In a message dated 8/29/2004 6:19:24 AM Central Daylight Time,
Rejuvenation@yahoogroups.com writes:

[Yes, and both of them are harmless. They don't occur naturally together,
but when put together they have the strange property of tricking the
taste buds to think they are extremely sweet. But scare reports about
aspartame add a third ingredient: methanol or wood alcohol, which they
say aspartame metabolizes to, and is the poison that kills. - Ellis]

Yikes, I injest approximatly 20 packs a day.

[The F.D.A. reply to this is:

"there are other foodstuffs that we ingest that supply as much and
sometimes even more methanol; e.g., citrus fruits and juices, and
tomatoes or tomato juice. There are even higher quantities of methanol
ingested when ethanol is consumed. Thus, in the final analysis this
methanol is the same as from other sources of food and in the
quantities consumed from aspartame, it is readily and naturally
metabolized via the one-carbon biochemical cycle to entirely innocuous
and natural body components."

- Ellis]


I am also on the the anti-aging Zone diet ( way of eating) which is a
calorie restricted diet.

Has anyone tried this diet? Read his book? any opinions?

Veronica

[Hello Veronica. There are basically three diets that I will compare
quickly:

The Atkins Diet, which is VERY LOW CARBS consequently HIGH PROTEIN
and FAT... 10% to 20% fat, the rest is Protein and fat... About
10% Carbs, 45% Fat, 45% Protein, or 20% Carbs, 40% Fat, 40% Protein..

The Dean Ornish or Pritikin Diet, exemplified by the Food
Guide Pyramid, which is VERY HIGH CARBS and VERY LOW FAT...
60% Carbs, 20% Fat, 20% protein... or even 70% Carbs, 10% Fat,
20% protein.

The Barry Sears Zone Diet, which takes the happy middle road...
30% Fat, 40% Carbs, 40% Protein.

(And there is the "Ellis Toussier diet", (which nobody has heard
about, except here on Rejuvenation) which is based on the Carbohydrate
Thermometer, and turns out to be pretty similar to the Atkins (It
is not a copy of any diet) which is: choose foods that are cold
or cool on the Carbohydrate Thermometer... Avoid foods that are
"hot" on the thermometer, and in principle avoid fat as much as you
can. Protein is King, but protein doesn't appear directly on the
Carbohydrate Thermometer. However, we can study the three groups that
are lowest on the Carbohydrate Thermometer: ANIMAL ORIGIN all contain
about 10% to 30% protein, and VEGETABLES contain about 2% to 8% protein,
and FRUITS contain 1% or less protein. So that tells it to you:
Animal Origin and Vegetables are the two best groups to get protein
AND ALSO avoid carbohydrates which raise your glucose levels too high.

http://www.rajeun.net/carbotherm.html

Concentrate on ANIMAL ORIGIN
and VEGETABLES, small portions of FRUITS, very small portions of BEANS
AND NUTS, extremely small portions of BREAD or tortillas or cookies
or chocolate cake (and even extremely small portions are bad), and
avoid like the plague BREAKFAST CEREALS and SWEETS and SUGAR...

AND... I Have "Growth hormone for Breakfast" everyday...)

Hands down, in my opinion the best of these diets is my diet, because I
have "growth hormone for breakfast" every day, and nobody can come close
to the benefits that gives if they omit it... but I don't want to brag
or joke, let's take a closer look at the other three diets, based on a
2000 calorie daily intake:

The Atkins Diet is about 10% or 20% carb calories, of 2000 = 200 cal
to 400 calories from carbs. Each 4 calories is one gram, so this means
50 to 100 grams of carbs goes into your body each day. Remember that
SUGAR IS 100% carbs, so that almost means you are eating 50 to 100
grams of sugar, on the Atkins diet.

The Pritikin, or Food Diet, means you are sticking in 60% x 2000= 1200
carb calories= 300 grams of carbs = 300 grams of SUGAR...

And the Sears Diet means you are sticking in 40% x 2000 = 800 carb
calories = 200 grams of SUGAR...

100 grams Atkins
200 grams Sears
300 grams Pritikin

Just so you can visualize it, 300 grams of sugar is as much sugar as
fits into a bottle that dispenses sugar in a restaurant... that is a
WHOLE LOT OF GOO that goes into your body! 200 grams of sugar is
two thirds of that... that is still a whole lot of goo, but less than
the Pritikin... and the Atkins is about a third of that bottle...
still a lot of goo, but apparently MY BODY can handle it, and it is
delicious to eat some fruits and beans and nuts... I'm lucky I can
still eat them (Dr. Bernstein, who has Diabetes 1, can't...)

