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EventsA ketogenic diet with fewer vegetables
November 22 2017 by Amanda Åkesson
, medical review by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD
in About membership, Bipolar disorder, Dementia, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Keto, Ketosis
, medical review by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD in About membership, Bipolar disorder, Dementia, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Keto, Ketosis
27,322 views
Could you be better off reducing your vegetable intake – or just skip it all together? And could ketosis be the answer to improving Alzheimer’s disease and mood disorders?
This is an interesting interview with psychiatrist Dr. Georgia Ede who will give you an answer to all these questions.
Watch the full interview above (transcript).
Table of contents
0:05 The benefits of a ketogenic diet
3:34 Alzheimer’s and keto
4:50 How healthy are vegetables really?
9:33 The many problems with the current science
13:05 Is fiber really necessary?
More
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All her info is freely available there.
Animals are fat and protein.
it used to be). Why is the second part always forgotten?
Try HF you'll like it.
We encourage discussions in our comment fields but not offensive language, that's why I only removed your last lines!
I will not start an argumentation but you forgot to tell that David Katz is a fan of vegan food. :)
https://deniseminger.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
NO, fiber is not a necessary food.
There are NO 'essential' carbohydrates - and all plant foods are carbs.
A meat-only diet is NOT high protein; it's high fat/moderate protein - and nature provides the ideal balance between the two, with moderate variation in that range.
Meat contains all essential nutrients. Vit C is only necessary if you consume plant foods! An even better source than sunlight for Vit D is red meat!
I am never preoccupied with food, anymore.
I have not been this healthy in 20 years and I expect my health to improve even further.
I've been on the meat-and-water only diet since 3/15/15 and I'm never going back.
Later, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Bipolar Disorder (aka manic depression), the kind where I wasn't suicidal, yet constantly overwhelmed and eager-to-please, impulsive in saying "yes" to everything. I was switched to yet another anti-convulsant, this time: oxcarbazapine. Then I was diagnosed with ADHD and social anxiety, and took Adderall, but had all kinds of side effects. As a new mother in grad school, I couldn't sleep and was irritable, unable to cope. So we tried different meds. This time, Abilify. For the first time, I actually began to feel suicidal!
But when I started eating a Paleo/Primal diet, weaning myself off flour and sugar, my symptoms began to subside. At this point, my psychiatrist and therapist thought I was just "merely on the spectrum" of BP, and advised that I ramp down, and completely off, all meds. They supported my decision to stay off flour and sugar.
Shortly afterwards, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. A friend told us about the ketogenic diet, and I was reluctant to try it for myself, but wanted to support my husband in learning how to cook and eat this way, eating keto for cancer. And when I read the two studies of two bipolar women who ate keto for several years, watching their symptoms subside, I decided eating keto was the right thing for me to do. I wished they had blogged about their experiences along the way. I have been keeping journals of the past several years when I first began eating keto December 2014. Best thing I've ever done! Not only has my hba1c and prediabetes improved, and my husband's tumor shrunk (with the help of also conventional treatment), I watched my moods become more even. I feel happier than I have ever felt in my life now as a result of keto.
And to take it a step further, both my husband and I are now defying everything we know about nutrition (e.g., red meat causes cancer, vegetables are vital for health) to begin a zero-carb meat-only diet. We're going to track how this affects us. I'm encouraged by Amber O'Hearn (who had/has bipolar disorder and eats a zero-carb carnivore diet) and Andrew Scarborough (who had brain cancer and also eats a zero-carb diet). Currently reading Nina Teicholz now about the studies with the Masai and Inuit. My whole mindset is shifting. Thanks for putting this info out in the world. So, so needed...
Mormons don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol, wear seatbelts etc. , all things that help avoid premature death. I grew up in a Mormon setting and every meal had animal products as a foundation, with plant based products as side dishes.
I have read that the 7th Day Adventist are more plant based, but I also know they also strictly adhere to many rules.
I have followed Dr Ede’s Blog and listened to her speak, and I have a great deal of respect for her work and insights.
She is one of several intelligent people whose work gave me the strength to try an exclusively animal based diet, and the reversal of chronic, progressive diseases has been nothing short of life-changing for me. I saved nearly $15,000 USD in pharmaceutical cost alone last year from changing my diet, keto initially, then animal based to take it to the next level.
I do expect to reintroduce some plant based foods to my diet, after I feel I have healed my broken metabolism enough to cope with them, but I expect I will follow Dr Ede’s advice and stick to local, seasonal plants that have a symbiotic relationship with the creatures that consume them.
I agree I am citing no evidence in this interview, partly because it's difficult to do in an informal, impromptu conversation. I realize my statements are very controversial, so I have documented the evidence in various articles I've written over the years. One place to start if you are curious to learn more would be the "vegetables" page on my website (DiagnosisDiet). You can get there by clicking on the "foods" tab from the menu along the top and then choosing "vegetables." Included on that page is a link to a free video presentation on this topic I gave at the Ancestral Health Symposium held at Harvard in 2012 which is also fully referenced. I recently gave a fully updated version of that talk at LowCarbUSA West Palm Beach 2018. That presentation is called "Plants vs. Animals: Bring It On!"--plenty of references. Unfortunately that video is not free but is available as part of LowCarbUSA's complete conference stream on their website.
