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Carbo Type Diet


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Characteristics of your metabolic type

Many Carbo Types share similar characteristics. However, if you're a Carbo Type that doesn't mean you're just like everyone else in your metabolic category in the way you react to foods, your strengths and weaknesses, your energy level, the strength of your appetite, and so on. After all, you're unique on a metabolic level!

Nonetheless, here are some typical tendencies you may have in common with other Carbo Types:

Relatively weak appetite

For Carbo Types, a little food tends to go a long way. You may eat three meals a day, but often the meals won't be large. Or you may be satisfied with one or two meals and several smaller snacks. Whatever your routine, chances are that food does not play a prominent role in your conscious daily awareness. 

High tolerance for sweets

Unless they have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), people with your style of metabolism usually handle sweets pretty well. This can be both a blessing and a curse, for although you can handle sweets, they can also be your downfall. Your tendency might be to reach for them whenever you're hungry or need an energy boost. So your tendency could easily be to overdo sweets, which could eventually lead to problems like hypoglycemia, insulin resistance, and diabetes. 

Problems with weight management

People with your kind of metabolism are often lean, or at least start off that way. Yet the tendency for sweet-snacking often leads to problems with obesity. Your small appetite tends to complicate the issue. By eating very little, snacking on sweets, or by waiting long periods between eating, you have a tendency to lower your metabolic rate, thereby throwing your system into "starvation mode," a self-preservation mechanism in which the body thinks it's starving and therefore slows down its metabolism in order to conserve energy. 

Type-A personalities

Some Carbo Types-the sympathetic dominants-have classic Type-A personalities. They tend to be aggressive, goal-oriented, highly motivated workaholics. They can be abrupt, appear cool and aloof, and quick to anger. Their energy tends to come in spurts, so their physical stamina is relatively limited, yet their concentration tends to be excellent. Aside from the fact that they don't have large appetites, they often think they don't have time to eat, a quality that both horrifies and mystifies many people in the opposite metabolic category, the Protein Type. 

Variable energy patterns

Another segment of the Carbo Type population -the slow oxidizers- tend to have very different personality and energy patterns from sympathetic dominants, even though they share the same general dietary characteristics. Slow oxidizers tend to have lower though steadier energy without the peaks and valleys that sympathetics experience.

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Caffeine dependency

Both sympathetic dominants and slow oxidizers frequently depend on caffeine to get them through the day. Sympathetics use caffeine to "jump-start" their adrenals, which tend to be strong anyway. Caffeine gives them a hormonal kick and an energy surge, but overuse can lead to a weakened appetite, a worsening of already poor dietary habits, adrenal exhaustion, or an actual shift in their metabolic type due to a loss of sympathetic strength. Caffeine can make slow oxidizers feel "half alive" again, and they may feel quite unable to function without it. But, unlike sympathetic dominants, slow oxidizers generally start out with weak adrenals that need to be rebuilt through a balanced nutritional regime. Caffeine only exacerbates the fundamental metabolic imbalances of slow oxidizers. If any of these situations describes you, it's a clear indication that you're pumping the wrong kind of "body fuel" into your "engines of metabolism." 

Dietary emphasis for carbo types

As a Carbo Type, what you need is a diet comprised of relatively small amounts of proteins and fats compared to carbohydrates. But all proteins are not created equal. You need to avoid the heavier, high-purine proteins and focus instead on lighter proteins that are low in fat and low in purines. More than any other type, you have the freedom to cat a wide selection of carbohydrates-vegetables, grains, and fruits-of both starchy and nonstarchy varieties. Because your system converts carbohydrates into energy slowly, you can handle starchy or sugary foods better than other types, though you still have to be careful not to overdo it. Your tendency to metabolize your food slowly is the very reason you need to avoid larger amounts of proteins and fats, especially the heavier proteins. These foods will slow down your energy production even more. If you happen to be a Carbo Type, you definitely need a low-protein, low fat diet in order to lose weight, feel energized both physically and mentally, and stay on an even keel emotionally. Excess protein and fat will leave you feeling drained and sluggish-or even hyper, wired, quick to anger, and irritable. Over the long haul, this type of diet, if properly followed and tailored to your metabolic individuality, can prevent you from developing all kinds of serious degenerative diseases (cardiovascular problems, immune deficiency, blood sugar abnormalities, osteoporosis, arthritis, digestive disorders, and many other chronic illnesses), all of which are rooted in metabolic imbalance. 

