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.) 

14 Ways to Tell if Keto Is Working for You Besides Weight Loss

 

Based on keto transformation pics on social media, it would be easy to think this very low-carb way of eating is used for just one thing: weight loss. And no doubt, the before and after pictures of people who’ve lost substantial amounts of weight are amazing. But low-carb and ketogenic diets are good for so many other things besides changing the size of your body. Some of these—like lower blood sugar, lower triglycerides, and lower blood pressure—can be shared via pictures of glucometers, home blood pressure cuffs, or printouts of your latest bloodwork. But what about the things we can’t see? What about all the great stuff keto does that you can’t capture in a picture? A picture speaks a thousand words, but what about the great things keto does that you can’t take a picture of? 

People use keto for fat loss, but what if you: 

A) Don’t want or need to lose weight, but you’re dealing with a laundry list of troubling health issues? 

B) Do want to lose body fat but you’re stuck in a stall and the scale hasn’t moved in a while? 

Well, if B is your issue, check out this article I wrote on how to stay motivated during a fat loss stall, and then grab a copy of my book, The Stall Slayer, to help break that stall. (I also encourage you to just stay off the scale altogether for a while.) 

 

Either way, here are 14 ways to know that keto’s working for you that have nothing to do with weight.

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.

Turning Wednesday into WINEDAY

Hey all!

Love keto? Love WINE? Join me and my friend Casey Durango (of Go Keto with Casey fame) on Wednesday September 4 for a fun & casual Wednesday “Wineday” evening. We'll sip wine, chat about keto, wine, the meaning of life, and whatever else comes up. (I’m guessing cheese and charcuterie at a minimum...probably because I’ll bring them up, hehheh!) It's online, so you can participate from anywhere...and there's zero travel required so you don't even need Uber or a designated driver. Get comfy in your PJs, grab a glass of your adult beverage of choice and log on.

Not an alcohol drinker? No problem! Water, coffee, tea, broth, or whatever else you prefer is most welcome. We just want your company; we don’t care what you’re drinking.

Click on this link for more information.

This is a great way to interact with me if you’ve been unable to attend any of the keto and low-carb events I’ve been at in the past couple of years. (See here for my upcoming public appearances; maybe I’ll be in your area soon.)

If you don’t know who Casey Durango is, she’s only one of my favorite people in the keto world and in my actual, “real life,” away from the interwebs. She has a fabulous transformation story and now shares the lessons learned, the trials and tribulations, and the straight-up way it works with others via her videos and other content. (By the way…how’d she lose almost 100 pounds? By following page 4 … with some wine here and there, of course. Let’s get real, friends…for some of us, it’s a lot easier to ditch the bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cereal, cookies, and cake, if we can sip on a cabernet or pinot noir from time to time.)

See you on Sept 4!

P.S. Wondering if alcohol is allowed on keto? (First of all, who gets to say what’s “allowed” and what isn’t? Who died and made anyone else their food police? No one, that’s who!) Is wine keto? YES, you CAN enjoy alcohol on a ketogenic diet, provided you're intelligent about it. (See here for a video I did on this topic.)

P.P.S. I’m on Instagram now! I am clueless about how it works, so bear with me while I learn. You know me here; I’m a writer, not a photographer. I’ve been posting pictures of some of my meals, but I refuse to turn into one of those people who is physically incapable of consuming a molecule of food without telling the whole world about it and providing photographic evidence to go along with it. I don’t really know what I’ll be posting there, or even if I’ll stick with it. (There are only so many platforms and accounts I can keep up with. I'm an introvert, for goodness sake; this is all totally overwhelming for me!) I’m just trying it out for now, testing the waters a bit. I didn’t think I would like YouTube all that much, but it turns out I do have a few things to say and there are a lot of people who aren’t big on reading long blog posts who still need sanity and simplicity regarding keto. I’m happy to be filling that niche. 

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.

The PCOS Post: Hormonal Havoc From Hyperinsulinemia

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve been plugging away this blog since 2012. It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years, but even harder to believe that in all that time, I’ve completely neglected the topic of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). I’ve written a ton about insulin, glucagon, thyroid hormones, digestion, cancer, and more, but not one word about PCOS, except for a brief mention in this post. This is a glaring omission, because PCOS is a huge issue for reproductive aged women these days, and, no surprise if I’m writing about it here, it’s intimately tied to chronic hyperinsulinemia and metabolic dysregulation.

A while back I wrote about the effect of elevated insulin on men’s hormones, explaining the concept of a “male equivalent to PCOS,” and I didn’t realize that I hadn’t even yet written about actual PCOS. I don’t know how such a huge gap has existed on my blog for so long, but this is being corrected right now. Whew!

I’ve seen online in various places women saying that they’re at increased risk for type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome because they have PCOS. It’s actually the other way around: chronically high insulin (basically metabolic syndrome, whether you know you have it or not) is the main driver of PCOS. The reason so few women who have PCOS are aware of this is … surprise, surprise … most doctors are clueless about insulin’s many functions unrelated to blood sugar and they never bother measuring insulin levels.