Absolutely! I have a free blog post specifically about broccoli here: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/is-broccoli-good-for-you/, a post about nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant, etc) here: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/nightshades/ and a post about plant foods that can interfere with thyroid function here: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/foods-and-hypothyroidism/
Hope that helps!
You are right to be skeptical--this conversation was an information discussion without any references. I have a complete presentation about the (very strong) science connecting high-insulin diets with Alzheimer's disease and explaining why so many chronic diseases have this in common. I'm happy to say that this video, from LowCarbUSA San Diego 2017 lives right here on the DietDoctor website: https://www.dietdoctor.com/lower-insulin-key-better-brain-health Or if you prefer a short read instead, I wrote a brief article for Psychology Today about this topic for the general public (free), here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/diagnosis-diet/201609/preventing...
I completely understand your concern! Yes it is true that many plant foods contain essential minerals, but the problem is that many plant foods also happen to contain natural substances that interfere with our ability to absorb those minerals. Three examples of this are 1) phytic acid, a mineral magnet that lives in beans, nuts, seeds, and grains that interferes with iron, calcium, zinc and magnesium absorption 2) oxalates, which are present in spinach, beets, sweet potato, and other plant foods and 3) tannins, which are found in a wide variety of plant foods including black tea, pomegranates, and many other foods. I have a more detailed article about this (free) here: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/micronutrients-mental-health/ Minerals are actually easy to absorb from animal foods (unless you combine animal foods with too many plant foods).
Great question! I didn't mean to suggest that everyone should remove all plants from their diets, although a growing number of people are trying it to see how it feels, and it's safe to try. What I hope people get out of this information is that a) there is no scientific proof that plant foods are necessary/good for us, so you don't need to worry about eating lots of them if you don't like them or can't afford them b) people who are already eating a whole foods, pre-agricultural ("Paleo") LCHF diet and who still don't feel completely well may want to take a look at plant foods as a potential culprit, as some of as are very sensitive to the natural toxins and irritants in plant foods--especially those of us with damaged guts and immune systems. I personally eat seafood, poultry, red meat, along with their natural fats (fatty cuts best) and a handful of vegetables that I have discovered agree with me personally. I hope that makes sense?
I understand that my views fly in the face of everything we are accustomed to hearing. I am aware of Dr. Katz and his position, as well as the many other well-known proponents of plant-based diets, the China Study, etc. I have looked quite closely at the plant-based arguments and theories and have written many fully-references articles and given several evidence-based presentations on this topic if you are curious to see how I have come to my strange conclusions. A good place to start would be here: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/vegan-diets-and-the-brain/ where I compare the pros and cons of plant-based diets and omnivorous diets.
Please see above for my response to Robin. Another place to start if you prefer a video to a written post is here (free)--a presentation I gave at Harvard's Ancestral Health Symposium in 2012, fully-referenced: https://vimeo.com/52606062
Yes, there are peoples around the world--in the so-called "BlueZones" for example, who appear to contain individuals who live a very very long time compared to our modern expectations. Unfortunately it is impossible for us to know what precisely is responsible for their longevity, because there are so many differences between how they live and how the average westerner lives--not the least of which is that their diets are extremely low in refined carbohydrates and other processed foods. Many of them do eat animal foods, as well, so these are not plant-based folk, for the most part.
I welcome the skepticism and appreciate your having given me the benefit of the doubt! Our conversation was informal and impromptu--I didn't know in advance that Ivor wanted to interview me and didn't know what the topics would be until a few minutes before filming, so I wasn't prepared with any references. I have lots of evidence to support my unconventional views in a variety of free articles on my own website http://www.diagnosisdiet.com as well as on Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/georgia-ede-md. A good place to start would be my vegetables page: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/food/vegetables/ Hope you're having a great weekend!
Great question! As Lisa B. mentions in her nice response, our requirement for vitamin C is much lower if we eat a low-carbohydrate diet because sugar competes with vitamin C in the body. Our true requirement is only 10 mg per day to prevent scurvy. There is an excellent, detailed exploration of this topic by my friend and colleague Amber O'Hearn, who is very knowledgeable about all-meat diets: http://breaknutrition.com/ketogenic-diet-vitamin-c-101/
Just for the record, I agree with you about dairy. I do not eat dairy and advise people to be careful with dairy, as many of us have sensitivities to it and it raises insulin and growth hormone levels in human beings, making it harder to lose weight. Meat does not equal dairy:)
Congratulations on your health improvements (and your financial savings)! I agree with your excellent response and also wanted to thank you for voicing your support for these unusual ideas here. I hope that you will someday be able to reintroduce some tasty plants into your diet without suffering any symptoms. I'm down to about a half-dozen or so plant foods that don't seem to bother me much if at all. Unfortunately every time I try to put a new one back in, it seems to backfire:( Hope you're having a great weekend!
Keep up the good work. More and more people are at least curious about the benefits of the diet. I feel like a neighbor since I am only 100ish miles from you.
Stay well!!!! Bless you!
Would you mind telling us which vegetables you are able to tolerate? How often do you eat them? Thank you for all your presentations. Best regards, Olga