This episode of UK low carb podcast is sponsored by delicious legal free, enjoy the show.
So my lightbulb moment and there has to be a light bulb moment was when I was reading an article and I realized insulin resistance or what are the symptoms of insulin resistance, tick, tick, tired, hungry, acne, putting on weight, skin tides. I think that's me I'm insured and resistant. So I went low carb. And it was absolutely amazing. The only diet I've ever followed, where I wasn't hungry, and I haven't been hungry since and it's not a diet anymore. It's absolutely a way of life
everyone, you may notice that the sound quality is a bit best today because I'm back in the studio. So I'm using my proper microphone. Whereas last week, I was trying to use this really not very expensive, very cheap pair of earphones for when I'm working that well. And that's because unfortunately I've had Coronavirus it has been pretty horrific last week. And it's just a really bad cold with
you know, sinus problems. And even though I'm actually fine now, and I'm passable, my sinuses are still like not very well. So that might sound a little bit and easily and up. But I'm actually fine now. So it's good to be back at work. And it's also good to making this podcast again. So welcome to UK low carb, I was thought for a little while with a with a full voice and about a can. This is a community where we share individual stories to build up the community in the UK and
around the world. I'm your host, Dan Greef. And I believe that change Council grassroots moves to change and that we are the change you want to see in the world. If you want to be part of that change, you're more than welcome to on our Facebook group that is UK low carb, and you can be part of our community there. We also have lots of things going on in there at the moment. So as I speak the wolf packages during one of their fasts, they
do that once a month. And that's a chance for people like yourself to come together and fast for anything from 16 hours, up to five days, whatever you're into is absolutely fine. And we support you on that. But maybe you're here to learn. So there'll be people in the group who can tell you about food and the sort of way you can make changes and share recipes. There's all sorts of things we can do in that group. So be lovely to see you in the UK low
carb Facebook group. Now I've got a quick question for you. Firstly, how's your January opener went well, and you're certainly more well than I was. But were you doing strict keto in January or were you may be doing something like fasting the first time where you may be embracing carnivore as a way of eating for January, I'd like to hear from you. So if you do want to share your story, we are going to set up a service we can actually leave audio messages
eventually. But in the meantime, whatever it is you'd like to share, please get in contact Dan, GK lowcarb.com Because this is your show, and I want to hear about what you've been up to in January. I know some people have had like a real restart with very strict keto. Other people have been starting low carb for the first time. So it's a very interesting point of change January and I'd love to hear about that. Now I want to share a quick review before I go into
today's guest. And that is the following with Granny buys a lot, which I think is a great name. And this was left on Apple podcasts. And they left five stars and said fabulous. I love listening, Stan's podcasts, such great guests and information with Dan offering clarity throughout with humor and warmth. Thank you that means a lot to me that really does. So good to have such a high quality local podcasts in the UK. I always look forward to the next
one. I've learned so much. And I've improved my health to the changes I've made. Thank you. Well, Granny buys a lot. I don't know who you are. But if you're interested in coming on the show and sharing your story, you're more than welcome. Maybe you've been on the show already, I don't know. But if you do wish to come on just email Dan at UK low carb.com. And I'd love to have you on the show. So speaking of inspirational people, today, I'm joined by
Sarah Buckley. Now, like I said, I do talk about this in this podcast as well, when this podcast was set up originally is all about getting people to come on and share their stories, just real people like you and I and to make people realize that actually, this isn't hard. It's it can be challenging sometimes. But really, there's some simple changes you can make in your life to Make Low Carb, easy, tasty, delicious and affordable. And so that's why I thought Sarah be a great person to go on
the show. She's got a lovely story of how she changed her life for the last 18 months. I think it's inspirational. She lost three stone. She's no longer tired. She doesn't have the aches and pains she used to. And she's a lot healthier and a lot happier. And that's what this show is all about sharing those stories. So I'm going to hand over to her now. And I hope to see in the Facebook group very soon. If you enjoy the
show, please leave a review. And if you don't just enjoy this show you love the whole shows. It'd be great to have you on here and share your story. You take care. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week. Bye For now. Well, I'm really delighted now to be joined by Sarah Buckley. Now you know how sometimes you know somebody's name, you might know their little picture or their email. And that's about
it. And then the other day got to meet her about truth the first time and it's real honor. And she's very kindly come on, even though we're one hour after the time, we're supposed to be recording because of a mistake that I made. So, welcome to UK low carb, Sara.
Thank you, Dan. It's absolutely lovely to chat to you today.
I'm really glad you're here. And there's something that I want to just say to you. So the end of last year, this show kind of became very popular, I think, with some of the big guests. And some, you know, like, like people like Ted naman, or whatever coming on. But the heart of this show, is really your story. And people like yourself and like me, who are on the journey who are sharing their experiences. And I think for my experience, that has been probably one of the most beneficial things for
people listening, as well. And so today really is an opportunity to share that story with our listeners. And just to make them realize they might be on a similar journey themselves. Because when you're telling me your story before, there's a lot of relatable things I picked up, but I think a lot of us can kind of understand and have experience of
Yes, absolutely. I mean, it is a journey for all of this. And at the moment, my what I tend to think is, why did it take me so long to realize why I wasn't well, but it takes all of us the time it takes us. You know, when you're ready, the teacher appears.