Important tips on your allowable foods

Emphasize low-fat, low-purine proteins

Your metabolic type does very well on low-fat proteins. You should avoid high-fat proteins because they interfere with your body's ability to produce energy in an efficient manner. Likewise, you should avoid proteins high in purines-a special category of proteins that play an important role in the energy-producing processes in body tissues. High-fat, high-purine proteins are likely to make you feel lethargic, depressed, and fatigued. Any meat, fowl, or seafood that is not included in your Allowable Foods Chart tends to be too high in fat and purine for your type and should be avoided or at least greatly minimized to only occasional intake. 

Eat protein at most meals

Try to eat protein with most of your meals. Although your metabolism does best with a relatively higher percentage of carbohydrates in your diet, protein is still important for you and must not be ignored. Many people make the mistake of habitually eating carbohydrate alone for meals. Over time this can lead to severe disruptions in energy metabolism and blood sugar problems. As long as you get adequate protein with your meals, it will likely be okay to eat just a carbohydrate food (like fruit) for a snack. However, if you suffer with hypoglycaemia or you find that eating fruit alone for a snack makes you more hungry or causes you to crave sugar, you'll need to include some protein with every intake of food, even your snacks. 

Carefully consider dairy

Dairy foods are a "mixed bag" for your type. On the one hand, your type needs the lighter, lower-fat, lower-purine proteins. Low-fat dairy products, like yogurt or cottage cheese, fit this bill nicely. However, your type also tends to do best by minimizing calcium intake, so in this regard dairy is not ideal for you. In general, the best thing to do is monitor your reactions to dairy products. If you feel a drop in energy or an adverse shift in your mood after eating dairy, you may need to restrict it from your diet.

Balance your carbohydrate intake

Any plant-based foods-grains, vegetables, or fruits-are carbohydrates. But there are different kinds of carbohydrates and they don't all affect your metabolism in the same way. For example, some carbohydrates are higher in starch and some are lower in starch. Starchy carbohydrates break down easily into sugar, which means they hit your bloodstream quickly. This can cause a strong insulin response from your pancreas, which typically leads to increased fat storage and blood sugar problems like hypoglycaemia. For this reason, grains, starchy vegetables, and fruits are "caution carbs.”. Over time, excess insulin secretion can contribute to more severe disorders such as allergies, asthma, alcoholism., atherosclerosis, cancer, carbohydrate addiction, heart disease, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, hypertension, obesity, and peptic ulcers. Although your metabolic type handles starches better than other types, you still must take care to get a mixture of starchy and non-starchy carbohydrates. This is particularly important if you have concerns about weight. So, eat all the non-starchy vegetables you want, but limit the moderate and high starch carbohydrates to no more than one moderate-starch and one high-starch food per meal. If you eat a starchy vegetable, don't eat a grain product at the same meal. For example, if you eat a potato, don't eat bread at the same meal. 

Go ahead with grains

In general, grains are very good for your metabolic type. But remember, grains are starchy carbohydrates, so you shouldn't overdo them. Here's the way to tell if you're eating too many: Say you ate a chicken breast, small salad, and a large serving of rice for lunch. But afterward you were still hungry, felt sleepy, or had a strong desire for sweets. Chances are you ate too much starch (rice) relative to protein. So next time around, what you need to do is to increase the protein and decrease the starch, i.e., eat more chicken and less rice. As I'll show you in subsequent sections, your body will tell you when you achieve the right mix of carbohydrates and protein. When you use grains, remember to use only whole-grain products. Do not consume any refined grain products made with white flour or enriched flour. Any baked foods You consume should contain only whole-grain flours. Keep in mind, though, that all grains are starches, which means they readily break down into sugar, so they should be used wisely. 

