ketogenics

Valid discoveries in medicine depend on the ability of researchers to make accurate observations in relation to the subject they are studying. As the famous French scientific historian Claude Bernard pointed out more than 150 years ago, “To have an idea about a natural phenomenon, we must first of all, observe it. All human knowledge is limited to working back from observed effects to their cause.” Scientists with preconceived notions assume that they already know the cause and this makes it impossible for them to make valid observations.  They are only able to see what they expect to see. FALSE BELIEFS ARE DANGEROUS This is what has happened to obesity researchers in the past 70 years. They have not diligently searched for and observed what makes us get fat and what to do about it. Instead, virtually all of the research projects that have been carried out since World War II have taken as a given three false notions—all three of which have only contributed to making us fatter and sicker in the Western world: That obesity, heart disease and other degenerative conditions are the result of a high fat diet. That we need to eat lots of carbohydrates to keep up our energy and stay healthy. That weight loss is a simple matter of calories in/calories out—in the words of the Unites States Surgeon General, “overweight and obesity are the result of excess calorie consumption and/or inadequate physical activity.”   These beliefs have continued to prevent us, and the so-called experts, from learning the truth. Happily, this situation is beginning to change, albeit slowly. Such false beliefs still reign supreme amongst most doctors, research scientists, and the media. These mistaken notions (and many more which accompany them) continue to rule scientists, Big Pharma, multinational food corporations and—thanks to television, magazines and newspapers—the great majority of human beings. LIFE-CHANGING FACTS If one takes the time to plough through the voluminous research and declarations about obesity, its cause and its cure, a completely different set of conclusions demand to be drawn: Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating or lack of exercise. Obesity is not caused by gluttony or lack of willpower. This disorder is the result of an as yet unidentified disequilibrium in the hormonal regulation of fat metabolism. This is the major issue that must be addressed if we are to find a cure for chronic overweight. Taking in excess calories is not the cause of gaining weight, nor does expending a lot of energy on exercise prevent it. As a result of their effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, sugars and starches are undeniably the dietary culprits in the development of diabetes, coronary heart disease and obesity, as well as the major contributors to other diseases of Western civilization including cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Cereal, grain, and sugar-based carbohydrates distort hormonal regulation of homeostasis, fostering obesity as a result of their effect on insulin balance and their ability to bring about insulin resistance syndrome—‘syndrome X’. Because they stimulate insulin secretion, carbohydrates increase hunger and diminish the energy the body expends on metabolism and during exercise. With the exception of chemically distorted oils and fats full of trans-fatty acids, the traditional oils such as olive oil, coconut oil, and butter in no way contribute to obesity. Quite the contrary: They can not only prevent it, but enable the body to shed fat and keep it away permanently by supplying the body with ongoing energy for work, athletics, and play. DAILY OVERLOAD The most signification change to human diets in two million years began with the agricultural revolution, where man went from a carbohydrate-poor to a carbohydrate-rich diet as cereals and quickly digestible starches entered our foods. The more these carbohydrates became refined in the past three hundred years, the more problems they have caused; not only in terms of burgeoning waistlines worldwide, but in the development of chronic degenerative diseases of civilization. Similarly, the overwhelming increase in sugars and fructose—such as those found in so many convenience foods and in the form of high fructose corn syrup—has to be a major contributor on both counts as well. In the eighteenth century, we ate between 10 and 20 pounds of sugar per person per year. Today, we consume between 150 pounds and 200 pounds of sugar a year per capita. How revolting does this sound? Especially when there are so many delicious, nutritious proteins, vegetables and healthy fats out there that we could—and should—be eating, for better health, looks, and the ability to unlock our full potential. The standard dietary advice still goes something like this: “We need to eat a minimum of 120 to 130 grams of carbohydrates a day to remain healthy.” This figure, which most nutritionists still propound as though it were a decree from God, was arrived at since researchers supposed this to be the quantity of glucose that