High School Health Class Project

science
(Steve B) #1

Hi everyone! I’m hoping that maybe some of the folks here can guide me a little.

My oldest daughter has an assignment for High School. She’s in a health class that for it’s dietary recommendations is focused on the standard USDA recommended diet.

She was tasked with a project about “A Healthy Diet”. She came to me and said she was struggling because she wanted to get a good grade, but felt like she should at least try to look into the Keto alternative because my wife and I eat that way and she’s seen the impact it’s had on us. She emailed her teacher, and to the teacher’s credit she replied that she’s willing to work with my daughter on a project that compares the two ways of eating.

To give her some resources, I passed on a lot of the links that the 2 Keto guys provide in parts of their blog,and other parts of the 2 Keto Dudes site. I also provided her a link to this section of the forums.

My question to you all is…can anyone recommend a source or two that gives a reasonably concise comparison of the two diets that summarizes the benefits of the Keto diet she might be able to use as a good primary resource?

If anyone can point me to some good starting points that don’t get too far into the weeds, while citing appropriate studies and resources for further research, that would be fantastic!

Thanks!

Steve

(Bob M) #2

Some of the best data out there right now is from Virta health, which uses a keto diet in the context of Type 2 diabetes:

You can also look at their research. They used a comparison pool, but did not randomize into two groups.

Here are comparisons:

Note that often “low carb” is defined at ridiculously high carb levels and also some of the studies aren’t tightly controlled (ie, the “low carb” prong is eating 150+ grams of carbs per day after a year). So, you need to read the studies if you can.

(Steve B) #3

Bob,

Thanks very much. I’m actually a type 2 diabetic myself. My significant reversal of my own circumstances is what makes my daughter so adamant about the value of the diet.

I’ve actually heard about Virta and have been meaning to connect with them, so I’ll use this as a reminder to myself.

I’ll pass these off to my daughter (and probably read some of them myself). I think she’s actually going to be connecting with her teacher today to discuss what she’s found so far and see where it goes from there.

(Bob M) #4

I’m not sure how much you know, but this guy is great:

https://www.diabetesdaily.com/learn-about-diabetes/diabetes-diet/dr-bernsteins-low-carb-diabetes-diet/

He has a book for Type 1, but it applies to Type 2 also.

Then, there’s intermittent fasting, a la Dr. Jason Fung (“The Obesity Code”). I found a lot of benefit by eating fewer meals, even after being on low carb for 1.5+ years. I started intermittent fasting (IF) and now am coming up on my 5-year journey (1/1/19) and combine keto and IF.

Eating fewer meals should also be a part of the guidelines, but that might be too radical. We’re trying to cut back on our kid’s snacks, but school and outside events are all based on snacks.

I should note that I’m not a Type 2, though I think I was close to being one 5 years ago.

(Bunny) #5

Ketogenic Diet (LCHF) Research Leads :

  1. Nine ways that processed foods are harming people: “…The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is a measure of how much different foods stimulate energy expenditure after eating. It totals about 10% of total energy expenditure (metabolic rate) in the average person. According to this study, people who eat processed food will cut their TEF in half, effectively reducing the amount of calories they burn throughout the day. …” …More
  1. 11 Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad for You: “…Consuming fructose increases your hunger and desire for food more than glucose, the main type of sugar found in starchy foods (3). Additionally, excessive fructose consumption may cause resistance to leptin, an important hormone that regulates hunger and tells your body to stop eating (4). Additionally, excessive fructose consumption may cause resistance to leptin, an important hormone that regulates hunger and tells your body to stop eating (4). …”
  1. Eating too much added sugar increases the risk of dying with heart disease - Harvard University Blog:
  1. Added Sugar Intake and Cardiovascular Diseases Mortality Among US Adults
  1. Sugar is the ‘alcohol of the child’, yet we let it dominate the breakfast table - Dr. Robert Lustig, MD Pediatric endocrinologist
  1. New study: Keto improves cardiovascular health markers
  1. Virta Health Changing Status Quo in Chronic Disease Care with Strong Cardiovascular Outcomes from Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Study

