This video is long, but presents the studies, the data, the results, and even traces the “low fat diet” advice back to funding by sugar companies.
Diabetes, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver, coronary issues, inflammation and more. All driven by fructose and the 1/2 of sucrose (table sugar) that is fructose.
In one case, they put a group of kids with fat problems on a constant calories diet, just replacing sugar calories with non-sugar. Their livers showed a big reduction in lipogenisis (fat making) after just 10 days. Their markers for metabolic syndrome improved, as did their cholesterol scores.
Note that starch is a glucose polymer. That it is not the problem strongly implies that you can still sweeten things with glucose. It is sold at beer and wine making supply places since using sucrose changes the flavor and some folks are picky… I’m happy to just avoid sweet things. (I avoid all artificial sweetners due to their basket of problems…)
So you don’t necessarily need to go full on keto or carnivore to fix “issues”. Starting with just avoiding sugar gets you a big win right out the gate.
Then another long one covering some of the same turf but getting into depression and mood issues in the last half.
Musings from the Chiefio 
About a year ago I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes based on a high A1C. My GP was rather nonchalant about it, telling me to eat right and exercise and we’ll monitor it. So I started looking for the right diet in the usual places and got the usual low fat, especially low saturated fat, and high carb diets. But Keto and LCHF started appearing in my random YouTube results, so I took a look.
One of the red flags for me was that Keto or LCHF seemed to improve if not resolve virtually every common health problem in Western cultures: obesity, diabetes and related complications, Alzheimer’s, ED & prostate problems, mood and depression, bipolar, etc.
One of the green flags, if you will, was the fact that if Keto/LCHF really was the more optimal diet, it meant that government approved scientific consensus on diet and health had been completely wrong for decades. Now I’d already been down that road with climate science so it was at least plausible.
So I tried Keto, but ran blood tests after 2 weeks, then at 3 month intervals, and saw a marked improvement in fasting glucose and triglycerides and HDL. So I kept at it and my blood test results continue to improve. And I’ve lost 70 lbs., and my last A1C was 4.6.
For those just wanting to eliminate sugars (which by itself is a huge improvement for most people), be aware there are a lot of ingredients that are sugar without being obviously sugar. “Corn syrup solids” for example is almost pure glucose, and appears in a lot of processed foods from low-fat peanut butter to non-dairy powdered coffee creamer.
The Keto diet, at least as I do it, also cuts out so-called “vegetable oils”. These are all seed or bean oils, not a vegetable to be found. And what the hell is a Canola anyway? I guess rapeseed doesn’t have a good ring to it. I use mainly saturated meat fats, olive, coconut, and avocado oil.
Just when you thought you could relax….another food scare.
A love of chilli could speed the onset of dementia, according to new study University of South Australia epidemiologist Ming Li and international colleagues.
The research, carried out over 15 years, examined 4582 Chinese adults over the age of 55 and found that those consuming large quantities of chilli — over 50 grams a day — had over double the risk of memory decline and poor cognition.
Eating lots of chilli can also have benefits because it has an active component called capsaicin which, according to earlier research, helps keep weight down by speeding up metabolism and helps reduce blood pressure.
But losing weight due to chilli consumption also has a downside because the memory decline for chilli lovers is even more pronounced if they are slim, rather than overweight.
Standby for a new study “Adverse effects of mono-sodium glutamate consumption”.
From a paper called ‘On the keto diet? Ditch the cheat day’ @ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190327112657.htm
Also note the many other interesting studies at the bottom of the page.
I think the important take home here is – don’t drink 75 grams of fast acting glucose, after you have been carbohydrate deprived.
First of all, very very few people will be able to get down to 10% carbohydrates unless they eat nothing but lard and beef with 3 potato chips for dinner.
Second most of their carbohydrate will be more complex carbohydrates like potatoes, or rice or pasta which has a much lower glycemic index and blood sugar glucose will not spike into the danger range that they triggered.
10% carbohydrate would mean a 400 calorie meal with the only carbohydrate being the equivalent of 1/2 a slice of bread, one ounce of pure lard and 2/3rds of an once of pure lean meat.
