I think I am the most misunderstood and misquoted poster on Getbig. Some time ago, I made a post in a thread where I attacked the keto diet and got trashed. I do not deny that the keto diet produces improvements in overall health in the short term. My criticism is that I don't believe it is an ideal diet in the long run. I will explain my reasons, and I am willing to have a reasonable debate as long as people make coherent and substantiated points.
Yes, the keto diet does cause improvements in many markers associated with health such as plasma glycemia, systolic blood pressure and even improves blood lipid profile depending on the version of keto diet you do. After all, a diet with no glucose will produce the healthiest levels possible of blood glucose, which is the minimum the body will be getting from gluconeogenesis of protein in the liver.
The other energy substrate will be ketones from the breakdown of long fatty chains also in the liver. Your blood lipid profile will also improve, since both fats and carbohydrates raise blood tryglyceride levels, but fat is much slower to digest and break down, so the amount of fatty acids in the blood might decrease even though you are eating more fat. If you do a version of the keto diet where you get most of your fat from cold-water fish, the improvement in the HDL/LDL ratio might be remarkable.
But the keto diet produces many problems for Humans. We do not digest and assimilate fats and protein as effectively as carbohydrates, and even though long polysaccharide chains are also burdensome for the liver to break down, they are not nearly as burdensome as fats and much less burdensome than protein. Metabolically, all our energy-producing mechanisms at the cellular level, the mitochondria, are geared to utilize chains of saccharides or variants of adenosine for energy. Furthermore, the problems go further than this. Our digestive tracts, digestive enzymes and intestinal tracts cannot effectively process foods laden with protein and fat.
For instance, we have ten times more amylase in our saliva than protease, and the hydrochloric acid in our stomach is too diluted to break down the fibrous protein filaments of meat. Then, our gastro-intestinal tract, which is similar to that of frugivores and folivores, is too long to dispose of large quantities of protein and fat metabolites fast. There is also the issuen of acidosis. Humans have alkaline saliva, and Human cells are slightly alkaline. This is the opposite of a carnivores like a lion, which has an acidic saliva and cells that work better in an acidic medium.Both fats and ptrotein are acid-forming. After all, both fats and proteins are acid-based. Fats are fatty acids, and proteins are made of amino acids. Eating large quantities of both results in the fromation of acidic metabolites, which must be buffered and made alkaline. The body draws carbonate from the bones to accomplish this. Protein breaks down into large quantities or uric acid and creatinine and ammonia. ammonia further breaks down into many inorganic acids that must be buffered. vegetables alkalinize the body, but in a keto diet where you get all your energy from fats andf proteins there isn's enough greesn that can do that.
Being in an acidic state poisons the mitochondria of cells, resulting in accelerated metabolic stress(oxidation). The liver, already strained from gluconeogenesis and fatty acid breakdown, must now deal with large ammounts of ammonia that must be further broeken down. Result: accelerated liver and kidney degeneration. A keto diet thus results in:
- Ostheoporosis
- Gout
- Arthritis
- Accelerated ageing even if infflamation is controlled by ingestion of polynsaturated fats and vitamin E
- Stress and burned out liver and kidneys.
SUCKMYMUSCLE
