Depending on what sources you read, the total number of grams of allowable carbs are somewhere between 20g and 50g. This means that you have to carefully check the foods you're eating to make sure that you stay under the allowable grams. It's quite a task. One slice of bread, for example, has around 13g of carbs. So if you're targeting the 20g limit, one slice is over half the allowable amount of carbs.
Somewhere late 2022 till early 2023 I tried the Keto diet, thought it would be better for my health since I was slowing down on my jogging exercise. I couldn't afford too many carbs, and my mid-section was starting to complain.
But counting carbs proved to be more of a challenge than I originally thought. Carbs are everywhere! In milk, in every vegetable, and loaded in fruit. For my challenge, the Keto direction proved to be impossible. So I decided on a very tough approach, removing all but green leafy vegetables from my diet. No wheat, no rice, no potatoes, absolutely no starch and very little fruit.
But that was also a loosing battle since when I counted up the grams at the end of the day, truly counted them, including the greek yoghurt and milk in my coffee, I was somewhere in the mid 40g range.
Is 40g Keto? Depends again on what you're reading, but it's definitely borderline and bound to spike insulin levels, but perhaps not enough to push you out of ketosis.
Somewhere late last year, I decided that counting grams of glucose (a.k.a., carbs) was a time-consuming, challenging and marginally successful way to lose weight. And I ran into the carnivores.
The carnivore diet is a type of Keto diet which reduces the carb intake to near zero levels. In fact, you don't count at all. You simply avoid any foods with carbs. Which means, avoiding all vegetables, fruits, nuts and so on. The mantra is, if it comes from an animal, then it's OK. If it does not come from an animal, then it's NOT OK.
As usual, I did my Internet research, watched hours and hours of testimony in favour of the carnivore diet, and lots of vegans quite against it. Doctors on both sides. And supposedly health professionals on both sides.
Each camp of the argument very well equipped, and eloquent.
The vegan camp absolutely adamant that you can do 100% without meat products and talking about the risks of lack of fibre and vitamin C, both of which you cannot get, in sufficient quantities, in a carnivore diet.
And the carnivore camp saying. that plants have toxins (such as lectins) and other defence chemicals, as well as the all encompassing substance of all fat - glucose - which is absolutely unnecessary since the body can make its own from the animal fat and proteins.
And it seems that the answer is somewhere in the middle.
But I decided to kick the gram counting and dive into meat eating so that I wouldn't care about the carbohydrate problem. And I have incredible results to report. Within the first six weeks, I lost more weight that I'd lost in the last 6 years.
Every year I seemed to gain a pound, which means that I returned back to my previous 10-year weight, something that I had in my 30's and 40's also. I completely erased all the weight gained in my 50's in one stroke, and took my body back to my late 20's.
You'd have to try it to believe it. And I wasn't even on very strict carnivore since I spiced up my steaks with questionable spices, ate tons of yoghurt (plain Greek) and drank milk in my tea and coffee. And also drank Coke Zero which most studies seem to indicate does nothing to blood sugar (since it has no sugar) and also does not trigger an insulin response.
The cephalic phase of insulin secretion by the pancreas happens in preparation for a boost in blood sugar. The body tastes something sweet in the mouth and then prepares for a blood sugar spike. This spike is usually small, but it's there.
Surprisingly, most of what I read is that aspartame, the sweetener in Coke Zero, doesn't contribute to the cephalic phase, bur some of the other sweeteners, like saccharin might.
CONCLUSION
Where do I go from here? Well, it appears that I may be onto something that will help me for the longer term. I've never felt better, but have some concerns from some of the arguments from the other camp. Like lack of fibre and it's effect on gut bacteria. And the lack of vitamin C, found in very small quantities in meat, but larger quantities in organ meat.
So it looks like a small injection of some plant food might be worth experimenting with. So I'm bringing back moringa (in its powdered form). Low carb, packed with vitamin C and fibre. A single element which is the perfect way to single out whether or not it will have any side effects.
I'll report back when all of this is done.
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