or butter. I panfry beef steaks and lamb steaks in coconut oil. I use copious amounts of olive oil and vinegar on my salads. See this posting for autoimmune. trackyourplaque.com/blog/2009/10/… – Dexter May 4 2011 at 15:35

sharon · Answer 3 · 2011-05-03 20:20:27Z UTC

0

as long as you are staying sufficiently hydrated your headaches should subside in a few days. drink more water and see if it helps.

answered May 3 2011 at 20:20

sharon
1

I noticed I was drinking more, just maybe not enough. I'll up the intake. Thank you. – Sheri May 3 2011 at 22:38

baconbitch · Answer 4 · 2011-05-03 20:44:14Z UTC

I'm certainly not a doc or expert but will share my experience. I read a few studies that suggested I go VLC (aiming for Keto) for bipolar. I gave it a try last week and immediately got headaches. I went on with this for a few days and it sucked - the headaches were consuming me. So I decided to go back up to my original carb intake then gradually go down. I was at about 125 carbs/day last Friday and I'm taking out about 5+/- per day. I'm noticing a positive difference in my mental state without the headaches.

It sounds like you're shocking your body. A gradual elimination may be better and it is working for me. I figure, hey - I've had this mental issue for some time now and I'd rather treat it properly than cause an onslaught of other issues with body-shock. Hope it helps!

Katherine · Answer 5 · 2011-05-03 22:21:51Z UTC

Eight weeks. That's how long it took me to adapt to ketosis, during which time I had brutal headaches. During the first four of those weeks, I had 15 days of headaches, 9 of them migraines. During the second four, I still had them badly enough to be a miserable wretch of a human.

It passed. I adapted. Now I can eat more carbs or fewer carbs and not suffer headaches. My body is much more adept at fluidly moving between ketones and glucose as needed.

Headaches from Ketosis?

5 Answers