Why is Blood Sugar Sometimes Higher Than Expected on Keto?

We have a numbers problem in the keto community. 

We place too much stock in numbers without a good understanding of what they mean. 

We measure the level of every little molecule without an appreciation for the myriad feedback mechanisms and overlapping biochemical pathways that govern the systemic regulation that determines those levels. We assign way too much meaning to single measurements taken at single points in time rather than looking at longer term trends and patterns. It’s like seeing one frame of a movie—one isolated, frozen frame—and making wild guesses as to what the movie is about. It’s ridiculous. 

Allow me to tell you a story. Sometime in the early 1980s, when I was a little girl, my family took a trip to Disney World in Florida one winter. We lived in New York, so Florida was a way for me and my sister to see Disney World and for us to spend a few days away from the freezing cold and bask in the warmth of the Sunshine State. Well, a freak cold front happened while we were there. Yes, a freak, unexpected cold snap in Florida. Sea World was closed because some of the water was frozen. We had to buy winter coats down there, because who packs winter coats to go on vacation in Florida? 

Imagine if we knew nothing about Florida and based our assessment of Florida’s climate on the short-term weather of those few days. We would have assumed Florida was a bitterly cold place, rather than the hot, steamy swamp it usually is. The lesson here is, don’t mistake an acute occurrence for a general pattern, trend, or tendency. 

What does this have to do with blood glucose? 

(If you’re pressed for time and you want an abbreviated version of my take on this topic, watch this video. If you have a minute or two to read, the first part of this post will give you a brief synopsis of the most salient points. But if you have some extra time to spare and you want the juicy details, cozy up, settle in, and happy reading.) 

Big Updates -- TWO NEW BOOKS!

Hey Everyone!

Lots of good news to share these days.

First: Big news – my book, The Stall Slayer, is now available on Amazon!!

YES! If you prefer reading hard copies of books rather than electronic versions, you can now order a paperback copy of The Stall Slayer from Amazon. And not just in the US – it’s available in many other nations. Check your local Amazon site to see if it’s available where you live. I’ve already had some fans buy it in Japan, Brazil, the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. (If you happen to be reading this in the Netherlands, I think you have to order from the German site…amazon.de.) I’m even working with someone who’s translating the book into Thai – cool!

If you prefer electronic copies, you can buy The Stall Slayer for Kindle from Amazon, or as a pdf. (Click here to buy the pdf.) Unfortunately, we’ve hit a little snag with Kindle: the book doesn’t appear to be available for Kindle Paperwhite devices, but it works fine on older Kindles and on the Kindle app for PC, Mac, phones, and tablets.

Second: I have another book coming out this year!

This one isn’t just me, though. It’s co-written with the one and only Eric Westman, MD. YES! Can you believe it? I kind of have to pinch myself to make sure I’m actually alive and awake and this isn’t a dream. (I’ve been reading Dr. Westman’s published research for about 15 years, and now I’m writing a book with him. Whaaaat?! The world is a strange, beautiful place, my friends.)

The book is tentatively titled End Your Carb Confusion, but that is subject to change. We have an estimated release date of early December 2020, which is right around the corner. (Insert head exploding emoji.) We’re in the editing stage right now. Thank goodness, our publisher seems pretty happy with it and their suggestions are mostly related to grammar and structure rather than the content. 

What is End Your Carb Confusion about? It’s a guide to finding your own carb tolerance and building your diet from there. *Gasp!* What?! Not everyone needs extra-strict keto for their entire lifetime? Nope! This book will help people figure out where they fall on the carb tolerance spectrum, and how to move from one level to another -- i.e., how to INCREASE your carb intake safely and logically, if you want to. (Everyone can do keto for life; not everyone needs to. There IS room in life for more fruit, beans, starches, and other higher carb foods if they’re appropriate for you. Our book will teach you how to navigate it all.)

Don’t let all that fool you, though. It’s also a SIMPLE, down-to-earth “get started” guide that’s perfect for the person in your life who’s living with all kinds of health issues that would respond well to keto but who feels totally overwhelmed (or turned off) by the nuttiness and zealotry they see about this way of eating on the interwebs. It’s written in very layperson-friendly plain English -- no intense scientific gobbledygook that you need a PhD to understand -- and I know, because I wrote it!

Does keto work if you eat conventional (non-grass-finished) beef? YES! Does keto work if your food isn’t organic? YES! Are you the worst person in the history of the universe if you drink diet sodas or use artificial sweeteners in coffee or keto baking? NO! Isn’t keto only for people who are trying to lose weight? NO! If your blood sugar is normal, why would you bother trying keto? READ THE BOOK AND FIND OUT!

