I wanted to start a discussion about Keto and how it fits into food policy. I started my Low Carb/Paleo/Ketogenic path back in 2009/2010 when I read “Why we get fat and what to do about it” by Gary Taubes. It led to an emersion in all things diet related and I went right down that rabbit hole and never looked back. I even bought a farm to raise my own food the way I knew it could be done. It has very much changed my life. I have heard the term Ketovangilism tossed about, but that’s not really me (at least not anymore). The bittersweet of understanding is that people in general want to shout about their beliefs from the rooftops and basque in the glory of positive change. That very rarely happens. Just think about this past holiday and the subjects you avoided(or didn’t) when the relatives showed up. That being said, I just want to drop off this idea so it has time to sprout/ferment in the back of your minds for when the truth about what has happened to our food policy and it’s effects on your health and nutrition has made you sufficiently angry. The reason I refer to this way of eating as an “understanding” is that if the results we get from it were in the form of a pill, they would be putting it in the water.
US food policy influences much of the rest of the world and our USDA is heavily influenced by industry. While I agree that efficiency can be a virtue, I think that we are definitely writing checks our future won’t be able to cash. Higher crop yields are not worth killing the bees, polluting our rivers, lakes and oceans, and destroying our health. Change can happen, but it requires focus and the ability to adapt to new information. Especially when it conflicts with our beliefs. There is a reason that the Keto/Lower Carb “diets” are at the bottom of the Consumer Reports diet recommendations. The panel is stacked with interests protecting the status Quo. There are scientists, doctors and people leading the charge. Use them for support, but don’t turn them into targets by overstating the case that any one of them makes. If we treat this as a movement rather than a revolution and you demonstrate why this is works by example rather than proclamation, it just might have a chance to change the current trajectory of industry to one that is sustainable and makes us healthy in the process.