Women with PCOS are often given unhelpful and condescending advice.  There is a lot of "blame the victim" that goes on with this condition. I sincerely hope this post does not come off that way. That is the very last thing I intend. I have only one goal here: to provide information. Information that can be empowering to women who have PCOS. If you are living with this condition and you feel disappointed by the help you've gotten from healthcare professionals so far, please know that you can take control. You have more power than you might realize. I hope what follows here is helpful.   

This is a long post (some of you are rejoicing now and others are groaning), so grab yourself a beverage of choice, a bag of pork rinds or some string cheese, and happy reading!

Blog Update & the Famous Dr. Westman "Page 4 Diet"

Hey Everyone,

 

Man, I have really been neglecting this blog. I’m very active on Twitter and I’ve been posting videos on my YouTube channel, but the blog, sadly, has been collecting dust. This is a shame for two reasons:

First, even though I seem to be reaching more people with my tweets and videos, writing is, always has been, and likely always will be my first love. I consider myself a writer first and a nutritionist second. I truly like writing, and the beauty of writing my own blog, as opposed to some of the paid “day gig” writing I do to keep my bills paid, is that I get to write about whatever I want to write about, and say things the way I want to say them. I don’t have to answer to anyone, censor myself, or present things in a certain light in order to fit in with someone else’s “message” or brand. Tuit Nutrition is me. My voice, my perspective, and yes, my sarcasm and snark. I start to feel not-so-good when it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything substantial on the blog—something I think is truly educational and helpful for people navigating the crazy world of low carb & keto. Sharing little snippets of this & that on Twitter is great, and I’ve made some important professional connections there, but my blog is where I can really get deeper into things. Write something meaty, something detailed, something to make people think. When I hit publish on that kind of post, I feel a sense of satisfaction and purpose that I rarely ever experience otherwise.

The second reason it’s a shame I’m not blogging regularly is that I know many of you prefer to read, and even though you can hop over to YouTube anytime and watch me talk about any number of keto-related issues, you’d prefer to wait for the next written post. Frankly, my dear readers, I don’t blame you! I, too, prefer reading, and long posts don’t scare me away. My attention span hasn’t yet been decimated to the point that anything longer than a 15-second read gets passed over in favor of a meme with a whopping 4 words on it. (Not that there’s anything wrong with funny memes.) My point is, I know some of you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them, and I feel bad leaving you without something to dig into for such long periods of time. (And I love hearing from those of you who’ve told me you don’t mind my very long posts. Some of you actually like immersing yourself in something a bit more substantial. In that case, we’re a perfect fit.)

With this in mind, I’m committing to blogging a little more regularly than I have been in the last year or so. I won’t commit to once a week because I know myself too well, and I just won’t be able to keep up that pace. But twice a month? I think that can work. And I can’t promise every post will be something of great substance (in fact, I can promise some posts won’t), but I think just getting back in the habit of writing regularly at all will be a good move for me.

Here’s what I have in mind for the coming weeks and months:

A New Look at Insulin, Glucagon & the Pancreas (a.k.a. ITIS part 9)

“Contrary to popular belief, insulin is not needed for glucose uptake and utilization in man.” (Source)

What? Insulin is not needed for glucose uptake? Did I just blow your mind a little?  If so, hang on to your hat. Lots more of that to come.

As I mentioned in my previous post on the personal fat threshold concept, what I enjoy most about writing my blog is that I get to share with you the fascinating and surprising things I learn. And one thing I can say with certainty is, the more I learn, the less I know. It seems like I barely hit publish on a new blog post before coming across a bunch of papers that teach me even more about the subject in question, or make me rethink what I wrote about it in the past.

One subject I’ve learned more about since I last wrote about it is insulin. If you’re new here, I recommend digging into my 8-part series on insulin. If I do say so myself, it’s some of the most important and educational stuff I’ve written.  But you don’t need to have read that to understand today’s post.

If you’re accustomed to thinking about insulin as a “blood sugar hormone,” you’re about to have your world turned upside down.  What I’ve learned about insulin over the past couple of years makes me think that lowering blood glucose might be one of the least important and impressive things it does.

Another very long post coming your way here, so grab a coffee or some pork rinds, and happy reading!

Before you dive in, though, I recommend scrolling way down to the bottom of this post where it says “End.” You might want to spend a while reading the whole thing, or you might not…that will help you decide. 

Watch Me PRESENT LIVE ONLINE on TUESDAY!

Good news, everyone!

If you haven’t been able to make it to any of the low carb or keto events where I’ve presented in the past, you’re in luck …

You can watch me speak LIVE at the Durham, North Carolina low carb support group meeting on Tuesday, March 5 at 6:30pm. Tune in by going to the Facebook page for HEAL Clinics – they will broadcast it live right there on the page. Dr. Eric Westman, Durham and Duke University’s king of keto, will kick things off, but then I’ll be giving a presentation on keto for mental & emotional health issues.

