ketogenic

Go get a Coronary Calcium Scan #CAC

Last month, my wife and I went to KetoFest in Connecticut. On Saturday, we watched “The Widowmaker” – it’s a documentary about the Coronary Artery Calcium Scan and its effectiveness at directly predicting the likelihood of coronary heart disease because it’s measuring the actual disease as it’s happening – direct observation. If you happen to have a Netflix subscription, you can watch the full documentary here. On the way out of the theater, I was walking behind Ivor Cummins – who helped with the movie and has been helping David Bobbett (the guy who paid for it to be made). Ivor and a bunch of other big names in the keto world proceeded to have a rousing discussion that really should have been recorded for posterity. One big discussion point was that the movie leaves out the “extraordinary” measures taken by David – he went on a ketogenic diet. Apparently, the film makers decided to leave that part out =).

There is some criticism of the movie – how things were presented and the need for clearly defined “good” and “bad” guys. The movie makes two important points: coronary stents don’t prevent heart attacks and coronary scans can identify advanced coronary artery disease before heart attacks happen. Regardless of the presentation, and how the film makers decided to edit things (like leaving out Keto!), finding out your calcium score is important.

Anyhow, I determined to get a CAC – and so I did. Turns out you can get them where I live for around $70. Unless you live in Texas, insurance won’t pay for it to be done – which is odd since it’s required for all astronauts and US Presidents – I suppose they’d rather pay thousands for heart surgery instead of less than $100. Anyway, out-of-pocket was simple and easy. Took longer to fill out the papers than getting the actual scan. Now I have the results of my blood tests AND I have a Coronary Artery Calcium Scan as well. Turns out that living mostly on fat (and mostly SATURATED fat, specifically), I’m doing just dandy – thanks for asking =)

The patient has a total Calcium Score of 0.

This places the patient into the 0th percentile in comparison to a group of patients asymptomatic for coronary artery disease with the same age and gender. This means that 0% of males aged 40-44 have calcium scores lower than the patient.

Coronary artery calcification is a specific marker for coronary atherosclerosis. The amount of calcification correlates with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis. A score of 0 implies a low likelihood of coronary obstruction, but cannot totally exclude the presence of atherosclerosis. A high score indicates a significant plaque burden and relative risk for future cardiovascular events. It should be understood that calcification is not site specific for stenosis but rather indicates the extent of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries overall.

There was no identifiable plaque detected. Patient is advised to adhere to general guidelines on diet and exercise.

I’ll ignore the “general guidelines on diet” part, thank you very much =) If you’re curious and would like to see the full content of my CAC report, you can check that out here.

By |2017-08-09T07:46:08-06:00August 9th, 2017|Categories: Ketogenic Diet|Tags: , , , , |4 Comments

Vanilla and Salted Caramel Keto Chow 2.0.1 now in stock

This entry is part 97 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

Good news: Salted Caramel is back in stock and we finally have Vanilla available! Both are version 2.0.1 – I’ll get to the minor version bump in a bit.

Following the fun we had with Vanilla before, when we got today’s batch of Vanilla Keto Chow we pulled a bag from each lot and tested them to make sure the viscosity and flavor were correct – they passed! We did the same thing with the Salted Caramel (it’s standard procedure now). Anyhow, today was Vanilla and Caramel; tomorrow we are supposed to be replenishing Banana and Mocha with Chocolate coming Friday or Monday if all goes well. All are a smaller batch to tide us over until they can deliver the full order of 2.0.1.

Speaking of 2.0.1: It’s a relatively minor change, the only difference is a change in the amount of iron – previous versions of Keto Chow provided 100% of the RDI (18mg a day) if you did 3 meals of Keto Chow. This is the recommended amount for pre-menopausal women; but for post menopausal women, or for men, that amount is borderline high. 40mg a day is the short-term upper tolerable limit, but I didn’t want to be causing a slow build-up of iron in men (especially in myself =) if Keto Chow was used exclusively for all meals over months. The downside to this change is that many women will need to supplement their iron using something like this, this, or this in order to prevent anemia if they use Keto Chow exclusively for all their meals. An occasional meal with red meat will also work (and let’s be honest, you could really go for a rib-eye right now – amiright?). The new packaging notes this change, also the packaging is actually accurate now – no more “label correction” sticker!

