Your
body requires the metabolic flexibility to use both fat and glucose for
fuel. Conventional dietary advice fails because eating a high-carb diet
for a long period of time makes you unable to effectively burn fat for
fuel
Most
people not only eat the wrong foods and too much of it, they also eat
too frequently. Intermittent fasting, and longer water fasts if you’re
overweight, can help you regain the ability to burn fat for fuel
A
ketogenic diet focuses on the three keys to achieving nutritional
ketosis: minimal carbohydrates, moderate amounts of high-quality protein
and high amounts of healthy fats
By Dr. Mercola
Your body is designed to have the metabolic flexibility to use both
fat and glucose for fuel — not just one or the other. The reason
conventional dietary advice has failed so miserably is because eating a
high-carb diet for a long period of time results in the loss of this
metabolic flexibility, making you unable to effectively burn fat for
fuel.
Last year, the British National Obesity Forum and the Public Health
Collaboration issued a joint report based on the analysis of 43 obesity
studies, warning the policy to promote a low-fat, high-carb diet is
having a "disastrous impact on health."1,2,3
In conclusion, the report issued a strong recommendation to overhaul
dietary guidelines to recommend a low-carb, high-fat diet instead, along
with intermittent fasting or skipping meals, as chronic grazing or
snacking between meals is a significant contributor to obesity.
In short, most people not only eat the wrong foods and too much of
it, they also eat too frequently. Lately, the ketogenic diet has become
increasingly popular, and its popularity is largely driven by the sheer
number of success stories. A recent article4
by CNBC, for example, notes how Silicon Valley has embraced the
ketogenic diet in hopes of reversing type 2 diabetes and living longer.
Efficient Fat-Burning Is Crucial for Optimal Health and Longevity
When your body is able to burn fat for fuel, your liver creates water-soluble fats called ketones that:
Burn far more efficiently than carbs, thereby creating fewer
reactive oxygen species (ROS) and secondary free radicals that can
damage your cellular and mitochondrial cell membranes, proteins and DNA
Decrease inflammation, as they are histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors
Mimic the life span-extending properties of calorie restriction,
which includes improved glucose metabolism and reduced inflammation5
Have a similar structure to branched-chain amino acids, thereby aiding the building of muscle mass and promoting longevity6
Healthy dietary fats also play an important role in maintaining your
body's electrical system — an area I've recently started delving deeper
into. All cellular membranes are made of fats, which act as insulators
and are connected through a conductor. This arrangement sets up a
biological capacitor to store electrons — but only if the fats are
healthy.
If you consume damaged fats, or worse, heated and hydrogenated oils,
the fatty acids in your cell membranes become functionally impaired and
have limited capacity to store body voltage, thus increasing the risk
for disease. This is yet another reason why it is so vital to eat
healthy fats.
Last Chance to Preorder 'Fat for Fuel'
Conventional advice suggests attaining an ideal weight is a matter of
balancing the calories you eat with your exercise, i.e., the flawed calories in/calories out hypothesis. Tens of millions have failed to achieve long-term results following this advice.
The real key to both weight management and optimal health is to
properly feed your microbiome and mitochondria, and that requires eating
fewer net carbs and more healthy fats and fiber. This can be relatively
easily achieved by following the principles outlined in my new book, "Fat for Fuel."
Shipments of "Fat for Fuel"
begin tomorrow, May 16. Preordering your copy today will entitle you to
six free bonuses and help push this book onto the best-seller list,
which will give it wider exposure to people who might not read this
newsletter.
It's by far the most important book I've ever written, as it
addresses what appears to be at the very heart of virtually all chronic
disease, namely mitochondrial dysfunction. If your mitochondria are not
functioning properly, your entire metabolism will be seriously impaired.
I provide important details you need to understand to improve your
mitochondrial health in the book.
It is my sincere belief that this book has the potential to save many lives. More than half of all Americans struggle with chronic illness
and 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S. are obesity-related. It doesn't have to
be this way, and my book details the way forward, out of chronic disease
into optimal health.
Three Keys to Nutritional Ketosis
A cyclical ketogenic diet focuses on the three keys to achieving nutritional ketosis:
Minimal net carbohydrates, to prevent inflammation and facilitate the burning of fat as your primary fuel
Adequate amounts of high-quality protein, to give
your body just enough building blocks to maintain tissue health and
muscle without overactivating the mTOR pathway, which plays a crucial
role in the aging process and cancer formation
High amounts of healthy dietary fats, to prevent inflammation, nourish healthy cells and optimize mitochondrial health and function
As a general guideline, a dietary intake of 20 to 50 grams (or less)
per day of net carbs (total carbohydrates minus fiber) while also
keeping protein low-to-moderate is usually low enough to allow you to
make the shift to nutritional ketosis.
