Six common beliefs addressed, Part 112

1. After starting “keto” blood glucose can go into the 50s and 60s mg/dL, but this is not dangerous. 

Yes. It absolutely can be, especially if you are diabetic. You have to put a halt to this because all it’s doing is adapting your body further to keeping its blood glucose set point too high. For this reason, the best way to approach a dietary change is to take it in stages. 

You should start with moderate low carb first and see what results you get. The results occur in the long term (6 months to a year), not the short term. Some people go low carb and see that their blood glucose lowers, so they decide that if they restrict carbs further, then their blood glucose will lower even more, and though this might be true in the short term, they are actually causing the body to double down on its insistence to keep blood glucose higher than normal. After some time, their blood glucose begins to rise again. 

So, you don’t want to ignore this like “keto” people tell you to do. Normal blood glucose does not dip this low in healthy people. Drop the “keto” and especially drop any fasting you might be doing alongside “keto”. 

2. "Zero carb" diets cannot cause weight gain.

Carbs are not the sole cause of obesity. There are many things that are done wrong on carnivore that you might not have done on "keto". If you want to make sure you are following carnivore correctly, you can read how to properly do so here.

3. Do low carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting (IF) cause blood glucose to creep up?

Only if they are not properly regulating your blood glucose. If they are causing an extended time in hypoglycemia, your blood glucose will eventually begin to rise again. 

 

You have to shorten your fasts. A lot of people call all sorts of fasts "IF" when they aren’t. Keep your fasts between 12 -18 hours a day and no more. Continue shortening it, until you get to 12 hours if you can’t keep your blood glucose within a normal range. 

4. Is the “Snake Diet” a good protocol to follow?

Yes. If you are a snake. If you are a snake who has made this claim, then the snake diet is absolutely appropriate for you. Reptiles have a very slow digestive system because they are cold blooded animals. Depending on the species, some reptiles only have to eat once a month. 

 

But this blog is specifically for human metabolism, and the appropriate diet for humans, so you might want to search blogs dedicated to the Reptilians, as I cannot help you. 

5. "Keto" causes joint pain. 

This means that your body is under stress and you are losing your cortisol regulation, as you are releasing too much of it. When cortisol release becomes chronic, in the body, it loses its ability to regulate inflammation. Cortisol, like all other hormones, is meant to work in a pulsatile manner. Stop the “keto”. Go on moderate low carb. Low carb is any diet that is 100 grams of carbs or less a day. 

For a healthy person, this stress response would not be an issue. This is just something that people with metabolic abnormalities experience, as their bodies are "carb dependent" because of their adaptation to hyperglycemia. The body demands that its blood glucose be kept high all of the time. Carbs are a great way of accomplishing this, so their removal causes an exaggerated stress response in some. No, this isn’t "carb addiction" or the pain of not being able to eat bread. This is a physiological response to a metabolic adaptation. 

Removing the carbs removes the easiest way the body has of keeping its blood glucose high and so it’s reacting to it lowering. Usually this is temporary as the body, once again, adapts to lower blood glucose, over time, but for some people it’s not temporary and they continue having issues with their stress response. 

So, don’t jump to very low carb first. Reserve very low carb diets for when results are not obtained with moderate low carb. 

6. If you eat “too much protein” your blood glucose will increase. You must find the ideal "protein to fat ratio" in order to prevent this. 

No, no, no. There is no such thing as this. This is better phrased as "When your insulin levels do not rise enough, after eating, your blood glucose increases. You need to stop this uncontrolled catabolism through better blood glucose regulation.” Better blood glucose regulation will improve your insulin sensitivity and help you regain your first phase insulin response. Until then, you are not releasing enough insulin to stop glucagon. You are only releasing enough to activate it.