Enjoy selected juices

Vegetable juices, as long as they're freshly made, are particularly good for your metabolic type and can be used freely. However, juices should be made only from vegetables that appear on your Allowable Foods Chart. The only exception is carrot juice. You can have a little from time to time even though carrots are not among your allowed vegetables. Avoid all canned juices. In general, it's best not to consume fruit juices, since they're very high in sugar. Eating fruit is fine and even encouraged for your type, but fresh fruit juices should be used only periodically for therapeutic reasons and not as a matter of routine or for quenching thirst. In place of fruit Juice, make smoothies by blending the whole fruit. If you're thirsty, drink water-not juice, tea, or milk. 

Limit legumes

Legumes-dried beans, peas, lentils--like dairy, have conflicting influences on your metabolism. They're in excellent source of carbohydrate and vegetable protein. However, they are also a source of purines, a category of protein that 'is not appropriate for your metabolic type. Legumes do not contain the same amount of purines as say, steak or salmon, so you can have them from time to time, especially if you're eating a vegetarian meal. just be careful not to cat too many, or have them too often.

Minimise fats and oils

The subject of fats and oils and their effects on human metabolism has been extensively researched and documented. An in-depth discussion of them is beyond the scope of this book (for a complete discussion, see Fats and Oils, an excellent book by Udo Erasmus). Although fats and oils should be minimized in your diet, this does not mean a no-fat diet. It is important to consume some good, natural oils. They're critical to membrane structure, hormone production, immune function, and a whole host of important metabolic processes. use only natural cold-pressed oils and unsalted butter. Recommended brands are Omega, Flora, or Bio~San, available in health food stores. Never consume margarine, hydrogenated oils, or fat substitutes. If you must buy packaged foods, read the labels to make sure you do not consume these substances. 

Go easy with nuts and seeds

Nuts are a source of nonpurine protein but are also very high in oils. So they're a double-edged sword for your metabolic type. They contain protein, but because of their high-fat content, their use must be limited. For example, if you find that a piece of fruit (pure carbohydrate) does not satisfy you as a snack and you need some protein to go with it, some nuts or nut butters may work perfectly. On the other hand, you must take care not to eat large quantities, especially if you are also eating animal proteins on that day. 

Snack as needed

Of all the metabolic types, Carbo Types are the least dependent on snacks. If you want to eat them, snacks are fine, just be careful not to overdose on carbohydrates. If you start craving sweets, you probably ate too many carbohydrates and didn't get enough protein in the meal or snack just prior to the sweet craving. 

Get a loaf

Breads are okay for your metabolic type. But make sure to eat only breads made from whole-grain flours. Avoid the white breads made with refined, enriched flours. Fats and oils are limited in your diet, so go easy on the butter. Sprouted-grain breads like Ezekiel and Manna brands are best because sprouting increases the level of vitamin C and B vitamins, and destroys the enzyme inhibitors found in grains.

Be conscious of glycaemic values

All carbohydrates-fruits, vegetables, grains-are converted to glucose in the body. Carbohydrates are categorized according to the rate or speed at which they hit the bloodstream as glucose, and ranked accordingly in what is known as the glycaemic index (G1). High- glycaemic foods such as grains and starchy vegetables hit your blood-stream much more rapidly than low-glycaemic foods like proteins and fats. Although your metabolic type can handle high-glycaemic foods better than other types, you still don't want to overdo them. You don't want to burden your system with too many foods that rapidly convert to glucose in your bloodstream. You need to place more emphasis on those foods that are lower on the GI. Whenever you do eat high-glycemic foods, it's a good idea to include some protein at the same time, since protein will help slow down the rate at which high-glycaemic foods are converted to sugar. (Note: Check Chapter 9 for the complete glycaemic index. It's very important for all metabolic types to become familiar with the GI.) 

