I want to start a low carb diet. Mayo Diet, Keto? Any suggestions?

I love steel cut oatmeal, not the rolled oats. I've been eating Bob's Red Mill, found it in the health food isle.

I'm heading toward being diabetic, and my lipids are increasing. We discussed taking a statin, but I can't take statins due to my myasthenia gravis! statins can make some people flare with the MG. So, I modified my diet quite drastically, which is one reason that drove me to start this conversation regarding diet.

I've been finding fruits and vegetables that are red are really helpful to reduce my autoimmune symptoms, red cabbage, red peppers, dark cherries.... blue berries, arugula, dried cranberries, strawberries. I've been eating mostly vegen this month, it's really reduced my symptoms (I think) at least I'm attributing my symptom reduction to my new diet of fruits and vegetables. I even have red cabbage cole slaw for breakfast when I make some!

@Erinmfs I know the book surprised me too about the good foods we do eat all the time . If your diet is working I would stick to what you are doing till you lose the weight you want to . I'm on bedrest for a week right now so wont be doing much if anything I have a lumbosacral strain. Pain worse then my fracture was

I saw an interesting article that I wanted to share discussing tailoring what you eat vs what type of bacteria is in your gut (or something to that effect).

Mayo Clinic Minute: Diet based on microbiome might improve your health - November 19, 2019
-- https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-diet-based-on-microbiome-might-improve-your-health/

@johnbishop Interesting, and as they say, potentially helpful, but it doesn't tell us how to find anything out about what kind of bacteria is in our gut.
Right away it occurred to me that the immunosuppressants do something to my gut since I was suddenly lactose intolerant and I never was before. I find it much more difficult to avoid lactose than to avoid alcohol, although I do miss a glass of wine with dinner.
JK

The keto diet is too extreme. Cutting out concentrated sweets and fried foods is helpful in losing weight and lowering you HGBA1C. Exercise including resistance training is also important. But cutting out the good carbohydrates is not healthy or necessary. We need the protective antioxidants in fruits and vegetables. Our gut needs fiber. You can lose weight on the keto diet but it is not a healthy way to do it. See a Registered Dietitian for help or try an app like My Fitness Pal. My husband lowered his cholesterol and weight using it. A nurse I work with lowered her weight and HGBA1C.

I watched a YouTube video last night on intermittent fasting -- thanks @LeeAase. It also explained why diets fail. It's an hour long but well worth the time.

Dr. Jason Fung: Fasting as a Therapeutic Option for Weight ...

Hi Nicehat, low carb huh? One of my perennial aggravations is the widespread failure, including the popular media to distinguish between simple carbs (e.g., Twikies) and complex carbs (e.g.) sweet potatoes, butternut squash, beans, kale) Simple carbs are largely junk food; starches like beans, potatoes, whole-wheat pasta, oats, brown rice promote health. Betcha can’t remember seeing a morbidly obese person and thinking they’d been eating too many sweet potatoes or sweet peas or lentils.
Hey I’m doin’ the one finger steno thing on my phone. More later from the PC. Don

Hi @thumperguy , you've made an excellent point regarding carbs!

I've opened The Mayo Clinic Diet book. The first thing I've found is Chapter 3, page 38, Breaking unhealthy habits. It says no sugar, but snack on fresh fruit. Never uses the carb!

I'm back NiceHat. btw, bearly's post in the thread is spot-on: she says "too extreme." You doubtless know that the "low/no carb diets trade on forcing the bod into an abnormal condition: ketosis, which as I understand it is the final stage as one approaches starvation. It's seems such a brutal thing to intentionally administer to oneself. Dr. T. Colin Campbell is Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell. During his career there he stumbled on an opportunity to conduct a landmark nutrition study using data amassed years ago in China. The result; his magnum opus "The China Study," which the N.Y. Times characterized as "the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted. If you've not read it I commend it to you highly. I suspect other "Connect" members are familiar with it and may chime in here.

After many years of being a no-red-meat Omnivore I read The China Study in 2008. Since then my way-of-eating (WOE) is well described by the following:

DAILY FARE April 8, 2016

Wrote this today in response to an inquiry. I pass it on for your consideration, your eye rolls, guffaws or what-have-you.

You asked a while back for some info on my diet. Low-fat, whole-food, plant-based. That's the mantra. Taken in reverse order. It's exclusively plant-based, the only thing from an animal might be a covert chicken or beef broth or similar ingredient which slips under my radar and I unwittingly get in a restaurant-prepared meal. Another possibility is a bit of gelatin in a medicine capsule. I realize these minuscule amounts, well...amount to nothing, but the longer I've been at this the more I simply try to get away from using animals as food or for any other purpose which is based on exploitation, speciesism, etc.

Whole-foods translates into, within practical limits, avoiding processed stuff. I still get my share of it, though doubtless much less than is present in the standard American diet. Salsa, shredded wheat cold cereal, soy and almond milk, whole wheat flour, cream of wheat, stevia, whole grain breads, wheat bran, wheat germ, corn starch, corn tortillas are a few of the processed things I use. There are others I'm simply not remembering at the moment.

Much of what I eat comes from the produce department. The cornucopia of colorful foods there supply flavor and the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants which, with the exception of B-12, eliminate the need for taking supplements so long as one gets judicious sun exposure for vitamin D. This all rests, often literally, on a bed of healthful, starchy carbs, e.g., brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, rice noodles, Bulgar wheat, couscous. The starches provide satiation and energy. They're a must. One would starve trying to survive on non-starchy vegetables. Other healthful starches are peas, beans, corn, the winter squashes (butternut, acorn, etc.) and all potatoes.

Finally, the low-fat aspect rests on elimination of all cooking oils which are equivalent to junk food in that they contain no protein, no carbohydrate, no minerals, scant vitamins. They are pure fat and, with the exception of canola oil they are all heavily weighted toward omega 6's and low in omega 3's which results in an inflammatory balance. So pure fat with little or no food value. One can’t survive on the stuff thus it’s junk, not food. It's virtually impossible to get one's dietary fat down to a healthful 10-15% of calories while continuing to use vegetable oils.

Here's the way this translated into today's lunch. Open-face oil-free hummus and green olive sandwich on 9-grain whole wheat bread. Small-chunk-cut steamed organic beets with beet greens in orange zest glaze. Roasted, home-grown asparagus spears with garlic powder. Supper tonight: Home-made, no-oil marinara over whole wheat spaghetti with a green salad. I'll likely microwave-steam a few florets of broccoli and toss in the marinara.

Eating this way provides a high quality insurance policy against developing nutritional-based health problems and that's good because there are still plenty of other ways to get sick.

Hope this is useful, Don