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Notes:
If you are low-carb, are you ketogenic?
What are the benefits of nutritional ketosis?
We invite Jimmy Moore, blogger and author, to discuss his soon to be released new book: Keto Clarity. This book explains why ketosis is normal, how this nutritional approach is being used therapeutically by many medical professionals, real life success stories of people using a ketogenic diet, and more.
In this podcast, we also cover why you want to get into ketosis and how more research still needs to be done in regards to ketogenic diets to help change US dietary policy.
To learn more about Jimmy Moore and his work, click the following links:
1. Keto Clarity information website
2. Jimmy Moore’s website
Podcast content clarification from Kiefer:
“I accidentally said that glucose has to be metabolized to lactate before it can enter the citric acid cycle, but I meant pyruvate even though pyruvate and lactate can cycle back and forth between each other.”
Like what you’re listening to? Get the transcript here.
How can I download these podcasts? That is the only way I can listen to them….and I really want to…..
Great show, guys!
You are absolutely right when you mentioned that introducing ketones via ketone esters or MCT drinks can help improve cognition or athletic performance, but doing so does nothing to correct the underlying metabolic imbalances or rampant oxidative damage and glycation that come from constant carbohydrate feedings. I wrote a paper on Alzheimer’s disease as type 3 diabetes, and I said much the same thing:
“MCTs could certainly be a powerful adjunct to a reduced carbohydrate diet, which would reset the metabolic machinery, ease oxidative stress, and reduce glycation. In the absence of dramatic dietary overhaul, however, the administration of ketone bodies is akin to bailing water out of a leaky boat without stopping to patch the hole: you merely manage the effects while the root cause continues wreaking havoc.”
Most likely, the benefits of ketogenic diets are not *just* in the elevated ketone levels, but like Kiefer said, also due to the *absence* of constant influxes of glucose. Let the metabolic machinery calm down, clean out, and make repairs, while *also* providing an effective energy substrate that doesn’t result in the same amount of mitochondrial damage as glucose. (Like Robb Wolf might say, “It’s almost like this stuff works…”) Providing ketones without reducing carb intake might be okay for the young, fit, active Special Forces guys Dr. D’Agostino works with, but likely not for the 70-year old overweight lady with hyperinsulinemia and early Alzheimer’s.
I also agree with what you said about some of the people active in ketone research being skittish about recommending doing it dietarily rather than with ketone formulations in shakes & bars, and that kind of thing. It’s frustrating that these people *know* how effective keto diets can be, but they focus more on elevating ketones via exogenous sources rather than letting the body do it via carbohydrate restriction. For some of them, I don’t think it’s so much a fear of fat or still being stuck in the mindset that the body “needs” a certain amount of glucose. (Most of them know better by now, I think.) Many of the papers I’ve come across focus on exogenous ketones because of compliance problems with the diet. The researchers don’t seem to have much faith in people wanting to stick to it. Hard to say why…I guess some people just really, truly, would rather have a bagel than sausages for breakfast, even if they are literally dying from Alzheimer’s, MS, or diabetes. Oy…
I invite anyone who’s interested in the effects of the modern, carb-centric diet on brain function and the potential therapeutic role of low-carb and/or ketogenic diets to read a paper I wrote that was published in the most recent issue of the Weston A Price Foundation’s journal. I know the WAPF has come under a bit of controversy in the last couple of years, but please don’t let that stop you from reading the article:
https://www.westonaprice.org/modern-diseases/type-3-diabetes-metabolic-causes-of-alzheimers-disease/
Their online formatting is a little screwy, so if you’d prefer a more aesthetically pleasing pdf version, feel free to email me privately and I can send a copy. (tuitnutrition [at] gmail [dot com]) Also, the version the WAPF published is slightly condensed, so if anyone’s interested in reading the full version, with just a bit more scientific detail, I can send that, too. The original was called “Alzheimer’s Disease as Type 3 Diabetes and the Potential Therapeutic Role of Reduced Carbohydrate Diets” to give you some idea of the angle.