If you are curious, you can read the entire Keto Chow changelog/version notes – going back to the very beginning with version 0.7 =)

By |2017-07-05T21:25:22-06:00July 5th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow, Future Foods, Ketogenic Diet|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

One is the cause and one is the effect, conventional wisdom has them switched

So I was listening to the 2 Keto Dudes podcast and something Richard Morris said struck me as extremely important. There’s a lot of heated debate in fitness and nutrition about “Calories In = Calories Out” – also known by the shorthand CICO. The basic premise is that: You lose weight if you eat fewer calories than you need, including calories from exercise. This thinking also assumes that people who are fat got that way because they eat too many calories (it’s a character flaw they should be deeply ashamed of) and they stay that way because they are too lazy to just exercise (again, it’s a character flaw they should be ashamed of). People who are fat got that way and stay that way because they indulge in “sinful” behavior and as a society we condemn them, mock them and denigrate them openly. It’s pretty much the only socially acceptable prejudice nowadays.

I think that line of thinking is stupid and reprehensible, among other things.

 

Here’s what I got from Richard’s comments. Conventional wisdom says that:

(Calories Consumed) – (Calories Burned) = (Calories Stored as fat)

Everything I’ve seen (with decent science behind it, and the fundamentals of how insulin works) say that instead:

(Calories Consumed) – (Calories Stored as fat) = (Calories Burned)

It’s a slight change in the order – which one is the cause and which one is an effect, but let’s look at what this means: If we take the standard CICO model and I eat 2000 calories a day, my BMR burns off 2500 calories (it was actually 2218 last time I had it measured but let’s keep the math simple) and I do absolutely no other exercise during the day I would have a negative energy balance of 500 calories. The standard model says each pound of fat is 3500 calories, so my 500 calorie deficit would have me losing 1 lb a week. Isn’t that a nice simple story? Guess what, our bodies aren’t that simple, especially considering the active metabolic management we have going on. If you cut intake by 500 calories a day, your body isn’t going to simply continue on at 2500 BMR, it will adapt down to fit the energy it’s given… unless you are able to mobilize the stored energy you have it your fat cells.

There’s a problem with that: if you have high levels of insulin in your blood, your body WILL NOT allow you to access energy stored as fat. From an energy balance standpoint, if your insulin is too high, you have the same energy stores as a theoretical person who has 0% body fat. Neither of you will have access to stored energy in fat and both will run out of energy when your blood glucose drops. “Carb Coma” anyone?

So let’s look at that second equation, it may not be a perfect model for the human metabolism but it’s far closer to explaining the observable data. So I eat 2000 calories in a day. If I eat mostly bread, fruits, and other carbohydrates; my body will dump insulin into my blood in an effort to deal with the potentially toxic levels of glucose running around. My cells (particularly my fat cells) will key off the insulin and dutifully pull the glucose out of the blood. I’ll be able to burn some of that 2000 calories in my muscles but much of it is going to go straight to fat storage. Let’s say that 500 calories (a number I’m making up out of thin air, again: easy math) gets stored – that means I only get to use 1500 calories for “keeping the lights on”… except I need 2500 today. My body will figure out a way to keep things going, either by breaking down non-essential muscle cells or other means, but you can be certain I won’t feel like running up the stairs, going for a walk… or anything. I’ll just want to lay down and find some food so my cells can get some energy (except the same insulin issue will arise). Eventually, my cells will get used to reduced calorie availability and my base metabolic rate will go down to fit what is available. Nature abhors a vacuum.

On the other hand, let’s assume I eat 2000 calories in a day, but most of that is in the form of calories that do not create an insulin response: a moderate amount of protein (so I don’t have to cannibalize muscles to rebuild cells), the smallest amount of carbohydrates possible, and the remainder of those calories as fat. This page about “Intermittent Fasting” does an astounding job of explaining how the different macronutrients affect insulin (and debunks the “you should eat many small meals” myth), but the short version is: fats have little discernable insulin response, protein has a slight-to-moderate response and carbohydrates cause a massive insulin response. Don’t believe me? ask a type 1 diabetic about dosing insulin for 500 calories of rice vs. 500 calories of cheese. So back to the thought problem: I have 2000 calories but my blood sugar didn’t spike and my insulin didn’t spike either. For argument’s sake let’s say 100 calories get stored away somewhere (probably as glycogen in my liver or muscles) so I still have 1900 calories to work with. I need 2500, so I need 600 more from somewhere… well my insulin is low… so I can mobilize energy stored in fat cells! Holy cow, I have all the energy I need! (usually 100,000 calories or MORE).

