Woke up today and weighed myself. Ā Havenāt lost any weight in about a week but Iām not discouraged! This weekend I was away on vacation and couldnāt stick to my diet as well as I wanted to - it wasnāt available. But Iām excited to be back from vacation and do this diet on full blast!
I made Bulletproof Coffee this morning for the first time! It was surprisingly delicious! I love that is coffee is basically 100% made of fat. I did notice that I started getting a headache after drinking it. Ā I think this is due to my body and my brain getting used to the transition from a high-carb diet to a low-carb diet. Ā Iāve read that the first month on the keto diet you see symptoms like this and they can come in stages - itās just your body adjusting to the new diet. Iām kind of excited to see these changes happening because it means I am actually making changes and the diet is working. Iām also interested to see what my ketone levels will be with consuming so much fat.Ā
As I was drinking my coffee, I decided to read a few chapters of Gary Taubes book Good Calories, Bad Calories. Ā I especially got excited and intrigued and kind of furious with the dementia, cancer, and aging chapter. Ā My grandmother has Alzheimerās disease so Iām extremely interested with this disease, what causes it, and how it can be prevented. In short, the cause is sugar and the cure to stop eating sugar. Ā Itās so simple and the research is evident - it just aggravates me that we are still trying to come up with cure for Alzheimerās when we already have it. Ā
So the breakdown of how sugar affects our body in relation to the brain and Alzheimerās is the following:Ā
Sugar is half fructose and half glucose
The more AGEs in the brain, the more amyloid-plaque buildup in the brain
Amyloid-plaque buildup in the brainĀ āresults in the degeneration and death of neurons in the Alzheimerās affected braināĀ
Now we have something called insulin-degrading enzymes (IDEs) that cleans up the amyloid-plague buildup. BUT when insulin enters the body it demands the attention of the IDEs. Ā So the IDEs donāt clean up all the plaque in the brain, which leads the plaque to create Alzheimerās symptoms -Ā ādegeneration of neuron (brain) cells, cell lose, and the dementia of Alzheimerās.ā
So basically when we eat sugar (or carbs that turn into sugar) it forms AGEās which causes plaque buildup (which canāt be cleaned up by IDEs because insulin demands its attention) thus causing Alzheimerās symptoms.
āThis implies that anything that decreases insulin levels (and so increases the amount of IDE available to clean up amyloid-plaque) - including a dietary approach of eating less carbohydrates - WILL achieve [decreased amyloid levels in the human brain].āĀ
While I was reading this I became very frustrated and infuriated with our society. Ā My grandmother resides in an Alzheimerās home in North Dakota and every time I visit her the staff is stuffing cookies and sweets down her throat - the exact thing that is causing her Alzheimerās!!! Ā Granted it isnāt their fault - they probably donāt know the effects of sugar on Alzheimerās victims, but then it is up to our public health officials, organizations, and scientists to EDUCATE people of the cause and prevention of Alzheimerās. Ā But that would require those people to accept that sugar and carbs impacts our body in this way. Ā They are so against this diet and itās killing people.Ā
I did a semester long research project on the keto diet for a health class in college and I remember reading one paper where they used Medium Chain Triglycerides (or MCTs) - like coconut oil - to REVERSE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF ALZHEIMERāS! WHAT?!! They showed in the study that by consuming MCT oils (eating coconut oil everyday) one can reverse Alzheimerās. Ā Not only can we prevent Alzheimerās, but if someone has this terrible disease it might not be too late for them to reverse symptoms! This study makes complete sense now that I read Taubesā book because eating MCT oils forces the brain to run on these oils (fat) - think of it as fuel for the brain. So the brain is running on MCT oils (the brain is running on fat not sugar) which lets the IDEs do their job and clean up that plaque that causes Alzheimerās symptoms.
And donāt even get me started on cancer.....