Foods to avoid

Certain foods really aggravate your metabolic imbalances and should be avoided. You may have strong adverse reactions to these foods, or, if your metabolism is less sensitive, the reactions may be slight or even nonexistent. Or your reactions to these problem foods could vary from time to time. All these possibilities are common and reflect yet another facet of metabolic individuality. Keep in mind that the effects of nutrition are cumulative. The more you ingest a food, the stronger the effect becomes. So even if you don't display any noticeable adverse reactions, it's still best to minimize your intake of the following foods whenever possible. In short, stick to your allowable foods. But if you simply must eat something not on that list, be aware that the following foods are particularly undesirable for your metabolism.

Alcohol

Alcohol, plain and simple, is a poison to your body. Your body must detoxify it and neutralize its adverse effects. From this perspective, it isn't really good for anyone. However, of the three metabolic categories, your metabolic type is best-suited to handle alcohol. But don't get me wrong-it's still a simple sugar, so it can wreak havoc with your metabolism. It triggers excessive insulin secretion, which leads to blood sugar imbalances, increased fat storage, and the development of chronic degenerative processes. Thus, moderation with alcohol is strongly recommended. 

Allergenic or reactive foods

Your Allowable Foods Chart provides recommendations for foods that will specifically support your metabolic type. This means that they contain the right balance of nutrients for your type. Whether or not you are currently reactive or allergic to any of these foods is a completely different issue. If you have known reactions to any recommended foods, leave them out of your diet temporarily, but try them from time to time. As your chemistry changes, so too may your food reactivities. This is the experience of many individuals who have properly customized their diets to match their metabolisms. 

Caffeine

Avoid caffeine products as much as possible, including coffee, black teas, caffeine-containing herbs, and soft drinks. Because your metabolic type can tolerate caffeine better than other types can, it's easy for you to abuse it. If you do insist on drinking coffee, make sure it's organic and limit it to no more than one to two weak cups per day. Also, make sure to cat some protein, as this will help counter to a degree its adverse effects on your type. Bottom line: Caffeine is counterproductive for your type, whether you're a slow oxidizer or a sympathetic dominant. If you're a slow oxidizer, you may be so exhausted that you feet you need caffeine to get through the day. But too much caffeine will only exhaust your system further, like a whip applied to a tired horse. Short-term, the stimulation is pleasurable, but over the long term, caffeine can worsen your fatigue by further exhausting your adrenals. If you're sympathetic dominant, excess caffeine will worsen your existing imbalance. 

Sugar

In significant quantities, sugar is not good for anyone. However, unless you suffer from hypoglycemia or diabetes, your metabolic type typically handles sugar better than other types. This is the good news and the bad news, for it is generally easy for Carbo Types to overeat sugar-containing foods. When you start craving Sugar foods, it's a signal that you're getting too much carbohydrate and not enough protein in your diet. For your metabolic type, sugar can be stimulating, and, if you're not watchful, addictive. You may find yourself reaching for sugar more and more to give you an energy boost. But sugar is empty calories and empty energy. It doesn't provide good nutrition or the right kind of energy for your body. A sugar habit now can lead to problems with sugar metabolism down the road. When you need energy, you're better off trying some protein first instead of sugar. Be especially watchful for hidden sugars in processed, packaged foods. Sugar is added to a great many commercial foods and can really add up if you're not careful, secretly sabotaging your best intentions to follow your dietary recommendations. 

