Zero Carb Keto: Salt, Protein?

Zero Carb Keto

Salt, Protein

I think I may have solved my foot cramp problem! I think it was because of a different salt I had started using!

I had switched from sea salt to using pink Himalayan salt. I think the difference in mineral proportions was enough to throw off my electrolytes and cause the foot cramping! 

Isn't that amazing, to think how different salts can be?

I found that I had a little sea salt left in the cupboard and brought it out to test yesterday. And sure, I had no foot cramps last night!

Also interestingly, I feel like my urine has had a strong smell lately too. I wonder if it is related. We'll see if that changes as well in the next few days!

Otherwise, the stronger urine smell could be that I am eating more protein these last three months since switching to leaner canned grassfed beef. But the strong urine smell has only been noticeable this last week, which makes me think it is tied to the new salt. 

I stopped at the health food store yesterday because I was craving pork. They did not have any pork in the fresh counter, so I could not use the compostable BioBags. I was shocked to see the amount of packaging in the cooler meat section! Every single one had a styrofoam tray, and plastic wrap! So much waste! 

Although I think I am going to have to give up on my plastic-free mission, I do think it is possible to at least recycle (or more accurately, "downcycle") the vacuum seal plastic in which the frozen local farm meats are packaged. That is at least better than those styrofoam trays and cling plastic wrap, which cannot be even downcycled! So I think starting next week I will go back to eating the local grassfed beef in plastic vacuum seals instead of the canned meat. 

I also decided to use a few plastic glucose testing strips and just check to see if my postprandial and fasting glucose had gone up any with a higher protein diet. It did slightly. Previously on my mostly lamb diet, which was around 75% fat to 25% protein, my blood glucose was always around 80mg/dl (4.4mmol/l), any time of day.

Yesterday, with my more recent 50% fat to 50% protein intake, throughout the day it was 90mg/dl (5mmol/l). Gluconeogenesis at work? So that is another good reason to get back to a higher fat diet and eat the fresh meat rather than canned!

I have also put in some orders for whole lamb shares again! Lamb and mutton are just naturally in a perfect ketogenic ratio (pork is too, but is much higher in omega 6 fats and seems to raise my triglycerides). So hopefully in a month I will have a freezer full of lamb and can start taking photos of my delicious meals again!