Robert Lustig - 'The Hateful (or Grateful) Eight' plus a new (2023) lecture on keto and the brain


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #1

(KCKO, KCFO) #2

I liked the druggable vs. foodable discussion.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

My favourite is: “When you treat a symptom, you’re not treating the underlying pathology. It’s like giving an aspirin to a patient with a brain tumour, because they have a headache. The disease is still there.”


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #4

I disagree with Lustig’s claim that a ‘healthy’ diet can be low carb or not, only so long as it’s ‘whole food’ and not highly processed. I present as evidence:

I think Fettke demolishes the idea that anything more than minimal carbs can be part of a healthy diet. The less carbs you eat the better off you’ll be.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

I’m adding this lecture by Dr. Lustig to this thread, both because I don’t want to start a new thread, and because this talk follows on to the hateful/grateful eight stuff. And also, because this is the first of his talks where he has been much more approving about a ketogenic diet.

This is one of a series of talks by Dr. Lustig at Emery Pharma. (A verision of the hateful/grateful eight talk is part of this series). I’m posting it, because it is the best synthesis of all the recent data I’ve encountered. I disagree with Dr. Lustig’s initial response to one of the questions–namely, that a ketogenic diet inevitably increases LDL–but he does go on to make some reasonable points after that.

I feel that if a researcher like Dr. Lustig, who heretofore has been very leery of recommending a ketogenic diet, can bring himself to recommend it despite his remaining reservations, that makes his comments all the more valuable. He’s not a wild advocate; he’s a scientist conceeding to the data.