The funny thing is: this all still works if you decide you’d like to fast for several days. Your insulin is low and you have all the energy stored you could possibly want. Many people report massive energy after 36+ hours of fasting (you still drink water and get electrolytes). Anyhow, that’s the rant for today. If CICO is true then if you are overweight it’s because you suck as a human being, stop eating so much and should just get up and move more – is that really so hard? If the alternative is true (and I believe it is), then you are overweight because the foods you’ve been told are “healthy” (“low fat” cookies? “whole wheat” bread?) have messed up your insulin response to the degree that you are storing much of the energy you consume. So get rid of the rice, the pasta, the bread, THE SUGAR and go for the foods that will make you healthy. A ketogenic diet is essentially taking this a bit to the extreme, it’s a major intervention for people whose metabolism and insulin response are broken because of years of too much junk. Many people appear to be just fine living mainly off carbohydrates, that’s fine for them – I’m not one of those people.

I tell people I don’t eat sugar because I’m allergic to it, “how do you know you’re allergic to sugar?” they say. Simple: it makes me fat.

By |2017-06-21T10:24:19-06:00June 21st, 2017|Categories: Weight Loss, Ketogenic Diet|Tags: , , , , |3 Comments

The end of an era and anniversaries – all the 1.9 is mixed

This entry is part 89 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

I’ve been mixing Keto Chow (and People Chow before that) since January 2015. Yesterday, 29 months later, we mixed up the final batch of Keto Chow 1.9. All the Dymatize protein is used up and the front room and “dining room” of my house are no longer storage rooms for supplies and equipment. I’m not going to lie: I was pretty gleeful going around with a vacuum cleaning up all the powder that has defined a large part of our lives for the last 2 1/2 (almost) years. It tends to settle on every surface in the house, even upstairs. I even took the computer our and blew it out with the air compressor (I think there was 50g in there!). The ironic thing is we’ve been waiting for the end of mixing to start a remodel on part of the house, specifically the aforementioned front room and dining room. Drywall work starts Monday. Guess everything will be dusty again! =)

Early next week we should start getting the remaining flavors of 2.0. They’re all mixed (and I’ve tested them to make sure we won’t repeat the problem with Vanilla) And hopefully, we’ll get the samples soon after that.

Fun story: 17 years ago I married my amazing wife. I proposed 2 1/2 weeks after we met because I waited a week, concerns about the ring and all – turns out you can propose without a ring and let her pick one later (crazy, right?). The night before we got married, my wife’s bridesmaids did a sleep-over at the apartment we were going to be living in (I was still living in my parent’s basement) and the morning of our wedding, May 6 2000, they were frantically getting ready. In the midst of all the commotion, the bacon that was cooking for their breakfast was forgotten and started to burn. There was a lot of smoke. When I saw my soon-to-be wife and embraced her for the first time on our wedding day, I said the 4 words that have come to symbolize so much in our relationship:

“You smell like bacon…”

I’ll never live that down =) Makes for a great story though, the kids think it’s funny and so does she – she just likes to rib me a bit, especially when I cook bacon and it smells like our wedding day all over again. Holy cow we looked like little kids! I do weigh less now than I did back then though =)

By |2017-05-06T07:09:57-06:00May 6th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

Some thoughts on MLMs and poor “meal replacements” that are just snacks

This entry is part 79 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

In case you hadn’t noticed, Keto Chow is not distributed via multi-level marketing. There aren’t any “memberships” or other tomfoolery and you don’t have to trick family and friends into hearing a sales promotion to get a discount. I can very happily say that I have never once bought into a MLM and there’s no way I’d ever allow this company to engage in something as disingenuous. I think John Oliver did a fairly good job of summing up everything that’s wrong with Multi-Level Marketing.

What spurred this rant? This morning I was kicking around /r/keto  and saw a promoted post for Soylent. Thought that was weird so I checked the “promoted posts” for the subreddit to see if I was getting that ad based on my reddit behavior or if Soylent were actually targeting /r/keto – it’s the former. But I did see an ad for “Wakaya BulaFIT KetoFUEL” – looked it over to see what it was (gotta check out the “competitors”). Much like the junk Pruvit KETO//OS product, this is another MLM backed quick-fix “Keto” for the masses. Finding the actual nutrition information was extraordinarily difficult – it’s nowhere on the main page or in the shopping cart where you can buy 30 servings for US$115! Ultimately I found it in their marketing flyer they give to the “Independent Ambassadors” who can buy it for $85 if they get “preferred” status.

