Anybody read about this latest study? Are we all collectively wrong thinking there is a one size fits all diet for everyone?
I actually don’t think that there’s a one-size fits all diet (not even keto, as terrific as I think keto is). Some folks genuinely thrive with higher carb, lower fat diets. I’m sure it has a lot to do with individual genetic variations, particulars of each person’s history, activity level, etc. I loved watching Robb Wolf’s work on testing glycemic response to common carb sources. Some folks barely have a spike after - say - rice, but blueberries sent their glucose skyrocketing, but for others it was the other way around. It’s interesting! and when it comes down to it, n=1 is our most reliable path.
All that said, would 95% of T2D do better on keto? Yes, probably…
[The study itself ended up with an average of 130g/day of carbs for the low-carb group. That cut their avg carb intake almost in half but … yeah, not really that LC.]
I don’t think there is a one size fits all either.
I try to keep reminding myself that there are genetic differences in people, significant enough differences that there are actually some people who can physically thrive on a vegan diet. I even tried to be one of those people. It was even a religious thing for part of that time. (Not a good place to be.)
I think there is some common ground among many diets. Whether carb based or fat based, sugar is really not a good thing for either group. For most, healthy veggies share a good bit of common ground.
I have found that my body responds well to a low carb diet. I have found that my body does not respond well to a high carb diet. For me, I haven’t a care in the world whether only 10% of the population can do well on low carb or whether it’s 90% of the population can do well on low carb. What matters is that – I – do well on a low carb diet.
I have a small handful of friends that seem to really thrive on a high carb diet. And I am happy for them, really I am. But I have other friends that stick with that high carb mentality (many of them for religious reasons) that will continue with their metformin, obesity, diabetes and their high carb diets believing that anything else is blasphemy. I feel very sorry for them. A few will actually have a reasonable conversation. Many will do nothing but try to convince me how wrong I am… and yet I’m not the one who’s health is going to pot. Mine is improving since stopping the insanity of beating myself up for things that don’t make any sense.
Finding a path that works is the place we all should be. Finding a path that doesn’t work for me that maybe did work for someone else is pure torture.
Sorry… I’m rambling…
This crap study has been discussed elsewhere. It’s a RCT, which is great, but its methods are dung. The “low-carb” dieters were not eating low carb at the end. The “low-fat” dieters were not eating low fat at the end. It doesn’t test what diet is better or healthier. It tests what people will do when given a diet and told they don’t have to follow it after 2 months.
The more I learn, the more I am inclined to agree. Certainly anyone who has metabolic syndrome, is pre-diabetic or T2D should consider a low-carb diet of some description. Being one of those people and trying to make a low-fat diet work for me for years upon years without significant results reinforces that belief for me.
Completely agree.
The figure of 130g/day is probably about as low as some studies will dare to go given that it’s an official guideline…
because y’know, like duh, our brains will die without it! (clearly not given the thousands of members of this forum!)
When we consider our evolution in the last 2 million years and how the last 100 years of refined carbohydrate is but a tiny fraction of that and before that 15,000 years of agriculture not being that much more in relative terms, can we really say that we NEED carbohydrate in our diets at all? would our ancestors have always had ready access to fruits and berries and other carbohydrate rich foods more than they would animals? I would argue that there could be a case to present that a proportion of the current population can simply tolerate carbohydrate in larger quantities better than some.
I personally lost over 70 pounds on a low fat diet at one time. However, in my opinion it was not an easy diet for me to follow even though I was successful at it just through sheer dedication to eating at a deficit. It definitely was not sustainable as evidenced by the about 30 pounds I gradually put back on over the years.
A keto diet is far easier for me to maintain without feeling deprived and miserable. That’s one of my biggest attractions to this way of eating beside the additional health benefits.
It’s funny how RCTs, which are the gold standard of science, miserably fail to produce huge weight loss results in virtually every study. Yet you have thousands of random people who decide to do keto and lose amounts of weight that make any RCT pale in comparison. What are random people on the internet doing differently than experienced obesity researchers?
I can run a randomized control test that proves that hacking off somebody’s limbs causes immediate weight loss. A study with bad parameters doesn’t improve by doing it with randomized control.
It’s really crazy tho, what do these obesity researchers make of the random ketoers regularly putting their studies to absolute shame? Are they even aware the results from ketoers, or is this whole community completely off their radar? It seems weird to me none of them are saying, “gee, why do our results suck so hard?”
These random people on the internet all have a very personal interest in eating a very low carb / keto diet. They’re serious about doing something that works because they often will die if they don’t do something different than they’ve been doing. Yes, it’s that serious for many.
I don’t think there is that level of personal intensity by the participants of most studies. And I have to wonder if researchers are hesitant to ask people to do what many of us voluntarily do, things like limiting carbs to 20g or less a day, things like giving up sugar completely, things like going to one meal a day or even fasting for longer than a day. The way news articles read, it would be torture for people to do that kind of thing. And yet, here we are, doing those very kinds of things and more. Some of us find it to be a very satisfying way of eating, even. (Imagine that…)