Sort of like 5 or 6 slices of bacon on a half a slice of bread.
Their test is an unrealistic test of an extreme boundary condition not likely to be approached by normal consumers.
I sometimes make just a plain bacon sandwich with two pieces of toast (120-140 calories of bread) and 1.5 slices of bacon (which is all I can get in the sandwich without half of it falling out while I eat it. That sandwich would have about 4x the carbohydrates of their test diet.
Another catch in the noted study is that they used *9* subjects. Now if it were *900 million*, then I’d take more notice.
Ah, the Bacon Sandwich! One of my favorites!
I use plain bread, not toasted, though. It may “grab” the bacon better… but I can easily get much more bacon in it!
I cut the bacon into 1/2 slices prior to frying. I’ll then arrange 3 of those 1/2 slice strips “up and down” and 3 “cross ways” for a total of 3 slices as 6 strips on the sandwich. Very Nice ;-)
I’ve been known to do this with folded slices instead of cutting them into 1/2 slice strips, for a total of 6 slices of bacon. Godlike(!) experience… (well, maybe only almost ;-) but I do end up with bits falling out. Something about biting off a chunk separating the “bend” from the rest and then some loose end shouting “I’m Free I’M FREE!!!” and clink on the plate… and then down the hatch as a “bacon bit that almost got away”…
Per the “cheat” day:
Since it can take a day just to get a good keto state going, a “cheat day” could cost you 2 days… I think I’m not willing to do that…
I went LCHF a year ago, added intermittent and extended fasting in January. I’ve shed 70 lb of fat, the arthritis in my feet is simply gone, and my rotator cuffs are so much improved that I can go kayaking whenever I feel like it. My double chin is gone and the fasting autophagy has eliminated the “turkey neck” I was afraid I would develop.
Jason Fung and Megan Ramos are big advocates of fasting, their website goes into a lot of detail:
https://idmprogram.com/fasting-a-history-part-i/
@Rocketplumber:
I’m trying to get to a 6 hour “eating window” per day. I’ve had some weight loss and some increase in “vigor” already, but I’ve also had days with “issues”. Almost entirely when I’ve had “just a couple” of snack sized candy bars. About 2 hours later I’m having a half dozen more. Then I found that one new (lower cost) jar of jam; where I put a Tbs or so in my morning oats, had me getting “sugar shakes” about 2 hours later (where normally it is filling for a few hours).
Read the label. Major ingredient? High Fructose Corn Syrup. In Apricot Pineapple jam.
My major jam (A “Danish Choice” label / brand) has fruit as the first ingredient then “sugar” and “glucose syrup” as ingredients. No issues with a Tbs of it in a bowl of oats.
I’ve also been slowly cutting back the “carbs” portion of my dinner triad (protein source usually meat, carbs, vegetable) and raising the protein portion. Now instead of roughly equal portions, it’s more like 2x or 3x the meat serving, and 1/2 to 1/3 the carbs. Things like green beans, carrots, or a salad are treated as neutral vegetables. Things like Corn or Baked Beans are treated as a combined Protein / Starch and you don’t serve another starch with them but can add another protein. Also actively working, now, to get HFC High Fructose Corn Syrup to zero. Harder than you might think. It is EVERYWHERE.
The incremental approach has generally been working, but the “candy and jam” experience has put a spotlight on how just a modest serving of sugar can cause a big sugar craving a couple of hours later. So there’s a case to be made for going to zero sugar just out the gate and getting over it once. IF you get just a tiny bit too much sugar (and it isn’t much…) the keto gets shut off, the insulin rises, and the whole process has to start over. Oddly, oats and cooked rice do not seem to cause that to happen. I think it is the slower digestion with fiber in the way, and that starch is all glucose, no fructose, that is the reason. I DO put a large pat of butter (about 2 Tbs) into the oats and on the rice, so in reality a lot of the calories are actually fat based; so there may be some sugar / fat ratio thing that matters too.
