The Health Edge: Health Benefits of Nutritional Ketosis

6 Comments April 27, 2016 Mark Pettus

In this episode of The Health Edge John and Mark discuss the science behind the many health benefits of nutritional ketosis.

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Health benefits of Nutritional Ketosis

6 thoughts on “The Health Edge: Health Benefits of Nutritional Ketosis”

Jenny Krol

Great podcast, thank you gentleman! My question is, once an individual reaches a healthy weight through this method of nourishment, how does one maintain the weight loss? Thank you, Jenny

May 2, 2016 at 6:40 pm Reply
Caroline Collard

Thank you again to you both for taking the time to provide such useful podcasts. In listening to other podcasts and articles by Chris Masterjohn PhD and Sarah Ballantyne PhD in the last week, my confidence in following a ketogenic diet got shaken a little and I’m now left not knowing if it’s a good or bad thing in terms of optimizing health.
As John knows, my interest in nutrition has always been about optimizing health. After hearing your podcast and that of others a few months ago, I decided to follow a ketogenic diet – with net carbs around 50g a day – for health optimization and disease prevention. I don’t need to lose weight and I exercise to stay healthy but don’t compete or workout excessively to achieve a sporting goal.
In the last week, both Masterjohn and Ballantyne have commented that they do not believe that a ketogenic diet is healthy for someone who is otherwise healthy. Chris commented that in order not to affect important cellular chemical pathways in the body, the minimum starting point for health would be 100 g of net carbs in a fairly sedentary person (which I believe for most people would mean no longer burning fat as a main source of fuel for the body).
After the first few weeks of adaptation to a lower carb intake than I had been used to in the past (I initially felt light headed and lacked energy) and an increase in sodium intake I felt great on about 50g of net carbs a day with about 55g of protein and 100-150g of good fats (from grass-fed beef, lamb, wild salmon, sardines, avocados, coconut oil, extra virgin oil and grass-fed butter).
I trust your feedback on this given your many years of clinical experience and would be interested to know if you believe that sticking to a ketogenic diet (and therefore less than 100g of net carbs a day) is a positive thing to do for someone who has no known health issues.
For all his marketing-push style, I’ve also noted that Dr Mercola has interviewed many MDs who seem to promote – as he does now almost daily – a ketogenic diet for health and cancer prevention.
Would love to know if you agree.
Kind regards,
Caroline

June 15, 2016 at 7:11 pm Reply
Marianne

Caroline, the podcast on nutritional ketosis introduced me to this topic. Like you, I read more and embarked on a ketogenic diet, from which practice I learned a lot. Ultimately I decided for a variety of reasons to ramp up carbs (to about 100 gm/day) and protein and ramp down fat a bit. Thankfully, I’m able to be in mild ketosis (generally 1.0 to 1.6 millimolars per blood testing strips) by combining this low carb but “scaled back” from ketogenic nutritional plan with 16-18 hour intermittent fasting (i.e., skipping breakfast) and short periods of intense exercise on most days. Long story short, I’m able to be in ketosis as a result of combining three techniques for generating ketones rather than relying on nutritional ketosis alone. I relish the food variety I was able to reintroduce (e.g., berries and raw goat’s milk in my organic coffee grown at altitude and lightly roasted!).

July 7, 2016 at 4:51 pm Reply
- Caroline Collard
  
  Thank you for taking the time to comment Marianne. It’s helpful to know of your experience and the changes you made which are working for you. I have yet to buy blood testing strips but that’s on my list. I certainly feel good with intermittent fasting averaging 16 hours most days. I also feel incredibly good with a lot less carbs (still averaging 50 – 70 grams a day) than I thought I would but I realize that it depends on how much activity I get up to on any given day. I have always had low blood pressure so a higher intake of salt is key for me.
  Thanks again for sharing your experience. Raw goat’s milk sounds fabulous and your coffee equally great!
  
  July 7, 2016 at 9:34 pm Reply
Elisa

Hi. Enjoyed the podcast.

I was wondering if you could clarify something that John said. He mentions that we lose muscle mass on a low carb, hi protein diet, while a ketogenic diet will preserve muscle mass. I was always led to believe that eating sufficient protein was essential to preserving muscle mass, especially during intentional weight loss. Can you explain how a ketogenic diet preserves muscle with very little protein consumption, while a low carb, hi protein diet would not?

October 11, 2017 at 10:06 am Reply
- John Bagnulo
  
  Hi Elisa,
  Thanks for the question. It is a common belief that higher protein intakes in the face of a low carb diet can prevent muscle loss but if it is sufficiently low in carbohydrates the body will turn to protein as a primary source of metabolic energy. Deamination starts to convert both the protein we eat and that we carry into energy for the body. The result is weight loss, but unfortunately significant muscle mass will be part of it.
  It is only when ketones start to circulate at significant levels that the body recognizes this as a sign of limited energy and protein thereby favoring those processes that spare rather than spend/catabolize.
  I hope that this helps.
  Cheers, John
  
  October 14, 2017 at 5:55 am Reply