Tag Archives: ketogenic diet

What Do Dietitians Think About Ketogenic Diets?

Posted on December 23, 2012 | Comments Off on What Do Dietitians Think About Ketogenic Diets?

You get it?

Registered Dietitian Franziska Spritzler recently reviewed the concept of low-carb ketogenic diets.  She thinks they are a valid approach to certain clinical situations.  Among dietitians, this puts her in a small but growing minority.

One of your weight-loss choices in my Advanced Mediterranean Diet (2nd Edition) is a ketogenic diet.  Here’s the basic program.

I hesitate to mention this, but I will anyway.  Many, if not most, dietitians too easily just go along with the standard party line on low-carb eating: it’s rarely necessary and quite possibly unhealthy.  Going along is much easier than doing independent literature review and analysis.  I see the same mindset among physicians.

Franziska breaks the mold.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Ketogenic Diet for Alzheimers Disease?

Posted on April 22, 2012 | 2 comments

Ketogenic diets have seen a resurgence in the last two decades as a treatment for childhood epilepsy, particularly difficult-to-control cases not responding to drug therapy. It works, even in adults. That’s why some brain experts are wondering if ketogenic diets might be helpful in other brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

I’ll save you some time and just give you the conclusion of a 2006 scientific article I read: maybe, but it’s way too soon to tell.

The article is called “Neuroprotective and disease-modifying effects of the ketogenic diet,” from researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institue of Neruological Disorders and Stroke. Sounds promising doesn’t it?

The article goes into detail about how the ketogenic diet might be good for brain health. Dr. Emily Deans would be very interested in that, but most of my readers not. Two-and-a-half pages on non-human animal studies, too.

What is this “Ketogenic diet” used for epilepsy?

The most common ketogenic diet for childhood epilepsy is the one developed by Wilder in 1921. It was a popular treatment for epilepsy in the 1920s and 1930s. Fats provide 80 to 90% of the calories in the diet, with sufficient protein for growth, and minimal carbohydrates. Since carbs are in short supply, the body is forced to use fats as an energy source, which generates ketone bodies—acetoacetate, acetone, beta-hydroxybutyrate, largely from the liver.

So what?

Not much. This article may have been written to stimulate future research, and I hope it does. I just searched PubMed for “ketogenic diet AND Alzheimer” and came up with nothing new since 2006.

Could the Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet prevent or alleviate Alzheimer’s disease? At this point, just flip a coin.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Reference: Gasior M, Rogawski MA, & Hartman AL (2006). Neuroprotective and disease-modifying effects of the ketogenic diet. Behavioural pharmacology, 17 (5-6), 431-9 PMID: 16940764

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What’s Our Preferred Fuel?

Posted on March 19, 2012 | Comments Off on What’s Our Preferred Fuel?

Dr. Jay Wortman has been thinking about whether our bodies prefer to run on carbohydrates (as a sourse of glucose) or, instead, on fats. The standard American diet provides derives about half of its energy from carbs, 35% from fats, and 15% from proteins. So you might guess our bodies prefer carbohydrates as a fuel source. Dr. Wortman writes:

Now, consider the possibility that we weren’t meant to burn glucose at all as a primary fuel. Consider the possibility that fat was meant to be our primary fuel. In my current state of dietary practice, I am burning fat as my main source of energy. My liver is converting some of it to ketones which are needed to fuel the majority of my brain cells. A small fraction of the brain cells, around 15%, need glucose along with a few other tissues like the renal cortex, the lens of the eye, red blood cells and sperm.Their needs are met by glucose that my liver produces from proteins. The rest of my energy needs are met with fatty acids and these come from the fats I eat.

Dr. Wortman, who has type 2 diabetes, in the same long post also writes about oolichan grease (from fish), an ancestral food of Canandian west coast First Nations people.

Folks eating a very-low-carb diet such as the Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet get most of their energy from fats.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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