So what do you get for that $115? 30 servings of a 250 calorie “protein” drink with some powdered MCT oil. The ingredients aren’t even remotely ketogenic. #1 ingredient? Dehydrated Sweet Cream, which I know from my own analysis is borderline keto at best. The label says 0g of carbs per 4g serving but it’s actually 0.48g. Anyhow… then you have some egg powder, some whey protein concentrate and then comes the MCT oil powder. I looked into adding MCT oil powder to Keto Chow but decided the economics didn’t make sense. It’s cheaper for everyone if you just buy Quest MCT oil powder off Amazon. Now here’s the funny thing: in the BulaFIT KetoFUEL they didn’t even bother to use soluble corn fiber to “powder” the oil, instead, they used maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is starch, it’s glucose molecules joined in chains to form a polymer and your body rapidly turns it straight into glucose, spiking your blood sugar and hindering ketosis. Oddly, they also used some acacia gum but show 0g of fiber on the panel.

250 calories for $3.83. Barely any electrolytes, 5g of carbs, only 12g of protein. Could you drink one as a “meal”? I guess – 250 calories isn’t going to keep you full for very long. Honestly, you’d do better to Intermittent Fast and then eat a proper meal. Could you replace all your meals with this product? Absolutely not (and 1800 calories of this stuff would cost you $27 and be 36g of carbs). It’s not designed as a true “replacement” for a meal, it’s more of a snack and if that’s what you’re looking for then go grab some string cheese ($11.09 for 60 at Costco). You’ll get 240 calories if you eat 3. You’ll end up with around 1g of net carbs, more protein, similar fat, AND it’ll only cost you $0.55! And it’s cheese… time to get me some more cheese.

By |2017-03-16T07:32:34-06:00March 16th, 2017|Categories: Ketogenic Diet|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Update on Keto Chow 2.0 – another delay, but there’s hope!

To recap for those who don’t live and breathe this stuff:

  • I’m in the final stages of having Keto Chow produced at a contract manufacturer.
  • Keto Chow 2.0 differs from Keto Chow 1.9 on the protein/flavor/sweetener – I’m not able to get Dymatize Elite in 500KG batches so by necessity we have to get our own stuff to replace it. The most obvious difference will be the flavoring in KC2.0 will be our own stuff.

Anyhow, we ran into a problem with the manufacturing. I had the co-packer make me some new test batches and the flavors came back really weird. Initially, I thought it was the potassium chloride we added but after extensive testing, it turned out to be a problem in the protein powder. The initial tests they did were with a random equivalent protein powder and the new samples were straight from the bulk powder they purchased for our batches. We’ve gone back and tried some different flavoring and some bitter masking agents but to no avail.

I’m not going to sell a product I don’t love. It has to have a “wow, that was really good, I want more!” going for it or it’s not going to be released.

So, as of today, we’re going to use a different protein powder from a different manufacturer. It’s likely this will add some to the cost, I’m hoping it’s less than $1-2 and we’re still aiming to have KC2.0 cost less than KC1.9. This means that Keto Chow 2.0 is going to be delayed. If we can find a direct drop-in replacement for the protein powder it may be as little as a week before we get things going.

We’re coming up on almost a year since I decided to start this endeavor – I hope we can be shipping 2.0 well before Fed 15th.


Update!

This morning we headed down to the manufacturer to work on the problem. We brought along a Keto Chow 1.9 rich chocolate in powder form, a bag of Dymatize Rich Chocolate for comparison, and a blender bottle of mixed Chocolate Peanut Butter. He had complained that it didn’t taste very good and he didn’t feel confident evaluating the mixes so when he had the Chocolate Peanut Butter (with the heavy cream) he was astonished in the extreme “Oh wow, that’s actually really good” – yep that’s the goal! We did a bunch of various tests combining different stuff together but the most telling test was when we tasted the plain whey protein in water… and the bad taste was there! After that, he said he was going to go back to the distributor and get a refund and/or exchange it for a different protein. He said the protein guys may send out a food scientist to work on the problem but ideally, we may have a solution (maybe) quickly.

Check Out “Carb Loaded” – available free on YouTube

Excellent documentary about a super skinny guy that was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. Does a great job at simply explaining many of the key points of a high fat, low carb diet. Here’s their “press release” description from their website:

It’s a classic image. An athlete bingeing on massive amounts of carbs before a race. It is believed that by consuming carbohydrates beforehand, an athlete is more likely to complete endurance events. Many people dress and talk like their sports heroes. They also EAT like them. While dressing and talking like your favorite athlete might not hurt you, many experts say carb-loading without the intent of strenuous physical activity can be destructive. This is just one aspect of our food culture to be addressed by Lathe Poland in his upcoming documentary, Carb-Loaded: A Culture Dying To Eat. Lathe, a slim build man in his mid 30’s, was diagnosed with Type2 diabetes in late 2010. “I wasn’t overweight. In fact I weigh the same now as I did back then. To be honest, I was completely blown away when my doctor gave me the diagnosis. Why would a seemingly healthy 30 something man like myself get a disease like this? My misconception like most people was that there were two scenarios where you get diabetes…Either it’s hereditary and it’s not your fault, or you eat junk food like it’s going out of style and end up diabetic.”

