Diets that perpetuate hypoglycemia (and accidents)

There's a lot of problems with the science behind these posts, as well as the fact that some of these posts aren't even connected to the ketogenic diet.

Hyperglycemia is induced by low blood sugar, yeah I get that. But the thing is that ketosis creates glucose from fat. So, a person that is in the state of ketosis can't be hypoglycemic unless they have an overabundance of insulin.

The biggest problem with people who are diabetic (pre-diabetic) and such is that they eat sugar and then the pancreas creates an overabundance of insulin to take care of it, and once the sugar is gone from the blood stream, you still have all that insulin hanging around and that's what caused hypoglycemia and insulin resistance because the cells in your body stops reacting to insulin when there's a lot of it but no sugar in the blood stream.

In other words, hypoglycemia isn't a sugar problem, it's an insulin problem. This is why you can't just jump into ketosis, why it's a 2 week to a month long process to get keto adapted.

There are a lot of benefits to the Ketogenic diet, when done properly, such as a far lower risk of cancer, zero risk of diabetes type 2, and improved brain function. Plus, the ketogenic diet may be even repair kidney damage: Reversing impaired kidney function in diabetics may be possible with ketogenic diet

Reversing impaired kidney function in diabetics may be possible with the ketogenic diet. The researchers at Mount Sinai Medical School found that the ketogenic diet, a style of eating based on high-fat and low-carbohydrate intake, may be beneficial in reversing kidney function.

The researchers studied mice that were genetically predisposed to have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The mice went on to develop diabetic kidney damage. Half of the mice were put on the ketogenic diet and the other half served as controls. After eight weeks, molecular indicators of kidney damage were reversed in the mice on the ketogenic diet, along with kidney pathology in mice with type 2 diabetes.

There's also this:

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time determined that the ketogenic diet, a specialized high-fat, low carbohydrate diet, may reverse impaired kidney function in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. They also identified a previously unreported panel of genes associated with diabetes-related kidney failure, whose expression was reversed by the diet.

Now, rhabdomyolysis, is a condition where extreme workouts cause extreme muscle breakdown and produce large quantities of myoglobin, which cause kidneys to fail to process all the broken down muscle in your body. I've never seen a proponent of the ketogenic diet promote a long or extreme workout. My workouts are only 30 minutes long at most and I only go about 50-80% to failure, leaving room to heal for the next day's workout.

If anything, the ketogenic diet will prevent rhabdomyolysis by promoting a more efficient working kidneys.


Needless to say, when you're messing around with your hormones, you need to be careful, and that's what the ketogenic diet does, it's manipulating your hormones and doing it for the better.

As far as the claim that the ketogenic diet is unbalanced, I call BS on that. The majority of your carbs should come from vegetables whenever possible. The right vegetables will provide you with pre and probiotics, minerals, and essential vitamins for your health. I personally take supplements when I can't get a balanced diet.

The only things you're cutting out on a ketogenic diet is sugar, bread, and simple carbs like rice, potatoes, and pasta, all of which spike insulin to a drastic degree. Some fruit is acceptable.

Oh, and you're also cutting out a lot of protein on the keto diet as well. The reason is simple. Too much protein also causes a spike in insulin whereas just enough causes a spike in testosterone. Ellington Darden, PHD, a bodybuilder as well as a doctor and proponent of High Intensity Training (of which I am not a proponent of) says that at most, bodybuilders only need about 27 or so grams of protein a day. All the rest gets flushed out in the urinary tract. From what I've seen, I believe this to be correct.

 

Agreement. However, I will mention that the types of fats you consume is important. You want to maintain a healthy HDL count in your blood. High Density Lipids help to scour Low Density Lipids from arteries and veins.

Low Density Lipids are what cause most arterial blockages.

Some foods have high levels of HDL. I always took a Lecithin supplement to elevate my HDL count.

 

Well, 1st of all, the author of that article has a fundamental ignorance of what the ketogenic diet, and the purpose of it, actually is. The ketogenic diet is designed to keep insulin from spiking, to allow your cells to become insulin sensitive so that 1) Your growth and fat burning hormones, which aren't present in your body while insulin is running rampant, can start building muscle and burning fat as your primary source of fuel (insulin is actually the hormone primarily responsible for fat storage) And 2) so that whenever you do eat food, it's actually absorbed into the cells because cell react better to when they're insulin sensitive rather than resistant, which is why eating more than 3 times a day of foolhardy, because you're spiking your insulin levels far more than you should.

As for vegetables, they are not restricted. Remember, you get 5% of your nutrition from carbs which should be vegetable based and you get a lot more bang for your buck with certain vegetables per gram than you realize. You can pretty much have all the spinach and dark greens you can choke down on a keto diet along with certain dressings and vinegar, all of which can have tons of healthy fats, vitamins, and fiber. Perhaps the author should've checked out what is allowed on the keto diet before criticizing it. Remember, what foods are ketogenic is based on an insulin index chart, not on a glucose index.

In other words, what the author is saying is fundamentally wrong. The guy makes the argument that the keto diet is horrible for bodybuilding or strength gains. Maybe that's true for top competitive athletes, those who eat 5,000 calories a day and have a through the roof metabolism (we're talking the elite here), but it's not for the average Joe. After all, have you taken a look at one of the top ketogenic and intermittent fasting proponents, Thomas Delauer?



I'd be hard pressed to call this guy a lightweight.