Is low carb dangerous? possibly.

It is glucose that the body requires and your body can make up any lack of glucose without problem, otherwise people people would have to eat very small meals every hour or so, including throughout the night in order to keep the glucose supply steady.

It is thought low carb is safe. I haven't seen any studies longer than a year or two. There aren't many studies on any diets and their long term safety though.

The South African meerkat carries hardly any fat reserves, so it must eat constantly. They've developed an interesting cooperative social structure to survive.

http://www.livescience.com/27406-meerkats.html

http://www.animalfactguide.com/animal-facts/meerkat/

Low carb can be dangerous for T1 diabetics and hypoglycemics especially, as sometimes they need a fast acting carb to get out of a low.

Your body can convert protein to glucose as well.

Dangerous? Not from my experience. I spent over a year in ketosis (not ketoacidosis) with mostly positive effects (and an admitted non-stop craving for pizza.) My body readily converted fat to ketones. I lost over 60 lbs in six months.

realityfades wrote: »

Hornsby wrote: »

Your body can convert protein to glucose as well.

Ah, I didn't know that. Is it enough to sustain the amount of energy the brain needs though? How much protein gets converted into glucose? I'm genuinely curious

If you mean few enough carbs to induce Ketosis, you could look up "Ketone Bodies" on wikipedia or elsewhere for some good intel.

Brain function tends to suffer a bit initially (brain-fog, cranky, etc) but once you're body stops waiting for more carbs and makes the switch, you're good to go.

I have a LOT of weight to lose. I have tried EVERY SINGLE DIET out there. I went back to low carb at the beginning of the year. I've lost 11.5 pounds so far. I know that will even out and lessen as time goes on. I will say that with this way of eating, I have never felt better. The first few days are the hardest as you detox from sugar/junk. Day four for me, honestly, I didn't think I was gonna make it. LOL I mean... I was beyond *kitten* to my husband, and wanted to cry. I felt nauseous. Woke up day five and felt like a new person. If you can stick it out the first few days knowing that it gets better, it's worth it. I feel amazing. No cravings...never starving. I usually have to remember to eat something...which at 150 lbs to lose you know is not something I'm used to having to remember Definitely no brain fog. I feel more alert, focused, etc. Had blood work done a few days back and it's all great. Cholesterol, triglycerides, everything. My biggest struggle is redoing everything about how I cook for my family. I have to relearn how to cook. My husband is diabetic, and it's helped his blood sugar numbers as well. He does eat a few more carbs just so his blood doesn't go to low.

realityfades wrote: »

It said that the brain alone requires 120-130 grams of carbs a day to remain healthy. To me, that implies eating a low carb diet may be starving the organs when done long enough.

Your body is able to make what it needs for that purpose if you don't provide it through diet. (My understanding is that it still needs a very small amount of carbs as it can't do gluconeogenesis [edit: ugh, always mess up the name of this process] if completely glycogen depleted, but even keto isn't no carb.)

There are long-term studies on diets (as in various ways of eating) due to things like the nurses and health professional studies, which is where we are able to see lots of correlations (and follow up on them -- they mostly seem consistent with common sense, IMO). But I doubt there's a long enough and significant enough group for low carb to be looked at, let alone something like keto. And there would be lots of things that would have to be controlled for, like if it was a disproportionately overweight population (since it's often chosen for weight loss) or a population more inclined toward certain diseases (since it gets recommended to them) or, of course, a population more likely to be thinking a lot about how they eat. It's like how studies of vegans get distorted by the fact that they are likely more health conscious and often more active.

The best place to go for a study would be traditional diets/populations, but my understanding is that there aren't any that are keto. There are some that are low carb, though -- it appears that humans can have a healthy diet with a huge range of macro mixes, so I tend to think focusing on macros as the key to health is really beside the point. As a way to help yourself make better choices it can be helpful, though.

I apologize if this was discussed in the article (I quickly skimmed it):

• The liver and muscles store a ton of glucose as glycogen (which are very long chains of glucose molecules). When blood glucose levels are low, the pancreas releases glucagon, which is a hormone that tells the liver to break down some of its glycogen into glucose.
• Protein can be "converted" into carbohydrates if the body has a greater need for carbs. This is why many people on a keto diet cannot eat super high amounts of protein, because that will trigger the body to stop ketosis (this is also why many diabetics on insulin need to take some insulin for low-carb high-protein foods, like chicken breasts)
• This is pretty interesting and I only found out about it a few weeks ago, but some cells don't require insulin for glucose to be transported. GLUT3, a glucose transporter in the brain, runs independent of insulin. Technically, a person can be on a low-carb diet (or be void of insulin in type 1 diabetes) and still have glucose fueling the brain. Protein can be converted into carbs (which could possibly be stored as glycogen in excess). Muscles are composed of a lot of protein, so in instances of long-term starvation the body can start to break down muscle in order to obtain glucose. The big issue with the brain and glucose metabolism is in instances of severe hypoglycemia where glycogen stores are already severely depleted. I read a study that showed the continuous-glucose-monitor data of a type 1 diabetic who died from hypoglycemia (death in bed syndrome), and the body tried to bring up his BG multiple times (glucagon is released, glycogen breaks down into glucose, BG rises... BG concentration drops again, the cycle repeats... The Somogyi effect is a great example of what happens during this process). At some point, the man's glycogen stores were completely depleted, there was still an insulin excess, and the man passed away as a result of his BG being SUPER low (I think close to zero, but I'm having issues finding the study again and am not 100% sure)

Sorry if I started to ramble (clearly, I need to do A LOT more research). I think keto is useful in some situations (especially when cutting carbs might help a person create the calorie deficit necessary for weight loss), but there are some instances where a person might find keto inappropriate. The body has numerous mechanisms in place to make sure vital organs receive adequate glucose, but some diseases might cause these mechanisms to fail.

Personally, I wouldn't follow a keto diet, because I'm very prone to going into diabetic ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis is very different from ketosis (ketoacidosis occurs from uncontrolled ketosis as a result of insulin deficiency, hyperglycemia, and dehydration), but I would have issues determining if I am urinating moderate ketones from a keto diet (and don't need to do any interventions), or if I'm urinating moderate ketones because of an insulin deficiency because of my insulin pump failing to administer insulin (which would require me to resolve the deficiency ASAP before ketoacidosis occurs).

realityfades wrote: »

senecarr wrote: »

During periods of low carbohydrate intake, the body begins favoring different metabolic pathways.
In such a state, the brain's demand for glucose becomes partially met by using ketones, and to a lesser extent, possibly lactic acid. In such a state, the needs go from the usual ~120g/day to around ~25g/day.

This last ~25g remains so vital, however, that your body is capable of gluconeogenesis to make glucose out of various substances: lactate, glycerol (possibly stripped from a triglyceride / fat), alanine (amino acid), and glutamine (amino acid), and about 10% other substances, many of them other amino acids.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis

Thanks for the bit of info. I guess that's why Atkins has such a short induction phase. The amount of carbs allowed on that would certainly be detrimental if done for very long periods of time.

People have done ketosis for years at a time. As far as I know, there have not been any reported "detrimental" affects that you keep claiming. While I think keto is encouraged too much right now as the "cure-all", it is not some horrible, evil diet that will kill everyone like you seem to be implying.