Stacy Conaway

Low Carb Nutrition & Health

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CategoryKeto / LCHF

Dr Wali

August 7, 2016 /

We need more young docs like Dr Priyanka Wali.

She saw that diabetic patients were not getting better with the conventional pharmaceutical approach that she had been taught. She started doing her own research and learned that a low carb ketogenic diet might be a better intervention, so she tried the diet on herself first and found that she felt much better, and knew that she could prescribe it as a therapy for her diabetic and insulin resistant patients. She now uses it in her practice and it is working.

The interview below was done at the Low Carb USA Conference in San Diego. Interviewer is the great Ivor Cummins.

A FEW QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

I started treating patients with diabetes and the first thing I noticed was that the guidelines weren’t working. My patients weren’t getting better.

I started to look for answers that were outside what we had been taught in medical school, which was not very much about nutrition.

Physicians don’t understand what are the macronutrients that affect insulin levels. This is not common knowledge among the medical community.

[Our current prescription-driven model of medicine] is the result of business being a greater priority than human lives.

We are incentivized to prescribe medication.

I lived the [dietary] guidelines and I started to see that something wasn’t right.

Just look around you. Insulin resistance is rampant.

The first thing is changing the guidelines.

LCHF Story: Dale

August 6, 2016 /

There are many personal anecdotes like this one. Diabetics who have been told that their condition is chronic and progressive — meaning a future of more meds and no hope of reversal.

Then they go on a LCHF diet and their diabetes is either dramatically improved or completely reversed. See the tweet below from Dale. Diabetic for ten years, increasing his insulin treatment for three years (presumably his doctor didn’t know any better), and then switched to LCHF. Three weeks later, no more insulin required.

The American Diabetes Association will not tell you this.

1917 Diabetes Cookbook

August 4, 2016 /

In 1917 Rebecca Oppenheimer published “Diabetic cookery; recipes and menus” which described what was already known about the optimal diet for diabetics — more butter, olive oil, meats, cheeses, eggs, and healthy fats (low in carbohydrates), and less sugar, starch, bread, pasta, and other foods that raise blood sugar (due to high carbohydrate content).

This is essentially a low carb / high fat (LCHF) diet, which not only helps diabetics to reduce their blood glucose, but is also effective for weight loss and other metabolic conditions.

The book can be found online at Archive.org and you can download it in PDF format here.

Here are pages 12 and 13 from the book.

Diabetic Cookery

Keto & Metabolic Syndrome

August 2, 2016 /

From a study by Forsythe, et al in 2008 — “Comparison of Low Fat and Low Carbohydrate Diets on Circulating Fatty Acid Composition and Markers of Inflammation” — link to study on ResearchGate.net

This study found that a low carb / high fat ketogenic diet showed improvements in markers of metabolic syndrome, including reduced inflammation.

  • Body mass = lower
  • Abdominal fat = lower
  • Triglycerides = lower
  • Fasting glucose and insulin = lower
  • HDL (“good” cholesterol) = higher
  • Total saturated fatty acids (SFA) in the blood = lower

How can this be? Because on a carb-restricted diet, the fat you eat does not metabolize into body fat. In the absence of glucose (from carbs), dietary fat is burned as energy — as is body fat, and several important health markers improve as a result.

keto-diet-metabolic-markers

Breakfast: Bacon, egg, spinach, cheese, tomato

August 1, 2016 /

This morning’s low carb breakfast: bacon, egg, spinach (sautéed in Kerrygold butter and garlic), cheese, tomatoes, sour cream.

Breakfast

Dinner: Roast, broccoli, mashed cauliflower “potatoes”

July 31, 2016 /

Today’s dinner: beef roast (slow cooked in crock pot), steamed broccoli, mashed cauliflower “potatoes” and fresh tomatoes. The cauliflower is a nice low carb replacement for starchy potatoes. The recipe:

Ingredients

  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp heavy cream or milk

Directions

  • Add cauliflower to a food processor. Pulse until the cauliflower is the consistency of mashed potatoes (this may need to be done in batches). Do not add water.
  • Place cauliflower in a microwave safe dish. Cook on high power for 5 minutes, stirring halfway through.
  • Add butter and cream and mix with the cooked cauliflower.
  • Serve with extra butter or gravy.

Roast Cauliflower Broccoli

Dinner: brisket, salad, brussels sprouts

July 30, 2016 /

Last night’s low carb dinner — brisket, green salad with olive oil, brussels sprouts with plenty of Kerrygold butter. Fantastic.

brisket-salad-dinner

Orthopedic surgeon goes LCHF

July 28, 2016 /

A few excerpts from the July 25, 2016 blog post by orthopedic surgeon Christopher Gorczynski, MD:

I began researching alternatives to the standard  American diet. I came across a very interesting book. “The Big Fat Surprise” by Nina Teicholz. This book alleged that all of what I knew about nutrition, despite my training as a physiology major in college, and medical school was wrong. This prompted me to read yet another book. “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes. I couldn’t get enough. […]

I decided to do an experiment on myself. I began a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet. Just like the diet we discredited in medical school.  My plan was to try this for 2 weeks. The changes were immediate. I felt much better. I lost 10 pounds and my pants were loose. I decided to extend the experiment for another month.  I was so amazed at the results it is now 2 years later and I continue to eat this way. I lost a total of 25 pounds. My waistline shrunk by 3 inches. My body fat percentage is now 10%. […]

I was always mildly hypertensive (high blood pressure), and I had an occasional migraine. By the end of my first 2 week experiment, my blood pressure was perfectly normal. I have not had another migraine since the week before changing my diet. […]

I believe there is mounting evidence that the long-term consumption of processed carbohydrates and exclusion of dietary fats is responsible for most of the health problems in western society. Subsequent blog postings will further develop these concepts.

LCHF & Dairy

July 27, 2016 /

Nick lives in Finland and started doing LCHF in the fall of 2012, and after a few weeks of successful weight loss he hit a plateau (points B to C on the chart). He was still overweight but had stopped losing. After some experimentation he tried removing all dairy from his diet, and the weight loss resumed. Turned out that the dairy had knocked him out of ketosis. Some people do fine with dairy, so it’s worth exploring some changes if you are not getting the results you want. Nick went from 107kg (236 lbs) to 89kg (196 lbs)  — a total of 40 lbs dropped.

  • A-B: initial weight loss phase, strict LCHF including dairy products.
  • B-C: “plateau” phase, as above.
  • C-D: continued weight loss after dropping ALL DAIRY products with exception of clarified butter.

Nick’s story can be seen at his blog,  LIHF (Low Inflammation, High Fat) Living.

LCHF & Dairy

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