Every living thing is looking for a rhythm that helps keep it in balance. This is why it's so important to work with your body's circadian rhythm. When that rhythm is disrupted, for example sleep rhythm, adverse health effects follow.
The same is true for eating and fasting. You have to develop a rhythmic eating and fasting pattern. This helps build predictable satiety and hunger signaling, which will allow you to fast more comfortably and avoid eating sporadically. Sporadic eating usually ends up in the drive-thru. Having designated meal and fasting times helps the reduction of stress hormones and allows you to track your meals and fasting times better. This is especially helpful for making sure you have the ingredients and time needed for preparing your meals, since eating real food requires shopping ahead of time and cooking.
In other words, predictable eating patterns help maintain proper blood glucose regulation.
There is no need to keep the body guessing. There is only the need to give the body proper nutrition and adequate fasting times. This is what causes the necessary and healthy pulsatile release of hormones. Making guesses isn't pulsatile. Guesses are just chaos and the average person's metabolism has experienced enough chaos for one lifetime.
2. How can low carb help my thyroid or other diseases?
Carbohydrate restriction has, in some cases, been shown to be beneficial for a variety of conditions and diseases, but it is still mainly a metabolic intervention for metabolic diseases like overweight/obesity and diabetes. I like to stay within that scope and not go beyond, because its effects on other conditions and diseases are not yet fully known and are highly individualized. For this reason, you should consult a healthcare provider before implementing carbohydrate restriction for the treatment of any condition or disease.
3. Aren't low carb diets dangerous? Didn't it kill Dr. Atkins?
There is a huge debate on what actually killed Dr. Atkins. The plant movement claims it was a heart attack. The low carbers claim it was a slip and fall. There’s debate on his age and whether he was overweight at the time of his death or not.
I’m not the doctor that treated him nor the coroner that performed his autopsy, so I cannot speculate on what killed him. Maybe it was a heart attack. Maybe it was a slip and fall. Maybe he had a heart attack during the slip and fall. Who knows. Unlike others, I don’t claim to know. No one knows except those who were there, treated him and completed his autopsy report. But, it doesn’t matter what he died of.
There are plenty of leaders in the plant movement that have died of cancer and heart attacks. There are people in the low fat movement that have died of the same. People die all of the time. This lifestyle is not for immortality. It’s for achieving the best metabolic health possible, while you're still alive, and many factors can get in the way of achieving this. Factors that have nothing to do with diet.
It has already been established that carbohydrate restricted diets allow the remission of metabolic disease, regardless of how Dr. Atkins died. The only things that would make these diets "dangerous" are 3 practices:
So no, it doesn’t surprise me if someone developed health problems while following a conventional interpretation of Atkins, or any other diet for that matter. You must follow a well formulated, carbohydrate restricted diet for it to be effective.
4. They say the ketogenic diet is dangerous because it harmed epileptic children.
The epileptic children that were treated with a ketogenic diet were fed special shakes as meal replacements. These shakes were made with “vegetable” oils, for the fat content, and were void of the nutrition growing children need. For this reason, the children’s growth was affected and they also suffered from many nutrient deficiencies, which caused them disease and even death.
There is no need to keep the body guessing. There is only the need to give the body proper nutrition and adequate fasting times. This is what causes the necessary and healthy pulsatile release of hormones. Making guesses isn't pulsatile. Guesses are just chaos and the average person's metabolism has experienced enough chaos for one lifetime.
2. How can low carb help my thyroid or other diseases?
Carbohydrate restriction has, in some cases, been shown to be beneficial for a variety of conditions and diseases, but it is still mainly a metabolic intervention for metabolic diseases like overweight/obesity and diabetes. I like to stay within that scope and not go beyond, because its effects on other conditions and diseases are not yet fully known and are highly individualized. For this reason, you should consult a healthcare provider before implementing carbohydrate restriction for the treatment of any condition or disease.
3. Aren't low carb diets dangerous? Didn't it kill Dr. Atkins?
There is a huge debate on what actually killed Dr. Atkins. The plant movement claims it was a heart attack. The low carbers claim it was a slip and fall. There’s debate on his age and whether he was overweight at the time of his death or not.
I’m not the doctor that treated him nor the coroner that performed his autopsy, so I cannot speculate on what killed him. Maybe it was a heart attack. Maybe it was a slip and fall. Maybe he had a heart attack during the slip and fall. Who knows. Unlike others, I don’t claim to know. No one knows except those who were there, treated him and completed his autopsy report. But, it doesn’t matter what he died of.
There are plenty of leaders in the plant movement that have died of cancer and heart attacks. There are people in the low fat movement that have died of the same. People die all of the time. This lifestyle is not for immortality. It’s for achieving the best metabolic health possible, while you're still alive, and many factors can get in the way of achieving this. Factors that have nothing to do with diet.
It has already been established that carbohydrate restricted diets allow the remission of metabolic disease, regardless of how Dr. Atkins died. The only things that would make these diets "dangerous" are 3 practices:
- Re-introduction of carbohydrates while on a high fat diet. Introducing carbohydrates back into the diet, which is what occurs after the Induction Phase of the Atkins diet, is counter productive and highly unhealthy. The carbohydrates will disrupt blood glucose once again and chronically raise insulin levels. You will then end up right back where you started or worse. Refined carbohydrates should never be eaten along side fat, especially saturated fat. Carbohydrates in the forms of grains and sugar must be completely restricted, for life, not occasionally or temporarily.
- Obtaining fats from "vegetable"/seed oils. Now we know that the quality of the fats you consume are vital to your health. After all, you are mostly fat. From your lymphatic fluid to your cell membranes, you are fat. They teach in school that the body is mostly water, but that water is in the form of fat. Your body is like a building. If you build it out of stone (saturated fat) it will be strong, but if you build it out of straw (seed oils) you will be weak. Consume only natural fats that the body recognizes. "Vegetable"/seed oils interfere with fat cell signaling.
