ketogenics

Recent metabolic research has brought to light a powerful, health-transforming natural process developed out of 2 million years of human evolution. So far, few people have heard about it. Before the agricultural revolution, we humans had been exposed only to minute levels of carbohydrates. Today, we eat masses of them. As a consequence, more than a third of us are obese, and suffer from widespread degenerative conditions, from cancer and heart disease to Type II diabetes and Alzheimer's. What if we knew how to reactivate an innate process within the body that brings energy to our cells, organs and metabolic pathways, while helping to protect us from the devastating destruction to human health taking place throughout the world? Take a breath. This is not only possible. It is slowly beginning to happen. TWO PATHS FOR ENERGY There are two fundamental processes by which your body creates energy for life. It can draw fuel from glucose when we eat carbs and sugar. Or, it can draw fuel from our relying on fat. More about this in a few moments. For generations, the powers-that-be have been pointing us down the glucose path. We’ve been told to eat bread and pasta, potatoes and sugar. We’ve been urged to get a minimum of 130 grams of carb foods a day. (Actually, most people eat two or three times that amount of carbs every day.) We’ve also been told that glucose is brain fuel which we need lots of for it to function well. Up-to-date top quality research studies carried out in the past 10 years show quite clearly that such advice is wrong. Our following it has resulted in a worldwide pandemic of degenerative conditions. It’s not easy to admit that the nutritional advice they have been handing out to us for more than fifty years has been wrong. As a result, vital truths about human health continue to be treated as though they were fringe concepts. CARBOHYDRATE INTOLERANCE The truth is, people vary widely in their ability to handle carbs without succumbing to obesity, food cravings and degenerative diseases. We all know about gluten intolerance. We deal with it by staying away from gluten. Then there’s lactose intolerance, which we handle by limiting dairy products. But, in truth, the greatest problem most of us face right now is carbohydrate intolerance. What should we be doing about this? Simple. Cut way back on the carbs we eat. When necessary, eliminate them. The degree of carbohydrate intolerance we suffer from depends fundamentally on how insulin resistant our body is. I’ve witnessed this first-hand during the last five years working closely with thousands of people on Cura Romana. After completing the rapid weight loss— Essential Spray + Food Plan—part of the program, a small number of people discover as they enter Consolidation that they can metabolize carbohydrates reasonably well provided they don’t eat them too often. A second group—the majority—discover they have to carry out careful testing to identify those carbs which their body can manage in small quantities as well as those which need to be eliminated from their life permanently. Finally, there are people with a high level of carbohydrate intolerance who discover that they need to cut out carbs and sugar from their diet altogether to support the lean and healthy experience which they discovered while on Cura. KETO-ADAPTATION It’s time to meet the second metabolic process for energy production: Keto-adaptation. This is the remarkable process that the body goes through when only exposed to limited carbohydrate foods. Keto-adaptation is characterized by the body switching over to use fat as fuel for energy. It’s a process that can take several weeks as the shift from glucose to fat burning happens. What are ketones? They are natural by-products of the breakdown of free fatty acids in the liver. Small energy-containing substances derived from fatty acids, they are able to provide fuel for all our tissues, including the brain. When these ketones are produced at high rates, they accumulate in the bloodstream. This results in the state known as ketosis—a metabolic state characterized by an increase in ketone production usually marked by blood levels greater than 0.5mmol/L. Becoming keto-adapted requires that you restrict your intake of carbohydrate foods—including sugar, of course—below a certain level, so your cells and mitochondria can change over from using glucose to using fat as fuel. The level of carbohydrate restriction at which a person’s body is able to enter into a ketotic state varies tremendously. Some people only need to restrict their carbs to 50 or 100 grams a day to spur this metabolic transformation. Others must restrict carb intake to as little as 20 grams to spur the process. The reason that keto-adaptation takes time—usually two to six weeks—to establish as the body’s new metabolic process is that metabolic change must take place at every level. NEW FANGLED—NO WAY Far from some weird 21st century invention, a keto-adaptation is an ancient practice for which the human body has already been metabolically programmed. We had just forgotten how to access it. Recent studies into ultra low-carb keto-adaptation show that this process has profound implications for high-level wellbeing. Here are a few of the benefits that can take place when a body switches out of a carb/sugar metabolism into a ketone/fatty acid one: While cancer cells tend to proliferate on a sugar-based metabolism, when switched over to fatty acids