Ketogenic diets for weight loss may not work.

Getting into nutritional ketosis has health benefits but having too much fat or protein may not mean weight loss.

The benefits of ketosis are proven in epilepsy and there is emerging evidence in cancer, dementia, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and autoimmune disease. Some people need to get into ketosis for starting weight loss but most of the time the weight loss is dependent on the balance of intake and getting those portion sizes down.

It’s a complicated topic but the simple first step in weight loss is cutting back on the sugar and carbs, pay attention to true hunger rather than habit and then the portion size. Don’t get too hung up on ketosis levels unless there is a health issue.

The Nutrition for Life team are seeing more people for fine tuning of their LCHF lifestyle. We are all individuals and working out the balance takes time.

www.nutritionforlife.healthcare

From Mike Julian and Luis Villasenor

“Do I have to keep up with the “magic” Ketogenic Ratio for weight loss?

Busted. There is no sense in following a “Ketogenic Ratio”… (usually defined as 25% Protein, 5% Carbs, 70% Fat) unless you are are doing a “therapeutic ketogenic diet” as a treatment for a neurological illness, or have a condition that requires so.

If your aim is fat loss and or muscle gain, all macros are better counted by NET weight, in grams. Ketosis does not happen due to eating Fat in relation to Protein, it happens when you stop eating carbohydrates.

Read:
However, invariably when people tried to apply the KR (Ketogenic Ratio) to low-carbohydrate fat loss diets, one of two things happened. If the person set calories appropriately and used the KR, the protein intake ended up being far too low (because dietary fat had to be so damn high). Alternately, if they set protein appropriately and tried to scale dietary fat to the proper ratio, the caloric intake ended up being too high. The former was a poor choice from the standpoint of protein sparing; the second limited (or eliminated fat loss).

So basically I threw out the ketogenic ratio.

As noted above, it’s crucial for the development of epilepsy treatment diets (anyone wanting more information on this topic should purchase the excellent The Ketogenic Diet: A Treatment for Epilepsy by Freeman, Freeman and Kelly.) But for dieters and folks seeking body recomposition, it made setting up appropriate diets impossible.”

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The cholesterol ‘nonsense’ concerns of doctors and educators. Have they stopped thinking?

The medical profession have had so much education from the pharmaceutical industry. Sorry, but that’s it. The entrenched concept that cholesterol is bad, whether it is eaten or is elevated in the blood is still so stuck in the minds of doctors, educators and medical students. The education of our students is still in the dark ages.

The pharmaceutical industry like it this way with an ongoing promotion for cholesterol lowering drugs.

But what is cholesterol?

It is vital for life. It is something our body produces in vast amounts every day.

“It is virtually impossible to explain how vital cholesterol is to the human body. If you had no cholesterol in your body you would be dead. No cells, no bone structure, no muscles, no hormones, no sex, no reproductive system, no digestion, no brain function, no memory, no nerve endings, no movement, no human life – nothing without cholesterol. It is utterly vital and we die instantly without it.”

“Cholesterol is so vital to the body that our bodies make it. The body cannot risk leaving it to chance that we would get it externally from food or some other external factor – that’s how critical it is.”

Where do statins fit into that equation? Why take something that interferes with the vital production of a life maintenance substance? It just doesn’t make sense.

A lot of the benefits of statins appear to be related to the anti-inflammatory effects. Why not just use aspirin? Ah, there’s no money in that and far less side effects. Hmmm.

“The body makes cholesterol. I worry about a number of things, but I don’t worry that my body is trying to kill me.”

Zoe Harcombe did this piece a few years ago. It is just as relevant today after some of the ‘nonsense’ I heard sprouted this week from doctors and students.

http://www.zoeharcombe.com/…/we-have-got-cholesterol-compl…/

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Rethinking vegetarianism

daniel_zeta

“that after ten years of vegetarianism, Daniel had become a big-time carnivore”

Why do vegetarians want to be vegetarians? What are the morals at play? This will really make you rethink the concept.

