What is a Healthy Diet?
In my first post I gave the testimonial of how my husband reversed his diabetes, and how we are now both benefiting from healthier bodies and weight. There has been so much we have learned that it was hard to narrow down what would go in this next post. I have decided this post will be an overview of three types of low carb diets, including the Keto and Carnivore Diets, and explain the reasons they work.
Conventional Wisdom is Wrong
So much of the conventional wisdom from the CDC and USDA and the average doctor is out of date and not helpful if you truly want to reverse diabetes or insulin resistance and the many health complications that come with them. My husband discovered this in talking to his doctors. We can all see it when we look at the food pyramid which features the largest bottom tier filled with grains.
Too Much Sugar
To understand why this doesn’t work and isn’t actually healthy for anyone, you must begin to understand the role of the hormone insulin. Insulin is spiked by the ingestion of any carbohydrate, whether grain, fructose, or sugar. Its job is to lower the elevated blood glucose level that results by helping glucose enter the cells. If there is too much for the cells to handle, they become like overflowing containers, harder and harder to stuff glucose into. The cells begin resisting insulin’s attempts to get the glucose in. Increasingly more is required to get the same job done. Also, more fat cells must be created to absorb all the glucose. Thus a downward spiral begins. If it becomes impossible to get enough glucose out of the blood stream and into the cell, then you have chronic high blood sugar and Type 2 Diabetes. I will go into this more extensively in a future post but this is why the plans I recommend lower glucose production, and as a result, lessen insulin production.
Low Carb Diet
There are a few practices and three diets that do this, each with increasingly lower levels of carbohydrates consumed. Each has its place with benefits and detriments. The first and least restrictive is a low carb diet which is generally seen as allowing approximately 100-120 carbohydrates per day. If your health is good overall and you just want a healthier life while maintaining the weight you are at, this will probably work for you. This will work especially well if you include intermittent fasting as part of your lifestyle. This is a practice in which you restrict your eating time to 8 hours or less in a 24 hour period and avoid snacking. I will be doing a more extensive post on this very effective lifestyle later.
Keto Diet
If, on the other hand, you are pre-diabetic, diabetic, overweight, or facing other related health challenges, you probably should try the diet with the next lower level of carbohydrate intake. This would be the Ketogenic diet, also known as Keto. For many people this would mean less than 50 carbohydrates per day. For others, it would require less than 30 depending on your insulin resistance level and genetics. The primary aim of this diet is to get you into ketosis. Ketosis means that instead of burning glucose to fuel your energy, your body instead is burning ketones that come from fat. It might take a few days for your body to transition to this mechanism of energy production, but it is a more efficient, healthier one. You will actually be much less hungry and have more energy once you have transitioned. The weight and blood glucose levels will come down much faster as well.
Carnivore Diet
Finally, the lowest carbohydrate diet is the carnivore diet. This may be particularly necessary if you struggle with a lot of food allergies known and unknown. If you have a lot of inflammation that may be seen in arthritis and other conditions, it may be a result of unknown allergies. A carnivore diet will help your body to reset itself and you to figure out what foods you are sensitive to. As you may guess, this diet is an all meat diet. Protein does stimulate insulin a little bit, but very little. You may think it is unhealthy, but if done with pasture raised eggs and organ meats along with other healthy, grass fed meats and sea food, it can provide you with all the nutrients you need. You may want to consider it at least as a temporary measure if you are trying to resolve the issues mentioned above. It will have all the benefits of the keto diet as far as producing ketones for energy, losing weight, and lowering blood sugar though it is much more restrictive and difficult to stick to.
Intermittent Fasting and Sufficient Fat are the Keys
Each of these diets is greatly enhanced by the practice of intermittent fasting. If you have sufficient fat in your meals, you shouldn’t be hungry in between. If you are, it is more likely a result of habit and not real hunger. For a Keto diet, the recommendation is generally that you get 70% of your calories from fat, 20% from protein, and 10% from healthy carbohydrates. This does not fit with conventional wisdom on weight loss diets, but when you understand the role of hormones (one of which is insulin) in fat storage and ketones in energy production, you will realize the reason that calorie restriction is not the answer, especially if you expect to be able to maintain it as a lifestyle long term.
Happy Healthy Eating
In future posts I will be exploring in depth many of the topics brought up in this overview. Please comment with any questions you may have. I will research and address them as this blog continues. The next post will provide specifics on what to eat so you can enjoy this healthier lifestyle.
Helpful Resources
Dr. Berg is a chiropractor who is great at simplifying and explaining a whole host of medical issues, their causes, effects, and fixes. Though this video is a longer overview, he usually does this in short videos of around 5 minutes. He specializes in all things surrounding the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting.
Dr. Eckberg is a holistic doctor who does a wonderful job of giving a more in-depth understanding of natural ways to improve your health for the long term. He makes important concepts simple to understand in videos that are usually around 25 minutes. This video explains how to reverse insulin resistance, the underlying cause of diabetes.
Dr. Berry is a family physician who is also great at providing understanding on many health issues and ways to address them. He is an especially good source on issues surrounding the carnivore diet.