I totally agree with you on that. And that's what we're going to dive into today. So in that case, Sarah, I just like to go back through your story, if I may. Now, you're someone who I'd say is had a very busy active career. I know if you're nursing is a full on job, right? So you're not somebody who's not been doing a lot of exercise and being very active. And yeah, that's basically you weren't healthy as well, you're
not all of them. Not all of my roles were very, very active. Some of them actually involve sitting down quite a lot of the time. Okay. But even as a student nurse, I trained at St. Thomas's opposite the Houses of Parliament, those big old Victorian was 15 beds down each side kitchen at one end, bathroom sleeps room at the other. So you didn't, you didn't couldn't run, but you had to walk very fast, and we work all day, but I still put on weight.
And actually, if I notice, whenever I've been to a hospital to visit, it seems to me that a lot of the medical team are very unhealthy people. And I sometimes wonder is that because of a mixture of, you know, really bad working hours because they're working nights and days and the shift patterns must be terrible for your circadian rhythm. But also, it's probably a bit of snack type cultures that people bring in cakes as a thank you to medical teams to say thank you for
looking after images. Because from a lovely place, obviously, but but that
little box of chocolates always on the ward, every ward has an internal box of chocolates. And of course, nowadays you can go down to the canteen, but so much of it is very, very carby Yeah. And we none of us knew, did we none of us knew we just ate what we thought was good food.
Yeah, yeah. And in fact, you know, you're told to eat the whole grains, you're told to eat more and more carbs and fewer of the fats. And then you get unhealthy and when you do go unhealthy. This is what I hear all the time. You are then blamed in some way for a character thing. You know, like you're not working hard. And if you're not exercising hard enough, you're not Yeah, yeah, that's the bottom so let's go
into that. And so can we talk a bit about there when you start to get a bit unhealthy and and how unhealthy did you get if you don't mind sharing?
Well, I think I think looking back there was always a bit unhealthy because I always had the fat round the middle. I'm an apple. I'm not a pear so I didn't have a big bomb. But you know, it was everything was a bit round the middle. I was always tired. Always tired all my life. If I sit down after lunch, I fell asleep. So always hungry. You know, I would go when I was a practice nurse. I'd go in half past nine. I'd be taking someone's blood pressure. My stomach would rumble and they
go. Oh, nurse. Haven't you eaten breakfast this morning? Yes, I had it an hour and a half ago when I'm hungry now. Yeah, yeah. And of course couldn't wait for the coffee and biscuits. I was gonna
say what was your breakfast back then if you were hungry already by an hour and a half?
Well, that would be Weetabix. The usual sort of Weetabix milk banana, I thought I was being quite healthy.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's quite interesting, that kind of calm that the food industry is paid on us all, isn't it? So eat this food, it'll fill you up for the day it doesn't. And we still eat it thinking it will. And then we somehow think it must be a personality problem with us or our biology. So okay, so there you are and you eat a big breakfast and then what would you have for lunch? If you have For your secret afternoon, it must be pretty coffee as well.
I'd have biscuits Of course with coffee because they're, they were always there I lived. I worked in the surgery where the GPS were very generous with that biscuit allowance. And it wasn't rich tea or morning coffee. It was nice biscuits. So we all had coffee and a few biscuits, and then I'd go home and I'd have, I might have a sandwich or I might have some soup with some wholemeal bread.
And then every afternoon about half past four, just when I was about to go and get my get my daughter off the bus from school, I'd break out in a sweat, I'd be shaking and sweating. And I realized that I had a very low blood sugar. And of course, what's the first thing you do? You open the fridge and grab something, or you grab a chocolate or a biscuit. Or if you're in town, you run into the nearest shop and buy a bread roll anything?
Because you're actually feeling quite ill yet you're sweating. You're a bit shaky. I wasn't a diabetic, but I had these massive hypose About half past four in the afternoon.
So if you're so it sounds to me, you're you're very, very insulin resistant. And even though you wouldn't have known it was that at the time, clearly you can see the symptoms that insulin resistance happening in your lifestyle. Right? Absolutely. But
I didn't realize at the time, in fact, I thought I must have plenty of insulin. So that must be good. I thought that diabetes happened because you didn't have enough in chiming. I think that's a really common misconception.
Yeah. And actually, it's only when someone like Graham Phillips, I know is a common contact between us. Is anyone someone like me explains the insulin balance you suddenly the lights come on, and you go, Oh, my goodness, that makes sense. But you're in nursing. And I think I'm not it's not a criticism of you. It's just a reflection maybe of the
profession. It's just it's interesting that people who are in the medical profession, aren't more aware of this, even if you're not specializing in that area is an essential part of how we live our lives each day, isn't it? To understand the hormonal balance in our bodies?
