Big Black, Keto and Proud

(Ron D. Garrett) #1

IAs we know the black community with the exception of maybe the First Nation’s community is among the highest in its rates of diabetes and diabetes relate health issues so moving towards a ketogenic lifestyle SHOULD be welcoming into our communities.

Since many of our communities lack adequate healthcare coverage we should be willing to look at avenues to tackle diabetes at its roots through the PROVEN methods of utilizing nutrition though a ketogenic diet that has helped myself and may others.

The black community is loathe to buy into keto so it is up to us and our other lighter pigment keto brothers and sisters to spread the word via all media and via the best way…by personal example.

I’m a Christian and I’ve always stated that the best way for me to share my faith is not by anything that I say but how I live my life before others and it is wholly more effective than beating someone over the head with the Bible.

I’ve found the same approach works with teaching others about reversing diabetes and as a side benefit shedding weight as the conversation almost always begins with “hey!!! What are you doing? You’ve lost sooooo much weight and look so good!”

I then as the 2 Keto Dudes often say “I lost it by eating bacon and eggs cooked in butter or some other fat and I eat fat to satiaty, moderate protein, and little to no carbs and even then from ONLy green veggies.”

I then tell them how I had been pre-diabetic for almost twelve years and was diagnosed type two diabetic a year ago and NOW after just 3 weeks of keto (back in November) I got my labs and I AM NO LONGER DIABETIC!!!”

Simply put…document and don’t be afraid to tell your story to anyone and if you are in ministry in “da hood” like i am I believe that God brought me this way of eating so that I can share it with believers and non-believers alike.

So keep calm, “keto on”, and PLEASE don’t be afraid to teach those in your purview about this life changing lifestyle.

Pass on the blessing that you have been blessed with helping others to reverse their diabetes, have more energy, and a better quality of life all while eating GREAT FOOD!!!

So let’s be a community within the community supported by and with the keto community and I thank @Richard and @Carl for all that they do to. They helped a fat black kid who definitely loved his cake to realize that it wasn’t worth my toes or my life.

Holla at your boy and keto on!

Ron “Big Black” Garrett

(Myisha Wright Powell) #2

Great news about your weight loss and reversing diabetes. I have to ask though, why is this thread about your skin color as well? I am an American who is a darker shade of Brown as well, however I don’t believe that we are somehow predisposed to illness just because of that. This me to lifestyle was revealed to me through my Uncle and my curiosity was sparked because he looked AMAZING!! Here in America, we all suffer from too much sugar in our diets.

More power to you for wanting to spread the word in your community, I just think you’ll reach more people if you don’t polarize your message with color. I’m new to this lifestyle and my skin is looking fabulous, my weight is down, I feel better at 41 than I did at 21!! I wasn’t overweight at 21 either. I have 20 more lbs to lose and I’m l9ving this or to life. I will pass down healthy eating habits to my two gorgeous daughter’s. Who by the way aren’t fat by any means. The only thing a person of color is truly predisposed to is not aging as fast as our beige brother’s and sister’s. Peace and love Big Black, I wish us both long life and good health!

(Ken) #3

Good for you Ron, you’ve “Cracked the Code” as far as healthy eating, according to your specific genetics.

Here’s a little genetics, so you can better explain it to others.

I’ve been involved in the subject of healthy eating for those with primarily Equatorial African (EA) genetics for well over a decade, as I have a son I adopted in 1991 as a one year old, in Africa.

EA genetics, in general, show dominant traits that favor a hunter gather nutritional pattern. Now, this is a generalization, as most lines in America have genetics from other regions in the World mixed in, so I’m saying that my points will be somewhat subjective, you’ll be able to find specific exceptions to them on an individual basis. It all depends on the dominant traits that an individual has.

Nutritional adaptation, on a genetic basis, is a process of exposure to foods over generations, with the estimate of between 1,000 to 10,000 generations being required for a trait to be distributed through a population. An adaptation such as adjusting to a carb-based rather than fat based nutritional pattern. The term for eating a pattern that you are not genetically adapted to, and which causes detrimental health conditions is called “Nutritional Discordance”.

