Trip to Italy, The Truth on the Keto Diet

I just spent a few weeks in Italy, and it didn’t disappoint. It is always my favorite place to visit. I have only visited as far south as Naples, but I can emphatically say that northern Italy is heaven on earth. The people are gorgeous, the architecture is exquisite, and the land and natural beauty are up there with anything on the planet.

One thing that jumps out at you, when you visit as an American, is that the men and women look to be about the same height as European Americans, but weigh at least 30 pounds less on average. They all look healthy and lean, and they remind me of Americans in the 70s. Remember all those photos in the 70s of skinny people dancing all night in Studio 54 in NYC? Those same bodies are in Italy now, while Americans are now embarrassingly fat.



Studio 54 – NYC – the 70’s

Pizza, Pasta, and Wine….Oh My

What might blow you away about the Italians, is at they follow a diet that is 180 degrees different from the current diet craze, Keto. Italians live on two foods, pizza, and pasta. There are not a lot of restaurants that aren’t Italian food restaurants. It’s all about pizza, pasta, and vino. If you ask an Italian why they don’t have many Chinese or Indian restaurants, they get this scrunched look on their face that is comical.



Local Italian woman in Venice

I have relatives in Italy so this isn’t just anecdotal observations of a tourist. They really only like Italian food. If you talk to one of them about traveling to a place as seemingly benign as London, the first thing they will comment on is how they hated the food. They don’t like anything other than their own cuisine.

Italians in Italy, No Snookies



Tour guide at the Colesseum

Yet, they look fantastic. I will let you in on the secret. They eat 1970’s sized portions. It is as simple as that, and I almost got whiplash turning around to look at so many women that passed me on the streets of Rome. They are gorgeous. It is like a modeling school exploded in the country. Same for the men. All of the photos in this blog are real Italians in Italy. I could have taken 1000s like this. My goal was not to take photos of models, just everyday people I interacted while traveling (barbers, tour guides, hotel employees, etc.).



Americans are hooked on Keto just like they are hooked on a lot of suspicious things like anger, fake news, materialism, and one-upsmanship on social media. In fact, Keto was the most googled diet term in 2018.

Atkins, Paleo, Keto, Whatever

The Keto diet is really the same thing that has been pushed on Americans for many years. When I was on it, it was called Atkins, and I did lose 20 pounds, temporarily. It has also been called the South Beach Diet, Paleo, and who knows what else, but the common theme is no carbs and mega meat. It’s human nature to want to hear good news about your bad habits, so a diet consisting mainly of meat sounds too good to pass up for many people.

When I first got healthy, I used to joke that I should write a book claiming it was due to three gin martinis a day. That would easily sell a million copies. Again, we’re human. We want good news about our bad habits, and we want an easy solution to our health and weight problems. But like most things, there ain’t no free lunch. Think about the future of the underemployed Instagram influencers in their 20s, and how they will likely end up the 40-something in their parent’s basement. Same thing, no free lunch. Life isn’t easy, so don’t make it harder than it has to be.

Short Term Gain, Long Term Pain

Local woman in Venice

Here is the rub with Keto, you will lose weight in the short term because a hamburger is filling and you end up eating fewer calories. There is no doubt about that. Also, I am 100% onboard with not eating processed food, as I subscribe to a Whole Food Plant-Based diet, which is the diet that I discuss a lot on this blog. The big problem is that the Keto diet will have you avoiding the healthiest foods we have on this planet, like fruit, whole grains, and legumes. It does not differentiate between a Twinkie and barley, as both are associated with the macronutrient known as carbohydrates. This is silly.

Here’s what you have to look forward to as a Keto practitioner.

Low Fiber – You’ll be Sick

Do you know where your immune system is in the body? It’s largely in your GI tract, and a healthy GI tract means a healthy immune system. I never get sick, have not missed a day of work for a cold or flu ever since going plant-based, and I am in my 50’s. Seriously, I am really never sick, and my diet is very rich in fiber as I mainly eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

What does your GI tract want to be healthy? It wants fiber. Fiber is only found in plants. Meat, dairy, and eggs have zero fiber so that is what your diet consists of, you are going to be lacking fiber like 97% of Americans. If you stick to the Keto diet you will be sick a lot because your immune system will not be getting what it wants. Seriously, I don’t even get flu shots, and I never get the flu.