If you and/or someone you love deal with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, mood swings, panic attacks, or any other mental, emotional, or psychological issue, you’ll want to watch if you can. (But no worries if you’re not available at that time – you’ll be able to catch it anytime afterward on the HEAL Clinic page.) I’ll be talking about mechanisms behind why and how ketogenic diets can be beneficial for these conditions. I mean, weight loss? Sure. Diabetes? Old news. Tell me something I don’t know, right? How about physiological and biochemical reasons why keto is a stunningly logical and rational thing to try for anyone dealing with these difficult-to-treat issues?  

It will be very similar to the video I did on this topic for my YouTube channel, but this will be the live version, so hopefully there’ll be some fun interaction with the audience, and I’ll know some of you out there will be watching, too, which will keep me even more energetic and enthusiastic.

More on the support group:

If you happen to live in the Raleigh-Durham area, or within a reasonable driving distance, the support group meets on the first Tuesday of every month at the Durham Hilton near Duke University (3800 Hillsborough Road, Durham, NC 27705). I’m not always there, but I’m there fairly often, and will probably be there more now that I’ve relocated to Durham. There’s a low carb buffet dinner for a reasonable price, but you don’t have to eat; you can just come grab a seat and spend an evening with other people on low carb/keto diets, for free! There’s always a bit of education, some Q&A with Dr. Westman, and often some very inspiring success stories of people who are experiencing the wonderful yet darn near predictable benefits of low carb: fat loss, reducing or stopping their meds for T2 diabetes, total resolution of acid reflux/GERD, reductions in chronic pain and fatigue, improved GI function, restoration of menstruation and fertility after PCOS…y’know, just the regular run-of-the mill stuff that happens to people daily on keto. ;-)

Come in person to the support group on March 5 if you can!

More on HEAL Clinics:

Did you have to learn about low carb/keto on your own? Did you have to fight with a doctor, dietitian, or health coach who told you keto was dangerous, and that you should not eat that way? Did you spend years—decades, maybe—overweight or obese, paying astronomical sums for multiple medications, exhausted, in pain, and generally debilitated with physical and emotional malaise because you simply felt BLAH?

Are you tired of inexperienced people spouting all kinds of nonsense about keto on the interwebs—misinformation that, at best, makes it harder for people to lose weight, but at worst, is actively harmful for people on various medications who need proper medical supervision to implement keto safely? (I am! It’s why I started making my own videos, in fact.)

HEAL Clinics wants to help people to not have to overcome the multiple barriers so many of us might have faced on our journey to finding and successfully implementing keto/LCHF. Dr. Westman is the Chief Medical Officer, and his right-hand woman, the Director of Clinical Protocol, is Jackie Eberstein, RN—Jackie was the head nurse at Dr. Atkins’ clinic in NYC for almost 30 years and she was actually one of Dr. Westman’s teachers! (What, you thought he learned keto all on his own?) Lemme tell ya, dear readers, she is low carb royalty. If you want help losing weight, reversing your T2 diabetes, reducing your insulin needs for type 1, reversing fatty liver, improving PCOS, or anything else keto is a slam-dunk for, there’s pretty much no one with more experience to help you than these two long-time keto professionals.  

HEAL Clinics has two options:

1. If you’re taking certain medications for diabetes, you will need to be seen by one of their medical providers in person to get started. (After the initial in-person visit, follow-ups can be done remotely, I think.) Right now, they have clinics in North Carolina and Virginia, but will be expanding into more states over time. (Note: this doesn't mean you have to live in NC or VA to be a HEAL patient, but you would have to travel there for your first visit.)

2. If you have a relatively “uncomplicated” case and are not on certain meds, you can be seen entirely remotely and don’t have to go to one of the clinics in person.

Learn more about the program here: How It Works

Don’t need help with keto? HELP SOMEONE ELSE! You can actually invest in HEAL Clinics. If you want to make trustworthy, safe, reliable, and effective keto-oriented healthcare and coaching available to as many people as possible—so they don’t have to face the criticism, naysaying, and other negativity you might have experienced when you started out—consider investing so that HEAL can keep expanding. The investment is just that: an investment. It’s not a donation, like it is with a Kickstarter or some other form of fundraising. You will actually own stock in the company. And the sad truth is, with 88% of Americans being metabolically unhealthy, reversing illnesses that are entirely or to a great extent driven by diet is a damn wise thing to invest in. We are awash in a tsunami of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, PCOS, Alzheimer’s disease, fatty liver, and other conditions caused or exacerbated by chronic hyperinsulinemia. Keto can go a long way to completely reversing these, or at least having some degree of beneficial impact.

Many of us can do LCHF/keto on our own, but some people need a bit more moral support, and some need professional medical supervision. For those people—and so that Dr. Westman and Jackie can train more doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other medical professionals so that this kind of care can be available to as many people as possible, consider investing if you have the means. And if you’re not in a position to invest, please let your friends and family know about HEAL Clinics, if you think they would benefit from keto, and you want them to do it correctly and safely.

(Full disclosure: I am a HEAL investor, so yes, I’ve put my own money where my mouth is! And no, there's no affiliate link or anything, so I receive no financial compensation whatsoever if any of you happen to invest. I'm just spreading the word about what I hope we can all agree is a good cause.)

See you on March 5!

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.