Recipe: A concoction that stops me getting up in the night to pee
First in a new series for paid subscribers.
I am conscious that, apart from the occasional online chat with Helen Dale—at times inconvenient for folk in the Americas, because I live in Melbourne and Helen lives in England—I do not offer paid subscribers anything except good will and deep appreciation.
I wish to contribute to the general debate, which is why I do not put my posts behind paywalls.
I am absolutely against restricting comments to paid subscribers, because I want to encourage feedback and I dislike anything that encourages cognitive “bubbles” or “siloes”.
So, I have come up with a new series of occasional posts that will be behind a paywall—posts on my experiments with low carb (and gluten-free) cooking.
I am not a Coeliac, but my intestines really do not like gluten. Small amounts give me diarrhoea and large amounts cause considerable intestinal pain.
This is something that became clear after going low-carb over the Covid lockdowns, as I stopped eating grains. After the lockdowns were over, I suddenly started getting intense digestive discomfort, which I rapidly ascertained stopped if I avoided gluten.
I had not realised that it is possible to develop sensitivity to gluten later in life. It is. Our (comparatively recent) evolutionary adaptations to a farming diet can wear off as we age. (Adoption of a farming diet was a metabolic disaster, as is the ultra-processed/industrialised food diet.)
In the course of going keto, I lost 43kgs (95lbs). I also got my hip-to-waist ratio to where I wanted it.
Temporarily.
The ratio has creeped back up since, so I am back to waging the battle of the bulge, but still way ahead of where I was.
I am very much a proponent of the n=1 approach—find out what works for you. We vary genetically; epigenetically; in life experience; in habits and preferences. What works for one person will not work for another.
And a routine that you cannot stick to definitely will not work for you.
So, I am measuring my waist regularly (once a week), as regular measurement is pretty much necessary for success in the battle of the bulge. I am not so bothered by weight, as I do not care if I put on more muscle than I lose in fat. Hence using hip-to-waist ratio as my indicator. I have lost 3cm (1.5”) off my waist since 30 December 2025: it has gone up and down a bit, but the trend is down.
As part of this renewed effort, I wanted to replace the alcoholic drink I had been recently having in the bath. So, I tried a concoction of my own.
It had an unexpected effect. I stopped getting up in the night to pee, which had been a nightly thing, whether or not I had any alcohol.