Foods high in fat

Make no mistake, a diet too low in natural fats and oils containing essential fatty acids is dangerous and can have serious health consequences. However, of the three metabolic types, your type requires the least amount of fat. So, relatively speaking, you belong on a low-fat diet. But this does not mean no fat. That's why you can have small amounts of butter and cold-pressed oils as a supplement to the fatty acids naturally occurring in your diet. If you don't get enough fatty acids in your diet, you're likely to experience sudden changes such as increased fatigue, diminished performance, hunger soon after eating, decreased fingernail strength, decreased hair quality, overly dense stool, constipation, increased need for sleep, grogginess upon awakening, decreased well-being, diminished concentration, and dry skin. Ironically, however, these same symptoms can be produced by either an excess or a deficiency of fatty acids. So try keeping your intake of fatty foods to a minimum. But if you feel poorly at this low level, slowly increase your fats until your symptoms diminish. 

Foods high in purines

Essentially, all the animal proteins not listed in your Allowable Foods Chart tend to be high in purines. These are a special class of proteins that are particularly beneficial for some types, but they're an undesirable fuel for your kind of metabolism. Purines tend to oxidise too slowly, thereby slowing down even further the metabolisms of slow oxidizers. They also worsen the imbalances of sympathetic dominants. Therefore, eat purines only occasionally, if at all. 

Thyroid-suppressing foods

Certain foods contain a chemical known as thiocyanate, which causes thyroid dysfunction. Thiocyanate belongs to a class of substances known as goitrogens. These substances block the production of thyroid hormone, a hormone that plays an integral role in the regulation of all your metabolic activities. Goitrogens are found in raw broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, mustard, rutabaga, and watercress. If you eat these foods frequently, it's a good idea to supplement your diet with extra iodine in the form of kelp, since goitrogens work by blocking iodine absorption by the thyroid gland. Kelp can be ground and used in a salt shaker as a condiment. Also note that cooking will partially inactivate the thyroid -suppressing chemical found in these foods. So you'll want to use kelp, take care to cook these foods, and use them conservatively, especially if you've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism (slow thyroid). 

Your macronutrient ratio

This diet is easy! There are only two things you need to remember:

  • Eat the right kinds of foods for your type and avoid the wrong foods for your type-in other words, stick to your allowable foods.
  • Eat the right proportions of macronutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) at each meal.

If you think of your food as fuel, then the proportions of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats can be viewed as your fuel mixture. If you get the right fuel for your type and the right fuel mixture, you'll have a powerful force at work. Your food will be efficiently converted to energy rather than stored as fat.

Here's your general macronutrient ratio:

  • Proteins approx 25% light meat fowl, seafood, low fat dairy, some legumes, some nuts
  • Fats approx 15% limited vegetable oils, butter
  • Carbs approx 60% fruits, vegetables, grains

Stick to your forty percent/sixty percent food ratio whenever you eat, getting approximately sixty percent of your calories from carbohydrates, and about forty percent of your calories from proteins and fats. Note that more of your calories should come from protein than from fat.

It's not necessary to be perfectly precise in terms of your percent- ages. When combining your food, just try to approximate as best you can.

It's unnecessary to measure out by weight everything you eat, or to calculate the number of calories in a meal. When you get the right balance for your metabolism, your appetite will naturally be satisfied, and the caloric issue will eventually take care of itself. So it doesn't matter whether you cat a small meal or a large meal or something in between. What is important is eating the right foods for your type and in the right proportions for your type every time you eat.

If you happen to be especially concerned with weight loss, or if you need to lose a significant amount of weight, I will explain issues regarding calories and food quantities later on in the chapter on weight management. However, it is very important to realize that:

Your weight will begin to normalize just by eating the right foods in the right combinations. When you balance your macronutrients properly, you'll lose weight if you're overweight and gain weight if you're underweight.

Try to eat at regular intervals and stick to the same mealtimes every day if at all possible. It's also important to eat when you're hungry-preferably before you get hungry. This will keep you from overeating and will keep your blood sugar on an even keel.

A helpful way to think about your macronutrient percentages is in terms of a plate of food. The majority of food on your plate should be carbohydrate (primarily nonstarchy) and the rest should be protein with minimal fat.