the central nervous system and brain makes use of on a carbohydrate-rich diet. KETONES—NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK Such information is out of date and inaccurate. Even the 2002 Institute of Medicine report Dietary Reference Intakes, which still blindly adheres to the outdated daily recommendation of 120 to 130g of carbohydrates a day, then goes on to acknowledge that the brain can function perfectly well without them. In truth, it often functions far better when carbs and sugars are reduced to a mere 25 to 50g a day. The central nervous system and the brain work great when fueled by ketones. Ketones are substances produced by the liver from fats—those released from one’s own fat stores and from fats and oils that people eat. A moderate, controlled level of ketones in the bloodstream allows the body to function superbly well on minute quantities of carbohydrate foods. This is called a ‘state of nutritional ketosis’. Energy increases, clarity of thought improves, and cravings for foods vanish as one’s body becomes keto-adapted. The transformation can be life-changing. Yet almost nobody in the medical, scientific or media world is bothering to pay much attention to all this. NUTRITIONAL KETOSIS By definition, nutritional ketosis is a benign metabolic state that provides the human body with the flexibility enabling us to handle major shifts in available foods. For many years, a ketogenic program has been considered of great value in the treatment of epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and even successful weight loss. I myself wrote a book about it in 2002 called X FACTOR DIET... For Lasting Weight Loss and Vital Health. Now, suddenly, ketogenic adaptation is being discovered and celebrated by top athletes and fitness experts who find that when the body becomes keto-adapted and is fed on high-fat (60%+), moderate protein (20%+) and very low carbs (primarily taken from green vegetables), the body gets all the energy it needs—and more—from fats. And, unlike relying on carbohydrates or sugars, after a long run or heavy training, the energy in a ketone-adapted body just keeps coming. Of course, the fats one chooses have to be the best—primarily butter from grass-fed beef, organic coconut oil, and extra virgin olive oil. My own experiments on myself and others who are not particularly fitness fanatics is that, after becoming keto-adapted, the body persistently tends to shed unwanted fat deposits. One needs less sleep, skin texture improves, even many chronic aches and pains diminish or disappear completely. It’s early days yet, but the promises of keto-adaptation which I first discovered in the late nineties and then wrote my best-selling book about are beginning to validate themselves. Not only is this fascinating metabolic adaptation changing people’s lives for the better. The latest research appearing from doctors and scientists studying ketone adaptation could dispel all the false beliefs and insane dogma about the causes of obesity and degenerative diseases, replacing them with truths that can transform lives for the better on every level. This is my hope. For more information read: The X-Factor Diet: For Lasting Weight Loss and Vital Health Syndrome X has spawned obesity on a scale never seen before. Also known as insulin resistance syndrome, it predisposes us to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and early ageing. Cutting-edge research has recently shown that the major culprit is the high-carb/low-fat diet we have been urged to follow. This regime simply does not suit the way our bodies have evolved. Result: it makes many of us fat. Leslie Kenton's scientifically backed The X Factor Diet provides two fat-loss programmes, together with delicious recipes and easy meal plans to restore normal weight naturally, increase energy levels and make you fitter for life. Join her on a journey towards a leaner, healthier and more beautiful body. Order The X-Factor Diet The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance by Jeff S Volek and Stephen D Phinney A Revolutionary Program to Extend Your Physical and Mental Performance Envelope. Our recent book 'The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living' was written for health care professionals, championing the benefits of carbohydrate restriction to manage insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and type-2 diabetes. Order Low Carbohydrate Performance The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living By Jeff S Volek and Stephen D Phinney Carbohydrate restricted diets are commonly practiced but seldom taught. As a result, doctors, dietitians, nutritionists, and nurses may have strong opinions about low carbohydrate dieting, but in many if not most cases, these views are not grounded in science. Order Low Carbohydrate Living

