Sphagnum
Member
I have apparent blood sugar regulation issues with refined starches, specifically white rice (sticky/glutinious variety,) in that if I eat a satiable amount (300-400g dry weight) I am hit with serious post-meal fatigue. Even with protein mixed in, I get terribly drained of energy. Fruits/juices, whole grains, and potatoes this doesn't happen with. However, I find it difficult to rely on those as my carb staples. Fruits/juices don't keep me satiated no matter how much I take in, whole grains in that amount require too much calcium to balance the phosphorus (egg shell and other calcium supps upset my digestion and milk's Ca:P ratio isn't strong enough to help,) and potatoes are too filling to eat in amounts that I need to meet caloric needs. Most starches also give me bad dandruff issues due to the amylose content, which is why the white sticky rice is my go to. It digests clean, I feel satiated, no dandruff, but the post-meal drop kills me. Sticky rice is all amylopectin starch, which doesn't need to be broken down like amylose starch does, so it can be like taking straight glucose.
So, I've read/heard where Ray mentions potassium being even more important than insulin in shuttling glucose into cells. This gave me the idea to supplement potassium when eating refined carbs to avoid the apparent blood sugar crashes I'd experience. I looked up the ratio of potassium to carbohydrate in foods like bananas and potatoes, and experimented with supplementing it in the meal. A few days this past week I have mixed 350g of white sticky rice (276g total carbs all from amylopectin) with 13g Potassium Chloride (6.77g potassium) and I had no noticeable post-meal fatigue. The amounts used reflect the carb to potassium ratio of bananas. This leads me to believe that it was blood sugar crashes from the amount of insulin triggered by the glucose hitting my system from all amylopectin white rice I was taking in at once.
Now the drawback is the amount of chloride that comes with this approach. The potassium of course has to be balanced with sodium, and that is easy to do with salt, but then that's even more chloride! From what I've found on here, its way too much chloride so I'm not repeating the mix at this time.
I'm wondering if there is a safer potassium compound I could try out. Keep in mind, I need about a total of 7g of potassium, so what the K is bound to is of importance.
In the mean time, I am experimenting with mixing refined and unrefined grains together with more protein to alleviate crashes, but the added K has done so much more than anything else. I'd like to keep using it until I figure out how to fix the crashes in general (right now trying to lower my fat intake, not that I feel it was that high when in ratio to my carb and protein.)
*Note- I know most gov dietary recommendations are for 3.5-4.7g potassium a day, with those figures based on 2,000-2,500 calorie day. I came across Ray's work after finding myself hypothyroid due to chronic undereating, and I find my caloric needs to be much higher than the set RV's