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  1. Blood Lipid Changes With A Well-Formulated Ketogenic Diet In Context
  1. With Sustained Type 2 Diabetes Reversal, Management is Becoming a Thing of the Past

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  1. Economic Impact Results: A Novel Intervention Including Individualized Nutritional Recommendations Reduces Hemoglobin A1c Level, Medication Use, and Weight in Type 2 Diabetes
  1. Reversing Diabetes 101 with Dr. Sarah Hallberg: The Truth About Carbs, Blood Sugar and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
Help, need really good research about cholesterol!
(Bunny) #6

THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF CARBS (SUGAR), ESPECIALLY SOFT DRINKS

  • Sugary beverages are linked to weight gain and increase in type 2 diabetes in women.

Schulze et al. 2004, JAMA, Sugar-sweetened beverages, weight gain, and incidence of type 2 diabetes in young and middle-aged women

  • By studying food and diabetes prevalence in 175 countries, it was found that for every 150 kcal/person/day increase in sugar availability (about 1 can of soda each day), it was associated with an increase in diabetes prevalence of about 1%.

Basu et al. 2013, Plos One, The Relationship of Sugar to Population-Level Diabetes Prevalence: An Econometric Analysis of Repeated Cross-Sectional Data

  • Daily consumption of diet soft drinks are linked to an increased risk for stroke and other vascular events.

Gardener et al. 2012, J Gen Intern Med, Diet soft drink consumption is associated with an increased risk of vascular events in the Northern Manhattan Study

  • Among middle aged adults, soft drink consumption is associated with higher incidence of cardiometabolic risk factors.

Dhingra et al. 2007, Circulation, Soft drink consumption and risk of developing cardiometabolic risk factors and the metabolic syndrome in middle-aged adults in the community

  • From a study of relationships between nutritional factors and the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in Europe, the major correlate of high cardiovascular disease risk was the proportion of dietary energy from carbs and alcohol, or potatoes and cereal carbs. Even unrefined cereals have high insulin indices.

Grasgruber et al. 2016, Food Nutr Resesarch, Food consumption and the actual statistics of cardiovascular diseases: an epidemiological comparison of 42 European countries

  • The sugar industry secretly funded a study in 1965 to evaluate sugar’s effect on cardiovascular health. When the results suggested that sugar was harmful, they buried the data.

Kearns et al. 2017, PLoS Biol, Sugar industry sponsorship of germ-free rodent studies linking sucrose to hyperlipidemia and cancer: An historical analysis of internal documents

  • Analysis of the Alaskan Inuit diet shows that higher consumption of carbs and sugar is linked to the rise of coronary heart disease and diabetes.

DiNicolantonio & O’Keefe 2017, Open Heart, J Markedly increased intake of refined carbohydrates and sugar is associated with the rise of coronary heart disease and diabetes among the Alaskan Inuit

  • From a study with 12 years of follow up, results suggest that high carb consumption increases the risk of gall stone disease in men.

Tsai et al. 2005, Gut, Dietary carbohydrates and glycaemic load and the incidence of symptomatic gall stone disease in men

  • A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 49 people shows that consuming sucrose (sugar) and glucose leads to poorer performance on cognitive tasks such as simple response time and arithmetic.

Ginieis et al. 2018, Phys Beh, The “sweet” effect: Comparative assessments of dietary sugars on cognitive performance

  • From a study of 5189 subjects over 10 years, people with high blood sugar have a faster rate of cognitive decline including dementia than those with normal blood sugar, regardless if they are diabetic or not. The higher the blood sugar, the faster the cognitive decline.

Zheng et al. 2018, Diabetologia, HbA1c, diabetes and cognitive decline: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Help, need really good research about cholesterol!
(Steve B) #7

Thank you all for your links. They all have some amazing content in them. Of course, the challenge my poor daughter has to contend with is to sift through all of this and distill it down to a high school level project. I’m hoping to see where she is in the process this week as the project is due next week.

She’s had to limit her research to the more “overview” items, but…on the upside, she and I will be working together to go through all the information presented to improve our collective knowledge on the topic.

(Jeff Gilbertson) #8

I’ve collected a lot of links at this site

http://Jeff.Gilbertson.info

That should be more than enough to provide all the data she needs.