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November 30, 2016

A Word About Upcoming Posts





I try to be a voice of sensibility in the vast and overwhelming sea of information regarding low carbohydrate and ketogenic ways of eating. It even says so at the top of my homepage: “A source of sanity in the sea of nutritional madness.” What I know compared to what there is left to learn is like a thimble of water compared to the Pacific Ocean. There’s a lot more—a lot more—I don’t know than what I do know, but I try to share with you the small bits of knowledge I gain as I hang on for dear life while traversing these tumultuous waters. I’ve done it about digestion, cancer, insulin, fuel partitioning, and more. (My Alzheimer’s book has been completely rewritten and updated for a March 2017 release as a print book from a big name publisher, so I’ll continue do it about Alzheimer’s, too.)   

However, I am starting to worry that, due to my penchant for ranting about things that bother me about the low carb and ketogenic communities, I’m developing a reputation for being an angry, hateful, vicious, and vindictive person. I assure you, I am neither angry, nor hateful, nor vicious, nor vindictive. In fact, “in real life,” I am quiet, shy, and, I’d like to think, gentle and kind. Nevertheless, there’s no denying the fact that I do rant a lot. But what can I say? The utter madness being masqueraded as fact in certain spaces provides no shortage of material to rant about. Being a gentle and kind person, I assume the spreading of misinformation occurs as a result of plain ol’ ignorance, rather than deliberate malice and ill intent. Whatever the intent, the end result is that misinformation is being spread, and because of it, people are experiencing setbacks along their roads to better health, fat loss, better blood sugar control, and more.

Why do I care? Well, like I mentioned in my rant post about fasting, as a nutritionist working with clients, I deal with the consequences of what happens when people follow advice that is either straight-up false, or advice that is perfectly appropriate for a certain context, but which is not applicable to their context.

It’s getting old, folks. I’m tired of trying to respond politely to emails from people who are afraid to eat two ounces of carrots in a serving of mixed vegetables, but who think it’s completely normal to put five tablespoons of butter and coconut oil in a cup of coffee. (Or better yet, to drink that 500-calorie coffee in the morning and say they’re “fasting.”) I’m tired of trying to respond politely to emails from grown adults who are restricting themselves to 45 grams of protein a day because they’re afraid that if they eat more than that, they’ll be at less than 80% fat and they’ll mess up their “keto ratios,” and also because the excess protein will be turned immediately into glucose and cause a huge spike in their blood sugar. (No, it won’t. Really, it won’t. Seriously now, it won’t.) I’m tired of trying to respond politely to emails from people who are disappointed and frustrated because they’re not losing weight or are maybe even gaining weight, even though they’re listening to their trusted experts online and are eating more fat – adding lots of extra butter to things, eating fat bombs, and shunning anything that even hints at being lean or low in fat. They’re as afraid of skinless chicken breasts as they are of 64-ounce troughs of Mountain Dew. And I’m tired of trying to respond politely to emails from people who, for whatever reasons—and there are many—are convinced that they must, must be in ketosis at all times. I swear, if I read or hear “I got kicked out of ketosis” one more time…

I am frustrated, and good-hearted people out there trying to follow low carb or ketogenic diets are frustrated, too.

In this spirit, I have a few more rants planned (already written, in fact) about the problematic things I see in the carbohydrate restriction community. But I don’t want to be a one-trick pony. I don’t want to have a reputation as an angry person who only ever posts electronic versions of hissy fits. Nevertheless, now that I’m more active in a few Facebook groups, I am confronted with these problematic things every day, and I feel compelled to address them. Since I don’t want to address them over and over and over again, I am going to post these few rants and then be done with them. (For now. Heaven knows there will always be something else that gets a rise out of me, but I’ll try to keep the ranting to a minimum once these next few posts are out of my system.) And get them out of my system I must. I don’t have children. What I have instead are ideas to write about, and they nag me, metaphorically pulling on my pant leg, until I finally give them they attention they require and see to their care and feeding.

I have three such posts in the hopper. You will know them when you see them. One of them—the last one I’ll post—is a candidate for a spot in my top three longest posts ever (alongside the one about my mother and the one about vitamin J). I thought about breaking it up into three or four separate posts, but I’d rather just get it all out at once and be done with it. Plus, that way, if I ever need to respond to someone on social media, or someone who emails me directly, in regard to some of what that post includes, I can just send them a link and it will all be centrally located.

As for what I’m going to write about after that, I’ll continue with more Low Carb Cooking Class (LC3), and I have not forgotten about the series on the metabolic theory of cancer. I do plan to pick it up again, as we have finally, finally gotten to the point where we can talk about the ketogenic diet and have it make sense. And I have been saying for ages now that I’d like to write something about sodium, and how salt is not something to fear, but that’s going to take a while. Before that, I’m going to post a couple of things that I see a need for, if questions on Twitter and Facebook are any indication: a guide to dining out on a low carb or ketogenic diet, and breakfast ideas for people who either don’t like bacon and eggs, or who are “tired of them.” (Yes, apparently such a thing is possible, though I have yet to witness this rare phenomenon in person.) I’m also contemplating sharing my thoughts on “zero carb” diets, as well as my growing suspicion that a plethora of modern chronic illnesses are driven not just by hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia, which are both, of course, huge issues, but by chronic nutrient insufficiency. The more I learn about the nuances of certain biochemical processes and the modern food supply, the more I appreciate just how robust the human body is, because frankly, I’m actually surprised there aren’t even more very ill people in our midst. That there aren’t is a testament to the ability of the human body to adapt and overcome and keep on truckin’ even when all indicators suggest someone is about to keel over and die at any moment.  