Stay tuned to the blog and my social media accounts for updates as the book release gets closer. Obviously I’ll have lots more to say about it.

Third: Sign up for my newsletter!

I’ve been threatening promising for a while now to resurrect the blog and start writing more regularly. Considering the two previous posts were from November 2019 and this past April, obviously that has not happened yet. I’ve just made a relatively big change in my professional life, though, and I might have some more time to devote to more frequent blogging. (If this actually comes to pass and I do manage to get myself to follow through with this, the posts will likely be shorter than my past fare, but more frequent. This is probably best for all of us – for me and for you, my readers. More succinct posts, but ones that show up more often.)

In the meantime, you can keep up with current goings-on in my corner of the keto universe by subscribing to my newsletter. The newsletter includes updates about my work, links to featured videos from my YouTube channel, plus book or product reviews & recommendations, supplements I trust, and whatever else I think is worth sharing at any given time. And I promise—no spam! (If you‘ve been around the blog a while, then you’ve come to know that I’m a total dinosaur with regard to technology and I wouldn’t know how to spam you even if I wanted to—which I do not.) The next newsletter will be coming out Monday July 13 – sign up now so you don’t miss it! (And it’s definitely coming, because I’ve already written and saved it, and it’s pre-set to go out that day.)

Fourth: I’m on Patreon!

Do you like my message of Keto Without the Crazy™? Want to support my writing books and blog posts, making videos, and being able to devote time to reading scientific papers and keeping up with the latest research about ketogenic and low-carb diets, plus nutrition, health, and physiology more broadly? Consider joining me on Patreon.

You can subscribe for as little as $2/month, although for $5/month and above you get special patron-only content. For $5/month, you get exclusive videos that are for patrons only and not for my public YouTube channel. (They’re shorter and a bit more ranty and free-form than my public videos. These videos are a place for me to vent about the craziness I see going on the keto world these days, but even more, they’re a place for me to think out loud and share with you various issues I’m tossing around in my head and trying to get a good perspective on.)

For $10/month and up, you get a monthly research review, in which I discuss in detail 2-4 scientific papers I’ve read that month. They’re always health- and nutrition-focused, but not always specifically about ketogenic diets. If you want to get your science on, that level is for you! A bit geekier than my public videos, but I try to keep things layperson-friendly to accommodate all who might be watching.

For a very generous $30/month, you get a weekly group Zoom call with me – ask me anything! (Well not anything. Do try to keep it related to keto/low-carb, health and nutrition, food, physiology, biochemistry, etc.) Keto Q&A, tips for eating this way long-term, and whatever else comes up in the conversation. My audience is very savvy, so you get to benefit from listening to everyone on these calls, not just from me. Ask questions or just listen quietly while the rest of us “think out loud.” Participate as much or as little as you like. At this level of support, you’ll get an hour with me each week – much cheaper than a single one-hour consultation!

Check out all the details and the different support levels here: Tuit Nutrition on Patreon

Thanks for sticking with me, everyone. I know that my actions don’t reflect what I’ve been saying for a while: that writing is my first love and always will be. (Then again, I did just finish writing two books…) Anyway, it was never my intent to abandon the blog. I guess I just started to get a little intimidated by my own blog style – sharing every detail about a topic and exploring every possible nuance to the point that blog posts could take several days to write (in addition to the time spent researching). I’ll have to go a little easier if I’m going to write more often. Making videos is so much quicker – I can get information out a lot faster when I talk than when I type. (It also seems that many more people prefer to watch videos these days rather than reading blog posts, so I can reach a larger audience with videos.) When it’s been a while since there’s been a new blog post, I welcome you to check out my videos, but I also vow to not let it be quite so long between blog posts going forward. Yes, I realize I have made this commitment several times in the past and not followed through. Thank goodness for second … and third … and fourth chances, eh?

See you again soon.

P.S. Do you live near the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina? Greensboro or Burlington? Guess what? I work at a farm in Efland! If you’re near the Triangle area of NC, check us out: Fickle Creek Farm. We do beef, pork, lamb, poultry, eggs, and produce. We’re normally at several area farmers’ markets, but with the virus situation right now, you can pre-order for on-farm pickup, and there are some drop-off/delivery points, too. You might get a dozen eggs that I gathered or washed, or some lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, peppers, or squash that I planted, weeded, tended, and harvested! The work is absolutely backbreaking and exhausting (especially in the heat of a southern summer), but it’s also satisfying and fulfilling in a way that sedentary work in front of a computer isn’t. (They both have their place in my life, though.) Here’s a video I did a while back talking about working on the farm: Dispatch from the Farm. (That was way back from last October. I had only been working there for a few weeks at that time. I’ve learned so much more since then…and lost a couple thousand buckets’ worth of sweat, if you must know. Also: a few educational and painful encounters with fire ants! Fun, fun, fun.) If you’re in the area, definitely check out our animal and plant foods, all raised and grown with love, care, and integrity. 