Get Your Free Copy Now But HURRY only 2500 downloads available I’ve just finished writing an e-book that is now up on the www.curaromana.com site. It’s called HEALTHY AND LEAN FOR LIFE. In writing this book, I have drawn on knowledge and experience amassed over more than four decades of researching and working in the fields of natural health and spiritual development. Some of what you will read in this book may shock you. Why? Because, since the mid-1950s, most of what we have been told about what is supposed to be a healthy diet has been nothing more than conjecture. Not grounded in solid research, current widespread beliefs about nutrition are not based on hard science but on many unproven hypotheses. GUIDE TO LIFE-TRANSFORMATION This book sets the record straight. It's a guidebook for transforming health as well as preventing and even reversing the Diseases of Western Civilization. It is also a testament to an important truth: Aging is meant to be a joy, not an experience of growing disabilities. It tells how to make this so. My wish in writing this little book is to bring to the thousands of men and women who continually struggle with their health and weight practical, simple information with which we can transform lives. In the pages that follow you will find life-changing discoveries, new ways of thinking and powerful cutting-edge technologies that can help heighten vitality, restore natural size and shape to your body, slow aging and bring greater freedom from degenerative diseases. Here’s a extract from the first chapter: JOIN THE HEALTH ELITE Informed people—among them some Hollywood stars and a growing number of the world’s top endurance athletes—know and make use of information that you will find in this book—stuff that most have yet to discover. I call them the health elitists. Their work requires an ongoing ability to access high levels of energy, creativity, freedom, stamina and good looks. Their goal is to live life at the peaks, no matter what their age. Living this kind of life is no longer the preserve of a privileged few. What I’ve learned in 45 years of researching and working in natural health, as well as mentoring people on Leslie Kenton’s Cura Romana, is this: Each one of us can change our current life experience into one of expanded wellbeing by drawing on the work of visionary scientists and leading-edge clinicians, and taking guidance from the finest pioneers in human health and development. Some of the information you’ll find in this little book stretches back to discoveries made more than half a century ago; other revelations are so new that they may be mind blowing. For the media, nutritionists and the medical profession as a whole have yet to pick up on them in any significant way. Make use of the tools, technologies, information and inspiration you find here. Put them into practice. You, too, can change your life for the better. For, when you supply your body and psyche with what they require to function optimally, your own innate powers for healing become activated and profound transformation begins to take place. GET IT FREE HEALTHY AND LEAN FOR LIFE is available for free right now to the first two thousand five hundred people who download it.  II want to share with you my intention in providing a copy of it free. I would love to know from you what else your would like to see in the book that is not yet there.  Menus? Recipes? More information? About what in particular?  I'm excited about doing this.  In the next three months, HEALTHY AND LEAN FOR LIFE will double in size, incorporating more practical advice about how to use the cutting-edge information it now contains. Then we will be selling it on Amazon and elsewhere. If you would like to share with me what more you would like to see in the book, do click here to download you FREE copy.  I would love to hear from you.

It is not only people sensitive to wheat and other glutinous grains who urgently need to get savvy about the damage cereals, grains and packaged convenience foods do to body, health and life. It is each and every one of us. For the past 70 years—since World War II—doctors, governments and the media have been brainwashing us to believe that we have eat plenty of carbs for energy. They have been wrong. Yet we are paying for it—in overweight bodies, food cravings, fuzzy thinking and degenerative disease. MIND BLOWING TRUTHS Except eaten in small quantities, cereals, and grain products—which make up virtually all of those convenience foods that we eat every day—are not good for you. Cutting-edge research shows that more than 75 per cent of the Western World react badly when they eat them often. This discovery is beginning to stir the biggest food revolution in 100 years. Also, sugars, from glucose and sucrose to high-fructose corn syrup, can be monumentally harmful. A diet high in cereals, grains and sugars (the diet of 90 per cent of the Western World) is the fastest way to speed the aging process and to get fat if, you have inherited a genetic tendency to gain weight. These foods, and the foods containing them, turn quickly into glucose, lower energy levels, create cravings and addictive eating, and foster all sorts of long-term health issues. Even if you are one of the lucky few who don’t gain weight easily, grains and sugars can make you