Populations in EA, as well as Southern Africa (SA) have been exposed to the carb-based, grain eating nutritional pattern only very recently in genetic terms. It began with the European Colonization Period in Africa, starting around only about 300 years ago. At the most, that’s only about 15 generations. Prior to that, EA and SA populations subsisted on the fat based, low Carb, occasional fruit type patterns. The best example being the Paleo concept, but the real one which is fat based, not many of what I consider the “faux paleo” crap out there that merely eliminate grains but substitute other carbs in their place. In EA, it was primarily hunter-gathering, but there were also the herding cultures as well that lived off cattle such as the Masai, Matabele, Xhosa, Zulu, as well as the other Bantu groups from SA.

So, the 60/35/5% paleo macro is IMO optimum. It is due to the relatively short period of exposure to the Carb based diet that has caused the horrendous health problems running amok in communities with EA and SA genetics. Check out the massive diabetes epidemic that South Africa is currently experiencing. There are also studies out there documenting what has happened to the health of Masai who have left their herding diet and adopted a Carb based one when they moved to the city. As an aside, the same type explanation can be applied to Pacific Islander genetics, as they only began eating imported rice as their dietary staple a few hundred years ago.

Lastly, I’ll detail what happened to my son once he switched to the 60/35/5% paleo macro, which included elimination of grains, beans, and dairy.

He dropped fat very quickly. He was very active so we didn’t restrict calories. Over the course of a Summer, he dropped 35 lbs. and went from size 34 to size 29 pants. He’s 5’8" so it made a huge difference. He was no longer fat. The following year he lettered in Cross Country. His skin condition became normal. He had always become “ashy” during the Winter, never again. His acne disappeared, which has never come back. He was also a Hep B baby, which was always a concern, but that was totally eliminated, with him no longer being considered an active case. Now when tested he only shows the presence of the antibodies. This was accomplished with diet, no drugs whatsoever.

So, there’s my input. I hope you find it interesting and of help.

Ken

(Ron D. Garrett) #4

It was not intended to be about color per se but the Dudes” said that they wanted to hear from every segment of society “Black, First Nations, etc., because like it or not we all have our little communities. I was only following up on a request that they made in one of the podcasts to highlight some of the difficulties encountered in the black community. To say that there are not some differences in the response to the ketogenic diet in different racial or ethnic groups is to not be wise in learning how to teach the principles of keto.

Be blessed!

(Ron D. Garrett) #5

So awesome! Thank you Ken and I see that it everyone took my post as “racial”. Whether we like it or not there are differences between the races. How we prepare food, how we genetically respond to food, the differences that we encounter when we speak in the diet to each community, etc.

I am a proud American yet historically we know that diabetes has hit the community hard and Ken’s post provides much historical and genetic context.

(Adam Kirby) #6

Is this because a lot of African-American cuisine is intensely carb-heavy? IDK if it’s even higher in carbs than the normal western diet.

The genetic issue Ken brings up also makes sense. Europeans might have a much longer history with grains (still fucks us up though in the hyper-processed way we eat 'em now).

(CharleyD) #7

The emerging field of epigenetics is showing this to be truer than you know. The recent podcast with Kevin and Brenda put together a couple data points that I was struggling with.

Hunter gatherers are healthy when mainly carnivore.
Hunter gatherers are inherently insulin resistant.

We usually think metabolic syndrome when we hear insulin resistant, but what if insulin resistance, when living close to the land is a healthier state? When you don’t have a fridge or easy access to salt, you’d be in trouble if you couldn’t stuff the surplus energy away on the love handles when winter comes.

There’s a couple mental rabbit holes there, but mainly, Welcome Aboard Ron! We remember Carl’s call out for more diverse flavor and I can’t imagine a better testament than your story.

KCKO, and let’s hear more of how you’re able to get through to your community. Let’s hope reason can get through but if you have to, remind them the Lord was always pleased at the scent of burnt animal offerings. :grin:

(Adam Kirby) #8

If you’ve never read ItsTheWoo’s blog you should, it’s a gold mine of crazy, obsessive metabolic rambling. Anyway, she’s blogged about this genetic thing.

