Keto Clarity: Your Definitive Guide to the Benefits of a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet (11 page)

American Medical Association (AMA)

The AMA is a highly respected organization dedicated to educating those involved in the medical profession about the latest health information and standard of care. What do they have to say about ketosis? It is characterized as an “abnormal” state brought on by a “deficiency or the inefficient use of carbohydrates.” Hoo boy! We’ll go down that rabbit hole in chapter 5, but suffice it to say for now that there is no such thing as a carbohydrate deficiency.

Source: American Medical Association Concise Medical Encyclopedia (2006)

There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. . . . Anyone who tells you to start eating carbohydrates in order to fix a health problem is totally missing the point.

– Nora Gedgaudas

American Heart Association (AHA)

The AHA is another well-known and prestigious health group whose goal is to share information with the general public about heart-healthy living. They’re no fan of saturated fat, which they claim raises your cholesterol levels to the point that you’ll get cardiovascular disease. Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that they discourage the consumption of a low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diet, stating that it is “high in protein,” which brings on “a condition called ketosis” that “may cause nausea.” Once again, ignorance about this subject matter abounds. In chapter 6, we’ll explain how the
moderate
consumption of protein in the ketogenic diet helps bring about the production of ketones for a variety of purposes (and inducing nausea is not among them).

Source: American Heart Association website

I think it has been shown fairly conclusively that it is only the high-fat, not the high-protein, diet that produces the greatest health benefits in combination with a low carbohydrate intake.

– Dr. Ron Rosedale

The Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Clinic, one of the country’s premier medical practices and research groups, acknowledges that the body does burn fat for fuel. But they claim that burning fat without consuming large quantities of carbohydrates creates “by-products” of ketone bodies that “build up in your bloodstream.” They admit ketones will suppress your appetite, but warn that being in ketosis will “cause fatigue and nausea.” I’m getting nauseated just hearing this unfounded claim about ketogenic diets being repeated by people who should know better.

Source: The Mayo Clinic website

Ketones are an efficient and effective fuel for human physiology without increasing the production of damaging free radicals. Ketosis allows a person to experience nonfluctuating energy throughout the day as well as enhanced brain function and possibly resistance to malignancy.

– Dr. David Perlmutter

WebMD

WebMD has established itself as one of the most trusted websites for everyday people to find quality health information. Want to know what they have to say about ketosis? They say that when you don’t consume enough carbohydrates in your diet to produce blood sugar, your body is “forced” to begin using blood sugar that is stored in the liver and muscles before eventually switching over to using ketones and fatty acids for fuel. Although they acknowledge ketosis can bring about weight loss (though they state that the weight lost is “mostly water”), WebMD gives a stern warning that this has some “serious” consequences, including “irritability, headaches, and enhanced kidney work” as well as “heart palpitations and . . . cardiac arrest.” Yep, they went there. If this is your current thinking about the effect of ketones on the body, then keep reading this book to get the truth.

Source: WebMD.com

DOCTOR’S NOTE FROM DR. ERIC WESTMAN: The mistaken notion that the weight loss from a ketogenic diet is “just water weight” comes from a study with some significant problems. First, the study was only done for a few weeks—and many studies now show that over a period of months, considerable fat is lost, too. Second, the study showed that the water weight returned when the research subjects started eating carbohydrates again. When you start changing your lifestyle, you are not supposed to go back to eating the same amount of carbohydrate that you did before—which led to the water weight regain!

Medical News Today (MNT)

MNT is a popular online health news aggregator website, and they describe ketosis as “a potentially serious condition if ketone levels go too high.” Ostensibly they’re referring to diabetic ketoacidosis, but they go on to say that while ketosis lowers hunger, societies around the world are dependent on carbohydrates (not ketones and fat) for energy. If “insulin levels are too low,” the website says, stored body fat needs to be broken down and “toxic” levels of ketones are produced, making the blood more acidic and causing damage to your kidneys and liver. Unfortunately, this isn’t a joke. And yet this is the kind of misinformation that we find online about ketosis brought on by consuming a low-carb, high-fat diet.

Source: MedicalNewsToday.com

Most doctors are not aware that a ketogenic diet lowers insulin levels and that this directly affects the kidney’s handling of sodium and water. Low insulin levels are a signal to the kidney to excrete sodium and water, whereas the high insulin levels associated with a high-carbohydrate diet are a signal to retain sodium and water. Physicians are taught to prescribe diuretics and advise salt restriction in sodium- and water-retaining states such as hypertension and congestive heart failure. But they should be taught the much more powerful effect of restricting carbohydrates.

– Dr. Keith Runyan

Dr. McDougall’s Health and Medical Center

I would be remiss if I didn’t include the position on ketosis from one of the most outspoken proponents of a vegan diet (as well as a vehement opponent of the Atkins and other low-carb diets), Dr. John McDougall. I interviewed Dr. McDougall on Episode 686 of
The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore
podcast in 2013. Google it and listen in for one of the most entertaining examples of what dietary dogma looks like. According to his website, Dr. McDougall believes that carbohydrate is the “body’s primary fuel” and that the production of “acidic substances called ketones” will zap your appetite, resulting in a decrease in calorie consumption, nausea and fatigue, and lowered blood pressure. He says this is the same thing that happens to someone during starvation, which is why he describes ketosis as “the make-yourself-sick diet.”

Source: DrMcDougall.com

During periods of starvation or fasting, the human brain can very easily switch over to using ketones as an alternative to glucose. As we age, we tend to use less glucose and switch over to alternative fuels in the brain. If we are on a high-carbohydrate diet, which suppresses ketone production, and have no other dietary source of ketones, we cannot expect that our brains will function as well. So many people have at least some degree of insulin resistance, and ketones could provide alternative fuel to cells that are not taking in glucose well, allowing for better cell function and ultimately healthier organs, including the brain.

– Dr. Mary Newport

American Diabetes Association (ADA)

As the leading advocacy group for diabetics in the United States, the ADA certainly has a thing or two to say about ketosis. They describe ketones as “a chemical produced when there is a shortage of insulin in the blood and the body breaks down body fat for energy.” That’s a true statement. But then they note that “high levels of ketones” can lead to “diabetic ketoacidosis and coma.” They leave out the most important factor: that high levels of ketones alone can’t result in ketoacidosis; it only occurs when very high blood sugar and very high levels of ketones happen simultaneously. And with no distinction about who exactly this would happen to (as we’ve already noted, mostly type 1 diabetics who have no insulin production), this kind of statement can only cause fear and panic about getting into a state of ketosis. In fact, in their definition of
ketosis
, the ADA describes it as “a ketone buildup in the body that may lead to diabetic ketoacidosis,” with warning signs of “nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain.”

Worse, the ADA’s recommended treatment for diabetes is to eat carbs and just cover up their effects with insulin. There’s nothing wrong with taking insulin if it’s truly needed, of course, but even diabetics will experience all the problems that come from eating carbs that everyone else does (with far worse effects than those experienced by nondiabetics). And the ADA makes no mention of the therapeutic use of ketogenic diets in controlling blood sugar and improving health—including for the millions of people with type 2 diabetes who stand to benefit from a ketogenic diet (we’ll tell you more about that in chapter 16). It’s all just gloom and doom.