Lathe’s general practitioner wanted to start him on three different prescription medications, IMMEDIATELY. He recalls, “I guess what alarmed me was the ‘matter of fact’ rubber stamp approach. Is this the way it was for everyone? Feeling very discouraged, I resigned myself to the fact that I would be taking medication the rest of my life.” Not long after that, Lathe heard an NPR news segment about cases of diabetes and pre-diabetes skyrocketing. “I remember that was the tipping point for me,” he continues “for my own sanity, I needed to piece this puzzle together.” That journey began when Lathe spoke with his business partner, Eric Carlsen. Since 2004 the long time friends have run their own video production company. Lathe was interested in making a documentary, uncovering the reasons behind the shocking rise in diabetes over the last two decades. Eric though was a bit skeptical at first. “We have been producing video together for over eight years, so I have a lot of confidence in Lathe’s individual talent and our ability as a team. But the scope of what he was talking about was a bit overwhelming to say the least.” Buoyed by his friend’s enthusiasm, Eric finally agreed they could do it. The next obstacle that needed to be addressed was how to finance the film. “I had heard about filmmakers using crowd funding sites as an alternative to seeking financing from studios or private investors,” Lathe relates, “and I wondered if we could do the same.” Lathe and Eric decided they would use KickStarter.com to host their crowd funding project. However, as they continued their research they realized yet another challenge had to be met. Eric continues, “Crowd funding sites are a phenomenal tool, but they’re only effective if you attract a crowd. We knew we would have to build awareness and create an audience prior to launching our KickStarter campaign.”

As it turns out that audience would come from a multi-pronged approach. The two friends designed a website and set out to get experts to contribute content to the site. They also decided to make use of social media, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As content on the site grew, so did their fan base on Twitter and Facebook. At least once a month Eric and Lathe create an update video and post it to YouTube and their website, informing interested people how the pre-production work is progressing. The pair decided they would include their outtakes for each update at the end of the segment. Lathe explains, “We wanted people to be able to relate to us right away. By letting them have a behind the scenes peek at what we were doing, it seems to attract a lot of interest in the project. We get great feedback when we post our video updates.” The duo plans to launch their KickStarter campaign in March of 2013, with the goal of beginning full scale production by late this spring. If all goes well they hope to complete filming toward the end of 2013. “It’s a way to take a negative (having diabetes), and turn it into a positive,” Lathe observes. “The idea is not to just scare people, but to help them realize that they have a measure of control over their health and the health of their kids. It requires education, and we get to play a small role in that process…what’s not to like about that?”

By |2017-01-26T14:35:05-07:00January 26th, 2017|Categories: Ketogenic Diet|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

21 days progress with strict Keto: Awesome Sauce! (also 2 years since my last “cheat” meal)

This entry is part 74 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

As mentioned earlier, starting January 1, 2017, I committed to writing down everything I eat in Cron-o-meter before I eat it. Turns out this works quite well, which I already knew but somehow was ignoring and doing “lazy keto” for the last few months by only eating Keto Friendly food but not really tracking food closely. Yes, Jalapeño poppers are, generally, keto friendly – but if you eat 20 of them you’re going to go over your net carbs for the day. Anyhow, I’m doing great and still writing everything down. I’m also still lifting – today I’ll be squatting 90lbs, it’s starting to get harder =) A couple days ago I failed to notice it was the 2 year anniversary of the last time I had a “cheat” meal on January 21, 2015. Since then, I’ve only deliberately eaten non-keto food once: a bite of breaded fish in September 2015, spat it out. I expect that I’ll be living HFLC for the rest of my life, sounds fun.

“Cheating” on Keto is self-sabotage. Imagine you’re trying to climb a giant sand dune. It’s really hard to get up to the top (and you get sand in your shoes, guaranteed) but once you’re there, staying on the top is easy. It’s especially easy compared to the amount of effort required to get back on top if you decide to roll down to the bottom. Being fat adapted is very similar to this: you’ve worked so hard to get your body burning fat instead of glucose, why would you ruin months of work? My advice: embrace living keto, focus on the awesome foods you can enjoy, not the foods you choose not to eat (not “can’t eat”).

Here’s an updated weight log of my progress:

Calories consumed per day (I had a tummy ache on Jan 15, ended up fasting a bit over 2h hours):

Net carbs per day: