Friday, July 16, 2021

everyone's got a theory

Here's a doctor who says you can get rid of diabetes without abandoning carbs or counting calories simply by going full-on vegan:

By this point, I've researched a ton of different diets and been exposed to several theories of weight loss. My own conclusion is that the diets that are out there all get something right, but I'm probably going to have to experiment more before I find a diet that truly works for me. Thus far, the Newcastle Diet is bringing my weight down through simple calorie reduction combined with a sort of inadvertent intermittent fasting plus all the exercise I'm doing and the "keto-adjacent" way I've been eating.

The above video suggests that you can eat natural carbs, and you'll reverse diabetes anyway. This goes against the prevalent theory among keto/Atkins/carnivore advocates that carbs are the enemy because the ingestion of carbs stimulates insulin production, which in turn stimulates fat production because insulin is a fat-storing hormone. So who's right? The doctor in the video certainly speaks with a great deal of conviction... could he be on to something? I don't know. I might be curious to try the method he describes, but I'm going to give keto an earnest try first, and we'll see what happens.

Whatever I do—and this is where most diets overlap—it won't involve processed carbohydrates, and very little in the way of processed meats* or processed anything else. Most of the popular diets out there generally advocate some form of naturalism, and Dr. Becky Gillaspy's low-carb approach emphasizes the idea that people like me, who have a sweet tooth, need to retrain ourselves to eat savory. Several of the experts I've watched on YouTube refer to the body's "cephalic reaction" or "cephalic response" to the sensation of sweetness, which is a warning that, if I do go full keto, I can't have keto-friendly sweets every single day—they'll have to be, say, a weekend thing. Keto does allow for certain artificial sweeteners like monkfruit, allulose, and erythritol, but aside from that, it emphasizes naturalism like the other diets. No keto advocate claims you should be eating keto-friendly sweets every day. Such sweets are occasional indulgences for when the cravings strike hard.

That said, I'll try my hand at making some keto desserts once the Newcastle Diet is done in August. So expect photos. Some keto-friendly meals and desserts I've seen actually look really good, but some do look rather lame. (I saw a keto-croissant recipe that produced croissants that were so ugly I wanted to cry. Why bother attempting something as difficult as croissants if that's the best you can do? Better simply to eat something else.)

So what do you think? Is going vegan The Way?

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*I have a sausage-grinding attachment for my stand mixer, though, so I'll be making my own sausage. The advantage of doing this is that I won't be putting in the chemical additives that make processed sausage bad for you.



4 comments:

John Mac said...

I didn't watch the video, so I have no comment on the science behind the diet. I hate to be cliche (and I avoid trite phrases like a plague), but some things to me are worse than death. I would never consider "living" on a strictly vegan diet. Eating healthy is fine, but a life with no meat? Nope, not gonna happen.

The Newcastle you are doing now has an endpoint that you can look forward to, knowing you can return to some form of near normalcy in your future diet. I take the vegan thing would be a lifetime commitment. Could you honestly live that lifestyle?

Charles said...

Hmm. A sausage-grinding attachment for the stand mixer, you say? I may have to get one of those myself. Have you used it yet?

Kevin Kim said...

No. I'm impatiently awaiting the end of the Newcastle Diet so I can cut loose and start eating more calories per day while working on certain recipes, like sausages, keto breads, and more keto pasta. (I'm going to try making some pasta tomorrow, actually.)

Kevin Kim said...

John,

I can see myself experimenting with veganism, but in the end, I don't see it as a viable lifestyle choice for me.