Week Five Report

Today marks completion of week 5 of the science project. It is also spring break for the kids. Though we're not traveling anywhere for spring break, it does have us out of our normal routines.

This means we're eating differently, both compared to our typical diet and compared to each other. It's not wildly different by any means, but all in all, if we take one extra week, so that next week is the last week, then our final week will be much more homogeneous among us all. I think that is a more useful parameter than whether the experiment is 6 weeks or 7 weeks. I think we've hit a steady state equilibrium as regards the resistant starch component, the remaining difference is going to be from our individual diet and our initial condition. So, by waiting I hope we can better control the individual diet factor, and we have the "before" samples to control for the initial condition.

About the only other thing I have to mention is that I'm feeling much more acclimated to the RS. Recall I mentioned taking a 4 TB dose right before bed during week 2. Last week I forgot to take a morning dose on two or three occasions. I played catch-up by taking a double dose in the late evening. In all instances it didn't bother my sleeping in the least. In fact, I think part of the reason I forgot about dosing was that I had so acclimatized to the RS, that it was easy to forget about it. It just wasn't as big a part of my life as it had been. Some of it is certainly the novelty of the science project wearing off, but in retrospect I'd also have to say that the first few weeks the RS was causing more noticeable changes in digestion than I originally appreciated.

I think reading so many other people's reports made me expect -- not the worst -- but some big changes. When we didn't get big changes, I began thinking, hey, this stuff is no big deal, there's nothing to it. Now, I'd say it is true for us it was no big deal; however, there <i>is</i> something to it.

One last thing I wish to mention is that since we have a little more time in the mornings I'm going to take blood glucose readings from everyone and see if there's been a change in our morning baselines. Look for an update later this week.

Cheers.