What’s this week’s question? Let’s dive straight in…
I am not on any meds for blood sugar or insulin, so ketoacidosis is not really a concern to me.
Ketosis is burning fat for fuel, glycosis is burning glucose (sugar) for fuel. All carbs & excess protein converts to sugar (glucose) in the body. As long as you control carbs to less than 9g net carbs per hour, the body burns fat for fuel (either dietary fat or body fat). If you don’t provide enough dietary fat, the body shuts down the metabolism.
You’ve lowered your carbs to 120g per day? That’s probably a huge change for your body and it’s probably reeling with the adjustments. My main concern is that it will just shut down the metabolism awaiting a return to carbs. Between your carbs & protein, the body can stay in glycolysis if it slows down the metabolism. This does not put your body into ketosis. I’m sure you are losing weight but that’s just the diet adjustment. Hopefully you haven’t lowered your calories, or you definitely will shut down the metabolism.
The first 6 weeks of the fuel changeover, your body is still using glucose as fuel & is converting protein to glucose. I advocate the Atkins program because it forces your body into ketosis, quickly gets you past the carb addiction & creates a natural appetite suppression (after 3 days)
This plan I fear will create problems for you - not enough glucose to stay in glycolysis - not enough fat to get into ketosis. If you have metabolic syndrome then being in glycolysis really is no longer an option. Your liver becomes insulin resistant, then the muscle cells become insulin resistant & as long as the fat cells don’t become insulin resistant or the pancreas doesn’t quit producing insulin you can keep attempting glycolysis but your health will continue to deteriorate.
The answer to your questions - I don’t believe you are in ketosis. Your body is going thru major adjustments & it will deal with less sugar by slowing down the metabolism.
Re: Skeptics comments - I do not believe a low fat diet is healthy. Saturated fats are necessary for good health & to make the vitamins & minerals in your foods bioavailable so they can be incorporated into the body structure. Saturated fat is required for the body to function properly & to regenerate & heal.
Saturated fats play many important biologic roles. They are an integral component of cell membranes, which are 50 percent saturated fat. Lung surfactant is composed entirely, when available, of one particular saturated fat, 16-carbon palmitic acid. Properly made with this fat, it prevents asthma and other breathing disorders. For nourishment, heart muscle cells prefer saturated long-chain palmitic and 18-carbon stearic acid over carbohydrates. Saturated fats are required for bone to assimilate calcium effectively. They help the liver clear out fat and provide protection from the adverse effects of alcohol and medications like acetaminophen. Medium-chain saturated fats in butter and coconut oil, 12-carbon lauric acid and 14-carbon myristic acid, play an important role in the immune system. They stabilize proteins that enable white blood cells to more effectively recognize and destroy invading viruses, bacteria, and fungi, and also fight tumors. Saturated fatty acids function as signaling messengers for hormone production, including insulin. And saturated fats signal satiety. Not surprisingly, given all these biological functions, saturated fats make up 54 percent of the fat in motherâs breast milk (monounsaturated fats are 39 percent; and polyunsaturated fats, a tiny 3 percent).
http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller33.1.html
Plaque build up in the arteries are more attributable to carb consumption than dietary fats, which seems to be the conclusion of the following study. Carb consumption raises triglycerides & VLDL (bad cholesterol). Fats raise the HDL (good cholesterol). High triglyceride levels & low HDL levels are an indicator of plaque, glycation - the precursors to a heart attack and heart disease.
study from the Oxford group examining the postprandial (after-eating) effects of a low-fat vs. low-carbohydrate diet. (Roberts R et al, 2008)
Postprandial lipoproteins, you’d think, would be plentiful after ingesting a large quantity of fat, since fat must be absorbed via chylomicrons into the bloodstream. But it’s carbohydrates that figure most prominently in determining the pattern and magnitude of postprandial triglycerides and lipoproteins. Much of this effect develops by way of de novo lipogenesis, the generation of new lipoproteins like VLDL after carbohydrate ingestion.
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/after-eating-effects-carbohydrates-vs.html
