The Ketogenic Diet in a Nutshell

The Ketogenic diet is yet another evolutionary adaptation which is based on the paleo idea. It is more restricted however. Hunting and gathering hasn’t always been a peachy walk in the park. Quite often our ancestors had to deal with scarcity. Quite often they had to adapt to what was available based on where they lived, what time of the year it was, and how much luck they had.
Ketogenic diet represents our innate inexhaustible voice. The ability to fast and use fats efficiently was critical for survival not only in times of starvation but also during cold seasons when there weren’t enough carbohydrates. Mastering to live and thrive on fat made us flexible and resistant. It gave us the power to explore and conquer a wide range of longitudes and latitudes. Inuit and all peoples who live in the North are basically on a very restricted ketogenic diet. They eat mostly fat and protein and very little carbohydrates ( over 90% animal food ).
So here is the ketogenic diet in a nutshell: fat is used as the main source of energy, proteins come in moderate amount , and carbs are severely limited. In dietary perspective we are looking at about 70-75 % of calories from fat, 20-25% from protein, and 5-10% from carbohydrate daily. The key is to understand that carbohydrates get replaced by fat and proteins stay moderate to low. The overall calorie amount should be also somewhat restricted. If we allow higher amount of protein, the body will convert the access into glucose through an alternative and very expensive pathway which will block the fat switch and make our system work hard and inefficient.
The reason cells choose glucose in front of fat is evolutionary. Life occurred in a low oxygen environment in which the first prokaryotic beings ( bacteria and archaea ) did not use mitochondria to burn fat. They didn’t even have mitochondria or any other membrane bound organelle, not even a nucleus. This happened later with the development of the eukaryotic cells where the nucleus was used to store and transfer information. According to the endosymbiotic theory, the eukaryotic cells employed ( voluntarily or not ) certain prokaryotic cells to convert energy for them. This acquisition gave birth to the Mitochondria - energy producing organelles capable of burning fat and glucose with the use of oxygen. Whatever happened back then is not exactly understood but glucose was the first available fuel. And cells seem not to forget this because when glucose is present they switch to it almost immediately. Not to mention that we are 90% bacteria ( for every cell in the body there is ten times more bacteria ) which does not have mitochondria to utilize fat and neither does our red blood cells. This is a good reason not to go on zero carbs. We need some glucose to feed our immunity and our blood. We need some glucose to create structural proteins called glycoproteins, to use it as fuel in times of very high intensity demands, and to create “reactive oxygen species” ( ROS ) to help the immune system fight invaders. Although we can extract glucose internally from a non-glucose sources ( fats and protein ), I am convinced that glucose has its rightful place in human physiology. The question is not if we should eat glucose but how much. The amount used in most ketogenic diets is 50 grams per day or less, although certain individuals can go as high as 150 grams of carbs and still maintain ketosis.
How long does it take to become keto-adapted?
It takes a few weeks to start generating the appropriate enzymes and to become more efficient burning fat and ketones. The process is unique for everyone and depends on how far from the equator your parents lived, how well your mitochondria functions, how old your are, and so on.
Jeff Volek and Stephen Phinney write in their book “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living”:
“The human brain is a carbohydrate dependent organ only if one routinely eats a lot of anti-ketogenic nutrients such as sugars and concentrated carbohydrates. When dietary carbohydrates are held to 50 grams or less per day, humans undergo a process called keto-adaptation.”

