Photo by: Associated Press
Moderate amounts of lean beef can have a place in a healthy diet.
Veteran health reporter Deb Pressey chases down questions each Wednesday. Submit them — any kind, any time — by clicking here
Q: Why is it not generally known that calorie-restricted ketogenic diets can stop diabetes in weeks or months? And that diets of 85% fat, 15% protein and 5% carbs can be perfectly healthy? Put another way, why is conventional main-line medical practice at odds with several the science?
A: The high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet has actually been out there for quite some time, and has actually been studied both to control epileptic seizures and to reverse kidney damage in diabetics.
But ketogenic diets are restrictive and notoriously hard to follow. Consider how numerous foods numerous people enjoy are carbs.
One local physician who belies a ketogenic diet is worth the effort is Dr. Nathan Walker, the medical director of Transformations medical weight loss plan at Christie Clinic. That’s also a ketogenic diet, but it’s low-carb, low-calorie, and focuses more on protein foods and drinks.
Walker said he wouldn’t recommend a high-fat ketogenic diet that edges out protein, but he does believe a ketogenic diet can reverse – he even says “cure” — type 2 diabetes for many.
Ketogenic diets turn around type 2 diabetes — a condition in which the body is insulin-resistant or doesn’t use insulin properly — in two ways, he said.
Carbs are converted to sugar in the bloodstream, which is something insulin is intended to keep in a normal range. But for diabetics the sugar level can become too high, so cutting carbs also means less sugar.
The second way is through weight reduction. Most people with type 2 diabetes are overweight, and getting weight down to a healthy range will cure type 2 diabetes for 80 percent of people who have it, Walker said.
In fact, any weight-loss diet can do that, he said, but a ketogenic diet will get faster results because it’s low-carb.
Even losing 15-20 pounds will be enough for someone with type 2 diabetes to be able to stop taking medications, he said, but people who backslide and eat carbs again will need their medications again.
“The long-term cure is weight loss,” he said.
Walker said he doesn’t recommend a high-fat ketogenic diet because sufficient protein is necessary to maintain muscle to burn calories.
“If you’re at 85-percent fat, you won’t get adequate protein and you’ll lose muscle,” he said.
As for where the main-line medical practice stands, Walker said most doctors tend to be conservative and believe in moderation when it comes to diet. But he believes the patient results data from the Transformations diet is becoming better known and most doctors these days do have at least some experience with ketogenic diets.
Still, the American Diabetes Association defines a healthy diet plan for people with type 2 diabetes as one that includes a wide variety of foods — including carbs — and it advises carefully tracking carbs as part of daily meal planning to keep blood sugar under control.
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