You know, you can be a nurse, but we didn't get much on nutrition. Yeah, well, like, like doctors, we had coffee today. And it just told us our macros and told us, you know, fruits and vegetables was good for us and that you needed carbohydrates for energy. Yeah,
yeah. And it'd be very much what everyone else has been told as well, wasn't it from the sort of 70s or late 70s 80s 90s 2000s Everyone's been told the same thing. Cut back on calories, calories or calorie. Don't eat too much fat and freeze up loads of sort of healthy grains. Yeah, that's got to
move more. Yes. I thought it was healthy. Now. I had I used to whole grain Gries whole grain bread whole grain pasta. I thought I was doing all the right things. Yeah, I just had the right stuff.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So okay, then. So how did you for instance, try to make yourself better when you're going to these moments? What's the moment of change for you? Because a lot of people come into the show and they say before they found out about cutting their carbohydrate back. They sometimes tried the Western diet, you know, fatty diet, should we say of cutting calories or doing shakes or anything generally those sorts of diet? Well,
I you know, I never liked shakes. The problem with all diets for me was that I was always so dreadfully hungry. Yeah. I tried Michael Mosley's five, too. And in those days, he used to say 800 calories on two days, eat what you want on the rest. So those two days would torture.
And so it must be awful to do that. I mean,
let's just get through today. And then we can eat normally tomorrow. And it worked. But I've never heard of it. I mean, insulin resistance. I would say even 10 years ago, I wasn't really. It wasn't really. I didn't really understand that. That was me.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So was the change then where was it that you decided to make this change? Or what was the next part of the story where you actually understood more about how you were working and what was going wrong.
I think it was a really long journey. And it started about 10 years ago when I felt very tired. And then after a bit of reading around the subject, understood I was magnesium deficient. Okay, so I started reading more and I started to read about low, having a low carb way of eating. And so I sort of started in my own little way to do low carb but didn't really look anything up. I just cut out the main bits. So I cut out the bread, the rice, the pastor, but I still carried on using potatoes.
I still had porridge. I was still eating all sorts of fruit thinking it was incredibly healthy. So I'd I pile my place up with all sorts of yummy pineapple mango, things like that, or terrifically sweets. So although I was feeling a bit better, I wasn't really losing any weight. And I can't, I can't really remember the absolute moment when I suddenly realized that I needed to go low carb, I think sometimes it just, it just
comes to you. You know, you read a bit here, you read a bit there, you start to read more widely, and suddenly everything seems to say, right, I need to have a proper look at this low carb. And that was about 18 months ago, when I started to do proper light carb.
Okay, so let's go back then and talk about that. So the magnesium thing Now that said, that's really interesting, because, I mean, for instance, for me, I've just bought some magnesium tablets based on a show that I did here on the podcast with Pauline cots. And she really was she has been great in recommending what kind of magnesium I needed for my body. I can't remem the name of it now because it's at home. And so I've been taking that supplement more recently realizing I probably have a
deficiency in it. But you realize that early on, and what I find interesting is you realize that before the low carb, so what was it museum for?
Well, at the time I was, I had my own travel clinic. So at the time, I was working quite hard in my own business, like up in the morning, I'd have lots of energy. And by about three or four in the afternoon, I actually began to wonder how I was going to get back to the car park. Because I was so tired. It was an effort to put one foot in front of the other. And sometimes I simply wanted to sit down in the middle of the pavement. I didn't. But I wanted to. And I thought this is
absolutely ridiculous. There must be something wrong. And blood tests that the doctor, everything was absolutely normal, no thyroid problems, nothing like that. So I just started to read more. And I came across an article that said, you know, what are the symptoms of low magnesium, tiredness, I thought, well, let's give that a go. And it helps. And that was sort of the beginning of my real journey into getting myself healthier. But it was
the magnesium was magnesium because it's different types on there. And
I can't remember it was one that grant recommended to me. Yeah,
I tried it it upset my stomach though saying put my head. It made me really like have this kind of painful stomach. Let me go to the details. But I wonder if I've got the wrong type for me. Maybe I don't know, I need to look into that.
Brian is very good. He will be able to tell you which ones are best absorbed and might be best for you. But yes, I I've just carried on taking magnesium twice a day now. But yeah, it's just one of those things you lose.
Yeah, I suppose so. And it's good to know that having that meant that you had the change in your life. Because you know what, I just wonder how often the people think this is part of becoming a middle aged person or an older person and just the aging processes. That kind of tiredness when it's not at all is literally a reaction to what you're eating.
And I did think at first I thought I was 60 So 10 years ago, I was 60 and I was like oh my god, this is the beginning of the slippery slope.
I'm gonna sound like a creepy I'm gonna have to jump in she, for people who are listening to this. She does not look like she is 6010 years ago. Seriously. I love it.
Last weekend, I had one of your cakes and I but I had a birthday cake from you for my birthday. Oh, sir. What is your birthday? 29th of January,
same as me on the 29th of January Saturday. Thick. Yeah. There you go. So we're birthday buddies. The only difference is though, that I had COVID. So my birthday was pretty much locked down and not having any fun at all. But there you go the same birthday. Yeah, I just turned an age as well. So let's leave that. I know. So excellent. So So you said they know this is like 10 years ago, you're 60. And I think like you just said probably a lot of people think that earning
certain ages. You know when you hit 5055 60 Oh, this is what happens. But in your case, you can't even drive safely, can you because you're saying that you could fall asleep at the wheel that is really dangerous. Well,
I did often feel sleepy on long journeys, and I used to tend to pull over, pull over into, you know, service area or whatever. I generally I would have. I'd have a drink and I'd have a couple of caffeine tablets and then I'd have a 15 minutes news. Yeah. By the time I'd woken up from my 15 minutes news, the caffeine was working and I was feeling great.