(Liz ) #9

That’s our best bet for helping to heal our communities from metabolic syndrome, yeah? Telling the people around us, who express interest, about the amazing thing we figured out that can help them too? I’m in an artist community and other artists have started to notice my changes. I happily share the information with them about what I am doing.

Now whether or not they follow up is out of my hands but I feel like I have done the best I can by, like you say, living the actions and showing them how it works. I’m always so nervous i’ll come across kind of intense, LOL in my excitement about Keto, but it is truly exciting information, is it not?? Thanks for spreading the word where you can, I hope people listen to you and congratulations on your Keto success so far!

(CharleyD) #10

@akirby83 Thanks for that, I’ll have to catch it at home, personal blog type sites are blocked here at work.

Down South here I’d offer that the traditional diet was more offalicious than anything, but definitely the nutrition guidelines, once adopted, were more catastrophic to EA genes than Caucasian.

(Ron D. Garrett) #11

@akirby83in my experience just as with the rest of western diets I’ve found this to be true especially in my case. I grew up eating a ton of grains and root vegetables as well as sweets so. This is not indigenous to black folk only but the response differs at times from other comments. It’s cultural but the mean response is the same in every community and education is the key which is why I believe @carl and @richard reached out during the podcast to try and reach every community. I am also working as a powerlifter to help in that carb based community also Lol

(Keto in Katy) #12

Well done Ron! Happy for you.

(Ron D. Garrett) #13

Thank you @Dipper_Actual I’ve had to not only learn about the genetics of my racial history but also as it relates in conjunction with my life as a bodybuilder and powerlifter which was almost exclusively carb based in my diet. All of Hess years I could not figure out why what I used to do wouldn’t work anymore and the doctors ESPECIALLY my VA docs who have to do exactly what the government says they should do couldn’t explain to me why my weight kept going up and up and I kept getting sicker and sicker. Praise God as I listened to the podcasts (in my OCD I had to go back from the first one four weeks ago and I’ve listened to them all LOL) the Dudes we’re spelling out every symptom that I had that the docs couldn’t and as soon as I started keto I started feeling better. I have dropped a total of 44 lbs (some of it with varying diets but keto is the only one I haven’t put it back on with and made me feel better). Thanks for the encouragement and KCKO yourself my friend!

(Ron D. Garrett) #14

Thank you @stacy!

(Ron D. Garrett) #15

Exactly!!! Thank you!

(Ron D. Garrett) #16

@akirby83 Your grandmother actually sounds like mine as she ran some ummm activities herself lol. Thank you

(carl) #17

@Rgbigun! THANK YOU for reaching out. It’s great to see your success! You’re right. Diabetes hits HARD with all Americans, and the black community in particular. @richard and I are willing to help in any way we can efforts to spread the message into specific cultural communities all over the world. Ultimately, though, it takes a leader FROM the community to really get the conversation started. Well done!

Keep Calm and Keto On!

(Ron D. Garrett) #18

Thank you! I have gotten a lot of people to start listening to the podcast here where I work on the Army Base (I’m a disabled veteran also) and a lot of people in my church are starting keto also. KCKO my friend and I will be helping you guys out on patrion(sp) soon because I believe in this message.

(Ron D. Garrett) #19

Also, I didn’t explain the title. My nickname is “Big Black” this the title.

(Ken) #20

You know, actually, there is no scientific basis for the concept of “Race”. If you have even a basic understanding of genetics, the whole concept becomes adsurd. Trying to categorize all humanity into four major groups is just nutty. It’s pretty arguable that this occurred in the early 19th century in order for some folks to assert their own opinions of ethnocentricity. To assert that a few superficial physical characteristics equals major differences in Humanity simply is not true. All of Humanity is much too closely related on a genetic basis. If you consider that the total human population world wide was reduced to only several thousand people with the eruption of the Toba supervolcano some 74,000 years ago, it becomes even more apparent. The only real differences in people are cultural, or the “Content of their Character”. I don’t consider my son to be of a different Race, I just think he happens to have a nicer tan than I do.

Here’s an interesting article on the topic.