Disclaimer: Amy Berger, MS, CNS 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.

New Book -- Free Preview!

OH MY GOODNESS, EVERYONE!

My new book is almost done! The text is entirely written and it’s all laid out and formatted. Just waiting for my designer to put the final touches on things so we can make sure it's ready to go.

WHAT? I wrote a new book? Yes, sir, I did! And you can download a free sneak peek right here. (Download of the pdf will start immediately when you click that link.) 

As you can see, it’s called The Stall Slayer, and in case the title doesn’t make it abundantly clear, it’s about breaking fat loss stalls on ketogenic/low-carb diets. This is the most common reason people write to me for help – “Why am I not losing weight?” So, rather than write out the same email reply eighty-six thousand times (just kidding...not quite that many people have written to me), I decided to put it all in a book. But if you’ve been reading my blog for a while and you know I tend to over-deliver information (for better or worse), then you probably already figure the book is chock-full of helpful information that goes far beyond roadblocks to fat loss and what to do about them. 

What about fasting? What about exercise? What about thyroid problems? What about alcohol?!All in the book, along with lots of other helpful information and education on SIMPLIFYING things and doing what I've come to call “keto without the crazy.”™ Do you need to count macros? Do you need to measure ketones? Should you use MCT oil? If so, why, and if not, why not? 

I was tempted to post the table of contents so you could see all the juicy details, but...well...I’m kind of paranoid and didn’t want anyone stealing the ideas. I’m hesitant even about posting the cover and title here, but my excitement is outweighing the paranoia. 

The preview pdf here has one error...on page 2, my Twitter handle is @TuitNutrition, not @AmyBerger. (This will be corrected for the final version, but I couldn’t wait to get this posted for you and I knew you wouldn't mind this one little snag for now.) 

I hope to have the book out before the end of the year, but there’s a chance it won’t be available until January. That’s not a bad thing, though: considering the avalanche of people who’ll be looking for fat loss tips after the new year, maybe that’s actually the perfect time. *Shrug.* It’ll be available as a pdf, plus a Kindle version, and there’ll also be a print-on-demand option for people like me who still, in 2019 and beyond, prefer to hold a physical book in our hands – one we can highlight, fold down pages in, and simply have the tactile sensations that come along with reading a hard copy. (But remember, if you buy the pdf, you can always print it out at home or have a store like Staples or Office Max print it for you -- much faster! I assume there are similar printing services at office supply stores outside the US as well. [Pro-tip: If you go this route, consider having the store print it in black & white -- much cheaper that way, and even though I love the images in the book, you won't lose anything critical if you don't see them in full color.] )  

Special thanks to my designer, Sterre de Jager, without whom this would not be happening. (Y’all know I can write, but graphic design is not my forte! Exhibit A, this website!) How did I get connected to Sterre? I’ve actually never met her person. Her father is a fan and follows me on Twitter – all the way from the Netherlands! I tell you, friends, the world is a strange, beautiful place. You can find out more about this amazing serendipity in this video, in which I introduce the book.  

I hope you enjoy the preview, and of course, I’ll be making plenty of buzz when the final version is available for sale, so don't worry about missing it.

THANK YOU, as always, for your support and readership!   

Use this link to download your FREE sneak peek of my soon-to-come book, The Stall Slayer: Get my free preview! (Download of the pdf will start immediately when you click that link.) 

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.

Is Insulin Messing with Your Skin?

Question: Is there anything in the body insulin doesn’t affect?

Answer: From what I’ve seen, no.

If you’re new to my blog or are a newcomer to the science of the clinically therapeutic effects of dietary carbohydrate restriction, you might think of insulin mostly as a blood sugar hormone. People with diabetes have blood sugar that’s too high, so they take insulin to bring it down. Simple, right? Not quite.

I’ve written in past posts that reading and learning I’ve done over the past few years has led to me to the perspective that lowering blood sugar is among insulin’s least important effects. (In fact, insulin isn’t even required to lower blood sugar at all. Your body can do that just fine without insulin…even in someone with type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetics do need insulin, just not solely for the purpose of lowering blood sugar. Details on all this here.)

