Low Carb and Keto Coaching

Solid Foundations or Silver Bullets?

We should always be wary of the silver bullets beloved by politicians, activists, celebrities and influences. It's convenient to say "do this one thing and everything will be fixed”, but this usually ignores the subtleties, variations and exceptions of the issue

Hard-selling low-carb and keto diet advocates are open to criticism on this account. But it's important not to be distracted by this, because there is a difference. Low-carb or keto eating is a step on the way to achieving metabolic health. It is then, from the foundation of improved metabolic health, that numerous benefits flow. However, the food you eat and avoid is not the only issue.

People like Lauren Kennedy West, who have talked publicly about their struggles with mental health disorders and how ketogenic diets have helped their conditions, articulate the issues well. This YouTube podcast is well worth a listen: Keto Bipolar: Episode 27. Lauren Kennedy. Once the ketosis started to improve their mental health, they are then in a better position to recognise and address other aspects of lifestyle that are detrimental to health, such as alcohol, drugs, sleep, exercise and relationships.

Once we stop poisoning our metabolism with sugar, we reach a state where it becomes easier to determine what other poisons like alcohol or drugs are doing to our bodies, and appreciate the benefits of avoiding them. To optimise health, we need healthy bodies, and that means healthy metabolism, healthy sleep patterns, healthy exercise and healthy relationships, whatever those are for each individual.

Low-carb and keto are not silver bullets. They are the first step to metabolic health. With improved metabolic health comes the insight and energy to take other steps, like addressing sleep, alcohol and exercise.

That first step usually consists of working on lots of small wins in different areas, changing this eating pattern, stopping that detrimental, unhealthy habit. If each person does this in a way that makes sense and suits them, they will get to a point where their improved metabolic health gives them the energy to tackle the next step to improve their health and well-being.

Listening to Laura Kennedy West @LWSchizophrenia, Matt B @baszuckimatt and Iain Campbell @IainCampbellPhD talking, it is striking how once their metabolism improved to the extent their thinking became clearer, and they realised alcohol and drugs were doing them a lot of harm. While your metabolism is being poisoned by the food you eat, it's difficult to appreciate the effect of other poisons you're ingesting. Many carnivores, with their avoidance of all past plant-based foods and drinks, report the same phenomenon of feeling less healthy if they ingest any plant food at all.

The other notable feature is how the level of ketones on the blood required to abolish symptoms varied with individuals. They also described brilliantly how it took upwards of six months for them to get to the point where their use of ketones reached an optimal level of efficiency and the level of ketones started to reduce with no symptoms emerging.

Their stories are a useful example of how sticking to the goal of improving your metabolic health can not only bring about the your primary goal, such as weight loss or control of blood sugar in the immediate term, but help you to move on to secondary goals and wider benefits.

Further Reading:

Metabolic Mind is a nonprofit transforming the study and treatment of mental disorders by exploring the connection between metabolism and brain health, supported by the Baszucki Group
https://www.metabolicmind.org