Nutritional ketosis is the metabolic state associated with an increased
production of ketones in your liver; i.e., the biological reflection of
being able to burn fat, and is defined as having blood ketones in the
range of 0.5 to 3.0 millimoles per liter (mmol/L).
Remember that once your body starts to burn fat for fuel you need to
switch to a cyclical ketogenic diet, as long-term continuous ketosis is
unhealthy. This is why we call the program a cyclical ketogenic diet.
The Many Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet
The health benefits of this type of diet — which basically involves turning the conventional food pyramid upside-down, although there are several different variations on the ketogenic diet to choose from — include:
Weight loss
Switching from a high-net-carb diet to a fat and adequate protein
diet will help rebalance your body's chemistry, and a natural side
effect of this is weight loss and/or improved weight management once
you're at an ideal weight.
In one study, obese subjects were given either a low-carb ketogenic
diet or a low-fat diet. After 24 weeks, the low-carb group lost nearly
double the amount of weight than the low-fat group (20.7 pounds compared
to 10.6 pounds).7 Low-carb, high-fat diets also reduce hunger and carb cravings, thereby reducing your risk of overeating and weight gain.
Less inflammation
When burned for fuel, dietary fat releases far fewer ROS and secondary free radicals than sugar.
Reduced cancer risk
While all cells (including cancer cells) can use glucose for fuel,
cancer cells lack the metabolic flexibility to use ketones for its
energy needs, which your regular cells can. Once your body enters a
state of nutritional ketosis, cancer cells are more susceptible to be
removed by your body.
Increased muscle mass
Ketones share a close structural similarity to branched-chain amino
acids and seem to be preferentially metabolized. In other words, ketones
spare those branched-chain amino acids, leaving higher levels of them
around, which promotes muscle mass.8 However, it is important to use a cyclical approach, otherwise your muscle mass will decrease.
Lowered insulin levels
Keeping your insulin level low helps prevent insulin resistance, type
2 diabetes and related diseases. Research has demonstrated that
diabetics who eat a low-carb ketogenic diet are able to significantly
reduce their dependency on diabetes medication and may even reverse the
condition.9
Lowering insulin resistance will also reduce your risk of
Alzheimer's. Recent research strengthens the link between insulin
resistance and dementia even further, particularly among those with
existing heart disease.10,11,12
Increased longevity
As noted by Jeff Volek,
Ph.D., a registered dietitian and professor in the Human Science
Department at Ohio State University, one of the reasons you can survive a
long time without food is due to the process of ketosis, which spares
protein breakdown.
A fairly consistent effect seen in people on a ketogenic diet is
that blood levels of leucine and other important structural proteins go
up, allowing these proteins to perform a number of important signaling
functions.
As mentioned, ketones also mimic the life span-extending properties of calorie restriction13 (fasting), which includes improved glucose metabolism, reduced inflammation, clearing out malfunctioning immune cells,14 and reduced IGF-1.
This
is one of the factors that regulate growth pathways and growth genes
and is a major player in accelerated aging and cellular/intracellular
regeneration and rejuvenation (autophagy and mitophagy). As noted in a recent study on this topic:15
[E]xtension of life span results from decreased signaling
through the insulin/insulin-like growth factor receptor signaling (IIS)
pathway … An effective method for combating free radical damage occurs
through the metabolism of ketone bodies …
A dietary ketone ester also decreases circulating glucose and
insulin leading to decreased IIS … [K]etosis results in transcription of
the enzymes of the antioxidant pathways. In addition, the metabolism of
ketone bodies results in a more negative redox potential of the NADP
antioxidant system, which is a terminal destructor of oxygen free
radicals."
Feast and Famine Cycling Is an Important Component of Nutritional Ketosis
In my book I also explain why cycling through stages of feast and
famine, as opposed to continuously remaining in nutritional ketosis, is
so important. Once you are able to burn fat as fuel, having a day or two
each week where you eat more net carbs and protein is important,
especially when you're doing strength training, to prevent sarcopenia.
After a day or two of "feasting," you then cycle back into nutritional
ketosis (the "fasting" stage) for the remainder of the week. By
periodically pulsing higher carb intakes, consuming, say, 100 or 150
grams of carbs opposed to 20 to 50 grams per day, your ketone levels
will dramatically increase and your blood sugar will drop.
