11-19am
This week Mike had an amusing incident at work. He walked into a meeting eating a packet of chocolate peanuts. He was met with some seriously quizzical looks. The conversation that ensued revealed that 3 out of the 5 people around the table are on a low carb high fat eating plan. It soon came out that I am Mike’s wife & some of those there were listening to the advice of Tim Noakes & following some of my blog posts. They expected, of course, that Mike would also be LCHF but he is not. Reason being is that he is not carbohydrate intolerant & has weighed 75kg for just about as long as I have known him. So that’s when I got thinking. Why is Mike not carbohydrate intolerant and Tim Noakes is? I have never seen Tim Noakes overweight. He is very lean and fit and seemingly always has been. And what most people don’t know about Tim Noakes is that 40 years ago this year (April 1973) , at the incredibly young age of 23, he ran his first 2 Oceans Ultra marathon in…
… an astounding 4 hours (& 58 seconds). He came 13th overall! That is remarkable! And in those days, I think he was just eating, not thinking too much about how he was eating…just eating to run, probably high carb, high fat… who knows! I’ll have to ask him!
40 years ago Mike also was athletic & fit, but far from running ultra marathons. The difference between Mike & Tim has to lie in their genetic make up. Tim’s dad died of diabetes. Mike does not have a familial history of diabetes. Mike & I as well as Wayne & Rene had breakfast with Tim & his wife some time ago and Mike longingly eyed the carbs, but being in the company of our highly respected Professor, restrained from reaching for them. We spoke about Mike’s medical history and even Tim agreed that Mike’s metabolism seems to be working well with no sign of of carbohydrate intolerance. So Mike carried on as usual, including the odd snack of chocolate peanuts. Having said that, since I have gone LCHF, he has cut down radically on his sugar intake, because there’s seldom too much sugary stuff at home.
Each person is different. Not everyone is carbohydrate intolerant, so therefore not everyone needs to eat low carb, but I do believe that we eat too many carbs and we will benefit from eating less of them. And I also believe that everybody can reduce their carbohydrate intake with no ill effects and absolutely everybody can live without sugar. We get enough of it without adding it.
Some time ago, David got hold of the Lore of Running and, being a runner, read chunks of it. He then saw how old Tim was when he ran his first Ultra. So he asked me to ask Tim if he thought 23 was not too young to do 56km. David had in mind running the Two Oceans Marathon next year. Tim wrote in the front of the book, ‘the aim is to still be running at 80!’ Tomorrow, David is running the Cape Town marathon – 42km – to qualify for next years Two Oceans. We’ll see how he does.
Mike, meantime walks up 14 flights of stairs each weekday and spends time hitting golf balls over the weekend! I am grateful for his ongoing health.
That’s all great physical exercise. From another point of view…
Have a fabulous, healthy weekend.
God bless you loads.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