Six common beliefs addressed, Part 188

1. Sugar causes hair loss. 

No. Protein deficiency can cause hair loss. Certain thyroid conditions and/or age can cause hair loss. Gender can cause hair loss, which many men can attest to. Other medical conditions and/or medications can also cause hair loss but not sugar.

Sugar causes diabetes/overweight/obesity. Diabetes can cause protein deficiency since you need proper working insulin to get protein into cells. But sugar itself never directly decreases anything, including hair, except for overall health.

2. Diabetics who start "keto" can stop taking their medications. 

Do not stop any medication that you are on as it can cause serious health problems, especially as a diabetic.

Diets are only complimentary to conventional treatments. They are a way of eventually, hopefully, not needing anymore medications with time. But you do not stop your medications and just follow a diet. It doesn't work that way. You don't even know if this diet will help you or not.

Make sure that you tell your doctor the diet you are following and track your blood glucose closely so that medications can be reduced if the diet does begin working for you.

3. There is no confirmation that "keto" will cure fatty liver disease. 

Ketogenic protocols are the only known cure for fatty liver disease. Virta Health is a good resource for these published papers on fatty liver disease treatment which they have posted on their website. 

Of course, this dietary protocol would only work if your fatty liver disease was caused by fructose consumption, not alcohol. 

4. In order to get the benefits from the fat in meat, you have to consume it even if you don't like it. 

You don't have to eat the fat if you don't like it. The benefits come from the protein in the meat, not from its fat. Fat is a necessary nutrient but a little goes a long way. Eat the natural fat in foods you enjoy like dairy. You can keep meat lean.

5. There is no good way of reducing uric acid.

Elimination of all forms of fructose. I recently wrote about gout so you might want to reference my past posts.

In summary, people who consume a lot of fructose have metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome causes chronically and abnormally high insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia). Hyperinsulinemia impairs kidney function which does not allow for the proper elimination of waste, including excess uric acid. For this reason, gout can be described as a sign of impending kidney disease from metabolic abnormalities.

After you eliminate all fructose from your diet, you need to discuss with your doctor, a better treatment plan to control your gout flare ups.

6. My doctor never told me to stay away from processed foods. He just told me to work on "losing weight".

Doctors really don't have to state the obvious, but they do anyway, even when it falls on deaf ears. You very well know that your doctor telling you to "stay away from processed foods", was not going to keep you from them. Let's be realistic here.

But aside from that, "processed foods" is too vague a term and leaves too much up for interpretation from the patient. What your doctor should have told you is that you need to normalize your blood glucose regulation and that can be tracked using a blood glucose meter. After all, if Twinkies keep your blood glucose under control, then it really doesn't much matter if they are processed or not.