That’s all. Just wanted to warn you let you know what’s in store for the next few posts. After that, I’ll get back to writing things that might be more helpful for people, and I’ll try to keep my anger out of things. (Although I have to say, while I don’t want a reputation for being angry, my sarcasm and snark seem to go over pretty well, and I’m totally okay with being known for that.)  ;-) 









Disclaimer: Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition and is not to be used as a substitute for the care and guidance of a physician. Links in this post and all others may direct you to amazon.com, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through my affiliate links.

15 comments:

  1. I have to post a comment because I owe you that much ;) Love this and all your posts, Amy. Keep ALL of them coming. Rants and all.

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  2. Hi Amy
    Keep the ranting. Its always a pleasure to read posts that are so well written and interesting .

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    1. :D Thanks, Stuart! I guess if people are tired of my rants, they don't have to read them. It's simple enough to click away and go find something else.

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  3. Hi Amy,
    To eat an omelet you have to break a few eggs, so keep on ranting.
    You know, on the other side of the nutrition coin people are arguing about....fat makes one fatter, so please no butter on the carrots. Or, cholesterol kills you so forget the omelet etc.
    Nutrition is for feeding the body with what it needs to sustain life and flourish (IMO) and not to use as a means to seperate oneself from 'the crowd ' and getting an reputation.I guess that many want to feel special and with nutrition this is also possible!!
    Healthy eating fundamentals are easy to grasp if one thinks.....and the products are relative easy to get. Although a lot of institutes and marketing have fucked up minds of many.
    Great job and go on butn focus your energy smart since that what exist limited should be used wisely.
    ad ligtvoet

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  4. Hi Amy,

    This is off topic, I hope you don't mind. I recently decided to move from LC to moving into Ketosis. I am not trying to lose weight. Just interested in health and also trying to support someone close to me in the early stages of AZ who I am encouraging to maintain ketosis. I recently had a routine blood test that indicated my serum urea nitrogen was elevated and measured at 28 (ref range <18). I was wondering if you have any posts that discuss whether this is a normal aspect at the beginning of going into mild ketosis? Or might I need to cut back on protein consumption? I haven't really kept track of my protein consumption but plan to start.

    I would greatly appreciate it if you might pass along anything I could review about this. I don't really want to tell my Doc I'm not eating carbs!

    Regards,
    Nick

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    1. Hey Nick, sorry to hear about your relative/friend with early Alz. I think you can support him/her just fine by being low carb without necessarily going full-on ketogenic, especially if you already feel well and have no "issues" you are trying to take care of. If your BUN was fine previously (while low carb, but not keto), then I would return to that. I can't really comment on the elevated BUN, but there are thousands (if not millions) of people eating this way with no aberrations in their bloodwork. And I would think that if you have gone ketogenic versus low carb, your protein consumption would actually be *lower* now than it was, but maybe you didn't go that route. If you're new to strict keto and had that bloodwork done recently, I would wait a bit until your body adjusts and test it again. Sometimes things can be a bit wacky at first when there's a big change to someone's diet. (But not being an MD, I really can't say anything about the BUN...sorry.) I think it's wonderful that you're trying to support this person in this way, but don't make yourself stressed out or worried over this. You, yourself, really don't need to be on a strict therapeutic ketogenic diet. Being low carb, you're already 85% of the way there anyway.

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  5. I can't believe people are still claiming that protein is glucogenic. it is by definition, and always will be. amino acids are either glucogenic, or ketogenic, and protein over consumption (different for everyone) raises blood sugar. this is a simple, unarguable, physiologic fact that has been known for decades, but sycophants like yourself are in vested in trying to bury the facts about protein.

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  6. I am looking forward to your "rant" on protein. What confuses me most is the low protein folks who seem to align with Rosedale (Fung, Mercola, Hyman, Perlmutter) and Donald Layman who advocates higher protein levels evenly spaced throughout the day. It seems to be a longevity vs muscle growth question. At age 68 my question is always optimal health if such a thing is possible to figure out without excessive amounts of stress. I already eat low carb (under 30 net carbs per day).

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  7. Rant on kiddo, it's valuable. I am still amazed that the "My thoughts on LC and Paleo" piece made a number of folks think (and say) that "I hate keto." Not much room for nuance or context...so, rinse, lather, repeat.

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    1. Nuance? What's that? ;-) If Robb Wolf tells me it's okay to rant, then I will keep ranting! (Or maybe I should reframe it not as ranting, but as...raising questions, or pointing out fallacies, which makes me sound far less angry.) I will brace myself for some major pushback when I post the very long rant, though, when I will probably ruffle a lot of feathers.

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  8. Amy, I just recently came across you blog, FB page and your publication. I have to say that I find you to be a gem among the wannabe's. Your writing style as well as the content is very "user friendly" if I may use that description. The content is very science based, and that is crazy important. So please keep writing and sharing the latest development is the nutritional world which is really a minefield for those without any science background. I am already sharing your material with others on blogs and on my FB page. Your material really is high quality.

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    1. THANK YOU, JOHN! Wow, what a lovely comment! :) As for my writing (some of it, anyway) being "science based," I do try to translate some of the jargon and gobbledygook into plain English. My goal is to explain things to people the way I would them explained to *me,* if I had no background in any of this. I think some of my best work is in the cancer series, if you haven't already read that, and maybe in the insulin series. I also am partial to my rants on obesity, and those might have a few links here and there to studies, but mostly those are just my personal passion -- pointing out how backward we have it and that we can not - NOT - know anyone's diet or exercise habits based on the size or shape of their body.

      Thanks for reading! Glad you "found" me. ;-)

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  9. "I’m developing a reputation for being an angry, hateful, vicious, and vindictive person. " ??? I read from 2012 till now and I totally don't perceive this. You always give your arguments. If war seekers can't handle that, it's their problem.

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