I tested low starch/carb/sugar diet for 3 days on myself. In short, it works.
Most noticeable things were;
(a) I had less 3:30PM sleepiness,
(b) I had continuing feeling of "I am slightly hungry".
(c) On day 4, I brought back diet with rice (a Chinese dinner). I was full, satisfied and happy but I felt sleepy after a while.
Frankly I am a bit surprised by the quick and noticeable changes. I may have been too used to carb-rich diet. While I am used to something and think it is normal, it is hard to realize the overall effect of the something. I have been dismissing the sense of filling up after meal and a little bit of sleepiness as normal.
Other things I noticed were;
(a) Since I need to make up calories without rice, pasta, noodle, bread or potato, which are inexpensive, the cost for the diet may be more,
(b) Some cultures place special values in some food, like white rice is valued and enjoyed in Japan. Some people may have psychological barrier to implement this diet, and
(c) Since the loss of carb is made up by meat, vegetables, eggs and fat components, the diet becomes higher protein or higher fat diet, which may expose practitioners to higher risk for cancers in gastrointestinal tract in a long term.
I am not certain about the cancer risk part. Only an impression, but it is an established result that high fat diet increases GI cancer risk.
Overall, I am not planning to change my diet entirely. I am not ready for that. I will reserve my rights to enjoy sweets and ice cream. This is a major benefit of being healthy, meaning my pancreas is functioning enough to regulate blood sugar level at a reasonable level without much help. But I will mix this low carb diet occasionally as an option. As much as I am thankful to my current health, I would like to take good care of my body to stay healthy, and this experiment is my personal proof that diet has a noticeable impact.
Come to think of it, "prevention" is very under-appreciated field of medicine. If you don't get cancer or diabetes or anything, it's good, isn't it? It's much better than "you get one? Sorry but we have good medicine" situation. And it's far so much better than "you get one? Sorry, we can't cure them" situation.
To practice preventive medicine, it requires awareness (what you are doing now and know whether it is satisfactory or not), willingness (to change), knowledge (what you can do to change the course) and practice (do what needs to be done). It takes discipline yet the result comes out only later. And even most serious practice doesn't guarantee 100% result. With a mindset looking for quick fix and results, it looks hardly valuable. Yet, it is important.
In Steven Covey's bestseller business book "7 habits of highly effective people", there is a quadrant system to categolize events. Preventive medicine is something in quadrant 3, "Important but not urgent". The quadrant is something that makes difference in a long term. By the way the book is pretty good, a classic for a reason. You might want to look into it.
A graduate school student is arriving from Japan to a colleague's lab, and we will be having a welcome dinner tomorrow.