That's so weird when you look back on it, isn't it? That's not it
doesn't happen now. I do feel sleepy in the middle of it. So it was yeah, it was essentially racism.
Okay, so let's get your further thoughts. So you've had the magnesium, that's having an impact on you. Now you said about having all those fruits as tropical fruits and I find it really bizarre that people not not no criticism of them and obviously you back then either. That's really bizarre how we've been told that's healthy for us. Now, how often would people in this country if I had mangoes 6070 years ago, or, you know, fire or pineapple, they wouldn't
have had it, would they? And in fact, apples, pineapples are actually seen as like going back hundreds of years ago, were seen as being a luxury thing to carry around as a look at me, I've got a pineapple, you never need it. You literally just show you had one because of that rare. And yet people eat it five days a week for lunch every day and a fruit pot, and they think that's fine. But as much sugar in it is incredible.
Well, I when I was a kid, pineapple came in tins. And I couldn't remember I didn't ever come across a real pineapple until I was a student nurse. And someone had brought one in for a patient. And he said, Please take us to the kitchen. Chop it up. I've no idea what to do with it. Have a piece yourself. And it was like, I don't really like it actually. Because obviously it's to tinned pineapple and it tasted a bit odd.
Yeah, it's very acidic, isn't it? But then very, very sweet. That's the thing. I find it way too sweet. Okay, then. So where did you find out about this change? And about low carb?
Okay, well, I think that low carb was very much like because I was so focused on it. And I was reading around the subject of how being healthy. You know what it's like when you want to buy and you think you're going to buy a new car and you choose it? And suddenly this everywhere you go, there is this car. Yeah. And there were always that many. It's just that you're focused on it. So you're seeing them. And I think it's exactly the same when you're searching for
information. Because your antenna is sort of on your radar is on pick up pick up. And it just all sort of fell together. And I suddenly realize that I needed to be low carb and that I was insulin resistant. And I can't tell you exactly how. But it was quite a lightbulb moment, the insulin resistance. And I suddenly thought, wow, that explains everything. It explains how tired I was all the time. Even starting at school, I would be tired after lunch. It
explains the acne. It explains the inability to lose weight, that constant hunger. I was actually getting some skin tags on my neck as well. I thought oh my god, grabbing hold is fine, isn't it? And then I realized that that was another sign of insulin resistance was actually increasing numbers of skin tags. And it was like, ping, Oh, right. Okay, so I need to be proper low carb. And that's when I started to go low carb.
It's interesting. I think that we have those revelations for me, it was the Sara Hallberg videos. So TED Talk, which you probably have seen, and if not, I recommend, and it was just that moment of realization, this is how I work.
And once you've had your eyes open to that, you can never not see it again, like you just said, I think there's a lovely analogy because there, you know, once you've seen, and you understand, you just understand, and if you can't do anything, you gotta, you gotta understand.
Absolutely. So I started prepping straightaway, I just went through the carpets, took everything out. That was that I you know, no biscuits, no cakes. Luckily, I've got a partner who's very, very understanding. And so he doesn't eat rice. Now, he doesn't eat pasta. I do potato for him, because he is not completely converted to low carb. So whatever we eat, I don't have potato, you will have some potato, but it doesn't affect him the same way. So yeah,
yeah, he's fine. And that's the thing. And also, you know, like you just said there, it doesn't affect in the same way. So there must be a reason for that. And the reason must be that he's not as insulin resistant as you so he's not got the same problem. So maybe he can tolerate a little bit better. Okay, so Sarah, that and so you're in a situation now where, you know, you're, you're eating low carb, and, you know, hopefully that has an effect. I mean, was it a quick impact on
your health? I mean, was it a fast change? Or was it very,
very quick, very quick. I lost about five pounds in a week at the beginning, and a lot of it is fluid, and fat cells, you know, coming out but yes, massively so and very, very quickly. I wasn't hungry.
Tell me about not being hungry because I think we take that for granted on low carb but actually people listening who don't do low carb might think, well, you mean you're not hungry. You tell me more.
Is that not the real reason why all of us with diets we can't stick to them because we get I'm hungry. And of course now I found out that this hunger is actually down to hormones. It's down to your ghrelin and leptin. I didn't realize all that then all I knew was that when I ate low carb, I wasn't hungry. What an absolute revelation. So I get up in the morning, I have a black coffee with a bit of coconut oil in it. I don't need to eat until dinnertime, you know, I can go
all day. I don't lose energy. I'm just fine.
Yeah, that's, that's the thing that I think surprises most of us. And when I've had a time in my life where I've slipped back into carbs, I kind of remember with a bit of a crash that oh, yeah, I forgot it was like this before. You know, there's, there's lots of reasons. Let's be honest, there's lots of reasons why we eat, you know, like, if you think it's just fuel that I think you're fooling yourself. I mean, there's some people who just eat food for fuel, and
that's it. But most of us, I think, have very complex relationships. We do indeed. But if you take the hunger away, that makes everything a lot easier. You know, like, for instance, I don't think I'm an emotional eater. I think I can be a board eat and certainly eat when I'm bored, just something to do, because I love food so much. And I love flavor and texture. But if you take hunger out of the picture, everything's
easier, isn't it? Whereas if you're hungry, and you're going through a hard time, you're much white to really find that hard, challenging food on you.
