Posted 07 March 2008 - 07:35 PM

First of all I appologize but this post will be rambling and long and disorganized and I know I am opening up a can of worms that has been opened a few times before but here goes....This past week and a half or so I have been on vacation from work and school and have reading a few interesting books see below. I have also been on a ketogenic diet experiment. I have previously tried this but given up after a little more than a day because it was too "painful". This time I suffered through the carbohydrate withdrawl/switch to ketosis which took about 3 days (I conclude that I am a highly carb loaded exercise addict (who has been on a high carb low fat diet for at least 15 years) so to completely deplete my glycogen stores and convince my body that fat and protein are the fuel sources that are available takes a little longer than most people). Anyways, after the three days of virtual hell I feel amazing, more energy, no hunger, better mood, able to deal with multiple crises including my car breaking down in the middle of nowhere at 1 am driving back from the beach (a situation that previously would have driven me nuts).My diet for the past week has consisted of high protein, high fat and very very few carbohydrates. Meats, nuts, eggs, protein powder, olive oil, coconut oil and lots of low carb vegetables, for convenience I blend these in with my protein shakes (not real tasty but it gets the job done for now as a temporary solution) but I have been also making mixed vegetable salads when I can. I haven't introduced berries back into my diet as my short term goal is to establish ketosis but I do intend to eat small amounts of lower carb fruits such as berries with protein and fat sources to minimize their blood sugar impact (havent worked out the specifics of this yet as again my short term goal is sustained ketosis to see how my body reacts). While on vacation, due to eating out I had to resort to the occasional cheeseburger without the bun (ala atkins) to keep up the ketosis, though ideally it seems to me that low fat meats combined with mono fats from nuts and olive oil or whole eggs work best from a health perspective as I don't have a supply of grass fed beef or other meats with high fat but a good fat profile. To me though it was important to keep up my ketogenic diet for the purposes of my experiment.I really buy into the fact that evolutionarily our bodies are pretty much the same as they were 10,000 years ago before mass agriculture brought large amounts of carbs via grains into our diet. Thus humans are naturally geared towards hunter gatherer type diets. Meats, nuts, greens, berries etc. along with periods of fasting.There have been various threads where people have commented on this usually from one of the two main nutritional camps, but I can't find a thread dedicated to those pursuing a Ketogenic, Evolutionary, what have you diet plan.Note that I will continue this diet next week when I go back to work and school to see if it is viable for "real life" so depending on my experience I could change my tune but so far I feel amazing.BooksThe Brain Trust Program: Very cool book written by a Neurosurgeon who advocates that a very low carb diet, with energy supplied by ketones (as well as your bodies natural ability to convert proteins to glucose) is the healthiest diet for your brain... This was a big tipping point in my thinking as I had previously thought that a constant supply of dietary glucose was what would make my brain happy. This guy also talks at length about supplementation for the brain. I was skeptical about this book when I first heard of it because the guy now makes a fairly expensive product Lucidal which combines all of his supplement recommendations. I changed my tune due to the fact that he only mentions this product one time in his book and the fact that the guy is a successful Neurosurgeon and doesn't need the money so his motives for writing the book and creating the nutritional supplement are likely not to be entirely monetarily driven.The Protein Power Lifeplan: Good book that practically plans out living a low carb lifestlye and the multiple benefits for various body systems.Good Calories Bad Calories: Excellant account about how the low fat high carb diet is at the root of the "diseases of civilization" particularly the increasing rates of these since the low fat craze of the '80s and '90s http://www.amazon.co...a...8290&sr=1-1 A couple of interesting studies on ketogenic diets and depression and mood disorders (of particular personal interest)editAnother interesting study of Ketogenic diets as protective of Neurons and on the promotion of Mitochondrial Functioning

Edited by edward, 07 March 2008 - 08:03 PM.