Is Keto Right for You?
A friend of mine has been doing the Keto diet for nearly two years now. She swears by it and tells everyone she knows to get on it. But, as much as she’s excited about it, she’s also admittedly worried she’s now losing too much weight. She’s one of the people that I’d be worried about because of possible long-term effects.
Not All Bodies Are the Same
From fitness expert to stay-at-home mom, too many lay people play doctor with their own bodies and others’. Do this diet, do that diet, jumping from one fad to another, as if drinking pineapple juice for two weeks or eating grapefruit only or raw meat is really the solution to everything and everyone. But, we must remember, we are not all the same. We have different genetic makeup, different bodies, different heritages, food sources, daily routines, and different metabolisms. We cannot all eat the same! No two bodies are exactly alike.
Ketogenic Diet, The Problem
In the Ketogenic Diet, aka Keto, the liver produces “ketones”, a small molecule which gets used by the body as a fuel source when blood sugar (glucose) is of short supply. If you moderate your meat, restrict your carbs and eat larger amounts of good fats, your liver will produce these ketones from fat and your body switches to fat as its fuel supply.
Here’s the problem. On Keto, one person out of three might be very happy, thriving, in fact, their body responding exactly the way it should, they are ecstatic with their weight loss, they have energy and health, the second person will have no change and feel nothing, the third person will get sick, because their body cannot tolerate or adapt.
A Solution: Metabolic Typing is Personalized to You
Metabolic Typing Diet is a lifestyle, not a diet or fad. In Metabolic Typing (MT), your doctor or dietician tests your metabolism and finds the correct foods for you and your metabolism type, whereas diets like Keto, South Beach, Mediterranean, Vegan, are very generic. But it goes even a broad jump further, MT is detailed and in depth and tells you exactly what the wrong and right foods for you are, down to whether you should be eating broccoli or cauliflower. In MT, it’s how the body handles the food, not how the food handles the body. The major plus point of the Metabolic Typing diet is you can establish your metabolic type then tailor your diet (whether it’s Keto, Autoimmune Protocol, Paleo, etc) to your metabolic type. So, yes, you can be vegan and do it with Metabolic Typing. Once again, it’s how the body handles the food, not how the food handles the body.
For example, a Metabolic Type which mostly thrives on vegetables will feel sick on a meat diet and conversely, a metabolic type that thrives on red meat will feel sick on a vegan diet, and a mixed-type will thrive on a both. The fundamental of metabolic typing is how their body handles the food.
A balanced type would do great on the Gundry diet (which has mostly leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, nuts and seeds, pasture-raised meats and wild-caught fish) and, Dr. Steven Gundry in his book” The Plant Paradox” credits it with curing his arthritis, blood pressure and migraines. Kelly Clarkson credits it with her weight loss. But as no two bodies are alike, no one can guarantee these same results for everyone, which is why the MT diet is so cutting-edge even in its simplicity.
You can find out your metabolic type and then customize the diet of your choice to you, so carnivores can be carnivores and vegans can be vegan. No one goes hungry because of calorie limiting or loses energy because they burn through their fuel too fast. Fast oxidizers have their plans and slow oxidizers, who do great on vegan or vegetarian diets get energy from their own prospective food sources. And it’s all laid out in the plan, very specifically.
Blanket Claims are Dangerous
To claim Keto is the answer to all man’s ills is dangerous. Some people don’t need that much meat or fat. People can get sick. People should find out about their body needs. It can be easily done by getting their metabolic testing done.
How to Find out Your Metabolic Type
To find out your metabolic type you would see your holistic doctor or nutritionist and fill out a specific questionnaire and combined with a hair test, you find with total accuracy how your body behaves certain ways with certain foods. Different people handle food differently because we are all biochemically different.
Alkalinity and Acidity
The common idea is that since meat is acidic it’s not healthy, but for a fast oxidizer (or sympathetic type-acid) it alkalizes the body. Meat is not the problem in general, it’s how your body handles the food. For a slow oxidizer (parasympathetic type – alkaline) meat is not what’s best for them.
Your metabolic type is what determines the influence on your production and use of energy. A parasympathetic metabolic type will thrive on high fat, high protein, and low carb diet, whereas the sympathetic type thrives on high carb, low fat and protein.
Summary
No one diet is perfect for everyone. What is healthy for one is not healthy for all. Is Keto right for you? Use your judgment, if you’re not feeling good, it may not be for you. If you’re willing to go one step further because you really want to find the right foods for you, find your metabolic type, you’ll be able to tailor your favorite diet to the metabolic typing diet and feel amazing in the process.