Yeah, and it's not being hungry is great. So I can, sometimes I eat three times a day sometimes eat two times a day, sometimes I just have one meal a day. Yeah. Before before we started this morning. I was eating some of your birthday cake. Wait. Oh, excellent. Thank you. It was my birthday.
Your birthday cake on my birthday? Coincidentally. Excellent. Okay, then. So can you talk through a normal day then what you might be eating? So one, would you generally break your fast?
And I try very hard to do a 16 eight. So you'd call that intermittent fasting, wouldn't you? Yeah. So in the morning, I don't get up terribly early. I'm retired now. So I don't have to. I have a coffee about nine o'clock. And black coffee, which absolutely used to hate. I used to think how could anyone drink black coffee. But I tried putting a spoonful of coconut oil in it. Sometimes I might have a dessert spoon of cream. So that's it. Don't have
to eat at lunchtime. Sometimes I'll have something if I have something I'll probably have something like an omelet. cheese omelet, that'll keep me going for ages. I can make one for my partner as well. He has sandwiches for lunch. I generally don't have anything, don't feel hungry. And then in the evening, I'm very much into my meat now. You know used to be oh no too much meats bad for you. I've got to try and be veggie two or three evenings a week. And I do do vegetarian
sometimes. But I do like my meat. Have a lot of steak. Pork chops, salmon, summon quite a bit of chicken. Try and do organic chicken when I can. You know it's you've got to do what you can. organic chicken is more expensive. But hey, I think it's worth it both for the construction of the meat because it's the chickens eating better things. And also for the poor old chickens. I don't really want to, you know, grow chicken. It's been unhappy. Sometimes I have vegetarian I do like an old
machine parmigiana. make my own homemade tomato sauce layer that up with machines that have been grilled until they're nice and brown and soft.
Right? Just pause there please cuz I've got to hear about this recipe. Okay, so break down. How do you make your source How do you layer it? I want to hear this because you always had an American program. So he's talking about, you know, parmesan or whatever. So,
basic tomato sauce. If you haven't got any fresh ones use two tins of tomatoes in the summer. Sometimes I'll go into the supermarket and buy one day I went in and they had boxes of cherry tomatoes. That was brilliant. So yeah, don't worry about getting the skin off the tomatoes. So cook some money in in some olive oil. Add a bit of garlic if you want to salt pepper, thyme, tins of tomatoes, cook it down until it's really
thick. And then get your own stick blender in and just Wizzy artsy end up with a nice thick tomato sauce. So you can either spread that on on a low carb pizza or I said I like to use it for obg in parmigiana. So I've always got a box in the freezer.
And then the Parmesan. Oh so how do you make that? Get the
old machines or slice them up. Put them in the grill pan brush or with olive oil and grill them until they're literally browning and going soft and then turn them over and do the other side. Because the machines need to be soft, holiday machine not nice. And then a layer them up in a dish bit of tomato sauce, some layer of old machine, some cheese,
really whatever. I've got some cheddar, some Parmesan bit of mozzarella, keep layering it up finish with a layer of tomato sauce, lots of cheddar and parmesan on the top, stick it in the oven, it's about 180 for
my mouth is watering.
My mouth watering thinking about it and valid is, you know, we have some of our businesses vegetarian, they like that as well. So yeah, really nice.
Now, this is a thing in that regard. You know, you said before about how local cooking can be quite a challenge. And it's a steep learning curve. Yeah, with
baking I agree. But the nice thing about those corner recipes are you know, I mean, I guess even lasagna, you could do just take out the pasta, I mean, there's so much you could do which is low carb just by just a slight alteration isn't there and then there's a bit more cheese or meat in it to the fat contents of filling you know, that's all you have to do.
Unfortunately, I think that a lot of the medical profession is still tied up with unsaturated fat they're still you know, oh can't possibly have butter you've got to have your polyunsaturated fat the more I read about it the more I realize it's just toxic, real toxic bad for your sales.
And if you tell people you know what the polyunsaturated fat you're eating was actually made for like engines to work 100 years ago submarines and then the saturated fat you're really against is what all animals eat
on the planet. And what we have been eating for millions of years Penny so it's so you're so you're engine fuel is better for me apparently than what all animals eat and what well, but those that eat fat, and and you know, and as an as a human being I've been eating for millennia, millions of years and fat, but no, you have to eat the engine oil. Okay.
Ancel Keys was the man called Ancel Keys was responsible for a lot of ill health was he not? Oh,
exactly. Right, go into that. Because you know what, we've talked about it. He's on the show before. But this is the thing. When you start learning about low carb, you suddenly go hang on a minute. This makes sense. Why doesn't everyone think it? Then you start learning about pillar Council keys and you realize there's actually an agenda, which, and I don't know what the agenda was, I don't know if it is financial, I think there's a lot of ego involved with him.