Paradoxically, long-term uninterrupted use of a ketogenic diet can
trigger a rise in blood sugar by driving your insulin level too low. The
reason this situation can occur is because the primary function of
insulin is not to drive sugar into the cell but to suppress the
production of glucose by your liver (hepatic gluconeogenesis). Cycling
in and out of nutritional ketosis will prevent this situation from
occurring.
Refeeding Phase Is Where the 'Magic' Takes Place
Additionally, from a metabolic perspective, clearance of damaged cell
and cell content occurs during the fasting phase (much in the same way
exercise produces damage to your muscles) while the "metabolic magic" of
rejuvenation occurs during the refeeding phase. This is when cells and
tissues are rebuilt.
As just one example, recent research shows fasting actually triggers
the regeneration of the pancreas in both type 1 and type 2 diabetics.16,17
But again, these regenerative effects are largely triggered during the
refeeding phase. If you don't pulse in and out of ketosis, you end up
missing out on many of the benefits that occur during this rebuilding
and rejuvenation phase.
The rejuvenation that occurs during refeeding is also one of the
reasons intermittent fasting is so beneficial. Put another way, the
fasting phase helps your body clean out toxic debris, while the
refeeding phase builds your body back up. The cycling can also make this
type of diet easier to maintain.
Yet another important factor is avoiding late-night eating. Feeding
your body at a time when it needs the least amount of energy encourages
cellular damage due to excess production of free radicals. For this
reason, I suggest limiting your eating to breakfast and lunch — a "Peak Fasting" strategy that allows you to fast for 16 or more hours each day.
How to Implement a Ketogenic Diet
To implement a ketogenic diet:
1. Eliminate packaged, processed foods.
The emphasis is on real whole foods, plenty of healthy fats and as few
net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) as possible. This typically
involves dramatically reducing or temporarily eliminating all grains and
any food high in sugar, particularly fructose, but also galactose
(found in milk) and other sugars — both added and naturally-occurring 2. Monitor your nutrient ratios. As a
general rule, you'll need to reduce your net carbs to 20 to 50 grams a
day or less; restrict protein to 1 gram per kilogram of lean body mass;
and get anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of your daily calories from
healthy fats.
To make sure you're meeting your nutritional requirements and
maintaining the ideal nutrient ratios, use a nutrient tracker such as www.cronometer.com/mercola,
which is already set up for nutritional ketosis. Based on the personal
parameters you enter, such as height, weight, body fat percentage and
waist circumference, it will automatically calculate the ideal ratios of
net carbs, protein and fats to put you into nutritional ketosis
Say Yes to More of These Fatty Foods
Selecting the right fats is crucial to your success on a cyclical
ketogenic diet. One of the reasons many ended up experiencing health
problems on the Atkins Diet was because no distinction was made between
healthy and harmful fats. As a general rule, any fat found naturally in
animal foods and plants is good for you.
It's really the processed fats and vegetable oils used in processed
foods and fried restaurant meals that wreak havoc and should, ideally,
be eliminated altogether. That said, examples of high-quality healthy
fats include:
Olives and olive oil (make sure it's third party certified, as 80 percent of olive oils are adulterated with vegetable oils.
Also avoid cooking with olive oil. Use it cold)
Coconuts and coconut oil (excellent for cooking as it can withstand higher temperatures without oxidizing)
Animal-based omega-3 fat from fatty fish low in mercury like wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines, anchovies and/or krill oil
Ghee (clarified butter); lard and tallow (excellent for cooking)
Raw cacao butter
Organic, pastured egg yolks
Cyclical Ketosis Is the Answer for Most Ailments
To improve your mitochondrial function through diet, the key is to
eat in such a way that your body is able to burn fat as its primary fuel
rather than sugars. Ketogenic diets are very effective for this, as is intermittent fasting and longer water fasts for those who are overweight.
Switching from a high-carb diet to one high in healthy fat with
adequate protein and low in net carbs helps rebalance your body's
chemistry. A natural side effect of this is weight loss, and improved
weight management once you're at an ideal weight.
It's really important to understand that you will not get fat from
eating healthy fat. Nor will you lose weight simply by eating fewer
calories and exercising more. Obesity stems from eating a high-carb
diet, which over time leads to an inability to burn fat for fuel — and
exercise alone cannot correct this metabolic dysfunction.
To correct it, you need to alter your nutrient ratios, making healthy
fats the largest source of calories, not net carbs. Add just the amount
of protein your body needs and no more, cut way back on net carbs, and
chances are you'll be amazed at the health improvements you will gain.
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