A lot less taxing than trying to filter out all of the Processed crap that the average Person eats[quote=“bnatural4life, post:11, topic:5525”]
Carbs are not essential and our body’s could survive without them.
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My body THRIVES without them!!!, and please show me the science of why we can’t go without carbs
If it does, that’s something that’s easily detected by elevated liver enzymes and I’ve been LCHF and then keto for years and still have normal liver enzymes. Dr. Stephen Phinney and many others are self-reportedly keto for far longer (read: decades) and still report NO medical anomalies such as liver problems.
I think “cognitive dissonance” is something that we’ve all gone through.
I’ve linked this video before in other areas, but it’s especially poignant now since it’s someone eating LCHF trying to explain it to a friend and I’ve personally experienced many of the questions/responses, although not with the same person.
http://synapse.ucsf.edu/users/breanna-allen. This popped up in my news feed today I have sections set up for ketogenic diet ,blood pressure and Diabetes, and read this article which was interesting until I read the paragraph comparing the ketogenic diet to the Atkins diet like they are one in the same,now some of the information in this article is correct, however after reading that paragraph, I would list this as “Fake News” for lack of a better term,because someone will read this article which came from a student newspaper, written by ,Breanna Allen who is a graduate student and believes that keto is just the same as Atkins and therefore dangerous, as they say ,the devil is in the details,now she may have an explanation for why she believes they are the same, but I’m not sure this graduate student did her homework,and I’m surprised a student newspaper is appearing in the news feed because we all know students don’t know anything, just kidding,send your hate mail to Carl for that joke
Haha I know exactly what you mean, this was from my University a little while back. http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/to_eat_or_not_to_eat_whats_a_carbohydrate_anyways
I thought I had posted this, sorry.
http://bjsmbeta.bmj.com/content/51/2/133.full?platform=hootsuite
I would also look at the posts on the forum already listing useful books and links.
You could always get your friends to join this forum of course and then they can come and ask whatever questions they like.
@BillJay That Youtube was great!! Thanks.
You may enjoy this story and the question at the end.
Greg,
That’s so bad it is amusing, especially coming from a university. Unfortunately I’ve known many students who know the truth but pass exams by giving the answer they require, even though it is not correct!
Sad
I guess my view is a little different than other folks. I’m not surprised that your friends are worried since what you’re doing contravenes everything they’ve been taught. And I feel you ought to be touched by their concern even though you don’t consider it well founded.
To respond to their concerns you would need to understand the science of nutritional ketosis pretty well. Better, honestly, than I understand it myself. So, if you want to do that, I’d probably read the Phinney and Volek book, or perhaps the article @Daisy linked to, above. Alternatively, you could rely on the fact that you “know” (through the internet) quite a few people who’ve been eating this way for years with only positive results. Personally, that’s my approach. But, no matter how confident you are in @richard, @carl, and everyone else don’t expect your friends to be too impressed with the “I heard it from someone on the internet” approach.
The only things is that these are current students. They should be inquisitive about all things nutrition even if only to refute it. Showing them the science should be talking to them in their own language and they could always come here and quiz us!
From the original post it sounds like @Greg_Spletzer’s friends are asking him (admittedly pointed) questions about ketogenic eating and that Greg’s looking for answers to give them. So it sounds like they’re quite open to hearing what Greg has to say.
Would be nice to have a section somewhere “Answers To Nutritional Nay-Sayers”. Honestly, I’ve wondered myself about the issue of GNG stressing the liver in some way. . .
To give people an idea of what I was looking for I think I may have found a great reference list of most things keto here: http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/site-map.html
To more address that specifically, they have a section on gluconeogenesis: http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/gluconeogenesis.html
It doesn’t quite cover the long-term effects specifically, but it sounds like your liver really only is working overtime during the transition onto a ketogenic diet.
The body requires glucose to function, yes. Certain cells cannot utilize ketones for energy; for instance, some are in the brain, the kidneys, and one other (I can’t remember). However, the body can create glucose via a process called gluconeogenesis. This occurs in the liver. How does it “tax the liver”? That’s a perplexing statement. Ask them to quantify it with information. Gluconeogenesis does not tax the liver. Alcohol consumption, toxic chemicals being ingested, very high carbohydrate diets, high serum insulin - these things tax the liver.
Also, you use gluconeogenesis whenever you can’t eat. I.e., when you sleep, you use it (and often ketones) for instance. So.
Ketoacidosis is probably one of the most misunderstood concepts in medicine. While it’s a state in which ketone levels are excessively high, it can only occur when you do not make enough insulin. I cannot overstate this: ketoacidosis only occurs when there is a lack of insulin. It does not occur as a result of too many ketones! Saying ketones cause ketoacidosis is like saying a cough causes pneumonia.
Ketoacidosis is a metabolic state that only occurs in situations with impaired liver function. There are only three instances I recall where this happens: alcoholic ketoacidosis from chronic alcoholism (tell your college friends to quit binge drinking), diabetic ketoacidosis when glucose is high and cannot be controlled by the body, and liver damage (for instance, damage from chemicals or other such things).
An interesting way to look at the body’s energy function is like a storage battery. You are meant to run off fat (that’s your big fuel reservoir). But now and then you eat food to top off the fuel source.
Running off carbs would be like hooking up your alternator straight to your car’s electric system and bypassing the storage battery. Now that would work, but not very well… it would be easy to run low on power. Sort of like it doesn’t work very well to run your body primarily off carbs.
-General analogy courtesy of Ted Naiman (twitter). I hope I related it correctly.
I think it’s nice your friends worry about you, but if it were me personally I’d have to tell them to back off and do some of their own research. If you’re not concerned about your long term health then that’s all that matters. If they’re going to judge you for your food choices, then I’d reconsider friendship. Worrying about what OTHER people eat on a regular basis is such a waste of time and energy because it’s only a very small piece of the health puzzle. Unless they want to analyze your blood test results and are qualified to give you some kind of professional opinion, they have no place, IMO.
However, having said all that, it is most certainly helpful to have a arsenal of answers to back up your own conviction so that conversation isn’t completely shut down on the topic. But if they come from a place of deeply ingrained antequated belief of what “true” health really is then it may not matter what answers you have for them. They’ve already made up their minds and are merely trying to change yours.
Good luck, and KCKO 
I just re-read the diet section of Dr. Spock’s updated (1997) Baby and Child Care. He said there was absolutely no need for any starches or grains in the diets of children of any age. My family doctor says the same thing for adults.