and ketones, tumor growth often regresses. The switch is being associated with life extension and may even slow the aging process. It quells free radical damage. It enhances athletic performance. Keto-adapted long distances runners don’t experience “hitting the wall”—the brains fuel crisis that has non keto-adapted athletes reaching for glucose based drinks and gels just to keep going. It brings about regressions in Type II Diabetes. It heightens gene expression. It increases mental clarity. It fosters emotional balance. It increases work output. It increases a body’s antioxidant defenses. Most of the mainstream medical community remains ignorant about the profound benefits of keto-adaptation. They confuse this kind of nutritional ketosis with ketoacidosis—a dangerous side effect of Type I Diabetes, during which ketone production reaches levels above 10 mmo/L. Nutritional keto-adaptation is completely different and perfectly safe. ANCIENT METABOLITES An ingrained characteristic of human metabolism, ketones—which consist of beta-hydroxybutyrate (BOHB) and acetoacetate (AcAc) —are as old as humanity itself. They are naturally produced by the liver whenever the intake of carbohydrate foods becomes limited. Then they are released into the blood. This natural metabolic program has been silenced since the time of the agricultural revolution, when carbohydrate foods began to be available. So important are these archaic ketone molecules that they provide the human brain with a superior fuel source to support its functions. Some researchers believe that keto-adaptation is likely to have been at least in part responsible for homo sapiens developing the big brain which distinguishes us from our animal friends. 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 long term assertion that only glucose can fuel the brain adequately is completely untrue. Thanks to beta-hydroxybutyrate (BOHB), up to 3/4 of the energy the brain needs can come from ketones. In fact, they are by far the most stable and sustainable fuel source available for the brain. CRACKING THE CODE As far back as the Middle Ages and even earlier, a ketogenic diet has been used to treat illnesses, including childhood epilepsy. The natural treatment came out of the discovery that a complete fast can help prevent epileptic seizures in children. But since there was no way of sustaining a fast indefinitely, most especially in growing kids, a ketogenic diet became a viable alternative. It still is. In the 1920s researchers, discovered that when they fed children on a diet low in carbohydrates, high in fat and gave them just enough protein for growth, the children were able to maintain ketosis for long periods of time. By doing so, pediatric epilepsy came under control while drugs and other treatments failed. Then in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, new drug treatments were developed for epilepsy and the use of the ketogenic diet dwindled for a time. CHARLIE’S STORY In the United States, it was “rediscovered”, thanks to a two year old named Charlie who suffered from uncontrollable epileptic seizures which no drug treatments—not even brain surgery—had been able to control. In a desperate search to help his son, Charlie’s father discovered the references to a ketogenic diet used for epilepsy back in the 1920s by an American doctor named R.M. Wilder. Armed with this information, he sought help for his son. So successful was the ketogenic diet in clearing Charlie’s seizures that it spurred Charlie’s father to set up the Charlie Foundation which now trains doctors and dietitians from all over the world on how to use the diet, and produces videos as well as a book, The Epilepsy Diet Treatment: An Introduction to the Ketogenic Diet, to help people learn how to use it. In recent years, a very large project in treating childhood epilepsy has been carried out at Stanford University in California. Other medical uses of the ketogenic diet in the past and present include the treatment of childhood trauma, respiratory failure, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s Disease, autism, migraine, depression and wound healing. THE KETO-ADAPTIVE PROCESS Is keto-adaptation for you? Not unless you are serious about changing your health and your life permanently. The keto-adaptation process takes time. It means making major changes in how you eat and live. This can be challenging, despite a recent proliferation of diet books which would have us believe the keto-adaptation process is “a piece of cake.” Full of poorly gathered information, but lots of pretty photos of low-carb sweets and treats, the current spate of Keto diet books—primarily targeted towards weight loss—are pretty useless. Too often they’ve been written by people who have not done their homework. There is one exception, however: It’s the work of a brilliant and passionate young woman from Czech Republic called Martina Šlajerová. She has created an app for iPads and iPhones as well as a short ebook called The KetoDiet which is first rate. If you want to know about using keto-adaptation for weight loss, I recommend that you look at her materials. They are not only accurate. Thanks to Martina’s fascination with truth-seeking and her commitment to living her own life at a high level of wellbeing, they are even inspiring. EAT ONLY THE BEST As with any other way of eating for health and protection from rapid aging and degenerative conditions, for ketogenic diet to