I’ve written articles about insulin as a major factor in the development of gout, migraines, Alzheimer’s disease, PCOS, erectile dysfunction, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, a.k.a. enlarged prostate), Parkinson’s disease, and more. The short list of things we know for certain are damaged by chronically elevated insulin and/or blood glucose (BG) includes the liver, kidneys, eyes, cardiovascular system (heart muscle and blood vessels), ovaries, the brain and nervous system. At this point, knowing what I now know about insulin, I don’t need someone to explain to me why insulin would affect any particular organ, gland, or tissue system; I need them to explain why it wouldn’t.

With this in mind, is it possible insulin is affecting your skin? You can’t see a fatty liver, polycystic ovaries or an enlarged prostate gland from the outside; you need special tests to determine for sure whether you have those. But what about acne, skin tags, psoriasis, and other things we can see just by looking at someone? Could insulin be playing a role here, too?

Tl;dr: If you want a brief summary of this article, read this. And if you have a few extra minutes and want to read one paper that will give you an enormous amount of insight into this topic, read this one. But if you come to my blog because you enjoy digging into the meaty details, stay here and keep reading. 

Get Early Access to Blog Posts

Hi all!

Just a quick note to let you know there’s a way to get early access to blog posts from now on. I’m on Patreon, and I’ve added a benefit to patrons who support me at the $5/month level. For the price of two or so cups of coffee, you can read new blog posts a few days before the rest of the world. If you have the means and want to check this out, see here for details.

In case you’re wondering what topics I'll be writing about next, right now I’m working on a post about the effects of chronically high insulin on the skin, and one on why people need to stop freaking out about slightly high blood sugar at random points in time. (See here for a preview of the one on insulin & skin. It’s a post I wrote on this topic for Designs for Health, but they don’t give me a byline. Trust me, it was me.)

The $10/month level gets you access to my monthly research review, wherein I discuss scientific papers I’ve read over the preceding few weeks. The papers cover a range of topics – whatever strikes my fancy that particular month, or whatever things I happen to be reading and learning more about. Sometimes it’s low carb and ketogenic diets, sometimes it’s diabetes, sometimes Alzheimer’s, sometimes cholesterol and statins…whatever papers catch my eye and that I think I’ll learn something valuable from.

You can also support me for as little as $2 or $3/month, but there are no special perks for that…unless you count my deep gratitude and appreciation for your generosity!  

As always, however, my blog itself is free and always will be. So if funds are tight and $5/month is beyond reach, no worries whatsoever. All posts will still be right here too. Patrons simply get to read them a few days in advance of the general public. And if you want to experience more of my approach to “Keto Without the Crazy,”™ remember my videos are all free as well, as is my Twitter account.

Here’s the link again to my Patreon page.

Thanks, everyone. I’m glad you’re here. In this age of quick sound bites and instant gratification, I’m thankful anyone out there still likes (prefers, even!) reading long, in-depth blog posts. I do love writing them, even if I don’t do it as often as I’d like to.

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.

Hair Loss on Keto

Let’s say you adopted a ketogenic or low carb diet not long ago. And let’s say some or all of these have happened:

• You lost weight.
• Your acid reflux disappeared.
• You stopped having migraines.
• Your menstrual cycle normalized after years of living with PCOS.
• Your gout went away.
• Your blood pressure normalized.
• Your skin cleared up.
• Your lipid profile (cholesterol, triglycerides) and overall risk for cardiovascular disease improved.
• You reversed your type 2 diabetes. Maybe you were even able to stop your insulin injections (under a physician’s guidance, of course).

  

Basically, keto has been working AWESOMELY for you so far. You have more energy, your joint pain is gone, and you can go comfortably for several hours without food and not turn into a pile of white-hot, murderous, hypoglycemic human rage. (Not to mention, you get to eat insanely delicious food.)  

Everything that’s happened to you since going keto has been great.

Except for just one thing.

You’re losing hair.

Like, alarming amounts of hair. Massive amounts. Hair coming out in clumps. You see a frightening amount of hair in your shower drain or hairbrush every day. It’s so bad that you’re worried if it keeps up, it won’t be long before you have no hair left at all.  

What gives? Is it possible a way of eating that’s been so good for the entire rest of your body is doing damage to your hair?

If you’re worried about hair loss on keto, you’re not alone! This is a common issue—very common!

