New Doctor

(Marianne) #1

My doctor of like twenty years just retired. He wasn’t on board with keto/lc, but I liked him and thought he was invested in my health.

Yesterday, I went in because I have been feeling extremely tired - with adequate sleep. Met my new doctor for the first time - young woman probably late 20s. We reviewed a few things about me and I told her I have been on clean keto for about five years and had lost a significant amount of weight (should have said “low carb” instead of keto; that word just seems to put a lot of physicians/people off). I think she asked me how many carbs I do and I said “less than 20.” She said, “ohhh…that’s really low. Your brain does need some sugar” (like that may be why I’m so tired). I kept my mouth shut and just though, here we go again. :roll_eyes:

(KM) #2

That’s an easy one, though. Your body will make the sugar your brain needs, you don’t need to ingest it. (I know You know, I mean it’s a relatively easy counter-argument for your doctor.) And if you’ve been doing this without feeling tired for five years, it’s unlikely the same diet you’ve been eating is suddenly changing how you feel. Did she give you suggestions or tests other than “eat sugar”? :roll_eyes:

ETA: I don’t know how old you are. I found when I hit perimenopause and then menopause for real, my sleep became (and still is) extremely disrupted. Even when I think I’ve slept through, hubs says I’ve been tossing and turning all night. Of course your tiredness could be any number of things, but this is definitely a likely suspect for me.

(Marianne) #3

That’s what I thought.

I had Covid at the end of December. I wonder if it’s long Covid??? She referred me for an extensive blood work panel. I’ll be interested to see what, if anything, it reveals. Other than thyroid or potassium (was hospitalized for low potassium several years ago), I have no idea what it could be. We’ll see.

#4

But why? I couldn’t have resisted to inform her that my brain gets all the sugar it needs even if I happen to eat 3g sugar on that day. Sugar is just too important for us, hence it became non-essential :slight_smile: And because we can make it from something else :stuck_out_tongue: No luck with protein, we can’t just grab some nitrogen from the air and combine things :smiley: But glucose? Can do.

If we needed sugar all the time, we would get brain-dead after a tiny fast! Even historically it would make no sense, when our ancient anchestors could eat sugar all the time? Maybe when we were some fruit eater animals living on trees… :smiley:

Even here, I just couldn’t resist. I wish more people would be aware about these things. Sugar isn’t essential and it’s no secret. I have read this on a vegan site (!) 1-2 decades ago too… It was a pleasant surprise.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

Could very well be. It’s extremely likely, in fact.

As far as your doctor’s reaction to the word “keto” is concerned, I find that the same people who get triggered by it will nod approvingly and say, “Good!” if I tell them instead that I’m avoiding sugar, starches, and grains.

(Robin) #6

@gingersmommy
Same as Paul. I say I don’t eat sugar or processed foods. I keep it simple and get no objections.

(Geoffrey) #7

This is what I told mine as well as “I’m eating very low carb”. He was very excited for me and then he said “just make sure your meat is very lean.” I didn’t argue with him that time because I guess I just wasn’t ready but I’ve decided that I need to be completely honest with my doctors from here out. My reasoning is that these are the people who track our health. If we are masking what we are doing then there is no record confirming that we are thriving on this WOE (in my case carnivore). We can’t change anything if no one knows what we are doing. They need to see that their conventional science is wrong and ours is correct. I think we need to be positive deviants.

#8

I like to say I avoid plants especially vegs but I don’t mind some confrontation and shocking people and I never had a doctor :wink:

I definitely don’t avoid sugar anyway. I eat plenty, just carnivore ones… :thinking:

Sigh. So he is all for severe starvation? Or just want you to eat fatty dairy and/or added fat galore? More or less high-fat is a must with very low-carb, he must be stupid not to understand that…
Or maybe he thought you call a small subset of carbs “carb”. I saw such people… Maybe he don’t know you enough to know you aren’t that ignorant…

You have a point. I can’t do that as I don’t go to doctors - but when I did, I made sure they find someone in me who dares to say NO when it’s their OWN health and the situation is easy to see and understand and make decisions about. Of course I can’t say anything when it’s too medical and deep for me but there are other cases and I firmly opposed whatever they wanted to do to me and I had all right and I was even actually right and never regret it, far from it.
Doctors need to see they aren’t always right and that the patient may know things about themselves they don’t.

(Marianne) #9

I find it’s just an exercise in futility. I’d rather not go there because it seems like they just think I’m ignorant (physicians). I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. On this subject, I think I know more than they do, which is pretty sad.

#10

Oh I get that. Even if I would act otherwise as it’s a demand from my personality to say what I think about it. Just quickly, you are right, it’s no use to waste much time and effort on people who don’t listen. As I would say the smart, true thing, if they consider ME ignorant, I wouldn’t care. But I understand that part too, anyway, it’s easy for me who has no doctor at all.
So I get it now, thanks.

(Barbara M) #11

I know this is an older post, but I wanted to add some verbiage regarding woe that may help avoid the keto word if you think it could cause conflict… I say I avoid processed foods, sugar and shop mainly the grocery store perimeter and eat primarily single ingredient food.

So far so good with this description.

(Ohio ) #12

Exactly. The sheep automatically equate keto diet, to the rest of the fad diets and automatically assume you are strict carnivore. I get very smug reactions from most ppl, not just doctors.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

Good for you!

In the same vein, Vinnie Tortorich says that the word “keto” can provoke such a reaction that he finally settled on telling his clients, “no sugar, no starches, no grains.” Everyone agrees with that!

(Central Florida Bob ) #14

One of my favorite stories comes from Dr. Eric Westman, in his early days teaching keto in North Carolina. He told a group about restricting carbohydrates and later found out they thought of it meant carbonated. They didn’t understand what low carb meant, so they cut out soda but ate all the chips, fries, and junk that they wanted.

(Omar) #15

I do not tell doctors that I am on keto. If I have to, I will say I do not like carbs. The word keto works like a tazor against doctors.

(Jane) #16

Same here. My previous nurse practioner asked me if I ate a “healthy diet” and I said yes. She didn’t ask me what I ate LOL.

I think my current nurse practioner would support my keto diet but I haven’t brought it up since my labs are all good. My LDL is high but so is my HDL and my trigs are low, so my ratios are good.

edited to add: she supported my husband not taking the statins his cardiologist prescribed after he had 2 stents put in for blockage almost 2 years ago.

(Jane) #17

I tell people I don’t eat sugar and I try to minimize my carbs to keep my blood sugar low and I rarely get any arguments, pushback or more questions.

Which is the truth! They probably assume I am diabetic with the “keep my blood sugar low” but I don’t elaborate and let them believe what they want to. I’ve never been diabetic and hope to keep it that way as I am on the back side of 65 now.

I am in great shape and on no meds and if I ever need motivation to stick to keto I just need to go to my local Walmart and see all the obese people on motorized carts and standing in a long line at the pharmacy. Their carts are filled with high-sugar processed foods - the worst of the worst (i.e. honeybuns - yuk).

I never ate that crap. If I had sugar I made it myself for a special occasion. My downfall was and always has been bread and potatoes. But the cravings are long gone along with the hunger that was always there, so I can have a small portion of either from time to time and not overeat. I will grow a few organic potatoes in my garden this summer and enjoy them - I will work off the carbs with all the weeding I have to do in the summer LOL.