congratulations on the amazing success story! 
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I wish you were around more.
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Can I ask, is there anyone here outside of the US who is on a keto diet? Iâve only been in the states for a very short time but when I was I found it near impossible to eat what Iâd consider to be a normal diet, and I wonder if this diet isnât some sort of workaround for the fact that just about every foodstuff in America seems to be loaded with sugar and processed beyond all reason.
I remember walking into a Cracker Barrel desperate for something healthy and ordering a salad. There was definitely some green in there, buried under all the crispy bacon bits, HFCS salad dressing and orange-tinted cheese. Like I say, I wasnât there long but from all I hear my experience wasnât atypical. In that sort of landscape I can see how meat would be a relatively safe staple.
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While I think some people can get helpful information from websites selling a ketosis lifestyle, the simple fact is that if ketone levels get to high they can be fatal.
But Iâll let my wifeâs doctor know that it was impossible for her to be in the hospital because of this - Iâm sure they must have missed something.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/ketosis.html
"Is ketosis the same as ketoacidosis?
There is often confusion as to the difference between ketosis and ketoacidosis.
Ketosis is the state whereby the body is producing ketones. In ketosis, the level of ketones in the blood can be anything between normal to very high.
Diabetic ketoacidosis, also known as DKA, only describes the state in which the level of ketones is either high or very high. In ketoacidosis, the amount of ketones in the blood is sufficient to turn the blood acidic, which is a dangerous medical state."
DKA is when the levels get to high for ANY reason (diabetic or not). A managed amount is fine. Too much is not.
Remember folks - we are all diabetic - some of us have bodies that manage it better.
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Cracker Barrel is not a good place for healthy food. Itâs Southern food.
(It is a fantastic place for breakfast though if you arenât worried about carbs, fat or sodium⌠
)
Also a bad place for vegetarians; almost every vegetable is cooked with bacon or ham.
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Yeah⌠all I can say is I was staying at a hotel and I didnât have a car. Pedestrian-friendly urban design is another thing I would like to discuss with the nation of America but to remain on point, my options were:
- Cracker Barrel
- KFC
- A 24 hour diner which was decent enough but the only vegetable they dealt with was various forms of fried potato.
- The hotel vending machine.
Cracker Barrelâs reputation had been explained to me and I didnât hold great hopes but I was starting to feel all weird and fucked up from all of the sugar Iâd been eating and I was desperate. Maybe Iâm remembering it wrong but Iâm pretty sure the thing I ordered was called a âgarden saladâ or something like that. Itâs not the only salad I ordered while in the states that made me want to cry. Always with some sort of sweetened dressing.
Why do you hate vegetables, America?
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That is absolute nonsense. Thatâs like saying âweâre all blind, some of us just have eyes that see betterâ.
As I stated above, itâs pretty much impossible to develop DKA unless youâre already metabolically compromised. An otherwise healthy person will not develop DKA simply by cutting out carbs.
Are you claiming that your wife is not diabetic, has no other pertinent metabolic issues, and developed DKA simply from eating a VLC diet?
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Most people who have success with this diet find that they naturally eat less. Iâve been doing it for just over a year now and didnât bother counting calories for about the first 4 months or so. At some point I decided to see what my average calorie intake was and was surprised to find that it was less than 2000 calories a dayâsometimes much less. My appetite was under control I only ate when I was hungry and I was naturally eating fewer calories than I needed to lose weight. Insulin resistance and bad blood sugar control really throws your appetite out of wack and thats often the problem with people overweight and are eating a typical American diet where most of the calories come from simple carbohydrates. I still eat less than 30 grams of carbs a day, I get about 70% of my calories from fat and Iâve lost about 70lbs since I started. Also all my other measurements (BG, BP, Cholesterol) have gone from unhealthy to healthy in that period.
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This might be true if you were eating way too much protein but if you are doing it right you replace the carbohydrate calories with fat calories and keep protein to moderate levels. There isnât really a minimum amount of simple or pure carbohydrates that one needs to be healthy. You can cut them out completely and still eat very healthily.
Motorists are first-class citizens in most towns and cities in America. I wish it werenât so.
