Episode 6, The Keto Diet
The Keto Diet has grown significantly in popularity over the last couple of years. Is it effective? More important, is it safe? Dr. Jim Morrow calls it “the worse diet ever devised by man.” He offers reasons for this opinion, talks about his own struggles with weight, and offers recommendations.
Dr. Morrow’s Show Notes on the Keto Diet
What is a Diet?
- The word “diet” can mean two things.
- That food plan you follow for a period of time, to your weight
- Whatever you eat on a daily basis.
- The first one is what most people think about when they talk about a diet.
- It has an artificial beginning and an artificial end, e.g. “Man, I can’t wait to lose this 20 pounds so I can get off of this diet!”
- The problem is, that losing weight is the easy part. Keeping weight off is the hard part.
Diet Plans
- There are as many diet plans available for you to follow as there are people in the world. And many of them will work. But, are they healthy?
- The whole idea is to “eat less food.” That’s it, that’s what you have to do. As long as you eat less food than you have been eating, you will lose weight.
- The hard part is that you have to eat less food FOREVER!
- It’s the hardest thing you will EVER do. Harder than tobacco, harder than drugs, harder than anything because you have to eat.
- So, as I tell patients, “If you want to change your weight, you have to change your life.”
- And THAT is why it is so hard. We are who we are, we do what we do, and we like what we like. Lifestyle and genetics
- Some of you will be like my brother-in-law, who admittedly eats to live. And some of you will be like me, live to eat. Well, the ones who eat to live will forever and for always be thinner than me. It’s a mindset, it is the way they are. It’s their nature.
- And those like me will forever fight a battle, or have to adjust to being heavier.
- If you follow a commercially available plan like Jenny Craig or Nutri-System, you’re very unlikely to do them for the long term. You’re just not likely to pay for that food for long.
- I bought a month’s worth of Nutri-System’s food several years ago and in two weeks I was starving!
- It has got to be a plan that you can stay on FOREVER. And that’s hard.
- But what all of this boils down to is that you have to eat less food. So, to that end, I have written a book for those of you who really want to lose weight, or have a friend who wants to lose weight.
- “Dr. Morrow’s Guaranteed Guide to Weight Loss” is a 50-page paperback book that you can purchase for $9.92 on lulu.com
- Fifty-page book with the instructions, “Eat less food.”
- It’s that simple, and it’s also that hard.
Keto Diet
- A new twist on extreme weight loss is catching on in the United States. It’s called the “keto diet.”
- The keto diet was originally formulated to treat seizures. In some patients, this does help reduce the number and severity of their seizures, although experts are not quite sure why it works.
- It uses the body’s own fat burning system to help people lose significant weight in as little as 10 days.
- Proponents say the diet can produce quick weight loss and provide a person with more energy.
- The “keto” diet is any extremely low-carbohydrate diet that forces the body into a state of ketosis. This occurs when fat tissue is used for energy instead of sugar.
- Low carbohydrate levels cause blood sugar levels to drop and the body begins breaking down fat to use as energy.
- Keto diets vary in detail but are usually between 75 and 90 percent fat in the diet
- Ketosis occurs when people eat a low- or no-carb diet and molecules called ketones build up in their bloodstream.
- Ketosis is actually a mild form of ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis mostly affects people with type 1 diabetes. In fact, it is the leading cause of death of people with diabetes who are under 24 years of age.
- Many experts say ketosis itself is not necessarily harmful.
- Some studies, in fact, suggest that a ketogenic diet is safe for significantly overweight or obese people.
- However, other clinical reviews point out that patients on low-carbohydrate diets regain some of their lost weight within a year.
- The keto diet that has been studied and that researchers say is a healthy diet is one consisting of:
- 20 g to 30 g of carbohydrate in the form of green vegetables and salad, and
- 80 g to 100 g of protein in the form of meat, fish, fowl, eggs, shellfish and cheese.
- Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are also included in the diet.
- This is canola oil, olive oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil and corn oil.
- Other foods high in polyunsaturated fats are walnuts, sunflower seeds, flax seeds or flax oil.
- And fish, such as salmon, mackerel, herring, albacore tuna, and trout
- Monounsaturated fat foods are avocados, almonds, cashews and peanuts
- BUT this is NOT the Keto Diet that most people follow. The Keto Diet, as followed by most Americans, is not healthy.
- Many people on keto include “High fat days” and on these days they might eat as much as a pound of bacon a day.
- I have had patients who had well-controlled cholesterol, then started this version of the keto diet, and their cholesterol climbed 40 points or more.
- On the true Keto diet, cholesterol has been shown to come down. But as it is practiced in most of America, cholesterol can go up. You’ll lose weight but won’t be healthy.
- Weighing less is great, but having a normal cholesterol is extremely important also.
Long Term Weight Loss
- The biggest issue I have with the Keto Diet is that in any form, it is not a plan that you are going to follow for very long.
- The amount of fat that many people are taking in, by not following the original Keto Diet, is grossly unhealthy.
- This diet, as too many people practice it every day, is the WORST DIET EVER DEVISED BY MAN.
- There is not a fad diet, one that is intended to get a lot of weight off of you in a hurry, that you are likely to stay on, or certainly be healthy on, for a long time.
- I do think that people need to do their very best to eat well, to be healthy.
- But you also need to be realistic. If you go to a family reunion and everyone there is grossly overweight, you are probably not going to be a size 4. You can almost certainly lose some weight, but be realistic.
- Be more concerned about not gaining weight. Too many people gain 5 pounds a year, look up in 5 years and have gained a lot of weight.
- Women, you are especially unlucky when it comes to weight loss. Everyone who loses weight will lose and plateau for a while, lose then plateau again.
- Women plateau at the beginning. Might be three months.
- The best diet for long-term weight maintenance is one that you can and will follow for a very long time.
- Because of that, Weight Watchers is, in my opinion, the best commercially available plan around.
- You don’t buy your food from them,
- You can eat anything in the world,
- It helps you understand portion control, a novel idea for anyone dieting
- It can be done long term, but again it is a way of life.
About Morrow Family Medicine and Dr. Jim Morrow
Morrow Family Medicine is an award-winning, state-of-the-art family practice with offices in Cumming and Milton, Georgia. The practice combines healthcare information technology with old-fashioned care to provide the type of care that many are in search of today. Two physicians, three physician assistants and two nurse practitioners are supported by a knowledgeable and friendly staff to make your visit to Morrow Family Medicine one that will remind you of the way healthcare should be. At Morrow Family Medicine, we like to say we are “bringing the care back to healthcare!” Morrow Family Medicine has been named the “Best of Forsyth” in Family Medicine in all five years of the award, is a three-time consecutive winner of the “Best of North Atlanta” by readers of Appen Media, and the 2019 winner of “Best of Life” in North Fulton County.
Dr. Jim Morrow is the founder and CEO of Morrow Family Medicine. He has been a trailblazer and evangelist in the area of healthcare information technology, was named Physician IT Leader of the Year by HIMSS, a HIMSS Davies Award Winner, the Cumming-Forsyth Chamber of Commerce Steve Bloom Award Winner as Entrepreneur of the Year and he received a Phoenix Award as Community Leader of the Year from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. He is married to Peggie Morrow and together they founded the Forsyth BYOT Benefit, a charity in Forsyth County to support students in need of technology and devices. They have two Goldendoodles, a gaggle of grandchildren and enjoy life on and around Lake Lanier.
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