be healthy, it must be well constituted. It needs to provide not only optimal quantities of vitamins and minerals, but also top quality, organic, low-carb green vegetables. It needs to be rich in the phytonutrients. It needs to provide only the very best fatty acids—organic coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil and butter from cows, preferably fed on pastured land. A sound keto-adapted way of living must make use of the finest natural foods on the planet—foods as close as possible to those our ancient ancestors thrived on. Your goal should be the transformation of your body and your life to a higher level of energy, good looks and well-being permanently. Of course, it’s important if you suffer from a liver or kidney complaint, or some other metabolic abnormality, that you get your doctor’s permission to make changes. It is unwise for anyone to undertake dietary change without the guidance of a physician or health practitioner knowledgeable about functional medicine and metabolic nutrition. Take a look at this excellent video about keto-adaptation with Jeff Volek. You’ll find it by clicking here. It will give you a real feel for what fat adapted living is like. 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. Buy Low Carb Living 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. Buy Low Carb Performance THE KETODIET BOOK—REAL FOOD & HEALTHY LIVING BY MARTINA ŠLAJEROVÁ 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. Buy KetoDiet Book 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. Buy X Factor Diet

Syndrome X Phenomenon As an awareness of the Syndrome X phenomenon of insulin resistance spread, researchers and clinicians have begun to understand that many of us who are not diabetic still experience insulin resistance. Responsible scientists began to ask questions about what causes it. The discoveries they are now making are nothing short of revolutionary. They not only offer us the power to slow the rate at which our bodies age. They are experimenting with protocols that can, potentially reverse negative conditions from hypertension, insulin resistance to cholesterol imbalances and depression, simply by changing the way you eat and live. This experience is one I became fascinated with when, several years ago, I made a television documentary in the Southern Hemisphere called To Age or Not To Age. It asked the question, “Can we slow aging by making simple nutritional changes?” We also wanted to know “Might it also be possible to reverse age-related degeneration that has already occurred?” And, finally, “Can these things be verified in medically measurable ways?” We decided to carry out what is known as a base-line study to find out. We sent all participants to have the standard test of medical parameters checked before the project began—from fasting insulin and blood sugar levels through cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure. These were carried out at a hospital which also had an excellent physiology laboratory, where exercise physiologists were able to establish each participant’s VO2Max, body fat percentage and lean body mass to fat ratio. To my surprise, every participant—including a 50 year old top athlete—showed abnormalities associated with Syndrome X. We then introduced our group to an Insulin Balance way of eating, which I devised. The experiment lasted only 5 weeks. Then we sent all our participants back to the hospital to have their parameters checked again. The results were mind-blowing. We had no idea that, after only 5 weeks of dietary changes, every abnormal medical parameter had normalized, except for cholesterol measurements in one woman, which took another few weeks to normalize. For me personally, the experiment confirmed yet again that the human body has a phenomenal capacity to heal itself, when given the opportunity to experience transformation at the deepest levels. This is a truth which, for the past four years, I have applied to helping to transform the lives of men and women all over the world, whom I have been mentoring on Cura Romana. The results continue to delight me.

I want to share with you some information that could literally change your life in two weeks. It is this: Grains and grain products are probably not good for you - except only occasionally in very small quantities. However, for more than 75% of the population of the Western world, they appear to be no good at all. Why? They quickly turn to glucose, lower your energy levels, create cravings and addictive eating behavior, and trigger insulin release contributing to metabolic syndrome - otherwise known as syndrome X - as well as fostering all sorts of other health issues including high cholesterol high blood pressure cancer obesity celiac disease Many grains and foods - not just wheat - contain gluten. These include: wheat oats rye barley spelt most of our processed foods Thanks to a fascinating new medical study reported in the Gastroenterology journal, we now know that the damage grains have been doing to our bodies all along has increased exponentially in the past 50 years. More important news: It is not just gluten that undermines the health of most of us. 75-80 percent of all people improve dramatically by avoiding all grains. Avoiding grain-based products is one good step in the right direction. However, glucose intolerance is only part of the issue. For more information about putting it all in practice read The PowerHouse Diet.

