"Ketogenic"

When I talk about a low-carb diet, I don't just mean a diet that cuts down on carbs.  I mean one that cuts them as close to zero as you can tolerate.  A ketogenic diet.  So let me explain what that means.

Its name refers to the process in the liver and elsewhere of converting fatty acids into ketone bodies, which can be used as fuel (directly or indirectly) in place of glucose by most of your cells.  Unlike glucose, unused ketones are excreted in your breath and urine, rather than stored as fat.  A lot of low-carbers use "Ketostix" test strips to ensure that they have entered, or are still in, the state of ketosis.  They work by reacting with acetone, one of the three ketone bodies produced on the diet.  And that works because unlike the other ketones, acetone can't be converted to acetyl-CoA, which is necessary ketones' use as fuel in the citric acid cycle.

I've said a lot already about some of the nasty effects of glucose metabolism and insulin.  And I'll say a lot more.  But there's a flip side, too.  By eating a ketogenic diet, not only are you protecting yourself from those effects, but the ketones themselves offer many benefits of their own.  For one, they are a much more efficient fuel source than glucose, in terms of energy vs. oxygen consumption.  That's all nice and chemical, and the real-world effects are somewhat muted by the complexity of metabolism, but overall ketones offer about a 28% increase in your heart's hydraulic efficiency (see that last link.)

Largely because of this, the ketogenic diet has been shown to increase exercise capacity and endurance.  And if you've ever tried the diet, you know from first-hand experience that you have much more energy than before, once your body has adapted to it, which typically takes three or four days.

Another very interesting effect comes from one of the other ketone bodies, called beta hydroxybutyrate.  It's long been known that this ketone has a protective effect in neurons with respect to Alzheimer's disease.  And on the ketogenic diet, beta hydroxybutyrate replaces glucose as the brain's primary fuel source.  Too bad the "high-fat ketogenic diet ... may not be suitable for use in adults because of its atherogenic potential," eh?  I guess we'll have to toss it out.  Or not.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a diet out there somewhere that didn't leave you hungry, that let you eat delicious food, that didn't give you heart disease, and maybe just maybe protected you from all sorts of other chronic diseases?  Let me suggest that we are amazing organisms, and that our health is not so precarious that we have to follow some insane diet of exotic "superfoods", or abstain from the foods we as a species "grew up on", or subject ourselves to drug regimens, to stay happy, healthy and thin.  And if you think that's wishful thinking, research for yourself where decades of increasing conformance to government-recommended diets has gotten us in terms of obesity, chronic disease and overall health.