I wrote a detailed blog post about hair loss on keto for the KetoDietApp site. KetoDietApp is run by Martina Slajerova, who’s authored several keto cookbooks, all of which are pretty fabulous. (Check them out here.)

If you’re wondering what the deal is with losing hair on keto and you want an answer to the most important question of all—will it ever grow back?!—check out my article:

Why Am I Losing Hair on a Keto Diet?

Happy reading!

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.

Keto & ApoE4

Hey All!

  

If you’ve been around the low carb and keto communities for a while, you might’ve run across the term “ApoE4.” ApoE4 is a gene that increases risk for cardiovascular disease and even more so for Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, if you’re homozygous for ApoE4 (meaning that you have 2 copies of the gene), you have between a 50-90% chance of developing Alzheimer’s. YIKES! That is not something to take lightly, so what’s the deal here? What is ApoE4 and why does it make people so much more susceptible to this frightening form of cognitive decline & impairment? And what are the implications for people following low-carb, high-fat diets? ApoE4 carriers are often cautioned to go lower in dietary saturated fat, but why? Is this truly warranted? Do you have to give up your beloved butter & cheese if you're E4?  

If you’ve heard of the ApoE4 gene and you’re curious about what it is and what it means, or if you know you carry one or two copies of ApoE4, you’ll want to check out my latest video. I cover the basics on what the gene is (it codes for the epsilon-4 [ε4] variant of the apoE protein, short for apolipoprotein E), why this matters, and what to do about it to potentially reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s and the other issues E4s are at greater risk for.

Most of what I know about ApoE4 is in relation to Alzheimer’s, owing to research I did for my book, The Alzheimer’s Antidote, which is about using a ketogenic or LCHF diet as a nutritional intervention for Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive impairment. (Didja know they regularly call Alzheimer's "type 3 diabetes" or "brain insulin resistance?" Now you know why it might be wise to adopt such a dietary approach to support healthy cognitive function.) But I would say that even if you don’t have any ApoE4 genes (the other forms are ApoE2 and ApoE3), or you’re not concerned about Alzheimer’s disease, I encourage you to watch the video anyway, because you might learn something that helps someone you know, and there’s a lot of information in the video that applies to everyone, regardless of your genetics.  

For those of you who prefer to read rather than watch videos, stay tuned. I’ll have a blog post on this in a few weeks. It won’t be a transcript of the video, but it’ll include all the same pertinent information and links to relevant research. But in the meantime, if you can’t wait to learn more and you’d really like to get some clarity on the whole ApoE4 “thing,” hop on over to my YouTube channel and watch the video.

For other videos and podcasts I’ve done on Alzheimer’s, covering issues far beyond ApoE4, you might enjoy these: 

• Video: Alzheimer’s talk at Low Carb Houston (October 2018)
• Video: Alzheimer’s talk at KetoCon (June 2018)
• Podcast: Interview on Ketovangelist (one of my best & most informative ever!)

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.

A Couple More Videos and an Update

Whaddup, y’all?

I am going to get back to writing “real” blog posts soon, I promise!

Just been a bit swamped with travel to speak at a couple of nutrition and health events, plus a move!

First, I spoke at the Weston A. Price Foundation’s annual Wise Traditions Conference. My Alzheimer’s talk was such a hit last year that the president of the foundation asked me to give the same talk again this year. Nice!

I also gave two talks at a keto event in Kingston, Ontario. If you’re in Canada and you’d like to find out when more such events will be taking place in your beautiful country, check out https://keto-retreat.ca/  (They also have a Facebook page where you can get updates.) Videos of both talks will be available soon, and I’ll let you know when they are. One of them was on the concept of the personal fat threshold, and the other was a talk unlike any I’d ever given before. In fact, I think it was unlike any talk anyone has ever given in the keto community. I opened a conversation that is long overdue and brought up some issues I’d love to see us all talking more about. I’ll leave it at that until the video is available to the public and will explain more when the link is live and I can share it. I’m excited to see what you’ll think of it. Like I said, a talk unlike any I’m aware of in 15 years of following a low carb diet.

