Dr Ludwig - The Carbohydrate-insulin Model Of Obesity

[Hoping4Cure]

When it comes to proteins...I felt that Benjamin Bikman gave a good presentation on why higher protein don't have the same insulinogenic effects when glucose is low...

This diagram shows the insulin response...on different diets. Insulinogenic effects of Protein is dependent on the underlying glycemic status...

Taken from his presentation:-

Wonderful lecture, thanks for sharing. It increased my knowledge of the topic significantly, and reduced my fear of eating too much protein whilst on a low-carb diet, out of fear of short-circuiting ketogenesis.

 

[Hoping4Cure]

Thx for the followup post...Gardner's study simply highlight the fact that if people are given vague dietary guidelines, they end up "thinking" they are on a low carb diet when they are likely not low enough to address their metabolic condition...to achieve/maintain regular ketosis etc.

Hence a Virta type program where key metabolic markers are being constantly tracked would give a much higher success rate, because the diet/lifestyle/medication can be adjusted to target.

Why not just use Ketostix? They're cheap and tell you right away what your ketone levels are and if they're in DKA range or safe ketosis or non-ketosis.

 

[Hoping4Cure]

"c By eliciting glucagon secretion, protein tends to balance carbohydrate from a metabolic perspective. However, large amounts of protein can also raise insulin secretion. Preliminary evidence suggests plant proteins stimulate less insulin, and may have a lesser anabolic effect, than animal proteins.46"

The study he based this information on isn't what I expected...

"46. Sanchez A, Hubbard RW. Plasma amino acids and the insulin/glucagon ratio as an explanation for the dietary protein modulation of atherosclerosis. Med Hypotheses. 1991;36(1):27-32."

I like much of Ludwig's dietary recommendations, but have a problem with the above. I've been gradually increasing my protein intake. After listening to a lot of lectures and interviews with Ted Naiman, M.D., I more recently bumped up my protein intake to 92 g a day. I feel better, my glucose readings are lower and more stable now. Could be a fluke, but time will tell. Will try to get a fasting insulin test done to see where I am right now.

I remember reading when I was a teenager, in a bodybuilding magazine, about the 1:1 protein to carb ratio that was "ideal" for muscle growth, and it made me take a lot more carbs and thus insulin than I actually needed to maintain both stable sugars and decent muscle growth / body mass. I'm glad to be finally free of worrying about eating very little protein to avoid gluconeogenesis so long as I am in a low carb state I can now enjoy eating a bit more meat without going super crazy on the oils and butter which gets old after a while.

 

[bulkbiker]

Why not just use Ketostix? They're cheap and tell you right away what your ketone levels are and if they're in DKA range or safe ketosis or non-ketosis.

They don’t work very well when you are in nutritional ketosis as you stop peeing out ketones as waste because they are being used to fuel the body. Therefore they can give false negatives. Blood ketone measures are more accurate.

 

[Hoping4Cure]

The biggest reason to use them would be, probably, to verify one isn't in DKA territory, but it would be annoying to not see elevated ketones if you are keto-adapted. Life is never simple, is it!