Devil's Advocate: Keto is a Fad

#1

The low fat craze turned out to be wrong and a fad. Doctors were wrong. What’s to say the Keto diet isn’t a fad that will turn out to be wrong as well after long term research? Say keto is bad for your heart, liver, and colon. What if the key is just moderation with all macros and calories in/out especially once you’re at your goal weight?

#2

Never worked for me before, can’t imagine why it would now.

(Jay Patten) #3

Early humans ate a ketogenic diet for 3/4 of the year for thousands and thousands of years. Its how we evolved.

HFLC is the original human diet. LFHC is a mainly 20th century phenomenon.

#4

Lol, I’m reading this as I’m listening to 2kd podcast episode “Non-Scale Victories” and Richard just said their was a study that people who are on a strict diet do better than people who eat a moderate amount of everything.

I don’t have link to the study and I’m not arguing for or against - I don’t debate. I just want to everyone to appreciate the universe’s timing. Really funny.

(TJ Borden) #5

First of all, I LOVE playing devils advocate. It drives my wife nuts because when we’re out with friends, I’ll argue points she knows I don’t actually believe just for the sake of conversation. I think being asked to defend your opinion on an issue is the best way to either solidify ones beliefs, or change them. My stance on many issues over the years has changed because someone challenged my platform, and I couldn’t really defend it.

In regards to keto being a fad; I agree with @FatBomb. As you pointed out, the low fat diet failed, and that lasted about 50 years. Compared to the hundreds of thousands of years we survived eating a ketogenic diet (or really close to it), I’d say that it’s not a fad, it’s just going back to before the last round of fads started.

(Diane) #6

Oh, you would get along with my brother! It took me a long while to figure out this aspect of his personality. I admit that I don’t always feel like playing along. But I find it’s helpful in finding a way to articulate my beliefs (and can encourage me in further research now and again).

#7

That’s a decent argument, but there is no study on nutrition and lifespan of people before the 20th century to prove your point. In fact most people did not live to be very old (for various factors besides diet as well). They ate to survive rather than for health.

The amount of red meat and dairy some eat on Keto is especially alarming for health reasons. There are many conflicting theories on diet and no clear consensus yet.

(Raj Seth) #8

Maybe the fact that dumb god complexed doctors are not pushing it. Or that there is no :moneybag: to be made from it?

#9

Why?

(Raj Seth) #10

FIFY

(Doug) #11

I don’t think there is only ‘one key.’ At goal weight - you will most often be right, people can and will do fine with the example you give, provided there are no overarching hormonal issues.

That doesn’t mean they can’t continue with ketogenic eating and do just as well, or even better - if insulin resistance is still a problem, for example.

While to some extent we don’t know all of what happens with keto, long term, we do know that at least for some years, most people do fine on it. Given that a large portion of the population has problems that are directly addressed by keto, there’s no way that it can be just “a fad” as with some other diets. Among those of us with obesity/metabolic syndrome/certain hormonal issues/pre-diabetes/diabetes, I don’t see anything remotely as successful as ketogenic eating and it’s effect on insulin resistance.

(Doug) #12

This is just as suspect as is the “low fat” mantra that began 4 or 5 decades ago. It’s actually a good question whether there is any evidence behind it at all, given the faults that have been found with past studies.

Data, in this realm, is a bunch of anecdotal reports and evidence, and when you look at the vast, overwhelming measure of success that ketogenic eating has among people, the evidence is quite clear.

(Robert C) #13

I would say eating pure keto all the time might turn out to be a fad and might turn out to not be optimal.

Our bodies adapted to be able to eat animals in the deep winter (so essentially keto) when that was all that was available but also fruit in the warmer season. That would be true of my ancestors anyway. So, in my case, a “Paleo” or “Ancestral” diet would include a seasonal approach to eating. This might avoid my body adapting to keto in such a way as to have a diminishing returns problem as well as maybe avoiding effects of long term use of a single diet. Also, I can see running, bicycling or visits to the beach (high activity levels) in summer as fine times to throw down an orange but think keto makes much more sense in the darker days of winter.

Dr. Daniel Pompa calls this “diet variation” - essentially times of fasting, times of heavy keto and times of whole foods. He considers the switching important to keep our hormones guessing.

Mark Sisson suggests periodic “keto resets” and talks about long term keto here:

(Jay Patten) #14

@Rajseth

Yes, I was going to say that but decided to say “thousands” as to not turn this into a theological discussion, LOLOLOL. :joy:

(Edith) #15

Yes, but there is eveidence that humans were taller before the advent of agriculture.

#16

There are indigenous people who survive on a keto diet. If you watch the Magic Pill, one focus is to get the indigenous people of Australia and New Zealand to go back to their diets. The same with the movie about the First Nations of Canada.

In the Magic Pill they ask the older people how their grandparents died and the answer seems to be accident or old age. There is no cancer, heart disease or diabetes

(less is more, more or less) #17

I’m surprised no one has raised this yet, but the simple answer is; “The Banting Diet.”

If fads spans centuries, then there you have it.

(Mark Rhodes) #18

you might wish to rethink your claim of limited lifespan. There are also others who are currently working on assessing the lifespan of ancient peoples.

(Robert C) #19

Too much red meat cuts both ways.

For some people that are iron deficient (usually women) I assume it would mean less (or no) more iron supplements would be needed.

But, for others, that have iron overload (Hemochromatosis) - going keto (with high red meat consumption) and not knowing that would be very unhealthy.

https://hcahealthcare.com/hl/?/14116/What-You-Don-t-Know-About-Excess-Iron-Could-Kill-You

(Doug) #20

Robert - true, but that’s a fairly rare deal, like 0.5% or less of people. I do agree that anything that’s present in already-too-high amounts, and special conditions such as hemochromatosis should be taken into account.