A lot of people are very confused about how to eat a meal that contains fifteen percent fat. The Carbo Type diet is a low-fat diet, relatively speaking. However, you don't need to do anything special to get the right fat intake. Simply stick closely to your allowable foods and when you need some additional fat like butter or oil, just use a minimal amount.


Sample menus

The following are suggestions only, for possible meal plans. Feel free to create your own menus, combining your allowable foods in any manner that suits your taste at any given meal. Bon appitit.

DAY ONE

  • Breakfast soft-boiled eggs, whole wheat toast, teaspoon butter, apple
  • Lunch sandwich made with tuna on whole-grain bread with tomato, sprouts, celery, onions, and mayonnaise, small bowl of vegetable soup
  • Snack pineapple and low-fat cottage cheese, manna bread
  • Dinner chicken bread, baked potato with low fat yoghurt steamed broccoli and beets, green salad with olive oil and vinegar

DAY TWO

  • Breakfast hot whole-grain cereal, low-fat milk, grapes
  • Lunch soup made with chicken, broccoli, cabbage, potato, onion, rice
  • Snack apple and almonds
  • Dinner baked cod, romaine lettuce, tomato, parsley, onion, with fresh lemon juice and olive oil dressing, millet, steamed zucchini with teaspoon butter

DAY THREE

  • Breakfast protein shake (whey or egg white protein) in low-fat milk with fresh or frozen fruit, whole grain toast, teaspoon butter
  • Lunch tossed green salad with lettuce, tomato, onion, radish, peppers, olive oil, and lemon juice with choice of grilled chicken, turkey, or ham, whole-grain bread and small amount of butter
  • Snack plain, low-fat yogurt with fresh fruit
  • Dinner broiled pork chops with rice, corn on the cob, green, leafy salad with green peppers, cucumbers, and scallions with vinaigrette dressing

DAY FOUR

  • Breakfast poached egg(s) hot, whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk, fruit
  • Lunch ham sandwich on whole-grain bread with tomato, sprouts, onions, and mayonnaise or mustard, small bowl of vegetable soup
  • Snack low-fat Swiss or mozzarella cheese on Ry-Krisp crackers
  • Dinner broiled trout with lemon, steamed broccoli, baked yam with teaspoon butter, sliced cucumber with chopped onion and vinegar

DAY FIVE

  • Breakfast low-fat cottage cheese or plain, low-fat yogurt with fruit, whole-grain toast, teaspoon butter
  • Lunch vegetable soup made with turkey and barley
  • Snack wheat thins with cashew butter (1-2 teaspoons only)
  • Dinner baked Cornish game hen with stuffing, Brussels sprouts, coleslaw with chopped scallion and green pepper, vinaigrette dressing


Finding your personal fuel mix

It's important to keep in mind that the forty percent/sixty percent macronutrient ratio is a general guideline for Carbo Types. Think of it as a starting point or a first step. It provides you with the general parameters you need to follow in order to be at your best. Due to metabolic individuality, however, different people within the Carbo Type category have different macronutrient requirements. As an example, some Carbo Types can get by on less carbohydrate and tolerate larger amounts of protein, even those with a higher fat and purine content. Other people need more carbohydrate and are highly sensitive to even small amounts of additional protein. Everyone is different, which means that the specific proportion of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats that might work well for you is not necessarily the same identical proportion of macronutrients that would work well for other people in your metabolic category. Think of your Carbo Type category as a sliding scale, or a continuum, or a spectrum of variable macronutrient requirements. What you need to do is to pinpoint your own highly individualized macronutrient ratio. In other words, you need to refine or tailor the general macronutrient ratio for Carbo Types to your own particular needs. You need to identify what 1 call your personal fuel mix. Once you discover your personal fuel mix, you'll know how to combine your foods-proteins, carbohydrates, and fats-in proportions that are just right for you. This will make a huge difference in the way you feel following meals and snacks. You'll know when you've hit your personal fuel mix because you will immediately have strong and lasting physical energy and mental clarity, a solid sense of well-being, and a sense of fullness and satisfaction-as opposed to persistent hunger and sweet cravings. How do you find your personal fuel nix? It's really very simple. All you'll need to do is experiment a little by consuming varying amounts of carbohydrates. Remember, as a Carbo Type, excess amounts of carbohydrates-especially the starchy, sugary kind-can be your downfall, producing lowered energy, mood swings, blood sugar problems, and food cravings. As a first step, you'll need to restrict your carbohydrate intake for a few days. Once you know what it feels like to be almost entirely off carbohydrates, you can start adding them in again-a little at a time-until you hit your personal fuel mix. If you go beyond your personal fuel mix by eating excessive carbohydrates, you'll know it. Why? Because you'll lose your energy, sense of well-being, and feelings of satisfaction very quickly after eating. On the other hand, if you fall to reach your personal fuel mix by eating too few carbohydrates-you'll experience the very same kind of negative symptoms. To find your personal fuel mix, all you need to do is follow the simple steps below. 