About the move…

I moved three and a half hours south, from Fredericksburg, VA, to Durham, NC. I’ve been crashing at a friend’s place while I buy furniture and get things settled, because in all the previous places I’d lived in the DC metro area since 2009, I always rented furnished places, so until recently, I owned zero furniture. (Unless a Squatty Potty counts!) Owing to this furniture deficiency and the travel, I’ve been living out of a duffel bag for almost a month. Eek! Even though I was living in Virginia for the past 9 years, now that I’m in North Carolina, I’m definitely in The South™. I’m already a natural at saying “Bless their hearts,” and I look forward to making homemade pimento cheese, because man, that stuff is gooood. (It’s basically keto as is, except if you read labels, many of the prepared ones you can buy at the supermarket have added sugar. It would be delicious without any sweetening at all, but for those who like a hint of sweetness to it, a pinch of Splenda, Swerve, or your low-carb sweetener of choice would mix in just fine. What? Artificial sweeteners? Yes. Yes, I use them. I’ve been using them for 18 years and I’m not dead yet. But maybe tomorrow.)

To pass the time until I post something more substantial, I wanted to share two more videos with you. One was an interview with me about Alzheimer’s recorded at Low Carb Houston. Many of you reading out there have probably already watched some of my other Alz videos (and maybe you’ve even checked out my book). If you’re new to the concept of Alzheimer’s as “type 3 diabetes” or “brain insulin resistance,” this new one is highly recommended. And it’s recommended even if you have already seen some of the other videos. This one is only 25 minutes long, and thanks to the good questions the interviewer asked, we covered a lot of educational information in that time. Here’s the link.

Toward the very end, I buck the keto police and explain that not everyone needs to be on a medically therapeutic ketogenic diet. We can’t deny the millions (billions?) of healthy people around the world who age gracefully and with their cognitive faculties intact who do not follow ketogenic diets. They eat fruit, they eat beans, they even … *gasp!* … eat grains. So no, a strict keto diet is not the only way to be healthy and maintain a body weight you’re happy with. (I have to find a new way to talk about weight, because I’d rather not use the phrases “healthy body weight” or “normal body weight.” I know people who are heavy and healthy, and people who are thin and quite sick. [In fact, this is exactly what the personal fat threshold is all about.] And who the heck gets to decide what a “normal” weight is, anyway? Certainly not me!) Yes, you can stick to 20g of carbs a day for the rest of your life if you enjoy that and it works for you. But many people have a higher carb tolerance than that. And not only can they “tolerate” more carbs, but they might actually feel better, physically and mentally/emotionally, with a bit more carbs in their diet. (Read this old favorite post for more on this. And here’s a video from my new YouTube channel on the topic of keto police in general.)

I’ve gotta say, I think I look pretty good here! I should wear bold makeup more often! (I would like to; the fact is, I’m usually just too lazy to take the time to apply it before grabbing my purse and heading out the door. Plus, I never really learned how to apply makeup correctly. I go into Sephora and I honestly have no idea what half the products are even for, let alone how to put them on my face without making myself look like a clown, or look 30 years older than I am. Anyone know any good YouTube makeup tutorial channels for normal people? I’m open to recommendations.) I should also probably smile more. That’s really the best makeup anyone can wear anyway.

The second video I’d like to share is even shorter (less than 22 minutes), and it’s also about Alzheimer’s. I make a few short cameo appearances, and there are appearances by some of my favorite Alzheimer’s researchers, Stephen Cunnane, PhD, Dale Bredesen, MD, and Mary Newport, MD. I cite and celebrate their work in my book and in every Alz talk I’ve given. The video is extremely well done and provides a fabulous overview of the metabolic aspects of Alzheimer’s, the latest research, and the therapeutic potential of ketogenic diets and exogenous ketones. (Link to the video here.)

About the next “real” post: I plan my next blog post to be on the topic of the personal fat threshold. There’s a sneak peek in this video I did a few months ago, but the blog post will dive a little deeper and will contain links to relevant research for those of you who’d like to learn more. (Or to verify that I’m not making this stuff up out of thin air. I try not to do that unless someone is paying me obscene amounts of money to do so.) I suspect this post will take a while to write, and if time gets away from me and I’d rather not go too long without anything new on the blog, I might post a book review or two. I’ve read several good nutrition books since the last book review post, and those are usually pretty quick to write. (See here for all the book review posts.)

If you’re into videos, don’t forget about my YouTube channel. Half ranting and half information that I hope is educational and helpful. (Kind of like my blog!)  

Back soon to what I love best: writing.

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.

Alzheimer's Talk: Amyloid, ApoE4, Insulin, and More

Hey everyone,

Since it’s going to be another couple of weeks before I’ll have time to write a new in-depth post, I wanted to share another video with you. I know some of you aren’t into videos and much prefer to read, so if that’s you, just hang tight; I’ll start writing “for real” again as soon as I can. For the rest of you, though, here’s the talk I gave about Alzheimer’s disease at Low Carb Houston just two weeks ago. I had 30 minutes to give a talk that I normally give in 45-60 minutes, so I had to cut a few things out. (Also had to speak quickly!) If you want the full version, I covered a little bit more during a talk at KetoCon back in June.  