susceptible to degenerative diseases such as diabetes, cancer, arthritis and coronary heart disease. Now, this is revolutionary stuff—as yet known to only a few. GLUCOSE—HIDDEN DESTROYER Glucose is meant to be burned in your cells to produce energy. It is derived from the foods you eat and makes its way into the bloodstream where it is supposed to be taken up by your cells. But glucose can only enter your cells and be used as energy in the presence of the hormone insulin, which is released by the pancreas. The hormone insulin evolved as the body’s prime mechanism for storing excess carbohydrate calories, in the form of fat, in order to protect you from famine. When you eat foods that produce high levels of blood sugar instantaneously—like a muffin, bread, pasta, breakfast cereal, ice cream—your blood sugar soars. In response to this, the pancreas shunts more insulin into the blood stream. But when large doses of insulin are circulating, this sends a message to your body to ‘store fat’. When this occurs frequently, your cells become resistant to this important hormone. This means that glucose can’t find its way into your cells to be used for energy. The result? You can find yourself habitually hungry, and constantly tired. What happens? You reach for more grain-based carbs and sugar, and the cycle starts all over again. CLEAR THE CUPBOARDS All sugars, cereals, grains and packaged convenience foods are addictive. The fewer you eat of these foods, the more energy you will have, and the more easily you will keep off excess weight. The fewer grain-based, cereal-based, sugar-based carbohydrates we consume, the leaner and healthier we can remain forever. Although the human body runs on glucose as its principal fuel, it was never designed to deal with a diet high in convenience foods. Most of the calories we eat in the Western World come from high-density carbohydrates which shunt masses of glucose into the bloodstream. Even the so-called ‘good’ carbohydrates, such as whole grain breads and brown rice, can cause insulin resistance if eaten too often. Remember: the more carbohydrate-dense foods you eat—grains, cereals flours and sugars—the more insulin your body secretes. VEGETABLES RULE By contrast, low-carbohydrate vegetables like broccoli, spinach and Chinese leaves have 4 to 10 times less carbohydrate than grain-based foods and sugars. On learning all of the above, the question most often asked is this: “Is a diet that is mostly or completely lacking in cereal-based, grain-based, sugar-based carbohydrates a healthy way of eating?” Little wonder that most of us don’t know this. For more than 50 years, we have been told that we need lots of carbs for health and energy. We do not. Yet the most dramatic alteration to the human diet in the past two million years was the transition from a carbohydrate-poor to a carbohydrate-rich diet that took place during the agricultural revolution. Eating a diet that is low in grain-based, sugar-based, cereal-based carbohydrates but rich in low-carbohydrate-dense fruits and vegetables, along with good quality protein and good fats—coconut oil, butter and extra-virgin olive oil are the best—ensures that you are never going to have a shortage of fuel for your nervous system or the brain. You will also not have to wrestle with insulin resistance, food cravings, blood-sugar-related health problems or weight gain. There is mounting evidence that such a way of eating supplies the perfect fuel for our brains and our bodies, no matter what our age. FOREVER VITAL One of the greatest improvements you can make to health and wellbeing long-term is to minimize grains, cereals and convenience foods, as well as all forms of sugar, from your diet. Many people who do so find they want to increase the number of fiber-rich fresh raw foods in their diet. And most find when they continue to eat this way they can keep their vitality up and their weight down without having to restrict the quantity of food they eat. To anybody who has conscientiously fought—and frequently lost—the battle of the bulge, this can seem almost a miracle. No miracle. It is just a result of the rebalance which takes place when you cut out convenience foods, grains and sugars. Want to learn more? Buyken, A.E., et al., Carbohydrate nutrition and inflammatory disease mortality in older adults. Am J Clin Nutr, 2010. 92(3): p.634-43. Eades, M.R. and M.D. Eades, Protein Power: The High-Protein/Low-Carbohydrate Way to Lose Weight, Feel Fit, and Boost your Health—in Just Weeks! 1999: Bantam Gardner, C.D. et al., Insulin Resistance – An Effect Moderator of Weight Loss Success on High vs. Low Carbohydrate Diets. Obesity, 2008. 16: p. S82. Gardner, C.D., et al., Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women: The A to Z Weight Loss Study: a randomized trial. JAMA, 2007. 297(9): p. 969-77. Phinney, S.D., et al., Obesity and weight loss alter serum polyunsaturated lipids in humans. Am J Clin Nutr, 1991. 53(4): p. 831-8. Reaven, G.M., Banting lecture 1988. Role of insulin resistance in human disease. Diabetes, 1988. 37(12): p. 1595-607.

