Essential Ketogenic Nutrition – Why does it work?
And why Vegans and Vegetarians are Trapped in a Big Tragic Fallacy
“No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means.”
– Maimonides, Philosopher and Physician,
path-breaking scientist, 12 century
One of the strong therapeutic tools in my work with cancer is Essential Ketogenic Nutrition (EKN).
Restricted means that it uses two complementary protocols Intermittent Fasting (IF) with Caloric Restriction (CR).
My clients get daily supervision that makes transition to the new eating habits much easier.
Here is a small chapter from my coming book being published on Amazon.
ESSENTIAL KETOGENIC FOR EVOLUTIONARY LONGEVITY
How to win extra points in the evolutionary perspective?
For those people who have some level of intolerance to carbohydrates, there is a possibility for a zero-carb diet (ZC) with full elimination of dietary carbohydrates. This type of dietary regimen is recommended for those people who cannot tolerate some or all plant foods. In practice, it turned out that there are a lot of such people in the world. Most of them can live their whole life without knowing that they are in fact not able to digest and absorb many nutrients from plants.
6.1. Animal source foods in the evolutionary perspective
Looking at nutritional science we need to consider nutrient bioavailability, which is higher from animal source based foods (ASF) [29]. Here it is important to reiterate that both from the evolutionary, anthropological and ancestral perspective, as well as the macronutrient essentiality perspective we need to consider animal fat and protein, as essential for human health [13].
Hunting for meat was a critical step in all animal and human evolution. This culminated in the 3-million-year evolution of Homo sapiens and our overall demographic success [47].
6.2. Antinutrient elimination in the evolutionary perspective
The majority of plant species in the world are not edible, largely owing to the existence of toxins they produce. The process of domestication has diminished the levels of these toxic compounds over time, so the plant foods we consume today are far less toxic than their wild parents [43].
The requirements have to take into account the absence of antinutrients, compounds typically found in crop plants, that interfere with nutrient absorption by the human body. They are acting as chemical defense systems once created by plants millions of years ago for protection against other species, they can still harm due to biosimilarity of cell structure and function. Biosimilarity theory states all humans, animals, insects and fungi are closely related in terms of cell structure and DNA, so that plant toxins can have an effect on all. We did not evolve to eat too much of any plants, plants fight back [96].
The elimination of anti-nutrients and toxins contained in plant foods “can only be achieved (sometimes only partially) by pre-consumption processing like drying, soaking, sprouting, pounding, roasting, baking, boiling and fermentation. While these technologies are extensively used, mostly conjointly, in present day pre-consumption preparation of many plant foods, some were probably not practiced by H. erectus” [48], and thus should not be a part of an evolutionary healing strategy for aging and longevity.
Though some of the plant toxins in small doses are considered hormetins and can have a hormetic positive effect on cellular health, especially knowing their optimal dose-response [45], still removing them from nutritional regimen should diminish the risk of negative effects on health without compromising the overall nutritional value [46].
6.3. Essential requirements for optimal nutrition for longevity
Earlier we talked about the antagonistic relationship of reproductive and post-reproductive health.
We found out that evolutionarily speaking, the question about energy in the post-reproductive age is about maintaining the existing life by upregulating maintenance and repair.
In order to optimize the nutritional regimen for post-reproductive age and longevity we need to take following areas into consideration:
- Carbohydrate elimination and inhibition of nutrient bioavailability: remembering that carbohydrates are the only component of the three main macronutrients that are non-essential for human nutrition. Therefore eliminating the antinutrients from carbohydrates should not make a negative impact on the nutritional regimen, furthermore eliminating antinutrients should increase bioavailability of the micronutrients in the food.
- Gut permeability and chronic inflammation: diminishing chronic inflammation and cellular membrane permeability. Ketogenic nutrition exhibits anti-inflammatory properties inducing lower proinflammatory cytokine levels [106], decreases oxidative stress and improves mitochondrial respiratory complex activity [107], protecting neurons against multiple types of neuronal injury [108].
- Hormonal disruption: recent focus on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has been on the impact of these chemicals on human health. Humans, like wildlife, are not insulated from the environment, and effects in wildlife, including non-mammalian species, are indicative of and mirror effects in humans. Avoiding use of products with hormones and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, chemicals have adverse effects on animals and humans in the range of environmental exposures, which clearly indicates that low doses cannot be ignored [119].
- Energy optimization and digestibility: approaching satiety from the point of view of less food ingested and less energy used for digestion. We need to minimize energy loss from digestive processes, increasing systemic efficiency: CoP=Q/W→1, where CoP is a performance coefficient, a ratio of Q (energy output) to W (energy input). Maximizing the effectiveness of energy utilization and minimizing energy loss is especially important when restoring the optimal function of the digestive tract.
How do we apply evolutionary knowledge, species-specific ancestral knowledge in connection with the post-reproductive age for success in the longevity strategy? Which nutritional components are optimal, and which are sub-optimal for post-reproductive health, when nature is no longer on our side?
…… my book is coming on Amazon soon.
Questions?
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