Six common beliefs addressed, Part 175

1. Drinking diet sodas will prevent you from going into ketosis. 

No. It will just prevent you from getting lean.

2. "Keto" can cure asthma.

"Keto" does not cure asthma. The cure for asthma has not yet been found or rather, it has not been able to be successfully implemented in a large group of people with the same positive results. That's really the issue with many diseases. They know what causes them so they theoretically know how to solve them but the supposed "solution" doesn't work across the board in significant enough numbers to be claimed as a cure.

"Keto" is a palliative dietary treatment for metabolic dysfunction. It is to be used alongside any medication that your doctor has prescribed, after discussing your dietary changes with them.

"Keto" may relieve your symptoms because of a lowering of inflammation. It is already known that asthma is an abnormal inflammatory response. When your insulin levels are very high, you retain a lot of water. Water retention inflames tissues in the body further, since it has to be stored somewhere, and this is why it causes high blood pressure and exacerbates certain inflammatory conditions like auto immune disease or arthritis. This water retention can also make asthma symptoms worse as the lungs are impaired further from the pressure.

"Keto" diets, or any diet, that lowers insulin levels will cause a release of water and improve symptoms from conditions that are directly affected by inflammation, like asthma. The symptoms of these conditions may be temporarily relieved but the condition is still there as it hasn't been cured.

3. If you just get rid of sugar, it will cure acid reflux disease. 

It depends on what's causing your acid reflux disease. If it's being caused by doughnuts, then you might see an improvement or "cure" if you eliminate them. If it's being caused by all the other numerous things that can cause acid reflux, then no, there will be no difference.

4. You should only use butter, tallow or lard. Oils like olive and avocado are not "healthy fats".

People have used the term "healthy fat" ad nauseum and it has become absolutely annoying now. The only reason that the term "healthy fat" was coined, to describe these plant based oils, is because these oils have very little saturated fat and they aren't animal based. They are also less processed than seed/vegetable oils. This means that "healthy fat" is vegan/vegetarian propaganda. It is simply meaningless.

All fats are unhealthy if they are eaten beyond your macronutrient allotment as they will change the composition of your meals and that will change the composition of your body. You are what you eat.

You should be cooking only in saturated animal fats as they are much more stable when heated than any plant oil but you can still use plant oils for cold preparations or certain recipes. You have to keep your fat macros in mind when using any fat, especially added fat. Everything else is BS.

5. They say low carb diets are very delicious, but all people eat are plates of liver pate, runny raw looking eggs, cod liver with a brick of salt, all fried in bacon. I rather remain obese than have to eat like that. 

I get complaints like this constantly and my advice is always the same - stop following charlatans.

I totally understand that there are some low carb pages that feature the nastiest plates on planet earth so the world can toss their cookies. All of that is for shock value. A page will get attention if you post photos of yourself eating calf heart, rather than if you are just ate a normal plate of food. There are just so many diet pages that you need some type of con to get yours noticed and nasty food is a great sham that many low carb pages are now using. That's great for the growth of these pages, as all publicity is good publicity, but it won't help you one bit.

The problem with this is that the people who eat goose hearts and monkey brains are the ones that end up "falling off the wagon" and constantly trying to go back to their plate of horse testicles. When you have to eat frozen crickets, it's a given that you will end up at Denny's. And when you get there, you will binge. This is why we do not promote extreme, ridiculous protocols, as none of them are serious treatments for metabolic conditions.

You need to find a true low carb diet that is sustainable and prepare your foods the way you enjoy them. If you do not, you will not be able to consistently adhere to your protocol in the long term. Overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome/diabetes are conditions that only respond to long term treatments, not gimmicks. You know if you are eating the right diet when you actually prefer to cook your own foods at home because you enjoy them more than what can be delivered by Door Dash.

6. There is no exercise that can reduce a stress response.

Low to moderate intensity, steady state, long duration exercise is the best stress reliever. This is the type of exercise that is low impact, improves cardiovascular health and also builds muscle. Walking about 8 - 10K steps or 5 miles a day is a great daily exercise regimen and if you can split that into two sessions, or if you can do more, then that is fantastic.

There is only so much weight lifting, running or high intensity exercise you can do before you max out its benefits and they become adverse but you can never do too much walking. The body does not react nor does it adapt to walking in the same way it does to other forms of exercises. So you can do as much walking as you want to do in a day and it will always be beneficial, even if you walk the same way, everyday.

So if you can walk an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon, it would be an ideal scenario. This is because you don't allow your body to remain sedentary for long but you also rest in between. Being sedentary for long periods is adverse to health. This is especially true when you suddenly introduce exercise to a sedentary body. That causes stress. This is why the worse form of exercise is being a "weekend warrior". All that exercise you are pushing yourself to do, on the weekends only, is causing nothing but a stress response in the body. So not allowing the body to be sedentary for long periods of time is key in your exercise regimen.