This is an excellent video about keto-adaptation which will give you a real insight into what this remarkable metabolic process is all about. Every one of us, regardless of age, has the capability of producing ketones. But unless we are following a low-carbohydrate way of living, this remarkable ketogenic program continues to be suppressed. So long as we continue to eat a lot of carbohydrate foods, the body doesn’t have an opportunity to boot up and run its keto-adaptation process. The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living Carbohydrate restricted diets are commonly practiced but seldom taught. As a result, doctors, dietitians, nutritionists, and nurses may have strong opinions about low carbohydrate dieting, but in many if not most cases, these views are not grounded in science. Order Low Carbohydrate Living from Amazon The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance A Revolutionary Program to Extend Your Physical and Mental Performance Envelope. Our recent book 'The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living' was written for health care professionals, championing the benefits of carbohydrate restriction to manage insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and type-2 diabetes. Order The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance from Amazon The KetoDiet Book—Real Food & Healthy Living The ketogenic diet is high in fat, adequate in protein and low in carbohydrates. Most people follow the diet in order to lose weight. However, weight loss is just one of the many benefits that include improved cholesterol levels, lowering risk of stroke, heart disease and diabetes, treating of cancer, epilepsy and more. Order The KetoDiet Book from Amazon Then there is my own book on the Ketogenic and Insulin Balanced Diets: The X Factor Diet Permanent weight loss without hunger or hardship is everyone's dream. In this ground-breaking book Leslie Kenton reveals how to achieve your ideal body shape and weight in this way while simultaneously overcoming the health hazards that excess weight brings in its wake. Order The X Factor Diet from Amazon

We are poised at the beginning of a profound revolution in health. It encompasses long-lasting weight control, drug-free ageless aging and protection from degenerative diseases. Until recently, the genuine research findings which are fueling this revolution have been hidden from us by a dark cloud consisting of outright lies, false medical and government directives and corporate greed. For the past 60 years, we have been fed dangerous, inaccurate information in regard to the causes of heart disease, obesity, mental disorders, and other widespread degenerative conditions—from diabetes to cancer and Alzheimer’s, as well as emotional and mental problems. As a consequence, we have experienced an exponential rise in long-term degenerative conditions, a massive dependence on pharmaceutical drugs, and dangerously inaccurate information about what constitutes good nutrition. I’ve just posted on the lesliekenton.com site two videos of programs aired over ABC News in Australia. Do watch them. They could be life-changing for you and your family. I’ll give you a link to them at the bottom. THE TRUTH WILL OUT Here’s what’s important for you to know: The guidelines about health we have been given in the decades following World War II have been wrong. For example, there is NO correlation between high cholesterol plaque formation and heart disease. Second, saturated fats are good for us. Third, statin drugs which are commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol are dangerous. For generations, we’ve been told that “saturated fat is a prime cause of heart disease.” This theory, known as the ‘lipid hypothesis’, was concocted 60 years ago by a number of mainstream scientists, including a physiologist named Ancel Keys, whom I knew personally. Keys’ totally inaccurate “revelations” about the dangers of eating saturated fats were based on bogus research. Yet they earned him a cover on Time Magazine. Other erroneous research, which in truth amounted to little more than “best guesses”, were also accepted as truths by government, the medical establishment and the media, even though several well researched studies showed clearly that they were also wrong. This is how the false notion that “eating fat causes heart disease” became accepted worldwide and it has endured for more than half a century. BIG FAT LIES As award-winning journalist Gary Taubes has pointed out, “In the 1970s and 1980s the US government spent half a billion dollars trying to prove that dietary fat causes heart disease and they couldn’t do it.” Taubes is a courageous science writer. He first wrote about the public fat deceptions in a New York Times magazine article in June of 2002, called “What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” Since then, he has written two superbly researched books, in relation to this issue as well as other massively inaccurate beliefs that have also been foisted upon us including the notion that