Virta Blog article: The Ten Defining Characteristics of a Well-Formulated Ketogenic Diet

science
(Terence Dean) #1

Someone asked me to repost this link to an article written by experts in the Ketogenics field.
Written by Stephen Phinney, MD, PhD, Brooke Bailey, Ph.D, Jeff Volek, PhD, RD on August 13, 2018

The Ten Defining Characteristics of a Well-Formulated Ketogenic Diet

With so many confusing and differing views about how to eat properly on a Ketogenic diet, this might be a timely reset to get us all back on the same page. Your welcome.

#2

Interesting read indeed. Thanks!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

Thanks for posting this. It is very helpful.:+1:

(Omar) #4

Thanks

How many of us in this forum perform the ketogenic diet (with or without chronic illness) under the supervision of specialist/physician.

(Troy) #5

Start/Set up a PollšŸ˜„

(Omar) #7

What I wanted to say is some of the Phinney 10 commandments :grin: not necessary.

(Terence Dean) #8

Not sure what you mean Omar but if you are referring to no 8 & no 9, no they do not apply to me because I have no chronic condition.

(Omar) #9

I have lot of respect for Dr phinney but I felt that it will be difficult not to do keto if not under the supervision of a physician even for people who have a chronic illness like type II. that is for several reason like the cost. I also have not come across a doctor yet who approves keto.

I would expect that good number of the members of this forum has some type of chronic disease and doing keto without the supervision of a specialist.

The take away from this requirement from Dr phinney is the importance of watching my biological indicators while on keto because keto is not as simple as one might think.

Thanks

#10

If you are hypothyroid (high TSH), then that raises your LDL, and the current number should go down once you begin with Rx thyroid hormones.

I am hypo, and a very low carb diet is greatā€“my endo totally approves.

(Terence Dean) #11

Omar the reason why they recommend using a physician who understands the Ketogenic diet is that it can be dangerous for people who are currently taking medication for Diabetes and hypertension. Iā€™m no expert on the matter and perhaps someone who is on medication will be able to answer this question but from what I understand the medication has to be reduced as a patient reverses diabetes. Its the medication that can become dangerous. It shouldnā€™t be about cost, its a safety issue.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #12

Since a ketogenic diet is such a good treatment for Type II diabetes, people on insulin need to reduce it or gett off it as their blood sugar goes down. Metformin is pretty safe, but still will probably need to be reduced, even if there are reasons to continue taking it.

Likewise with blood-pressure medications, as keto normalizes the BP.

Type I diabetics, from what I understand, still have to take their basic daily dose of insulin, of course, but they can often eliminate or greatly reduce their pre-meal doses.

(Omar) #13

Yes

I do not disagree.

There is lots of emphasis in Dr phinney article on the fact that lots of people do not realize the complexity of the biology of the human body and therefore may not be able to make a timely corrective actions while transitioning from SAD to keto.

My point is that Dr Phinney seem to take the cautious conservative side.

While I tend to be liberal and risk person.

What I meant about the cost is that you will have to pay the physition who is supervising the diet. You have to pay for the frequent blood work and whatever the supervising physition charge you.

In all cases I value and understand being conservative.

(Terence Dean) #14

Thanks Paul, what is the dangerous thing with medication in the case of a type II diabetic. What would happen if their medication was not adjusted while on insulin for instance? I have no idea or experience with diabetic medication so any info on this would be appreciated. Is insulin really dangerous to people who donā€™t need it?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #15

Lowering blood glucose by changing diet, without adjusting the dose of insulin to match, runs the risk of a hypoglycemic episode, which is not only uncomfortable but can actually result in coma or death (when people are put in an ā€œinduced comaā€ it is usually by means of insulin).

I suspect that hypoglycemia is an issue mostly before we become fat-adapted, because Dr. Phinney talks about an experiment some researchers did on the subjects of a starvation experiment. The researchers used insulin to drive their glucose down to levels normally associated with coma and death, but because the subjects were deeply in ketosis, they were absolutely fine. They were perfectly coherent and felt no ill effects. As Dr. Phinney put it in one of his lectures, ā€œthe only people in the room who experienced palpitations were the researchers.ā€ It was a really scary risk to run, and no ethics board in its right mind would tolerate such an experiment today, but it was certainly instructive.