The Low Carb Body

I have been thinking of how to write something that is interesting but also to some extent unique about the low carbohydrate / ketosis diet. How can I help to convince people that this is something which it might be worth them trying and trying so knowing that their health is not going to be negatively impacted. I decided to fall back onto my old science roots and look into what I can find there to try and help people see the benefits of this lifestyle. This will no doubt bore many people however there are so many sites out there with meals and stories (don’t get me wrong we are not going to stop that) but this is something which I might be able to do a good job of.

So I am hoping that I will keep this up and do a series of posts on the low carbohydrate body. I was unsure where to start as there are links to so many different areas of the body, the brain, the heart, (belly) fat, kidneys,  lungs and even links to acne so the skin. Luckily for me there is already a fantastic review which I am hoping to summarise in basic terms and then go into each body part in detail. Not sure how long this will take but hopefully it will go some-way to showing to showing sceptics that there is a huge amount of science showing that there are health benefits to this lifestyle.

Weight loss:

Firstly you have weight loss. Although there is no doubt it works (e.g. over 11 stone between Katie and I in 7 months) there are different thoughts as to how it works. Some people suggest that you simply lose weight because you are on a “diet” so you eat less calories and so of course you lose weight. Of course the other train of thought is that it is a metabolic process, so in other words you are altering the way that your body is using energy and storing fat and this causes the weight loss. Studies are available to support both arguments, for example it has been shown that in a 6 month study people on a low-carb diet lost more weight than those on a “balanced diet” where around equal amounts of calories were consumed. The authors believe that a more likely solution is the well proven appetite suppressant impact of a LCKD. Another important factor for weight loss is that it will more likely be fat being burnt as a LCKD results in a reduction in fat intake and an increase in fat breakdown. I have seen people question the appetite reduction however both Katie and I can confirm this and I will add that to my list of more in-depth posts to do.

Heart:

The biggest area of concern when people hear what you are eating is that you are going to have a negative impact on your heart. However recent studies have shown that actually a LCKD is probably going to improve your cholesterol levels and lipid profile (lipid = fats). In fact there is a role for insulin (obviously lowered in LCKD diets) in the production of cholesterol, so by lowering your sugar and therefore insulin you are likely to lower the production of cholesterol. Therefore the idea that a high fats are bad for you is not necessarily true when you are in ketosis.

Pancreas (Diabetes):

As most people probably know sugar causes you to have increased levels of insulin which causes your cells to take up more sugar. Over time, if you continue to eat too much sugar, your cells become less responsive to insulin so your body just keeps on pumping out more and more insulin. From what I can remember from my first year at university that is very basically the cause for diabetes. In someone with diabetes they are likely to take up less carbohydrates into cells for use as an energy source because their body is not responding to the insulin, this then means that it will head over to the liver and be converted into fat. When carbs are restricted to the point where this increased fat production does not occur then the symptoms of being insulin resistance with normally improve and frequently disappear. In a nutshell lowering carb intake in insulin sensitive individuals can result in a positive clinical outcome.

I think here it is best to quote the review I am reviewing…

“In studies that have evaluated well-formulated very-low-carbohydrate diets and documented high rates of compliance in individuals with T2D, results have been nothing short of remarkable. Bistrian et al.³²reported withdrawal of insulin and major weight loss in a matter of weeks in T2D individuals who were fed a very-low-calorie and -carbohydrate diet. “

A similar study has been done over the course of more than a year and patients showed improvements in weight, glucose levels, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Note that these same improvements are beyond what is seen in individuals on a low fat diet.

Brain:

Well I say brain but initially at least I am looking at epilepsy, you could also put reduced hunger under the brain to some extent. For treatment of epilepsy there have actually been clinical trials to show that a low carbohydrate diet can be used as a treatment. The full method of action is yet to be elucidated there is a clear end result and for those more interested it is perhaps best to read the papers link to in the article.

For the brain I would also recommend reading grain brain, on this diet we eat significantly less grain and there have been links to the benefits of this on memory and even delaying the impact of dementia. This is further mentioned in this review, where they mention there is emerging evidence that ketogenic diets may have a positive impact on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease as well as autism , sleep disorders and multiple sclerosis. Overall it suggests that a ketogenic diet could be neuro-protective. Although this generic protection may sound strange I heard of a similar impact in different pathways in the brain. The key here is that certain pathways can be impacted from several different angles and have an impact on different places. A LCKD is thought to have an impact on multiple pathways in the brain and protect against the above conditions. I will not go into detail on the conditions but overall there is not sufficient evidence to say that it does work but there is on-going work that shows promise.

The bad side: Some people quote higher protein intake as a bad thing, I would argue that I am not eating more fat or protein compared to not being on this lifestyle, I am simply eating fewer carbohydrates. There is the idea that of ketoacidosis which is high level of ketones causing the blood to become acidic. This is highly unlikely to occur if you have normal insulin levels and if your ketone levels stay in the normal range expected on the diet.

Cancer / tumours:

I think I have mentioned this before and to be this is important. Many cancers run on glucose and have reduced growth and development without it being present. Note that I am not saying that a low-carbohydrate diet is going to cure cancer rather that is might help to slow the progress of some cancers. This may also be applicable to other non-cancerous conditions. I suffer from plantar fibromatosis / Ledderhose disease. I have had radiotherapy and all being well the condition is not too bad however the residual pain I was suffering from has decreased to the point I almost forget about it since starting on a LCKD. There are various papers that support this hypothesis but only time will tell how useful it can be.

Conclusion:

I could go on as there are many studies I have not looked at and some conditions like acne that I have ignored.

Don’t get me wrong some of the above is not completely proven. The thing that most annoys me about telling people I am on this life-style is the perception that it is unhealthy, if these people would just listen and do their research then perhaps they would no longer challenge us and perhaps question the suspect guidelines given out by governments which are coming under more and more scrutiny all the time. When Katie and I started this diet it was just that, it was a diet. The more I have read and the more I have learnt the more it has become a life-style and the less I have wanted to eat carbs. Knowing all this puts me off of going back onto a higher level of carbs, certainly I have no issue with not eating bread, potatoes, crisps, pasta etc. and I am even starting to be less jealous of those eating Katie’s awesome cakes but for most things we have workarounds that taste good.