The Keto Diet

It’s the 50th episode of All Fired Up! and we are delving into the Keto Diet craze!! Join me and my fabulous guest Jessi Haggerty, RD and nutritionist, as we set the record straight on all of this ketosis nonsense. As Keto fever sweeps the planet, we really need to stick on our critical thinking hats. Just what is ketosis, and why is everyone trying to do it? Is it really the answer to life, the universe, and everything, or is it just another fad? (Spoiler alert: the answer begins with the letter F).

Show Notes Urgent call for action - In Sydney and Melbourne, the “Fast Track to Health” trial is about to kick off, and researchers are planning to subject adolescents to a starvation diet for an entire year. Please sign the petition to get this stopped! Jessi Haggerty, RD and nutritionist, has had a gutful of all of the ‘hot diets’ around in January. She has a special pet hate for the Whole 30, which she talked about on her podcast recently. The sister diet to the Whole 30 is the Keto diet! Keto is THE hot diet right now. Jessi wrote a great blog on this topic - a Dietitian’s take on the Keto diet - which is really awesome. Jessi’s intern did a lot of the writing and heavy lifting for this blog, so a shout out to her. The Keto diet has taken the low carb movement to the next level. It’s not like going low carb/high fat is new - we saw it in the 90’s with the Atkins diet. Well, the Keto diet is Atkins 2.0, but it’s even harsher than Atkins! Keto started as a medical solution for children with epilepsy. Paediatric dietitians help kids with epilepsy follow a very high fat, medium protein & very low carbohydrate diet. Dietitians typically recommend that 40-50% of our intake be carbohydrate based, on a keto diet this goes way down to about 5%. The primary reason for doing this for kids is seizure prevention. It is an extreme measure that is only used when the medications don’t work. Because doctors and parents know how difficult it is to stick to such an extreme diet. But this is a last ditch effort in a very difficult situation. And for these kids, the keto intervention only works about 50% of the time. The mechanism of why this type of intervention might work to reduce epileptic seizures is unclear. Somehow, this diet was adopted by the mainstream as a way to lose weight. Go figure! Some people talk about using Keto for disease management, but overwhelmingly people are using it as a weight loss/fat loss tool. Like any weight loss diet, keto has major downsides. Restriction like this is not fun for people, and can lead to disturbed eating patterns and even eating disorders. Metabolic disturbance is also a serious consequence of dieting. How on earth did this diet get so popular! It’s really big in gym culture in Australia - it’s just so popular. We just keep going for fewer and fewer carbs - what’s next! There is a difference between ketoacidosis and ketosis. Ketoacidosis can happen if you are diabetic and your blood sugars get very low. Ketosis is when your body doesn’t have enough sugar in your system to keep everything running efficiently, so your liver creates ketones to keep your body going. Ketones are your bodys’ ‘back up’ mechanism which makes sure you can survive, and find food again. Ketones are not your bodys preferred source of energy, they are a back up system to take care of you when you don’t have enough carbohydrates. ...And this is being sold as a ‘healthy diet’ for people!? We literally hear people bang on about ketosis as if it is a superior way of living. Just because our body can use alternative sources of fuel, doesn’t mean that we should or need to be aiming for it! You’re just putting stress on the body in the name of weight loss. What is the impact on the brain of starving it of glucose and carbohydrates? Brains love these! Jessi’s blog post brought the ire of people who have tried Keto and say that it has ‘worked for them’. Jessi challenges them - what do you mean by ‘worked’ - (it’s going