Last updated on April 12th, 2017
This week I donated my fat-pants and started taking my vitamins again.
Closet Cleaned
When I started out eating low-carb eight months ago, I was just trying to lose weight. I was focused on pounds, not inches, and I didn’t have a specific goal for my waist-line circumference.
Gradually, I settled on reducing my waist-line to under 40 inches as a worthwhile and realistic goal. I have now achieved that goal.
Today I pulled a dozen pairs of pants out of my closet, all too big for me to wear. I’ll be donating them to Goodwill. They are size 44 waist, 32 inseam.
My current size is 38-32. So I’m slimmer, but not shorter. My legs are still long enough to reach the ground.
Who knows — I may contract a couple more inches around the middle, but as long as I can wear the 38-32s, I’ll be happy. If they get too tight, I’ll know I have work to do.
Oddly, I can still wear many of my old shirts without a problem. I’m not sure about my sweaters. With the warm fall around here, I haven’t worn a sweater yet. I have a lot of sweaters, too, which were always useful in camouflaging my girth. The ones that are too stretched out will be joining the Goodwill collection.
Somewhere there will be a stomach to match them.
Multivitamin supplements resumed
I started taking a daily multivitamin earlier this year. I wasn’t sure I needed it, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.
Then came news that maybe it could hurt, and I had second thoughts.
A few weeks ago, following the publication of a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine that found a possible association between taking vitamin and mineral supplements and, well, dying, I decided to lay off my daily supplements. This was illogical of me. First, the study was focused on a population of older women only. Second, the greatest risk (if you can call it that) was associated with taking iron supplements. Not only am I not a woman, but I’ve never taken iron.
Even for the target population, the finding was stated in weaselly language: “. . . several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements may be associated with increased total mortality risk” (italics mine).
Dr. Mark Hyman, arguing for Why You Should Not Stop Taking Your Vitamins, points out numerous flaws with this and other vitamin studies. Essentially, Dr. Hyman asserts, vitamins aren’t drugs and can’t be tested the way drugs are. Yet that is how they are approached. Such studies also fail to consider why subjects may be taking supplements in the first place. Often, it is to try to compensate for poor diets or deal with existing health problems.
Now that I’ve had time to think it over, I have resumed taking my multi-vitamin. For good measure, I’m taking an extra dose of vitamin D, too.
You must be logged in to post a comment.