Vegetables are considered a vehicle for either (1) cloying dressings or (2) deep-friedâŚwhatever that stuff is that coats deep-fried vegetables.
The kinds of restaurants in the States that I find reliably respect vegetables and are affordable are almost invariably Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, Indian, Turkish, North African, Persian, or Arab, to name just a fewâ in other words, not American.
Domestically, itâs a different story. Young parents in particular here seem to be down with quinoa tabbouleh, baby kale salads, and the like. A positive change, albeit a slow one.
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The other theory is that when one is on a diet that encourages bacon consumption it is hard to be sadâŚ
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Yeah, but Cracker Barrel. Thatâs like walking into a steakhouse and asking if they have anything vegan-friendly.
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Thanks for the link, but I eventually ended up watching it: I just get frustrated when these stories pop up at work, which blocks most audio and video services. I can watch at home, though: itâs just frustrating in the moment (and much, much, faster for me to read than to watch/listen).
As for the video: Iâm going to have to try the salt / bouillon cube trick to reduce cold sensitivity. I spend a lot of time in the winter on the ski slopes, getting cold pretty quickly, and I donât have a very high salt intake, but I never thought that the two might be related. Itâs certainly something to try (and much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than those disposable heat packs).
I have a lot of individual comments to make, but damn that is awesome. I love people of all types, but 150 even for just personal reasons is fantastic. I dropped 40 and felt like a rock star
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Keep in mind, it may not be our blubber layer. For me it is gout and pretty hard core potassium deficiencies. It takes two pills a day, plus a banana. But thatâs life, and I canât complain.
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I get angry at most restaurants versions of salads and vegetables. I want romaine to taste like romaine, and cauliflower not to always be grautineed with cheese. I still remember my favorite veg, steamed carrots (perfectly cut spears, with their tops on) with a pinch of salt. Magic.
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Yep!
Yep!
I make bacon, about twice a year. I make bread all the time. And I eat beets, salad, eggs, tomatoes, nori, fish almost every day. If I got up off my ass I could raise almost every one myself.
Edit
Fuck, I ran out of canned tomatoes yesterday.
#EmotionalMeltdown
(No, really)
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Itâs a fair comment, I understand that. Again, my options were limited. Across the road there was a Mexican buffet where I probably could have cobbled together a decent salad, but âcrossing the roadâ meant traversing an interstate highway exchange with no footpaths. I mean yeah, my little anecdote is hardly proof of anything, but I do feel like you can generalise it to say that culinary options in the States are limited, and skewed towards Diabeetusville, and itâs only in that context that a keto diet is an appealing alternative.
Letâs be honest here, Iâm basically just ragging on American food. During my short stint in the States I also spent a few days hosted by the family of a friend of mine. Honest to god they were and are fantastic and welcoming people. I was told that they were pretty keen on eating only healthy food, to whit, one bottle of ketchup labelled (in lettering bigger than âketchupâ itself) HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP FREE. Only, if you looked at the ingredients it was still more sugar than anything else, just not corn sugar. Itâs like how âright wingâ and âleft wingâ in America are skewed further to the right than where I grew up, âhealthyâ and âunhealthyâ mean different things in America than what I have come to understand, and if you grow up in amidst it you donât necessarily recognise the bias.
For what itâs worth nobodyâs come forward to say that theyâre pursuing a keto diet outside of the USA, not that our little group is a representative sample of humanity. I still feel though like a meat-based diet could only be seen as a healthy alternative in America. But once again, I donât know much and Iâd be very interested to hear from anyone who would contradict me.
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Iâve basically lived up and down the west coast of the US all my life (plus Arizona). It is easy to eat healthy, and it is easy to not. Yesterday I had a small tomato bisque at a restaurant (no cream or butter, just tomatoes, basil, and sage). Tonight Iâm going out with friends for hot pot. Tomorrow are vegetarian baked samosas.
The states are not uniform on any level really. I personally just need to lay off the wonderful craft beer here, and Iâd be back to my high school weight (Iâm still a stunner though)
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Sorry. Just realized I replied to the wrong post.