A search for intermittent fasting on Google turns up more than 4 million results. PubMed lists almost 500 research articles on the subject. Great stuff. And, in the midst of all the kerfuffle, websites and books keep popping up riddled with conflicting information and advice. Some of it is useful. Too much of it is just plain confusing for someone seriously wanting to put this eating style into practice. As a result, many people dive into this way of eating with great enthusiasm only to discover that it turns out to be very tough for them to sustain it for more than a week or two, no matter how much they grit their teeth and keep trying. Whether you call this much talked about eating style meal spacing, intermittent fasting or some other name, it is by no means new having been practiced in one form or another for a century or more by those in the know about the gifts it can bring. A T W Simeons, the original creator of Cura Romana, wove it skilfully into meal planning during the rapid weight loss portion of his protocol. On Leslie Kenton’s Cura Romana, meal spacing/intermittent fasting is incorporated both into the Essential Spray+Food Plan part of the experience and Consolidation. Participants learn as a matter of course how, if they wish, they can structure this food style into their way of eating for a lifetime of lasting weight control, high level health, and protection from the degenerative diseases now plaguing our planet. BACK TO THE FUTURE Since Cura Romana is a holistic, science-based no-hunger protocol which brings balance to the control centers of the brain, eliminating food cravings and unnatural hunger, the process of integrating meal spacing into a participant’s life is simple. In fact, it takes place almost automatically thanks to the profound shifts in biochemistry which the program brings about quite naturally. Sadly, this is not case with a lot of people who, on their own and without the benefits of Essential Spray+Food Plan want to initiate meal spacing/intermittent fasting into their life. Many write to me saying that they struggle hard when trying to eat two meals a day without snacks. Some make the mistake of attempting to do this while continuing to eat all the wrong kind of foods. Others report that they fail, no matter what they do. Then, full of disappointment and self-criticism they revert to the ways they were eating before. I passionately believe that the benefits of this eating style need to be available to everyone. What is missing in so much written and talked about is practical information about how to approach meal spacing/intermittent fasting so you can gently ease yourself into it and become familiar by experimenting with an introductory plan. This will make you free to make a choice as to whether or not you want to make it a permanent part of your life. LET’S GET PRACTICAL There are some important questions which need to be answered before you even begin: What’s the best way to approach meal spacing/intermittent fasting? What kind of foods do you need to eat to reap its benefits and which foods should you avoid? What benefits can it bring? And, most important of all, how do you go about gracefully easing yourself into such a dramatically different way of eating than what you have been used to? First here are some important things to get straight: Dieting with calorie restriction—eating less and exercising more—is forever doomed to fail. It just doesn’t work at all for lasting weight loss. The success of meal spacing/intermittent fasting in no way demands that you count calories. The notion of calories-in-calories out is nonsense. So is the belief that you need to eat three meals a day. This has been foisted upon us for generations. It is wrong as is the idea that we need to eat regular snacks. The truth is that your body needs regular periods free of meals and snacks for health and lasting leanness. This need is implicit in our genetic inheritance. As such it is to be honored. Eating too often, which most people do, forces the body to keep up with on-going levels of glucose that are continually shunted into the blood. This creates a relentless inflammatory load which in turn leads to degenerative conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and destructive distortions to blood lipids. It also forces your body to age rapidly. Even short periods of fasting daily—from 12 to 18 hours—help keep insulin spikes down, while increasing insulin sensitivity. Metabolic processes gradually begin to normalize, reducing dangerously high blood glucose levels at the same time. For meal spacing/intermittent fasting to work for you—for them to help keep you healthy and lean for life—you must completely avoid convenience foods. They are filled with artificial sweeteners, colorings, flavoring, and hidden GMO components. Eat only real food—fresh green vegetables, wholesome proteins such as eggs, fish, and meat, plenty of good fats such as organic coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil and butter from cows that have been pasture grazed. WHEN TO EAT When it comes to exploring meal spacing/intermittent fasting, success on every level depends on your creating an eating lifestyle that works for you. By the way, when you begin to space your meals wisely day after day this directs the protein hormone insulin—which plays a central