- Eating all of the time, "because if it's not carbohydrate, then it's safe". Back when Dr. Atkins introduced his diet, it was solely focused on carbohydrate restriction. The Atkins Diet did not emphasize meal times. It was usually followed as an all you can eat buffet, day or night, whose only caveat was that your food must be carbohydrate restricted. This caused people to never stop eating. They began eating all kinds of junk, as long as it was marked "low carbohydrate". They ate massive amounts of processed meat, since fresh meat is more costly and requires preparation. As you can see, if you eat all of the time and insist on taking shortcuts, it becomes inevitable that you will sacrifice food quality. Eating chronically, interferes with blood glucose homeostasis which in turn causes chronically high insulin/prolonged insulin release. This is directly linked to metabolic abnormalities, which leads to heart disease amongst other ailments.
So no, it doesn’t surprise me if someone developed health problems while following a conventional interpretation of Atkins, or any other diet for that matter. You must follow a well formulated, carbohydrate restricted diet for it to be effective.
4. They say the ketogenic diet is dangerous because it harmed epileptic children.
The epileptic children that were treated with a ketogenic diet were fed special shakes as meal replacements. These shakes were made with “vegetable” oils, for the fat content, and were void of the nutrition growing children need. For this reason, the children’s growth was affected and they also suffered from many nutrient deficiencies, which caused them disease and even death.
- Ketogenic style diets, for the treatment of metabolic disease, should be followed by consuming real, whole food with all of its macro and micronutrients intact. It should not be followed by consuming nutrient void, isolated fats or oils, nor restriction of protein. A well formulated ketogenic diet is not dangerous.
- Ketogenic style diets, for the treatment of seizures or other neurological condition, should be administered and monitored by a healthcare professional.
No one following a ketogenic diet, for the purpose of improving metabolic health, should be following an epileptic or "classic" ketogenic diet. That type of diet requires medical supervision in order to avoid weight gain and nutrient deficiencies. Man cannot live from fat alone, just like he can't live from bread alone.
5. Do I just need to stay away from sugar?
Elimination of sugar is not enough. You have to eliminate anything that turns into sugar, once metabolized, like grains. Starches have to be restricted.
You need to stay away from anything that interferes with proper blood glucose regulation and that can go well beyond diet, so it certainly goes beyond just one food item.
6. They say low carb diets are ineffective, because many low carb proponents are still obese.
This can be said about every diet out there, but unfortunately, it hits carbohydrate restricted diets worse, because these are not diets accepted by the mainstream. We have seen many proponents of carbohydrate restricted diets that are still very much obese, insulin resistant and/or on medications. Obviously, this is not the goal you want to aim for. The goal of this diet is to fix your metabolic state, not remain the same or improve just enough to not die. You can do that by following much easier, conventional diets instead.
Many critics point to these people and claim that carbohydrate restricted diets do not work, but usually people do not tend to willingly give up their pizza unless they are at death's door. For this reason, carbohydrate restricted diets attract the very sick and morbidly obese, who have failed at every other weight loss attempt. This is one reason why we have such a large number of these people following this lifestyle. Many reverse their metabolic issues and continue on to enjoy healthy lives, but there is an equal number who use the diet as a revolving door, much like they did all the other diets they failed at.
The ones who are chronic "low carbers", but continue to exhibit metabolic abnormalities have issues that go beyond the scope of what a diet change can accomplish. I have seen the following problems with these people:
6. They say low carb diets are ineffective, because many low carb proponents are still obese.
This can be said about every diet out there, but unfortunately, it hits carbohydrate restricted diets worse, because these are not diets accepted by the mainstream. We have seen many proponents of carbohydrate restricted diets that are still very much obese, insulin resistant and/or on medications. Obviously, this is not the goal you want to aim for. The goal of this diet is to fix your metabolic state, not remain the same or improve just enough to not die. You can do that by following much easier, conventional diets instead.
Many critics point to these people and claim that carbohydrate restricted diets do not work, but usually people do not tend to willingly give up their pizza unless they are at death's door. For this reason, carbohydrate restricted diets attract the very sick and morbidly obese, who have failed at every other weight loss attempt. This is one reason why we have such a large number of these people following this lifestyle. Many reverse their metabolic issues and continue on to enjoy healthy lives, but there is an equal number who use the diet as a revolving door, much like they did all the other diets they failed at.
The ones who are chronic "low carbers", but continue to exhibit metabolic abnormalities have issues that go beyond the scope of what a diet change can accomplish. I have seen the following problems with these people:
- Eating huge quantities of food with unnatural macronutrient profiles. (Disordered binging)
- Continuing to make food the center of their life. (Disordered eating)
- Recreating obesogenic foods "keto style". (Sweeteners, processed foods, endless desserts)
- Inability to stick to eating real meals at meal times. (Snacking, extreme fasting)
- Misinformation on how to restrict carbohydrates. (Badly formulated diets)
- Severe restriction of protein. (If restriction of one macronutrient didn't work, let's try another)
- Doubling down on fasting and carbohydrate restriction. (If its not working, I will make it work by doing more of it)
- Aversion to exercise. (They think diet will solve it all for them)
So, when you see these people, just remember that they are following a badly formulated diet based on misinformation and you will see more of them popping up. Unfortunately, these people will continue advising on a diet, that they aren't following correctly themselves and hasn't even gotten them to their goals yet, since they are usually in it for the money. Do not follow an obese person's diet, because, more than likely, you will end up the same way.
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