And, and he didn't let go things but tell us about Ancel Keys because once you learn this, you suddenly go Oh, my goodness, this is
well, I can remember as I suppose I must have been, perhaps a teenager, I can remember this book coming out by a British guy called John Yadkin. And it was called pure white and deadly. And it was all about sugar.
I want to read that book for sure. I really
didn't know about Ancel Keys at the time. But I remember not long after that, we started being told that you know, we should cut down on animal foods cut down on me cut down on fat, etc, low fat, everything. So now I know a little bit more about Ancel Keys. He was very interesting wasn't he he put together a study. And he studied lots of different sets of people all around the world. He started about 22 sets of sets of people and how they ate and what their heart attack rate was, and so
on. I'm very simplifying this. So 22 lots of data, but he only use seven, because he use the seven lots of data that correlated with what he wanted to prove. And he wanted to prove that animal fat causes heart attacks.
The most interested with that is if you had a maths teacher, and they asked some students to come up with, you know, a trial in some way. And then I only chose seven out of the how many total? There'd be total for the teacher say, but that's obviously not true. Yeah. And yeah, this has been the basis of government policy around the whole of the world.
Well, I think big food I thought it was brilliant, didn't they? Because they did it was their opportunity to introduce the concept of a low fat food. Yeah. Yogurt, low fat, it's low fat lot
cheaper to make, and it'll stall for longer. Take your keys don't buy more of it. John Green. Yeah, right.
Yeah. But the problem is, it's the fact that gives the taste and it gives that nice feel in the mouth. They call it mouthfeel don't they? And if you take the fat out, you've got to put something else in so what do you put in put sugar? Sugar? Yeah. And flavoring? Yeah. And I you know, I still cringe I love the day I was in the supermarket. I heard a lady say to a little boy, get the low fat yogurt and I thought terrible you can't heal the world. So So what
in that case Let's just think about then your family and friends around you. So we know about your husband. Did you ever find it as challenge with other people? Like if you add to that house or I know, 18 months has been, in particular very weird 18 months because of Corona. You know, what, when you have had interactions with other people, how have you been able to navigate that?
Well, I never could stand it when, you know, people would come along, and they'd say, I can't do this. And I can't do that. And I can't do the other fuss. So actually, if I go around, and someone puts a plate of food in front of me, I will eat it. Because I'm not a rude person. I will eat what they put in front of me. If there's dishes to pick at, I probably won't pick the potatoes. But I might have a roast potato or two. If they're cooking a roast dinner. I just I won't have the won't have the
Yorkshire pudding. So I like to be polite. But when I go out to restaurants, yeah, I just choose different things. I don't choose the pastor. Yeah, I've also, I don't know whether I'd call it fortunately or unfortunately. But I have become wheat intolerance since I went low carb. So when low carb a year ago at Christmas, I had a mince pie. Absolutely delicious. No problem at all. At Easter, I had a hot cross band. I was in
agony. Six hours later. Well, interesting, followed up with a custard tart the next week, just to make sure that really was wheat. And it really was wheat. So I think my body having tolerated. Modern wheat for so long was suddenly said, No, we don't want that stuff. But you know, that saved me because nobody minds if you say, I'm sorry, I'm intolerant to
eat. Yeah, everyone's used to that.
Entirely. They don't go on have that cake. They just say that's the right understand. Yeah,
it's interesting that so I want to ask that to the community. Actually, I'm going to ask you, but also because it relates to net loss to everyone else. Those listening now have you noticed them that you suddenly are less tolerant to wheat, because you've not had it such a long time. Now, my experience that is that I've had some low carb bread recently. And it's got gluten in it, which has been added in by the people who've been making it to make it rise and given that lovely kind
of texture. But I've noticed by my indigestion levels have been quite bad after that, and I think it I think I can be wrong. It's the gluten that I'm not used to. So is that something that you've experienced people listening at home? Is that you know, let us know, by email or or text or whatever, protects them either on the phone number, Dan at UK lowcarb.com? Is it something you've experienced? Have you noticed that you become more intolerant to wheat just like Sarah and I have? Because I
think it is quite common? And it's interesting, isn't it? It's always like, if you don't have it for a while, maybe your body? Well, maybe your body is being feeling ill for a long time with it. And so you have a gap suddenly, this is like such a non metric when it's talking, isn't it? Because I don't know, really. But is it your body's way of suddenly thinking or we can't have that again, we've just you know, we were ill with for years of that stuff. And we're not used to fighting
anymore. We can't do it. You know, it could be I don't know what makes us so
into a to be a student nurse, we had a cat at home. I didn't have any problems whatsoever. Since I wouldn't be a student nurse every time I came home. I wake up at three in the morning going.
Isn't that interesting? Yeah. Yeah. So my antibody
levels have dropped while I was away. And then when I came back, and I think the wheat is much the same thing.
Mind you, maybe if that is the case, then that means that your body was working extra hard with this immune system to try and keep you going for a long, long time. So if you say you mean your antibodies dropped, maybe you're you with wheat, the same thing. You're making antibodies all the time, try and deal with it. And that must be exhausting for the body.