So... Dr. Atkins has many diplomas, Dr. Sears has many diplomas, and
Dr. Ornish has many diplomas, and they have each written books that
say exactly the opposite one from the other, so who should you believe?
Potatoes are good, or potatoes are bad? Breakfast cereals with fruits
and bees honey is good, or breakfast cereals with fruits and bees honey
is bad? Orange Juice is good, or orange juice is bad?

Which is it?

I repeat what I like to say often: "DON'T BELIEVE ANYBODY... DON'T
EVEN BELIEVE ME!... BELIEVE THE GLUCOSE METER"...

That means, GO AHEAD AND EAT IT... but then TEST YOURSELF WITH A
GLUCOSE METER!! If the glucose meter says you don't get a high
glucose level from eating the Sears or the Pritikin way, then go
ahead and eat your potatoes and fruits and spaghetti, enjoy a small
or medium piece of bread with non-fat marmalades and bees honey.

BUT I GET A VERY HIGH RESPONSE to potatoes and spaghetti and bread
and breakfast cereals... I love fruits, but large portions raise my
glucose levels too high...

What is "too high" ?

"According to Ellis" every time you raise your glucose levels above 90
it is already a bit too high... I can't avoid it... but I TRY to avoid
it by choosing the foods that are "cool" on the carbohydrate thermometer.
That means: ANIMAL ORIGIN and practically any VEGETABLES, and half
portions of FRUITS...

My advice to you and to everybody is BUY A GLUCOSE METER! I like the
Roche AccuCheck Sensor, but I am not a stockholder in Roche, and I
am not pushing it for any economic reason, except that I like it and
others are slightly different, so if you get a Roche meter your results
will be compatible with the results of my meter, but if you have another
brand, the IDEA is still the same:

less than 25 is DEATH
50 is HYPOGLYCEMIA (ie, too low)
70 to 90 is PERFECT
100 is already HIGH
120 is BAD
140 is TERRIBLE
160 is HORRIBLE
180 is DEATHLY
200 or more is SUICIDAL

This chart, above, is correct, "according to Ellis" but too strict
according to most diabetes specialist doctors. In any case, there is
no doubt that it is strict, but it is absolutely correct... at least
the idea is correct... I call 100 "HIGH" because at this level you are
causing your pancreas to leak a little insulin, like a water faucet
that is not totally shut.

Think of it like a car that is advancing on the Road to Diabetes...
by causing your pancreas to leak a little insulin, even at 100, you are
advancing slowly towards Diabetes... imagine you are moving at 1 Mile
per Hour... or even at 1 Foot per hour... at any speed forward, you will
eventually get there. The best thing is to STOP, if you can.

I am not even certain that 90 is "perfect" but I get 90 so many times
on the glucose meter when I inject insulin that I assume that insulin
DOWN and glucagon UP turns off my insulin production at that point,
like an elevator going down and a small adjustment at the end that levels
it with the ground floor. (This is all only "according to Ellis"... it
is how I IMAGINE it works... I could be mistaken, but it gives me an
explanation that I can work with.)

You cannot lose if you follow my table above as a guide, and you
definitely win if you TRY to stay close to 70 to 90 on the glucose
meter, however you can get 70 to 90... "by hook or by crook"...

So... now YOU tell us how the Sears Diet is for you. I repeat, there
is no way to know your glucose levels except if you TEST it. I suggest
you test about 30 minutes after you finish a meal... if you really want
to learn how you react to carbs, test yourself with a known amount of
pure sugar, ie, get an accurate scale and weigh 10 grams of sugar,
20 grams of sugar, and 40 grams of sugar, dissolve the sugar in water,
and DRINK IT... then test yourself with the glucose meter.

This will teach you how you will react to all seven groups of the
carbohydrate thermometer, so you can PREDICT what will happen when you
eat a plate of spaghetti, or the bread that comes with a hamburger, or
the potatoes or rice that comes on the plate that they serve you in a
restaurant, etc. If I had accumulated all the food that I have LEFT ON
THE PLATE for the past 3 years, I assure you I could fill a garbage truck
with junk food that would have gone into my body, but didn't. I sent it
to where it should go, the garbage can. The glucose meter tells me
I did the right thing, that is where all that bread and rice and spaghetti
and potatoes belong.

I don't believe anybody, not even "Ellis", I only believe the glucose
meter. Period. It is a new organ of my body. I test 8 or 10 times
a day. I have taken thousands of home glucose blood tests, and I
take more every day because I inject a little insulin. I guarantee I
could get by without testing, but I don't mind testing, and I would
never be able to know if I should inject a little insulin after eating
unless I test... so I test.

So... that was my "quick answer" to your question. I hope it says it
like it should. I will tack it up on a page of its own, because this
is about the 20th time I have written an answer like this to a question
like this.

http://www.rajeun.net/3diets.html

- Ellis]