If you’re interested in Alzheimer’s disease as “type 3 diabetes” or “diabetes of the brain,” I think you’ll find these talks very educational. Even though the Low Carb Houston talk was a little shorter than the one at KetoCon, it was a bit more in-depth on the science specifically surrounding beta-amyloid. I added in some aspects that I don’t normally include, because continuing medical education credits (CMEs) were being offered for the event, so I felt like I should step things up a bit and include some of the technical details I usually leave out for an audience that’s mostly laypeople. (Turns out Houston had a big mix of everyone, so it was fine either way.) If you’re especially interested in amyloid and why I don’t think it’s a cause of Alzheimer’s and, in fact, is more likely a protective thing, you’ll want to watch the Houston talk.

The KetoCon talk includes some details on cholesterol that I skipped over in Houston due to time constraints, and also because Dr. David Diamond, Dr. Nadir Ali, Dr. Maryanne Demasi, and Dave Feldman had all spoken before I did, and they covered cholesterol and statin drugs better than I ever could have. (Good thing, because it helped that I was able to skip the cholesterol details…freed up time for looking more closely at amyloid.)

You can find more of my presentations and articles on Alzheimer’s here. I haven’t had a chance to update it in a while, but I’ll do that soon. (Need to include the Houston talk for sure!)

And don’t forget about my shiny new YouTube channel. I know many of you (me included!) prefer reading to watching videos, but for those who might enjoy watching me remind people to keep low carb and keto simple and sane, please consider checking out the channel. Topics already addressed include an intro to why I started the channel, my personal history & background with low carb, how keto works, and measuring ketones. Upcoming topics include the Keto Police™, food quality, protein (and gluconeogenesis), weight loss stalls, and thyroid function. (I see probably 2 clients a month who have unrecognized/undiagnosed hypothyroidism, and it is a major roadblock to fat loss.) If you have a specific topic you’d like me to address, feel free to suggest it in the comments.

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.

I Started a YouTube Channel!

I started a YouTube channel!

Yes, dear readers, if you enjoy my writing, you can now go a step further and see and hear me. You can get “the real thing,” instead of trying to picture my voice or demeanor in your head. Some of you will be happy about this development; others might be thinking, “Why would I ever watch videos of her?” If you prefer reading blog posts, stay here on the blog. If you like videos too, please subscribe to the channel and keep reading the blog. Definitely don’t abandon the blog! (More on this later.)

Why did I start a channel?

People are hungry for a voice of reason, sanity, and simplicity.

I see people making keto so complicated. I see people convincing folks who are new to this that they need powdered MCT oil for their coffee, or that they have to use exogenous ketones to transition to keto. I see people pricking their fingers and peeing on test strips without the slightest clue of how to interpret what they see. (Okay, I don’t actually witness people peeing on strips, like, in person, but you know what I mean.) I see people plugging in their anthropometric data and getting “macros” spit out to them by calculators that have no idea how much body fat they carry (as opposed to total weight), or whether they have a thyroid problem. I see people following arbitrary macro percentages and loading up their food with extra butter and oil because some app told them to, not because they’re hungry for more fat.  

I see people who are confused and overwhelmed, and they’re not getting the results they want. They’re either so confused that they never even start a low carb way of eating, or they do what they think is the kind of low carb or keto diet they need, but they’ve been given so much inaccurate and potentially harmful information that whatever they were looking to accomplish, they’re actually going backward.

I see people misguidedly emphasizing “keto” instead of low carb. I see people bashing the Atkins diet, as if that isn’t a perfectly effective option for most of us. (And as if “keto” isn’t really just the 46-year-old Atkins induction phase wrapped up in a shiny new bow.)

For a long time, I’ve been trying to figure out who I am in the low carb scene. What do I have to contribute? Do I offer anything unique? Anything valuable? Am I saying anything a zillion other people aren’t already saying, and saying it better than I am?

Well, I think I’ve finally found my niche. After having been at this for a few years now (I published my first blog post way back in 2012), it’s happened organically – my “voice” has emerged over time, as the writing has grown. I want to help people see how simple this is—when we let it be. I’m the one who says, no, you don’t have to eat exclusively grassfed meats and organic vegetables. No, you probably don’t need to measure your ketones (but some people do benefit from it). No, you’re not going to die immediately if you use regular store-bought salad dressing, made with soybean oil. And no, you don’t have to have a PhD in calculus to figure out what and how much to eat.