“There is no magic bullet. There is no one way to eat that is going to be devoid of guilt or devoid of suffering. There is no way to exist in this world without taking the life of other beings. And that complex truth was missing for me, and it’s still missing for a lot of people… They just go to this magical place called the supermarket, and these magical trucks come in the middle of the night, and magical ferries put all this stuff on eye level shelves, where you just go in there and give this magical money to somebody, and they give you all the things you need to survive. Well, that’s all really convenient, but it’s really disconnecting. And as long as you’re doing that, you can believe this myth that you can eat and survive without doing any harm to anybody else”

http://dustinsview.com/…/beyond-vegetarian-one-mans-journe…/

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Beyond Vegetarian: One Man’s Journey from Tofu to Tallow in Search of the Moral Meal [Interview]

Boosting your health? Not likely

‘Boost’ing your blood glucose level. Marketing more than health?

Juicing fruit rather than chewing might be convenient at the airport and shops but comes at a price. That sugar load is going to hit the bloodstream much quicker.

Once you put fruit into the blender, the fibre is destroyed, the bulk reduced and the sugar freed up to be absorbed quicker.

Compare the sugar content of the Boost juices to that of Coca Cola at 10.6%

All of the Smoothies and Super Smoothies have more sugar than Coca Cola and the Green Tea Mango Mantra smashes Coca Cola at 14.9% sugar and 16.a7% carbohydrate. That’s a massive 102 grams of glucose and fructose hitting the system. That’s about 25 teaspoons of sugar and carb in an ‘Original’ container.

The claims of health benefits are distorted in my opinion, but the pictures are pretty.

Buyer beware.

PS. Water is my preferred option 🙂

http://www.boostjuice.com.au/sweet-things-to-know
http://www.boostjuice.com.au/…/…/02/Nutrition_Menu_Guide.pdf

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Modern day leprosy

Diabetes sufferer Julian Robinson has lost one leg to the disease and is battling to save his other.

Modern day ‘Leprosy’ is the result of poor blood glucose control in Diabetes. Low Carb is the prevention.

Julian (pictured) is one of my patients. He has spent 2 of the last 3 years in hospital, and all due to the complications of diabetes and poor control.

He has made a massive turnaround in taking back control by dropping his sugar and carbohydrate intake – something nearly impossible to do in a hospital food environment. He wants to keep his other leg. He has dropped his HbA1c from 17 (way out of control) to 7. He has cut back his insulin requirement by 75%. He is a legend. And he did it by listening to me and I respect Julian for that.

Every week I am seeing new patients with the complications of diabetes, whether or not it is Type 1 or Type 2. Many have disasters with their feet but this week the other issues of obesity, neuropathy, kidney failure, cardiovascular disease and blindness have crossed my path. A ‘tsunami’ puts it lightly.

The people with foot and leg ulcerations are the modern day ‘lepers’. They are put in the too hard basket by health professionals. They are shunted around like ‘medical tourists’. One clinic to another and dressing changes every day. No great success stories here and then they make their way to me as an Orthopaedic Surgeon or to the Vascular Surgeons. Often it is too late for us to work a miracle.

The complications of diabetes are preventable. It comes down to tight blood glucose control. It’s that simple.

The not so current guidelines for diabetes of eat what you want and chase it with medication is a total disaster for the individual and the community. The only way out that I can see is to go low carb.

Professor Manny Noakes from the CSIRO waves the flag for the recent great results of Low Carb (<50g per day) in the management of Type 2 diabetes. Better control, more weight loss and a reduction of medication. That’s called deprescribing. Julian has deprescribed. He is doing what he can with his diet and has lost weight and is gaining control.

Don’t go out and cut your carbs by yourself if you have diabetes. Do it with supervision and education. Work with your doctor or contact our team of Dietitians and Diabetes Nurse Educator at www.nutritionforlife.healthcare and do it properly the first time.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/amputations-due-to-diabetes-up-25-per-cent-in-two-years-20160310-gng434.html

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