Most of us (way too many of us at least) live on the world's crappiest diet. It's called the Standard American Diet, or SAD. It consists of a preponderance of carbohydrates, sugars, processed foods and unhealthy fats. We also commonly eat three main meals a day and snack in between. In terms of what it is doing to our bodies, this is suicide on the installment plan.

Americans are fat and getting fatter. Obesity and diabetes are rising at an alarming rate and people are panicked about a shortage of insulin to treat all the diabetes coming down the pike...when diabetes (type II) can be reversed in a matter of weeks with the right diet.

We now know enough to change to a much healthier diet but it requires a reset of our relationship to food. That's a very important point. The latest nutrition science lends new weight to the idea that our health depends primarily on what and when we eat. It's not just figuratively true, it's absolutely true that we are what we eat. It's astonishing how many diseases are metabolic/dietary in nature, including many if not most cancers. And it's positively mind-blowing how effectively they can be treated by a combination of the ketogenic diet and fasting – both intermittent and prolonged.

Don't expect your doctor to approve of the new science, unless your doctor is exceptional. Many doctors don't keep up with the cutting edge of medical science and med schools often teach nothing at all about nutrition. Moreover, our profit-based medical system has every incentive to ignore this new knowledge for it threatens their profits – and that's what they live for. It's in their best interest to keep us dependent upon pharmaceuticals and continued medical interventions. There's no money in telling a patient to go home and fast and start eating healthier foods. Why would they want to cure a patient when they can string them along for regular visits and payments for a lifetime? Profit distorts medicine into something unrecognizable to the art of healing and something not remotely in our best interest. Don't forget that when dealing with doctors. Physician, heal thyself.

It's important to understand that this is not crack science or just the latest fad. It is cutting edge nutritional science touted by the leading experts in the field and backed by extensive peer reviewed data. And what it's telling us is nothing short of amazing. It's not magic because it's science – but when applied, it feels like magic. What it's telling us is that we possess extraordinary powers to heal ourselves. Our bodies possess their own intelligence, and given the right conditions, can work wonders of healing, repair and rejuvenation.

This is not to disparage medical science, as opposed to our profit based 'health care' system, but to recognize and celebrate the powers mother nature and evolution have bestowed upon us. I won't belabor the evolutionary aspects here. I've done that elsewhere and it's easy to find that information. Suffice it to say we are perfectly adapted to stone age living. We are not adapted to eating grains, processed foods, a high carbohydrate or high sugar diet, nor are we adapted to eating tons of food all the time. We are wired for intermittent fasting and feasting and a diet of natural whole foods. The modern diet, especially the Standard American Diet, is divorced from what evolution has built us for. That's why there is an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc.

We have lived in a state of natural ketosis for most of our history. This is what is natural for us.

When you are in the metabolic state of ketosis your body switches to burning fat for energy rather than glucose (sugar), which is the fuel provided by the modern high carbohydrate diet.

The results of being in ketosis include dramatic weight loss which is pulled from your stored fat reserves as your body switches to burning primarily fat for its energy. It also improves cognition because the brain runs more efficiently on ketones than it does on glucose. And ketosis stimulates increased autophagy, one of the most powerful and important processes in the body – which we've only learned about fairly recently. The modern diet suppresses this critical process vital to the body's ability to heal and repair itself, resulting in widespread and unnecessary human suffering.

Autophagy scavenges the body for old cells, the amyloid-beta plaques that cause Alzheimer's, and other damaged and under-performing cells while stimulating the production of stem cells that can become any form of needed tissue, which the body knows exactly what to do with and where in the body to do it. By this process the body is capable of near miraculous feats of healing, repair and rejuvenation.

Again, don't expect your doctor to tell you about this. What your doctor doesn't know might kill you.

Even if your doctor bothers to keep up with cutting edge science and/or pay any attention at all to nutritional science, they may well not mention it to you. There is a strong incentive in our for-profit medical system to keep people sick, dependent on pharmaceuticals and coming back for further interventions forever and ever, amen. There is simply no profit in telling people to go home, learn to fast and start eating a trulty healthy (low carb/high fat) diet based on organic whole foods.

The centrality of profit perverts our system, doctors failing to keep up with science (either because of laziness, no time or because it's not required) erodes the standard of care, and the entire bloated and distorted system suffers from a peculiar inertia that is stubbornly resistant to change.

The saline used in IV bags could be killing you

“We’ve been sounding the alarm for 20 years” about possible harms from saline, said Dr. John Kellum, a critical care specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. “It’s purely inertia” that prevents a change, he said.

Purely inertia. IOWs, our system resists change whether that's caused by concern for profits, bureaucracy, politics or sheer incompetence – it puts cutting edge medicine, and certainly anything unprofitable but worthy, out of the reach of patients – who are in so many ways just guinea pigs to the system. Profitable guinea pigs.

It's important to take your healthcare into your own hands to the greatest extent possible. The good and amazing news is that the current science allows us to become our own physicians. Not exclusively but to a much larger extent than ever before.

None of this should be taken as medical advice, disease is complex, every situation is different and life is precious, but it is important news to be shared (imho). This information will be life giving/saving for many as it has been for me, so please do share if you agree.

We can strengthen and rejuvenate ourselves from the inside out by choosing wisely what goes into our bodies. It's possible to do the ketogenic diet solely by focusing on the macro-nutrient ratios (from whatever source): high fat, moderate protein and low carb. But when food is viewed as medicine, the quality of the food becomes important. The simple rule of thumb is to (when possible) eat whole foods and all organic. Avoid all processed food, all sugars and anything exposed to insecticides, weed killers, etc. Also no meat exposed to antibiotics or fed corn (aka vegetarian fed). All corn in the USA is genetically modified so they can use Monsanto's weedkiller Roundup on it. Roundup is glyphosate, a known carcinogen which has been found in alarming levels throughout our food supply.

You can cut your cancer risk by eating organic, a new study says

“You can protect yourself from cancer by eating organic, a new study suggests. Those who frequently eat organic foods lowered their overall risk of developing cancer, a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine finds.

(snip)

Those who ate the most organic food were 25% less likely to develop cancer.“

Dr. Rhonda Patrick is awesome. She gets a little science-y but she's wicked smaht. And the info she has to share is invaluable. It's not necessary to follow all the detailed science to gain immeasurably from watching this video.

Our food can heal us but it can also kill us.

Eating healthy food that optimizes our biochemistry and boosts our bodies efficiency at self-repair, healing and rejuvenation is difficult in our society where almost all the food choices are bad. It takes work, commitment and effort to stick to healthy, organic whole foods in the correct range of macro-nutrients. I think it's especially hard if we continue to relate to food as primarily entertainment, fun or sensory gratification. Because sometimes a good diet is restrictive. But if we can transition to thinking of food as medicine, carefully considering the impact of each thing we eat, it becomes easier and the results (weight loss and feeling awesome all over) are self-reinforcing. It feels good to feel good.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found something useful here. A lot of people could benefit from this information. Feel free to spread it around.

bonus links:

The Shocking Truth About The Keto Diet | Dom D'Agostino on Health Theory

KETO NUTRITION

IS THE KETO DIET HEART HEALTHY? 7 REASONS WHY THIS CARDIOLOGIST AGREES
(Eating fat is good for your cholesterol!)

Can the science of autophagy boost your health?

Ketogenic Diet Shows Promising Results for All Dementia Stages

Neuroprotective and disease-modifying effects of the ketogenic diet