As the widespread popularity of nutritional manipulation gains more and more momentum, there are a lot of questions surrounding “What is Best”!
First let me say
That neither Fasting nor Ketogenic diets are “new”. If you get past the labels they are as old as the human race since both occurred regularly during our ancestral development and are naturally “wired into our genes”.
There are 2 main differences
Between now and everything that has come before – the market place has finally gotten past the old adage “Science does not Sell”. As a result of warring between dietary factions and of course the tremendous amount of money to be made by appealing to things like health and longevity, there has finally been some bona fide science that reveals the actual mechanisms behind the health benefits of fasting and ketosis.
Next is the relative emergence and importance of mitochondrial health in wellness and longevity.
We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt
That both fasting and ketosis are excellent ways to reduce body fat. Ironically, while there is no competition in terms of fat loss, much of traditional medical and dietary (e.g. dieticians) continue to vilify both as “unbalanced”, and are waiting for the one outlier who gets sick or has a problem to point to and say “Told Ya So!”
Here is my take:
Anything that helps take out the cellular trash, reduces body fat and is appropriately genetically wired into the fabric of our makeup is not unhealthy.
As a matter of fact, it may be exceedingly healthy. If you are scientifically inclined, I highly recommend a book by my friend Dr Tom Seyfreid called “[eafl id=”20646″ name=”Cancer As A Metabolic Disease” text=”Cancer as a Metabolic Disease”]”. Since saying anything but chemo and of late immunotherapy, work for cancer is a ticket to an Orange Jumpsuit and an expensive investigation by an alphabet agency, I won’t say more. But you can read the book!
Now 2 other things I want to share with you:
Testosterone helps boost ketogenic effects- if you are in the market for an all-natural male support product go here. Sorry ladies estrogen appears to add some extra time to the results of the ketogenic diet. If your levels are healthy don’t mess with them. Just understand you may have to work a bit longer (not harder- just longer) to get the results you want.
Next exogenous (from the outside) ketones as in KetoGen do work and seem to have research supporting all the same benefits of ketosis.
I remain a big fan and practitioner of ALL of the above!
Dr Dave