Natural Health Help

Last time I talked about how a lower carbohydrate ketogenic diet is the best way to lose fat. This would be a diet in which you reduce your calories by eliminating simple sugars and refined carbohydrates. The Atkins diet has been a rather extreme form of this diet; Protein Power, the South Beach Diet and many other popular versions have helped thousands of people to lose their extra fat in a safe and satisfying way.

At my clinic I use a simple, very elegant version of a lower carb diet in concert with weekly counseling sessions, a treatment program model that is being successful world wide. You enjoy fresh whole natural foods, drinking mostly water and green tea and eating lots of vegetables and fruits, regular meals of eggs, fish, lean poultry, and meat plus nuts and good quality oils. This along with regular exercise will cause fat loss without the usual unpleasant side effects of fatigue, irritability and relentless hunger. It also helps identify foods you may be intolerant of or have an allergy to, so that when you transition from a fat loss to a healthy weight maintenance way of eating, you can do so without returning to old problems.

Ketosis is not ketoacidosis
When you empty out you fat cells you are releasing ketones to be used as fuel for your muscles. Ketones are a product of fat metabolism, and function as a source of energy for the body. Our muscles and other tissues can use ketones for fuel instead of glucose. Ketones are released from stored fat and used for energy when you have reduced the amount of carbohydrate you eat, so you have just enough blood sugar for your brain, and not quite enough for your muscles. The brain requires glucose for fuel, whereas muscle and other metabolic processes will take up ketones instead. We can make glucose from everything we eat, including by transforming protein from animal foods.

We can not however, make protein for our bodies from plant foods. What we make from the carbohydrates of plant food is fat. The excess carbohydrates we eat every day beyond what we use in the exercise of our muscles, is transformed to fat and stored. This is a great system for people (like our human ancestors) who do not have a reliable food supply and are subject to regular periods of feast or famine. For most of us it means an ever enlarging “storage bin” of accumulated fat.

There is confusion regarding the ketosis that occurs when we are eating less carbohydrates than we need for daily fuel and begin to burn stored fat instead, and a condition known as ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis happens when people with blood sugar problem produce high levels of ketones while also having high levels of blood sugar. Conditions that produce high blood sugar are insulin resistance and diabetes.

Insulin is made inthe pancreas. It is a powerful hormone with many effects. One of the jobs insulin does is to carry blood glucose into your body cells. People with diabetes do not produce enough insulin from their pancreas, and there isn’t enough to blood sugar into tissue cells. People with insulin resistance have body tissues that will no longer respond to their insulin bearing glucose to be delivered into their cells. Usually insulin resistance develops after years of over-eating, and it tends to be associated with abdominal obesity.

Ketones are formed in response to the tissues need for some fuel other than the glucose, which is collecting in the blood attached to insulin molecules but can’t be delivered into cells any more. Normally your body will adjust you blood to balance this shifting chemistry. In diabetics the imbalance is too great and ketoacidosis, or increased acidity of the blood occurs. This is called metabolic ketoacidosis. For people with diabetes this is a dangerous condition. You can still lose fat with a ketogenic diet if you have insulin resistance or diabetes, but you should do it with the guidance of your doctor. You have to have very strict attention to your diet, with regular monitoring of your blood sugar levels.

When a person with normal blood sugar levels is producing ketones by breaking down fat for fuel, and is not eating excess carbohydrates, the blood glucose is delivered elegantly, primarily to the brain, and the rest of the body happily uses ketones to run the show. It is important to have your doctor check your blood suagr levels before starting a fat loss diet, so you can monitor yourself to prevent metabolic ketoacidosis.

A ketogenic fat loss diet is not appropriate for pregnancy and breastfeeding, a time when fat stores are very important to mother and baby’s well being. People with kidney damage should not use this diet. People with diabetes, epilepsy, and gall bladder problems need special care and support to use a ketogenic diet successfully. Women lose weight somewhat slower than men; feminine hormones effect how women hold onto water and fat. Men in general have greater muscle mass, even when quite fat, and this plus masculine hormones help them burn fat somewhat more effectively than women. Regular exercise is absolutely necessary for everyone’s long term health.

Eating carbohydrate foods in amounts that allow for the release of ketones from stored fat is a safe and effective way to reduce body fat while maintaining an even blood sugar, having plenty of physical energy, mental alertness and restful sleep. Most people can eat this way for the rest of their life, enjoying their food choices great health. Most people will want to diversify their diet after having lost excess fat. Broadening the diet to include problem foods, for instance dairy, or many fruits and grains, can be accomplished with out regaining fat.

This transition has to be done with close attention to how your body reacts to certain foods. Some people will not be able to eat certain foods, ever, without uncomfortable symptoms, because of our genetic make up. All of us have to reintroduce foods carefully and maintain exercise levels life long, in order not to regain lost fat. Next time I’ll write about the specifics of making that transition.

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