Twelve simple steps for finding your personal fuel mix

  1. For the first two to seven days, eliminate all "caution carbs"-grains, cereals, breads, desserts, fruits starchy vegetables-as well as milk products
  2. Eat freely of any of your allowable proteins and fats: meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, butter, and vegetable oils
  3. During these few days, limit your vegetable intake to the non-starchy varieties listed in your Allowable Foods Chart. Start out with only a small portion of vegetables as compared to your protein amount. This is your baseline
  4. Eat until you are full but not to the point of feeling stuffed
  5. Have snacks between meals if you like, using the same food choices
  6. Some Carbo Types, particularly those with blood sugar problems, will feel better almost immediately. They will be able to go longer between meals without eating, lose their sweet cravings and will feel a distinct energy boost. But other Carbo Types will not feel well. They may experience symptoms of withdrawal from high-starch and sugary foods. This usually does not last for more than two to three days. It might involve any number of symptoms such as headache, flu like sensations, or extreme sweet cravings. If this should happen to you, just hang in there and you should start to experience some of the positive feelings listed above
  7. True Carbo Types who are already eating correctly will not feel well by cutting back on their carbohydrate intake this way. However, a ma)ority of Carbo Types, will actually feel better for a few days by eliminating the "caution carbs." But shortly thereafter they will begin to feel irritable, short-tempered, and tired, and then crave sweets, feet hungry or unsatisfied after eating. Whenever you reach this point, increase the amount of nonstarchy vegetables (eat only those on your Allowable Foods Chart) as compared to your quantity of protein, until you once again begin to feel well
  8. If you still do not feel well even after increasing your nonstarchy vegetables, begin to add a little starch to your meals, starting with only 1 tablespoon of a starchy vegetable such as potato, rutabaga, sweet potato, or yam with dinner
  9. If you still feel well or even better by eating a little starchy vegetable with dinner, add one tablespoon of a starchy vegetable at lunch, and then one tablespoon at breakfast
  10. If all goes well, raise your starchy vegetable intake to two tablespoons per meal
  11. Then, if all is still fine, substitute some whole grain in place of the starchy vegetables
  12. In this manner, you can continue to slowly increase your carbohydrate intake. At some point, you'll move beyond your personal fuel mix and begin to notice a reappearance of your "old" symptoms- fatigue, depression, mood swings, sweet cravings, digestive problems, 'and so on. When that happens, you'll know you need to start decreasing your carbohydrates gradually until you start feeling well again. At this stage, if you have any degree of uncertainty, you can always return to your baseline and start over

Remember, too much, or too little carbohydrates, in relation to protein, will produce similar symptoms.

Once you've come this far, you'll know how to manage your meals with great precision. But there are more techniques you can use to customize and fine-tune your diet even further.

The above was extracted from...

William Wolcott's book 'The metabolic typing diet'.

This is essential reading if you are serious about overcoming ill health regardless of its manifestations. 

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