role in healthy metabolism by removing potentially toxic excess glucose from the blood—to direct the blood glucose into the liver and muscles where it can be turned into energy, rather than laying it down as fat deposits. Most people leave out breakfast altogether. They choose to eat two meals a day, spacing them so that they allow at least 5 to 6 hours after their first meal, say brunch or lunch, before eating their second. No snacks are allowed. Doing this enables the body to increase its levels of an important peptide hormone—Human Growth Hormone (HGH)—produced by the pituitary gland. Bit by bit it brings gifts such as helping to reduce body fat, increasing muscle mass and enhancing bone density. Of course, this takes time to develop so be patient. The second meal of the day becomes an early dinner, after which they begin their longest period of fasting which lasts through the night. It needs to be a minimum of 12 hours but many people find that once they have got used to their new eating lifestyle, they want to extend their night fast to as long as 17 hours. No snacking, of course. Provided they are eating the right kind of foods, once they establish for themselves the best pattern of meal spacing to suit their lifestyle, they find themselves feeling vital and not hungry between meals. They are also delighted to be looking and feeling better than they would ever have thought possible before starting to eat this way. WHAT FOODS TO EAT Here are foods to choose any meal spacing/intermittent fasting eating style: A good supply of wholesome natural fats like coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil and butter—preferably from grass-fed cows. Top quality protein foods including meat, seafood, eggs and the very best micro-filtered whey if you like to make smoothies. Plenty of fresh green vegetables—preferably organic— both to eat raw and to cook. Some low-sugar fresh fruit such as berries. For vegetarians, Tempeh, miso and other fermented soya products are excellent. If you decide to use tofu, make sure it is organic. More than 95% of soy beans today have been genetically modified. You do not want to put GMO foods into your body ever. For a complete list of foods to eat—as well as those you want to shun forever—download a free copy of my Healthy and Lean for Life. The first part of this book is available free to download from www.curaromana.com You’ll find it at the bottom right hand corner of the home page FOODS TO SHUN The most significant 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 starchy vegetables began to enter our food chain. The more these carbohydrates have been refined and processed, the more problems they have caused us. During the 20th century, an overwhelming increase in cereals, grains, sugars and high-fructose corn syrup used in convenience foods have become the major triggers for obesity and chronic illness. In the nineteenth century, we ate between 10 and 20 pounds of sugar per person per year. Today per capita we consume between 150 pounds and 200 pounds a year. So this is little wonder. For more than half a century food manufacturers, intent on making profit, have been producing a great variety of so-called foods by fragmenting and reducing raw material foodstuffs—grains and seeds, fats and sugars, vegetables and legumes—to simple “nuts and bolts” ingredients. Then they whip up these nuts and bolts into the manipulated “convenience foods” which fill our supermarket shelves—from ready-to-eat meals to candy bars, cakes, breads, and cereals. This tuff now makes up 75% of what the average person eats. Because such foods have been whipped up using grains, flours and sugars, junk fats and chemical additives—all of which you want to avoid when creating your own meal spacing/intermittent fasting food style—you will want to steer clear of them altogether to reap the benefits of your new eating style. BEWARE THE PERILS OF CONVENIENCE White flour and sugar-based convenience foods have an ultra-long shelf life. This suits food purveyors intent on making a profit. Yet such packaged foods are little better than junk foods—often devoid of any nutritional value other than calories. Even the fats used to concoct them are not the natural fats that we thrive on. The highly processed fats most of them contain, together with the masses of chemicals used as flavorings, colorings and preservatives, are far removed from the foods your body needs for health. It is little wonder that human beings who eat them year after year—even those in economically privileged countries—do little more than survive. You will never succeed in creating a meal spacing/intermittent fasting food style for yourself unless you get rid of convenience foods from your life. EASE YOUR WAY FORWARD Anyone new to meal spacing needs to experiment before diving headlong into making dramatic changes in how, when and what you eat. So, next week, I’ll give you a simple and easy-to-begin way to help you experiment with creating condensed eating windows in your own life which that suit your appetite and ability to cook. I’ll suggest meal structures and provide you some of my own recipes. It is high time that the many gifts of meal spacing/intermittent fasting to be available to anyone and everyone genuinely wanting to make use of them.

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