I’m now moving my “triad” to be more of a quadrants system. Protein, Vegetable, Fats, Carbs where each one is about double the size of the next one over. 8 units of Protein for 4 of vegetables for 2 of fats for 1 of carbs. Or something like that. We’ll see how it evolves.
What is rather clear is that as long as I avoid the “sugar snack” after an early dinner (about 5 pm) I’m good the next morning on “black coffee and water” until about 11 AM to noon. It isn’t all that hard to have a 5 to 6 hour “eating window”. BUT, have a snack that beaks the keto state in the evening, I’m craving breakfast at 9 am…
After I have this working reliably, I’m going to toss in a fasting mimicking day. I think I’ll start with a “Salad Wednesday” (just because we do ‘special’ things surrounding the weekends so less controllable) where it is just lettuce, radishes, green onions, etc. with something like an oil and vinegar dressing. Not a lot of calories of any sort, but something to chew and swallow. Then try to work that down to a real fasting day, maybe.
My biggest “learn” so far is just that while this does work, it is only a very small unit of sugar needed to derail the metabolism out of keto and into insulin cycling. Even less for Fructose.
Oh, and FWIW, while I’d been doing eggs and sometimes vegetable frittata for breakfast, it left me with some unexplained craving for “something” and I’d tend to eat more at lunch. The oats do not have that and it is just “eat the oats feel full and energetic for a few hours”. Go figure. Lunch becomes a smaller snack. It is 1/2 cup (dry) of “Quick Oats” in a cup of hot water with 2 Tbs of butter and 1 Tbs of preserves. So most of the calories are from the butter and the oats are about 1/2 empty space, so maybe 1/4 cup of actual material (some of which is fiber anyway) I probably ought to look up the actual carbs numbers… It just seems to act mostly like a sponge for the butter and carbs slowly releasing them over hours and dampening the whole spike / drop cycle thing.
Next paycheck I’m going to buy more meats / bacon / pork chops & eggs and try to shift breakfast and lunch to more meat / fat based and even less carbs. But “we’ll see”. It DOES seem like being “on the cusp” of keto is the hardest part. Once in the ketone metabolism state, it’s easy. When in the sugar cycle state, it’s easy (even if it does make you fat and sick…). It is that transition point where both are tugging at you that’s hard. But I’m somewhat committed to that “slow ramp” process for a while… I have a house full of carbs foods and I’m not going to just toss them out… So just each shopping trip, the meat component goes up a LOT and the carbs component is set to “only what you must”. Basically use up the present stock with a ramp down of rate while only buying carbs that are necessary for some particular use / dish. (Think sushi on our sushi Fridays… eventually I’ll start doing more home made sashimi, but for now we buy in sushi. Hard to have purchased nigiri and not have rice in it.)
The actual fasting I suspect will be a harder hill to climb. But we’ll see. It will be a few weeks, but after the Fasting Mimicking Diet step is working it will be next on the schedule.
Hmm. I am beginning to wonder if there is a sufficiently large group of people that can’t properly convert fructose to glucose. First, if I am remembering correctly, you have to make fructose-6 phosphate. Remember the chemical differences. Glucose is an aldose (an aldehyde) and fructose is a ketose (ketone). R-C=O with the 4th H, versus R-C=O with the 4 another R, where R is a side group. C6H12O6 doesn’t tell you much about the elemental ordering and bonding. (Going from memory, so I hope I don’t have that backwards.)
Also don’t forget the whole family of insulin like protein hormones, called somatomedins.
That chemical precursor fructose-6 phosphate also would imply that people deficient in phosphorous would have trouble dealing with fructose. It would be interesting to see if there is a difference in how people handle soda pop which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup but acidified with phosphoric acide (ie coke) and other sodas which use a different acid or sodas like Mountain dew which are acidified with citric acid.
@Rocketplumber good link – a bit wordy as she does not tell you where she is going and you have to plow through page after page to pick up the details I am currently on page 29 (XXIX) and still going.
She raises some interesting points.
Hmmmm very interesting item here on blood sugar, insulin and body weight.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28230360
Seems hot peppers boost insulin levels and trigger fat storage.
Maybe our fat crisis is due to hot wings, salsa, and sriracha sauce ????