February 23, 2010 (Binging again and Leukotrienes)

I screwed up again. Everything was going fine, and last Friday I weighed in at 251. Then Saturday came. We had guests, that I wasn't all that familiar with, come to our house for a bbq. The only thing I know how to bbq well is burgers, so we had burgers. So as not to look out of place, I had a burger (which is not on the Zone diet), cookies, and beer. After they left, I kept on drinking beer. I had too many. Probably about 10-12 over a 10 hour period. I woke up a little hung over. In order to pamper myself I continued to eat garbage not on my diet. I didn't get back to it until Monday. I have really got to figure out what is going on with my social anxiety and binging. Then today, I weighed in at 260!! I couldn't believe my eyes. I knew I would be set back, but not that much. Perhaps the scale was off (I didn't read twice) or I gained a lot of water weight. Either way, all I can do now is pick myself up and get back on track.

Today I am going to talk about Leukotrienes. Their name was coined by the Swedish guy that discovered them- he combined the words leukocyte and triene (signifying that they have 3 double bonds). They are derived from arachidonic acid (the bad eicosanoid) and are mainly involved in the immune system signaling. There are several forms of them. They include: LTA4, LTB4, LTC4, LTD4, LTE4, and LTF4. They act on G-coupled receptors and are also associated with histamine formation (when leukotrienes are made, so is histamine). They are involved in allergic reactions, asthma, and are pro-inflamatory. Since they are so involved in creating inflammation they are pretty much "bad." So, I guess in the Zone you would want to decrease the amount of leukotrienes overall in your system. More on that later.

Today I had the usual oatmeal and protein drink for breakfast. Lunch I had out at a deli by circumstance and I had an apple and their "health" sandwich (low fat, chicken, etc) but I should have gone with the wrap. For dinner I had my chicken fajita salad and an apple. I had peanuts for snacks.

I have been hungry the past 2 days.

I can feel my feet are getting better, but they are still not good enough to exercise. Frustrating.

February 13, 2010 (progress)

I weighed in this morning at 255.2. Seems like I am finally making some progress without ketosis. I had Egg beaters with salsa and oatmeal for breakfast, peanuts for snack, celery and peanut butter for lunch, stir fried broccoli, cheese, and turkey lunch meat for dinner. I also grabbed a few of my daughter's popcorn.

February 11, 2010 (Prostacyclin)

I weighed in today at 256.8. I was quite surprised. I think maybe multiple bowel movements yesterday had something to do with it. I expect to gain some back. I had the usual oatmeal and protein drink for breakfast. Peanuts as snacks. Smoked turkey meat (luncheon style), provolone cheese, and an apple for lunch. Grilled chicken breast salad and an orange for dinner.

I did some reading on the second class of eicosanoids, prostacyclins. There is much less information on them than the PGs. They weren't discovered until the 70's. They are made in the endothelial cells and have a very short half life (seconds). It's major function is in platelet aggregation and is very potent in doing so. Other functions include antiproliferation/apoptosis, anti-inflamatory, and anti-mitogenic. As far as I can tell there is only one natural prostacylcin, while there are plenty of synthetic ones designed as drugs.

I am not sure how this all ties into the Zone diet exactly, yet. I also am starting to realize there is a connection between inflammation and getting fat, which I intend to explore more.

February 10, 2010 (eicosanoids: prostaglandins)

I weighed in at 259.6 this morning. Finally some weight loss. I had the normal oatmeal and protein drink for breakfast. Turkey taco meat, mushrooms, and cucumbers for lunch. Peanuts for snacks. For dinner I had a big grilled chicken salad.

Eicosanoids again. Generally speaking there are 5 major classes. I'm still not sure why they aren't classified as hormones, I guess because they are fatty acids. The major classes are 1)prostaglandins 2)prostacyclins 3) thromboxanes 4)leukotrienes 5)the others that can't be lumped together in a group. They are generally named from an abbreviation derived from the names above and a number denoting the number of double bonds. I'll just cover one class per blog entry since it is a ton of material.