eating a low-fat, high-carb diet is the best way to stay healthy. For five decades, governments and health agencies in the United States and elsewhere have pontificated about what we should eat to prevent degenerative diseases. Most of us have done our best to follow their advice. In doing so, we have become sicker and fatter with each decade that passes. Of course, the powers-that-be still insist that this is all our fault. They tell us that this is because we have not been following their advice carefully enough. So their “best guess” advice, concocted in error all those years ago, still goes on harming millions of people. THE DECEPTIVE 70S The tale continues: After high-level government discussions and consultations about what diet the majority of Americans should eat for health, the McGovern Committee in the United States published nutritional guidelines which, they told us, would “combat cancers, heart disease, high-blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.” Hearings for Senator McGovern’s Senate Select Committee took place between 1976 and 1980. And it was clear right from the start that the outcome would be a bogus recommendation to reduce fat and cholesterol and eat plenty of carbohydrates for energy—despite the fact that valid scientific research had shown quite clearly that both of these recommendations were just plain wrong. Before long, the US government issued their skewed ‘Dietary Guidelines for Americans.’ Their advice boiled down to was this: Replace natural dietary fats (which we humans have been eating for millions of years and which the body handles with ease) with high doses of carb-laden grains, sugars and cereals and use lots of polyunsaturated fats. Then the now infamous U.S. “Dietary Recommendations Pyramid” came along. It urges us to eat as many as 11 portions of bread, cereal, rice and pasta a day. Like obedient citizens, we ate porridge, toast and cereal for breakfast, munched our way through a bagel at 11 o’clock, and downed a sandwich, pizza or pasta for lunch. At dinner, along with our meat and potatoes, or rice and beans, we indulges in a roll or two to make sure we got the 10 carb servings they recommended to us believing that we were living on a healthy diet. Just in case you think these absurd directives only affected the lives of Americans, think again. The rest of the world—with a few exceptions such as France and China—still follow US government directives with amazing slavishness. HOW TO AGE FAST A diet high in cereals, grains and sugars (which 90% of the Western World still consumes) is not only a prescription for obesity—it’s a fast track to rapid aging and degenerative diseases. Grains and sugars in excess lower energy levels, create cravings and addictive eating while encouraging a myriad of long-term health issues. TRUTH ABOUT STATINS Then there is the issue of statins. I was stunned when I learned about the new guidelines just issued by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. These bodies are now encouraging doctors to prescribe statin drugs to well people. The so-called medical experts who issued these directives insist that all healthy people be given statin drugs as a “preventative against possible future illness.” In effect they are keen to see one third of all adults taking statins. One in four Americans over 45 are already on statins, despite more than 900 studies reporting dangerous side effects from these drugs. Side effects range from heightened risks of cancer and diabetes to sexual problems, neuropathy and liver dysfunction to immune system suppression—even a higher risk of cataracts. In Britain, between 6 and 8 million people take statin drugs. If the new directives are accepted by the US and UK medical establishment—as they are likely to be—the numbers of men and women being prescribed statins will become legion. WHY ARE THEY USED Statins are a group of drugs that commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a central role in the production of cholesterol in the liver. They have many different names: Lipitor, Lescol, Mevacor, Altocor, Zocor and so on. Statins are given to patients on the assumption that they will lower the risks of heart attacks and strokes. Meanwhile, a recent study in the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology, “Biomarkers & Prevention” by Jean A McDougall and her team, showed that long-term use of statins increases the risk of both lobular and ductal breast cancer in women between 55 and 74. COME THE REVOLUTION I suggest you take a look at my recent blog, “Beware The Statin Pushers”. (Click here.) I also suggest that you read Healthy and Lean For Life, the book I wrote at the beginning of 2013. You are able to download free until the end of December. (click here) Meanwhile I celebrate Dr Maryanne Demasi’s admirable investigative journalism in the two ABC programs which you can watch by clicking here. Come and take part in the exciting revolution based on truth. Share what you learn with those whose health and life may be made better by what you have learned.