Diet

A few thoughts on diet and metabolism from a non-expert.¹

Insulin resistance

A lot us are fat and diabetic, and the diagnosis is insulin resistance, a term that should be as well-known as “Ozempic” or “Jardiance”. Maybe it needs a song.

If all goes well, carbs in food result in an increase in glucose in the blood, which brings on an increase in insulin, which causes cells to process the glucose for energy. Glucose goes back down. Insulin goes back down. All is well.

But if someone has developed insulin resistance, they get high blood glucose and high insulin that do not go back down like they should. The cells don’t process the glucose well and it hangs around until it’s cleared by storing it as fat. Hence a high a1c reading. Hence weight gain. And it’s not just about weight gain – a high a1c also means inflammation. This is bad for arteries, bad for the heart and liver.

Ketosis

There are drugs that can help with this, but there’s a much better way: just stop eating all the carbs to begin with. Low enough carb intake brings on ketosis, another term most people don’t know about. But our bodies can run on fat instead of on carbs, and that’s what happens when carb intake is restricted while eating a diet that includes enough fats.

This is demonstrable: a device like a breathalyzer or a blood test can show that ketones are elevated. (My last blood work said I was either on a low-carb diet or starving.)

The first benefit of the keto diet is the restoration of normal blood glucose levels, a normal a1c. But another benefit follows quickly: if your body is now looking for energy from fat, and you have extra fat on board, it will use that instead of making you hungry for carbs. Your weight will start to drop, and your appetite will decrease. I lost 60 pounds in 6 months, without feeling particularly hungry.

A lot of promises are made about ways to help you “burn fat” but ketosis actually does it.

Food

The “low-fat” food craze is based on the fallacy that some fats go more or less directly from your food to your body. But it doesn’t work that way - see the book The Big Fat Surprise. If it did, we wouldn’t have stores full of low-fat foods and fat people. In a low carb diet, fats are good. Eat butter, not margarine. Drink whole milk. Enjoy meat and eggs. (That worry about cholesterol in food is just as wrong as the worry about fat.) Have bacon! Stop eating stuff that is mostly sugar.

This idea has made enough of an impact that supermarkets now carry lots of products that say “keto-friendly” on them: bread, cereal, pasta, cookies, yogurt, pancake mixes, etc. They may use almond flour, riced cauliflower, monk fruit for sweetening, and other substitutes. Even chocolate is fine as long as it’s very dark chocolate. And restaurants either have keto-friendly items or they at least aren’t bothered when you order a burger and tell them you don’t want the bun, just a knife and fork. I have never been to a restaurant where I couldn’t find something to eat. There’s always a chicken Caesar salad.

Change your diet and you won’t need Ozempic or Jardiance for the rest of your life.

Oh, and get some exercise, because exercise is good for you. But it won’t matter for your weight – it’s almost impossible to burn enough calories via exercise to make a difference.

I’ll close with a helpful YouTube video . . .

1. Thank you Ivor Cummings and Jeffry Gerber for Eat Rich Live Long, the book that helped me the most.