In a world—including the keto community—that is increasingly polarized with warring factions shouting at each other from their entrenched camps, I’m okay with NOT being a zealot. I understand that there’s more than one way to get healthy, more than one way to lose weight, more than one way to lower blood sugar, and more than one way to be a decent human being who enjoys his or her food. I think I’ve gotten a reputation for being low-carb and keto-oriented, but also open minded and accepting of other ways of doing things that work for people. Maybe it’s only my perception, but I think I’m getting this reputation, and I like it. I think it’s needed. I look forward to new people finding me and my message of sanity and simplicity. I sincerely hope it helps them navigate low carb/keto as calmly and effortlessly as it should be navigated.

Now, about the videos:

As you know quite well if you’ve been around the blog awhile, brevity is not my strong suit. My posts tend to be really long. I plan to keep the videos short: aiming for about 10 minutes, give or take a few minutes. Some might be a little shorter; others will likely be longer (the first two already are, but they are intros to me and the channel, and are not typical of what I plan to be talking about in future videos), but I plan to make them all short enough that anyone who clicks on the links won’t be put off by the length.

I have friends and colleagues who have their own channels and put out lots of video content regarding LCHF/keto. And while I respect them and agree with most of what they say, I’ve found myself taking issue with a few things here and there. And I realized that if I’m not satisfied with how other people are explaining keto, then I need to get in the driver’s seat and do it myself.

So I have.

Please join me and subscribe to the channel, if you are so inclined.

As I’ll explain in my second video (in which I share my own history and how I got into low carb and eventually transitioned to being a nutrition professional), I am nearly helpless with technology. I’m an embarrassment to my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. It’s one of the top computer engineering schools in the world, but I’m lucky if I can even figure out how to plug in my laptop. It’s a bit of a miracle that I have a blog, a Twitter account, and now, a YouTube channel. See, I majored in creative writing, not computer engineering, or anything else having to do with 1s and 0s. So that’s why the writing here is kinda-sorta okay, but the site itself is a disaster. (Working on getting help with this soon! Planning a major overhaul of the site over the next several months. Yay!)

So bear with me as I learn how to improve the quality of my videos. I’d like to learn how to embed links and add images and text to the background. I know there are programs and apps that make it easy to do this. On the other hand, I’ve gotten feedback from people that simple is best. No need for anything fancy & flashy. If I’m saying something valuable, something people need to hear, then that’s enough. (Still, when I refer to blog posts I’ve written or to relevant scientific papers, I’d like for people to be able to click right on the link. That seems like the least I can do.)

And in case you’re wondering, yes, yes, YES, I will most definitely still be writing blog posts. Writing is, always has been, and likely always will be my first love. I’m adding YouTube to the mix only because it seems like you kind of “have to” be there to make a dent in things these days. Many people who are put off by the length of my posts would be happy to watch a 15-minute video (never mind that it would take them less than that to read even some of my longest posts). And some old-school folks (like me!) prefer reading and would sooner read a long post than watch a short video. So now I can reach more people, both the readers and the viewers, and everyone’s going to get pretty much the same message: keto doesn’t have to be complicated, confusing, or expensive. You can enjoy absolutely delicious food while improving your health and/or losing weight, and your way of eating doesn’t have to become an adventure in theoretical physics. You don’t need an advanced degree to lose weight, lower your blood sugar, get rid of your acid reflux, improve your PCOS, and say goodbye to joint pain, migraines, and gout. You just need to ditch the carbs.

See you on the screen!

P.S. Do you have any preference as to the frequency of new videos? I’m thinking twice a week, maybe every 4 days or so. I haven’t dived into YouTube analytics yet to see if there’s a “best” day to post, when more people are likely to watch. I’ll probably do what I do on the blog, which is follow my heart: write what I want to write, in the way I want to write it, and post it when I want to post it. It’s worked so far. I’m happy with the loyal readership I have here, and I’ve built it honestly and genuinely: no gimmicks, no false promises, no emphasis on whatever’s trendy just for more likes & shares. I plan to do the same with YT. Here’s hoping the people who need it find it.

P.P.S. Sorry for the decrease in blog posting frequency over the past several months. I have 2 or 3 long posts in the works, all in various stages of completion. I’ve had a bunch of speaking engagements the past few months and have 3 more coming up before the end of November. Once those are done, I’ll be able to focus on finishing these posts and hopefully resume putting out sarcastic and snarky educational content here. (And I'll publish shorter posts before then if I can.)

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.