I'm not I'm not you know, I might be a nurse, but I'm not into that. Yeah, I am. Really,
neither am I just I'm just like, I want to know more. And I think you know, these questions I putting up and you think, yeah, why do we write like that? That's interesting, isn't it? It's fascinating,
but wheats very different isn't it now, from when I was a child, when you saw a wheat field, it was high, the wheat was high, it came up to the top of your thigh. Now that we is much much shorter, and apparently has got about 23 proteins in now. So it's been genetically modified to grow shorter so it doesn't fall over. But it has a lot of extra proteins added in and I think we it is very different from what it was when I was young.
So the proteins have been added to it to make it
more proteins again, I said I'm not Wow dentist, but there's a far more proteins in weeks than there were years ago.
See when I was my degrees in archaeology and University, one of our lecturers, he lived in a medieval longhouse. So this house had been Yeah, like, done out. And the walls were literally made out of mud. And made over the centuries, they put on another layer of mud. So it's really thick walls. And he actually had the thatch taken off to try and repair the beams or something. Yeah. And he was he showed us the wheat that was in there. And he said, this week's here. Yeah, so this comes
from, I think, the 1700s. And it was just like, you know, the grass you get in the summer in August, where the grass seeds have appeared. And what Martha's flowered. And of course, that's what wheat is, is a grass, isn't it? So he kind of showed it to us. And it was just this really weedy little thing. And he said that's extinct. Now, that's been evolved and James differences, and now we've got these massive, great thick ears of corn, and it's very different experience.
And of course, as well, people back then would have probably have eaten the fiber around the actual kernel in the middle. Whereas nowadays, it's just literally the refined bit in the middle and have a concentrated dose of it as well. So it's kind of interesting how that's changed. Yeah, definitely. Right. I want to come on now, if I may, though, to prolonged gravity and Graham Phillips, so you did the program? Right. Can you tell me a bit about that?
Yeah, I suppose, you know, I'd started reading about low carb. And I said, my radar was up. So anything that was low carb immediately I was on to and, and I, I suppose I probably saw a little pop up ad, probably somewhere on social media. And I just clicked on, find out more, read all through it. sent my foreman. And Graham rang me up, and we had a chat, and I decided to do the program. And I did it for a year. So I'm, I made a big commitment to it.
Best thing I ever did, because I had somebody to hold me accountable. And Graham, as you know, is absolutely lovely chat. Yeah, very, very easy to talk to. So I not only went low carb, I actually started using a continuous glucose monitor. In the NHS, you can only get them if you're a diabetic. You can buy them online, but again, at some pharmacies you go on to they say, Are you a diabetic you say no, and they go, no, don't want to know. But you can buy them, you can buy them, they're
quite expensive. They're about 5055 pounds each and each one lasts a fortnight. So it's a big commitment. It's 100 pounds a month. Yeah. Plus, obviously I was paying my pro longevity fee as well. So that's another amount per month. So I'd invested quite a lot of money in it. But it was very, very helpful. And the continuous glucose monitor was particularly helpful for me to see which foods spiked my sugars, because obviously if I'm insulin resistant, I don't want to be
producing all that insulin. So I need to keep my blood sugars on a nice even keel to stop the stop a big dump eventually and out into my body. And it was very, very interesting and it's not always the things you think so what do you think's a nice healthy drink to have with your breakfast and nice orange juice?
Wow, orange juice blood sugar bang straight up you know really high and the trouble is when you get those highs you can then bounce down and have a corresponding hypo after it so then you feel a bit shaky A few hours later. Another thing that was quite interesting was milk.
Just the other day it was round at my daughter's had a long time and I didn't use a continuous glucose monitor because it was Christmas and my birthday I thought I'll have them back for I'll have it back for a month I put on a little bit of weight over Christmas so I thought I'd put that back on. Just keep an eye on things when round see my daughter she gave me a normal cup of tea with normal milk in it spike my blood sugar. And obviously it's not the tea it's the milk.
Interesting and just a little bit of milk like that can have that impact.
Wow, fine. Fine with cream. Climate cheese. Yeah, find me he'll get but the lactose in the milk. So I don't actually drink milk now.
Well, I mean, it's there to make cows grow isn't it so vote to whatever the animal drinking it so it's going to be full of sugars and stuff I suppose to really make us kind of put on the way ourselves whereas
if I make a cheese sauce now I make it with cream.
Which tastes better anyway doesn't it? Like you know, my cauliflower cheese by the way is I spoke about this recently podcast. I actually I went to a carvery and I thought I'll have a little bit there cauliflower and cheese but I know full well. It's going to be made cheaply with water and flour so be very careful here but want to make it a home myself. I use Philadelphia cheese full file mostly with some with some cream and then I
grate some cheese into it. Mix that around they actually cauliflower and roasted some cheese. I mean, it the flavor is out of this world is so good. And yet if you haven't with water and flour was the taste in that it just makes it white and gloopy. But so you know, it just annoys me that carb, carb cooking tastes worse as well. You know, it's ripping you off in every regard. I think when you do the low carb, it's just gorgeous.
Very interestingly, I found that. So the other day I did some mash, I wanted to do some ash. So I did it a third potato, a third cauliflower. And a third I did was sweet. Okay, and I mixed it all up with loads of butter. But I've been watching, I've been watching a sheffey program. And he was doing he was doing potato mash, and he literally used 50% potato and 50% butter. And I thought well, I'm not gonna do I'm gonna do that. But I did put a massive lump of butter in there. And some cream.
