Dr Ghayur Ayub
TWO events in 1955 sparked a phenomenon that disturbed human metabolism in following decades. That year, President Eisenhower had a heart attack and an enthusiastic physiologist, Ancel Keys from Minnesota presented a biased research at the expert meeting of World Health Organization in Geneva to prove that high cholesterol and fat caused heart attacks. His work became known as ‘Seven Countries Study’. Influenced by his research, the representatives of American Heart Association appeared on television in 1956 informing the public that a diet with large amount of fat, butter, lard and eggs led to coronary heart disease. The message persuaded the American govt which recommended that people adopt a low-fat and high carb diet in order to prevent heart disease. The message was loud and clear. It convinced the professionals all over the world and bang wagon of Ansel diet started to roll. The food and pharmaceutical industries took advantage of it and their business started to boom.
It took a few decades for the new researches to realise that low fat and high carb diet disturbed the millennial-old body metabolism and it led to unwanted obesity which became a kind of epidemic in the West. According to CDC, 87% of population in America is overweight. To understand that, let us look at a few basic facts. There are three primary sources of fuel; carbohydrate, fat and protein. Natural body metabolism works according to the need, capacity and availability of these sources. Carbohydrate is absorbed and burns quickly. A limited amount lasting for a day or two is stored as glycogen. Fat is stored in unlimited amount for a long period. Protein takes the middle road and is stored in muscles to maintain the body muscle mass. When the first source – carbohydrate – is burnt, fat takes over the charge and starts burning sparing protein which is needed in muscles for physical activities. In this way, a metabolic balance is maintained to keep a healthy life by using approximately 20% carbohydrate, 70% fat and 10% protein. This balance was disturbed in the 1950s with a new diet having a ratio of 70% carbohydrate, 20% fat and 10% protein. Not just that, the industries took advantage of the addictive quality of carbohydrate and started producing sugar and propagating sugary products of highly processed snacks in between the meals. The high consumption of such products resulted in persistently high blood glucose which in turn increased the Insulin level. Insulin is an anabolic enzyme which pushes glucose into cells filling them to the brim and not allowing the stored glycogen and fat to take part in metabolic process. The constant high level of Insulin adversely affected the Insulin receptors in the cell walls giving rise to a condition called Insulin Resistance.
Recent researches have shown that one third of documented population in America is Insulin Resistant. The actual number must be high as not all population is documented. Other researches have proved that Insulin Resistance is the main cause of obesity. Combination of the two led to a third condition called Metabolic Syndrome which turned out to be the mother of serious diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, blindness, stroke, Alzheimer, dementia, peripheral vascular diseases, cancer and many more. People with Metabolic Syndrome develop abdominal fat, high triglyceride, hypertension, low HDL (good cholesterol) and high LDL (bad cholesterol). The clinicians instead of concentrating on causes of diseases linked to Metabolic Syndrome, gave attention to their symptoms and started treating the symptoms with awful outcome. A typical example is type 2 diabetes treated with drugs to increase blood level of Insulin which boosts Insulin Resistance starting an unending viscous cycle with appalling end results. The professionals should have studied these diet-related diseases carefully and linked them to the abnormal metabolism created by the unnatural diet and tried to reverse the Insulin Resistance. They did not. Until new researchers found out the way and came up with a new diet comprising of 5% carb, 75% fat and 20% protein. They called it ketogenic diet because it produces ketones as by-product when body burns fat. With this diet blood glucose and Insulin gradually drop to normal levels converting Insulin resistance to Insulin sensitive. Moreover, as opposed to high carb diet, one cannot eat a lot of fatty food as fat sends sensation of feeling full. It also kills hunger. In this way, keto diet leads not only to weight loss but it also reverses many diseases such as diabetes caused by decades’ old high-carb and low-fat diet.
The question is how we can measure whether the diet is effective or not. Weight loss can easily be checked. The main culprit – Insulin Resistance – can be checked indirectly by measuring fasting blood sugar, Hg A1C, and blood Insulin. Normal fasting blood sugar level is between 80 to 100mg. Normal A1C level is less than 5 and normal Insulin is between 2.6 to 8 uIU/ml. Insulin Resistance can also be checked directly through Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR). According to Dr Sten Ekburg it is measured by multiplying fasting Insulin level with fasting glucose level and dividing it by 405 as constant. Its normal value is 0.5 to 1.5. If the result of keto diet is slow coming, aerobic, anaerobic or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) exercise is added to the regime. Some experts advise intermittent fasting, while others recommend sound sleep and sound mind as additional help. But it is the keto diet which reverses Insulin Resistance to Insulin Sensitive. And Insulin Resistance is the initiator of Metabolic Syndrome which in turn opens flood gates to many serious diet-related diseases.
— The writer is a freelance columnist, based in United Kindgom.