Ellen Davis, the author of the “Ketogenic Diet Resource” website - a wonderful place to visit for more in depth information, describes even further:
“The less insulin resistant you are, the more carbohydrates you can eat. Some people can consume as many as 150 grams of carbohydrates a day and still efficiently use ketones for fuel. Ketogenic diets of short duration show little benefit. Our bodies require time to build the enzymes needed to burn fat efficiently and induce ketosis”.
I know that it might be obvious but I’ll say it just for the fun - the best choices of carbs are nature made, low glycemic load vegetables and fruits (like berries). The best choices of fat on the other hand are not so obvious. The undisputed king is the saturated fat such as coconut oil, palm kernel oil, beef tallow, lard, duck fat, yolks, butter, cream, caviar, pate etc... Second comes the monounsaturated fat such as avocados, extra virgin olive oil, almonds etc. And the third is not even a choice because it is extremely toxic and inflammatory - the polyunsaturated fat in the name of all vegetable seed oils. In their book “Perfect Health Diet”, Paul Jaminet, Ph.D. and Shou-Ching Jaminet, Ph.D. have devoted a whole chapter on ketogenic diets where they recommend eating short and medium-chain fatty acids like coconut oil as the most ketogenic of all fats: “Ketosis can be maintained with a higher level of carbohydrate consumption if short-chain fats are consumed”.
The authors also recommend supplementing with vitamin C, glutathione, biotin, and branched- chain amino acids ( leucine is ketogenic itself ). It is also important of avoid fructose rich sources ( sweet fruits ) which depletes the liver from ATP ( adenosine triphosphate ) and its ability to generate ketones. Ketone bodies are fatty acid by-products created when liver and kidneys metabolize fats. Their production increases rapidly when glycogen (carbohydrate storage in the body ) is low or depleted and fats can not break down completely. Although almost all structures can use fatty acids for fuel our brain and central nervous system can’t. They use ketone bodies instead and as it turns out it is their favorite food. So this is the end of the myth that your brain needs glucose to survive. Not true, it actually prefers ketones. Ketones don’t require transport through the blood cells as fats do, they simply diffuse across cell membranes without energy expenditure, which involves less oxygen. As Dr. Stephen Phinney suggests, this might be a reason why Inuit people did not have a harmful oxidative stress on such a low vitamin C intake.
There are three ketone bodies worth mentioning: acetoacetate (AcAc), beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and acetone. AcAc and BHB are produced from the condensation of acetyl-CoA ( a result of incomplete breakdown of free fatty acids) while acetone is derived directly from AcAc and is excreted in the breath and urine ( which gives the acetone breath during a ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting ).
What is the big deal about the ketogenic diet?
Besides the fact that it makes you lose fat fast, slow aging and reduce inflammation, it also helps curing insulin resistance, diabetes , metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, fatty liver, cancer, yeast, fungal and other bacterial infections, autoimmune disorders, neurological and mental disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, ataxia, chronic headaches, autism, depression, dyspraxia, dyslexia, A.D.H.D., A.D.D, depression, schizophrenia, and a whole lot more.
How is this possible?
Life is governed by information turning into energy and matter. In this sense all disease is some sort of miscommunication. So if we can correct the problem at base level, everything will fall into place up the ladder. Sounds like an impossible thing because we need to figure out so many variables. True, but we can also choose to let go completely and allow mother nature to do the trick.
I call this intermittent fasting. We are all children of nature and we all have an innate profound blueprint. We just need to activate it and watch from a distance. We just need to stop dumping garbage in our system and allow nature to cleanse itself and heal.
How is this relevant to the ketogenic diet?
Well, you can look at it as an extended fasting. Metabolically it mimics it. You even might hear the term “starvation ketosis” which means fasting and “ dietary ketosis “which means ketogenic diet. Simulating fasting leads us to the most critical detail about ketogenic diets we should always remember - calorie restriction. If you eat too much protein and fat you will produce a great deal of glucose and insulin and won’t see any benefits.

Elizabeth A. Thiele, M.D., Ph.D.—Dietary Therapy: Role in Epilepsy and Beyond from Ancestral Health Society on Vimeo.
Another strong point is that the most of our cells have mitochondria ( only red blood cells don’t ) which is the only organelle able to extract energy out of fatty acids ( fats yield three times or more energy in comparison to glucose ). So when we remove the majority of glucose, it becomes a scarcity and everyone fights for it. Our healthy cells in this scenario have much bigger chance to prevail because they can afford to switch back and forth between ketones and glucose while bacteria and cancer cells can not. Bacteria and many harmful pathogens do not have mitochondria, or can not use it as well as our normal cells. Cancer cells for instance have mitochondria but their mutation allows them to get energy only from glucose through an anaerobic process called fermentation. This is true even in the presence of oxygen. So when glucose is removed, cancer cells have no food. Dr. Thomas Seyfried talks about this in his book “Cancer as a Metabolic Disease “ , where he finds “mitochondrial dysfunction” to be the common denominator among all cancers. It is the primary trigger unlocking genetic mutation, and not the other way around.

It is well established now that excess carbs spike insulin which messes up communication. It also increases ROS ( reactive oxygen species ) damaging DNA and causing glycation. Glycation is an unnecessary mixing of excess sugar and protein which leads to AGEs ( advanced glycation end products ) which harm mitochondria and cellular function.
Dr. Ron Rosedale M.D., says:
“Health and lifespan are determined by the proportion of fat versus sugar people burn throughout their lifetime. The more fat that one burns as fuel, the healthier the person will be, and the more likely they will live a long time. The more sugar a person burns, the more disease ridden and the shorter a lifespan a person is likely to have.”
Ketogenic diet can not only extend life, cut fat, generate muscle, and cure disease but it can also improve sports performance, especially if you are into endurance and ultra endurance sports like marathons, triathlons, ski running, cycling etc...You can use the diet exceptionally well to keep your weight down and fit into a lower weight category ( contact sports, weight lifting etc ).
Although ketogenic diet makes a lot of sense in endurance sports, it doesn’t seem to overpower the role of glycogen in very high intensity sports nested in the 30 second - 30 minute time frame. The way I see its implementation in this case is to use the diet as part of a periodization scheme. When working on economy and oxygen utilization period in order to improve metabolic efficiency (anaerobic threshold ), the athlete could pair with ketosis in order to achieve better fat burning and glycogen sparing effect.
Who is the ketogenic diet for?
Well, you need to be motivated, that’s for sure. Kicking carbs out is not easy. It will remove a big chunk of your daily pleasures. So, if you are really sick , if you are morbidly obese, if you are a health freak, or if you are an ultra - endurance athlete then ketogenic diet is for you.
If curiosity is my only driving force, I would follow nature. If you live in a moderate climate zone winter seems to be the best time to explore ketosis. If I look at a single day cycles, I would choose to fast or go ketogenic from the morning until late afternoon.
So don’t wait to get sick, be curious, explore and find your own ketogenic variation. You might be surprised to rediscover metabolic freedom you’ve never thought possible!