Prostaglandins all have 20 carbon atoms and a 5 membered ring. They were originally isolated from the prostate, hence their name. Interestingly, aspirin, inhibits the synthesis of prostaglandins (aspirin is so important as background information in the zone it will be described in detail more in another blog entry). Prostaglandins are made from EPA, AA, as well as DGLA. The enzymes reponsible for this are the cyclooxygenases (COX). The 3 major types are:

1. PGI2: responsible for platelet aggregation, vasodilation, and bronchodilation. There appears to be only one receptor for this PG.

2. PGE2: This is the big one. Is is responsible for brochoconstriction/bronchodilation, GI smooth muslce contraction/relaxation, vasodilation, decreases gastric acid secretion, increases gastric mucus secretion, uterus contraction, lipolysis inhibition, increases autonomic neurotransmitters, increases atherthrombosis, hyperalgesia (increased sensitivity to pain), and pyrexia (fever). There are many, some unidentifiedm, PGE2 receptors. That is why there are often contrasting results of the signaling- it depends which receptor it hits.

2. PGF2alpha: responsible for uterus contraction and bronchoconstriction.

The way to manipulate these thru diet is what the zone is all about and will be discussed further later.

February 9, 2010 (eicosanoids part 1)

I weighed in at 260.8 this morning. The good news is that I probably lost some water weight from my binge. I had the usual oatmeal and protein drink for breakfast. Chilli for lunch with some ground turkey. Peanuts as snacks. Turkey tossed salad for dinner and mushrooms fried in olive oil and garlic. I was curious about the nutritional value of mushrooms. 1 cup has about 15 calories, 0g fat, 1g fiber, 1 gram sugars, and 2 grams protein. Seems like a nice low calorie dish.

I'd like to go into eicosanoids. The whole basis of the diet is that the perfect balance of protein to carbohydrates to fat will promote good eicosanoids. Insulin is negatory for good eicosanoids and glucagon is negatory for bad eicosanoids. So, what are eicosanoids and what do they do?

In short they are signal molecules that are similar to hormones. They are derived from oxidized fatty acids. The are involved largely in inflammation pathways as well as the immune system and nervous system. Eicosanoids are mainly derived from omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids.(omega 3's lead to "good" eicosanoids and omega 6's lead to "bad" eicosanoids generally. That's why Barry Sears is all on about taking supplements of omega 3 oils.

Specifically eicosanoids are derived from 3 types of essential fatty acids:
1. EPA = eicosapentanoic acid (omega 3)
2. Arachidonic acid (omega 6)
3. DGLA = Dihomo gama lineolic acid (DGLA)

Arachidonic acid being an omega 6 leads to bad eicosanoids, that why Sears recomends avoiding them. They are found in large amounts in beef and chicken egg yolks.

This is a complicated series of pathways and will take several blogs to get into all of them. That's it for today.

February 8, 2010 (Falling off the wagon)

I've been bad. Last Thursday I had a dinner appointment with potential employers. I figured I better eat "normal" and drink wine as well, so as not to look abnormal. I had half a bottle of red wine, had some white bread, and even had some small desert. The next day it got worse. I was invited to a bar by an old friend and drank a bunch of beer. The next day I was hung over and ate garbage (things like pizza). I got back to the Zone yesterday. So, I lost 3 days of dieting.

Today I weighed in at 261.8. I will never know how much of that was due to my binging and how much is just because I came out of the Atkins and out of ketosis. I wonder if people normally gain water weight or any weight simply by going off the Atkins.

I had oatmeal and a soy protein drink for breakfast. Homemade turkey chili for lunch. Peanuts for snacks. Water only today for beverages. For dinner, I had collard greens cooked in olive oil as well as taco meat made from ground turkey. For some reason I was a little hungry about an hour after dinner.

I am really disappointed in myself. Furthermore my feet are getting better but they still hurt. I am afraid to exercise and make them worse.

Well, I still need to talk about eicosanoids. That will be later in the week. Also, I haven't touched on how my therapy is going, and how I have been doing with my food/eating assignments from my therapist.