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Message: <blockquote data-quote="borofergie" data-source="post: 262891" data-attributes="member: 33342">Yes, dietry ketosis is a natural (and some say beneficial) metabolic state that you enter into when heavily you restrict your carbohydrate intake. Ketoacidosis is a type of runaway ketosis that sometimes occurs in Type 1 Diabetics whose insulin levels are too low. Unlike dietry ketosis, ketoacidosis is a very serious condition which requires immediate medical attention.If you eat a so called "balanced" diet (ie one with a relatively high carbohydrate content) then your brain is almost entirely fuelled by glucose - using about 100g of carbohydrate a day to meet it's energy requirement. If you restrict the carbohydrate in your diet to less than 100g of carb a day, then your metabolism enters a state of mild ketosis, where it begins to break down fatty acids (from either body fat or ingested fat) to fuel itself. The most important product of this are ketones, which are basically an alternative energy source for your brain (instead of carbohydrate generated glucose).In a state of deep ketosis (say where you carbohydrate intake is less than <<30g a day) your brain gets around 75% of it's fuel from ketones, and the remained 25% from glucose, all of which can be manufactured in your liver from fatty acids and protein (a process called gluconeogenesis). The means that (in principal) your net requirement for carbohydrate is zero, although this is difficult, impractical and altogether uncessary in practice.Some of us (T2 diabetics), try and keep ourselves in permanently in ketosis by eating less than 30g of carbohydrate a day. It's pretty hardcore, and certainly not for everyone, but we most of us manage to keep our blood glucose under complete control (as close as possible to non-diabetic levels), and sometimes experience other metabolic benefits, such as weight loss, increased lucidity and, in my case, improved athletic performance. We use Ketostix to reassure ourselves that we are in a state of controlled ketosis (usually 0-40 mg/dl with low BG)T1 diabetics use Ketostix to make sure that they aren't suffering from ketoacidosis (>40mg/dl with high BG). There are T1 diabetics that use the ultra-low-carb approach (in fact it was originally proposed by Dr Richard Bernstein), but I can appreciate that it's much more difficult if you are worried about ketoacidosis.</blockquote>

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