Absolutely delicious. didn't taste of cauliflower. Didn't spike my blood sugar
there. Yeah, exactly, then actually, is it true that the fat will actually maintain the blood sugar spike as well.
That stops the plot stops that sugar being absorbed quite so quickly.
Yeah, yeah. Did you have any tired moments? I know you're doing like carbs? No, you don't have them anymore. But But I mean, for instance, I still get now even on keto. And I'm very strict. I still get tired around six in the evening, really. And then I'm and then I'm wide awake after like eight o'clock on radio.
I can't do as much as I could do 20 years ago. But hey, you know, it's fine.
But but there's no sugar spike correlation or hypo, though? That's what I mean. Do you have you ever seen like your blood sugar's change on that?
Yeah, definitely. big spike can turn into a big hypo. Yeah, but since I've been low carb, that doesn't happen. So the first few days, I was on low carb with Graham, I found that I was getting a Hypo at night didn't wake up. But it was just there. It was a low blood sugar while I was asleep. I don't have those anymore, either. Some I keep within a fairly strict boundary. Now I aim to
Fantastic. Well, I'm really pleased to hear you've had this change in your life. And I think it's, you know, whenever you learn about that change, it just gives you back so much, doesn't it? Things that were harder, like you said the tiredness they go things like the aches or pains you don't notice any change in that health. Yeah.
Well, when when we had locked down, I just had a weird virus September before pre COVID. And it left me with post viral fatigue. And I was actually getting joint pains. All gone. I don't get joint pains anymore. I don't have any anymore. I used to have knee pain quite a lot. Don't have it anymore. And also, my knees were the tendons in my knees were becoming quite brittle. A torn one a few years back. And I couldn't kneel down and sit back on my haunches It was
uncomfortable. Yeah, it hurt it felt I was going to do a damage. I can do that now. So all the ligaments in my joints are much more flexible now. And I think that's to do with no sugar.
Wow, fantastic. So there you go. You say the pains aren't there? You're more energy. It's a fantastic success story. And I'm really pleased for you, Sarah, that you've been on this journey
and Bree stone up so three stone
while three stone amazing and easily done. You know, like eating more?
has been so hard. But I'll tell you I was discussing this with Graham. And he said it's to do with being female and postmenopausal. Right. He said he's got no idea of the scientific pathways. But he said he can take a couple he can, they can both be overweight and put them both on the same diet. He said, The woman will reach a point where she doesn't lose any more than man will carry on losing. And at that point, you've got to start intermittent fasting, the
increasing your exercise. It's possible but it comes becomes I would say the first step is easy. The second stone was harder work. The third stem was like pulling teeth. But it is still possible. It is
doable. Yeah. Yeah. And you're not doing in a way that's been miserable to you. That's the other thing. I mean, if you're not hungry, you're not missing out. You might be working a bit harder or your exercise or fasting. But if you're not hungry, fasting, that's not a hardship either. Is
it really good. Listen to Jason Fung is very good on fasting. I've listened to lots of podcasts. So podcasts have helped reading as helped. I've got an absolute shelf full of books about healthy eating now. And that's a great resource for me too. But I said Graham was fantastic. I finished my year with Graham now but so well worth it. We still speak occasionally. And he said he's just a lovely chap and he has like you He has lots of really
really interesting people. His podcast is always something good to look at. So I would recommend his longevity program pro longevity program.
Definitely. Fantastic. Well, thank you for that. And thank you for coming on today. Does pleasure. One last question I have for you is, if somebody is in your where you were two years ago, say for instance, if someone is in that situation where you are two years ago, what advice would you give to them now?
I would say to them, start reading and finding out about low carb, because people have to do it. And a lot of people say, Oh, low carb, I couldn't do that. I couldn't you know, I miss bread. I a meal isn't a meal without a potato. And you think, well, you're so far off. I can't possibly say, oh, go low carb. You've got say, find out a little bit more. You know, I didn't know anything
about it either. But once I started to find out once I started to put it into practice, I found it was much easier than I thought I found I had great success. I found I wasn't hungry. So I would say to anybody who needs to lose some weight doesn't feel at their best. Find out more about low carb do a bit of research. There's so much information now. You know, you've got fat emperor, Ivor Cummins. He's
absolutely brilliant. And he was an engineer who got interested in his health and continues to this day to find out so much. And he's such a good listen as well.
Excellent. So there you go. And that's the thing, the age you're in. It's all out there. You know, it's not like you have to You're not dependent on the quality of the library in your village or town. It's actually we've all got access to the information which is on your phone. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I love that. Well, Sarah, I wish you all the very best of luck
for your continued journey. I always remember you're on the 29th of January because as a result of our birthday together, so yeah, so I've got no excuse for forgetting it by now. Love it. Well, thank you for coming on UK low carb today.
Thank you, Dan. It's been a great pleasure. Cheers.
Hello, you still there, Dan. Here, I can see one of the keen ones because you're still listening. So got a very simple request. Please go and review this podcast now on Apple if you haven't done so already, and I'll read it out next week on the show. So go and do that here about review next week. Everyone's a winner. Right. I'm gonna shoot off now. Take care. Have a lovely week. See you next Friday.