My Italian Barber 🙂

Antioxidants, Phytochemicals, Vitamins, and Minerals

Avoiding whole food, plant-based carbs like fruit, legumes, and grains means that you’re likely to be dangerously deficient in antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals. And all of these are important for disease prevention and long-term health.

Let’s Talk Heart Disease

If you don’t think your total cholesterol and LDL readings are good indicators of your likelihood of having heart disease, I have a bridge to sell you. This has been known forever and has only recently been attempted to be debunked by shoddy research funded by a certain food industry.



Locals enjoying Venice

You see, just like the cigarette companies knew a long time ago, people want to hear good news about their bad habits, and it is easy to get this wrong info out to the public as our mainstream media is complicit in the fake news of bad nutrition. Have you ever noticed ads on tv? It seems half the commercials are for restaurants like Buffalo Wild Wings, and the other half are for prescription meds. Isn’t that ironic? You are largely on your own in getting straight answers, hence this blog.

Framingham Study

Before I went on a whole-food, plant-based diet, I read our largest studies I could find on the effects of food on the body. To my knowledge, our largest body of work on heart disease is the Framingham Study. The work in this study continues to this day after over 70 years. It is the study that proved heart disease was not simply a result of aging or genetics but largely a result of a high cholesterol diet, not exercising, and smoking.

Here’s a NY Times story from 1985, laying out the importance of the findings from Framingham. I provide this because this info is so old, and anything that contradicts this is simply fulfilling its own agenda.

Let’s Talk Cancer

Your body is always producing cancer cells and your immune system is like a bouncer kicking unruly biker gang members out of a bar. If your immune system falters or is weakened, the bikers are going to get in and stay in the bar. Think fiber and your immune system.

There is a great organization outside the US called the IARC, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, founded in 1965. It is in Lyon France, so away from the influence of the US food industry. There is an internationally recognized list they publish on known carcinogens that I link to here. Group 1 is called “Known Carcinogenic to Humans”. This list contains things like uranium, asbestos, cigarettes, and guess what else? Processed Meats!!! So, next time you say “MMMM Bacon”, just realize you are ingesting a known, scientifically recognized carcinogen. You’re not going to get this info from the US mainstream media, are you?

Group 2A is called “Probably carcinogenic to humans”, and guess what is on this list? Good ole Red Meat. If you want to read more about the whys on this, you can Google “IGF-1 cancer meat”. IGF-1(insulin-like growth factor) is a growth hormone suspected of creating a strong relationship between people with high animal protein diets and cancer. You can start reading on it here.

Let’s Talk Type 2 Diabetes

Over the past decade, I have seen a lot of research tying Type 2 diabetes with meat consumption to its high-fat content. I am not as knowledgeable on T2D as I am on heart disease or cancer, because no one in my family suffers from it, as they do the other two. However, I do see a lot of research like this coming online in the past decade, which is slowly making its way into online publications like this. The new researching is pointing to a high-fat diet being a major cause of Type 2 diabetes.

I could write about this forever, but I have given you a lot of links to do your own research. Stay away from the screaming meatheads on YouTube, please. It is a lot easier to believe what you want to believe than to find the truth and have the courage to change. If someone who lived on burgers and steaks for 45 years can change, so can you.

If you want to read much more thorough information on the dangers of a Keto diet, here are some links of people a lot more knowledgeable than me.

My favorite, Dr. Michael Greger, founder of nutritionfacts.org, and best selling author of How Not to Die. Here are some of his videos. His website is an incredible resource. NutritionFacts.org.

My favorite hard ass, Dr. John McDougal. I love this guy as he doesn’t hold back and calls a spade a spade. Here is his library of videos on this topic.

Finally, a recent write up by Ocean Robbins – CEO, of Food Revolution Network, a much better writer than me. The Keto Diet Explained: What the Science Really Says.

If you want to prove Keto is suspect, promoted by food industry dollars and not people looking after your health, then treat yourself to an Italian vacation. The truth is out there if you open your eyes. God bless.





