One thing that I'm concerned with, is longevity when a person is on keto. Do you share this concern? Do you know any reliable data source on keto diet's impact on longevity?
I have no concern because there's nothing about a low carb diet that restricts any essential nutrients. On evolutionary time scales, consuming a significant amount of carbs is a recent and unprecedented change to human diets. There are three types of macro-nutrients: protein, fat and carbs. For most of history our hunter/gatherer ancestors ate far more protein and fat than carbs, which is why they were in a ketogenic state most of the time. It's only in the last hundred years in Western democracies that carbs have become overwhelmingly dominant in human diets. In terms of long-term dietary impact, highly-processed manufactured foods and intensive factory farming (which are mostly carbs) are the massive uncontrolled experiment on the broad population that's worth being concerned about. That's the new thing for which there's no long-term data whereas keto has tens of thousands of years of proven success in humans. Going from the Standard American Diet to keto is opting out of the uncontrolled experiment and returning to what we know works. Chronic obesity and Type II diabetes are diseases of diet and they weren't common in humans until the last hundred years.
As for my personal health and longevity, keto has certainly added at least a decade to my life because before keto I was significantly overweight and had been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and bad HDL/LDL. I also had chronic sleep apnea as well as IBS/GERDS. I was on five prescribed medications to treat these issues. By the end of the first year on keto those serious health problems had completely resolved and I was off all five medications. To be clear, keto itself isn't some miracle cure. These problems were caused by my obesity and unhealthy diet. Keto helped me not be obese and to eat a healthier diet richer in nutrients and with far fewer manufactured and processed foods. My previous diet was making me sick.
Thank you very much for sharing your perspectives!
May I ask what the differences are between the keto diet you used and the low carbohydrate diet that you are on now? Do you allow for more carbohydrates than a typical keto diet?
mrandish|6 months ago
I have no concern because there's nothing about a low carb diet that restricts any essential nutrients. On evolutionary time scales, consuming a significant amount of carbs is a recent and unprecedented change to human diets. There are three types of macro-nutrients: protein, fat and carbs. For most of history our hunter/gatherer ancestors ate far more protein and fat than carbs, which is why they were in a ketogenic state most of the time. It's only in the last hundred years in Western democracies that carbs have become overwhelmingly dominant in human diets. In terms of long-term dietary impact, highly-processed manufactured foods and intensive factory farming (which are mostly carbs) are the massive uncontrolled experiment on the broad population that's worth being concerned about. That's the new thing for which there's no long-term data whereas keto has tens of thousands of years of proven success in humans. Going from the Standard American Diet to keto is opting out of the uncontrolled experiment and returning to what we know works. Chronic obesity and Type II diabetes are diseases of diet and they weren't common in humans until the last hundred years.
As for my personal health and longevity, keto has certainly added at least a decade to my life because before keto I was significantly overweight and had been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and bad HDL/LDL. I also had chronic sleep apnea as well as IBS/GERDS. I was on five prescribed medications to treat these issues. By the end of the first year on keto those serious health problems had completely resolved and I was off all five medications. To be clear, keto itself isn't some miracle cure. These problems were caused by my obesity and unhealthy diet. Keto helped me not be obese and to eat a healthier diet richer in nutrients and with far fewer manufactured and processed foods. My previous diet was making me sick.
xianwen|6 months ago
May I ask what the differences are between the keto diet you used and the low carbohydrate diet that you are on now? Do you allow for more carbohydrates than a typical keto diet?