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Originally Posted by SensualSiren
Actually, I did some research on ketosis and many of the sources that I found stated that ketosis does harm your health.
Also, as a former vegetarian, you should probably remember that animal fats are usually the bad fats, except for fish. I'm not even going get started on the other stuff.
To the OP, I also used to be a vegetarian/vegan but am now a pescatarian. Part of the reason I went back to eating fish (after 5-6 years of vegetarianism/veganism) is the protein/omega 3 issue. Vegans can of course get plenty of protein and meet omega 3 needs, and it's super easy for vegetarians. I had trouble because of a health issue, though I hope that when I get my weight down that I can go back to being a vegetarian with careful planning. Not to be a downer, but I really don't think that you'll be able to get your carbs down this low, though it is not impossible with super careful planning. You may need to change the way you look at your meals. For example, you could try purchasing individual packs of edamame for your lunches and eat it with a salad of greens with some sliced almonds and a low carb dressing. Also, light soy milk has more protein than almond milk and fewer carbs than skim milk, so switching would really help you out. Good luck!
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There is no such research that reports problems with ketosis. In fact, many human civilizations have survived and thrived on diets that have little to no carbohydrates in them while eating tons of animal meat. So how is that possible?
Make sure you are not confusing ketosis with ketoacidosis which are two separate conditions. Also, do not confuse ketosis with the over ingestion of protein. In fact, low carbohydrate diets specifically state NOT to overeat protein and to eat a lot more FAT.
Also, there is nothing inherently bad about animal fats. In fact, many animal fats have a good amount of fats in them especially if their diets consisted of good nutrition that lacked hormones, drugs, antibiotics, AND natural foods.
Humans don't eat grass for a reason because the cows do. Cows have rumens that help them digest grass while for humans, we vomit. The nutrition in grass is stored then in BOTH the fat tissue and muscle tissue of those animals. We can get at those nutrients very easily because animal products are very, very bioavailable because of human dietary evolution consisting of a diet that was dominated by animals.
If you want to argue that most meat consumed in today's diet is unnatural, then this is a separate issue. Most of the research conducted supporting notions that animal fat is bad is based on three relatively debunked principles.
1: Saturated Fat is bad for you which it is not.
2: Cholesterol in food will kill you. A lot of people have been eating 3-7 eggs a day for years and yet do not drop dead? What gives? Myth.
3: Animal products can be carcinogenic: This is not true and also based on the OVERINGESTION of specific meat products. Also, the research NEVER delineates the TYPE of meat being ingestion (whether grass fed, organic, etc).
When you factor these elements, then you realize that there is not much to them.
Also, its important to note that almost most, if not all metabolic diseases are directly correlated carbohydrate intake because of the necessity of using insulin to facilitate the metabolism of carbohydrates. Carbohydrate is not an essential nutrient in human diets.
In fact, those on ketogenic diets have less needs to eat high quantities of vegetables and other micronutrients. In fact, almost anyone can get all their nutrition from meats by eating organ meats. Also worth considering is the reason why ketogenic diets do not need such a high antioxidant profile and it comes down to cellular metabolism.
See, you use food for fuel for your body. You breakdown the food into its essential components and then your body figures out what to use and what not to use. But first, let's investigate how non ketogenic metabolism works (glucose fueled metabolism) in cellular membranes.
The mitochondria in your cells will process glucose for power. Think of the process of using glucose by mitochondria similar to the process of your car using gasoline for combustion. When the body uses glucose as a power source the mitochondrial combustion leads an after product (like carbon monoxide from your car). Glucose metabolism leaves garbage such as reactive oxidative species that can cause free radical damage in your body (like atherosclerosis and inflammation). So, in order to compensate for the damage you need a HIGHER antioxidant profile to make up the difference. You have more garbage so you need more garbage men. If you fail to have enough garbage men for the garbage, then the garbage piles up.
This is the problem with non ketogenic diets that rely on glucose for power because ketogenic diets that rely on FAT for power have a much, much different impact on the mitochondria.
In ketogenic diets you use fat and ketones for fuel.
(I will not go into brain-ketone metabolism here, so I'll link an article for reading).
Edit: I would have posted a link, but my lack of post count prevents it. Google "Evolutionary Psychiatry: Your Brain on Ketones"
Think of fat more like renewable energy for your cells. It leaves essentially no byproducts during mitochondrial combustion. So there is less garbage requiring LESS garbage men or a lower antioxidant profile.
In fact, the extra fat helps protect cellular membranes from degradation. It also enhances their repair by creating higher levels of high density lipoproteins to transport cholesterol to the liver (LDL transports away from liver, HDL back to the liver). Also note that you cannot create any cell in the body without cholesterol.
So fats do the following:
1: Protect Cells
2: Produce more energy for cell (9 kcal/g vs 4 kcal/g glucose)
3: Lead to quicker cell regeneration (repair)
4: Leave less metabolic byproduct
Also, it leads to faster recovery during exercise by facilitating lactic acid reuptake preventing fatigue.
If you're not familiar, that DEEP burn feeling you get from exercise is the result of too much lactic acid build up in the muscle tissue. Ketogenic diets delay the impact of lactic acid build up through more reuptake (clean up).
So, I respectfully disagree.
Confused about ketosis
