Ketogenic Diet For Weight Loss and Health - Compatible With the Genesis Diet

See: Our diets over the years for an update about our current diet.

Patti and I recently tried the ketogenic diet because our staff was on it and losing weight, and having pains in their body disappear. Once we got on it food cravings disappeared which, to me is the biggest benefit of this diet. Also, by doing all the steps listed below, we have been able to lose 1 pound per week for the last 14 weeks (lots of careful eating and fasting to accomplish this). This diet causes a release of ketones in your body. Fasting also causes a release of ketones. Thus the ketogenic diet releases health benefits similar to fasting, and is even called a fasting-mimicking diet. 

The Ketogenic diet is similar to the Genesis diet (Gen. 1:29) in that it can be completely vegetarian (however, it doesn’t have to be). Keep healthy fats high (70%), healthy carbs to 5% (20 - 30 grams net carb) and protein consumption low (25%). If you are sticking to the Genesis diet, then your protein will be plant based. Otherwise it can be plant and animal based. In this article, Harvard Medical School reports that eating meat once a day raised death rate 13% above normal, and meat twice a day raised death rate to 20% above normal. Getting your protein from nuts reduces your death rate to 13% below normal. Personally, I choose a 33% lower death rate. 

This it is a complete inversion of the U.S. food pyramid. You take fats off the top of the pyramid and put healthy fats on the bottom, and carbs go from the base of the pyramid to the top. When God gave us a plant-based diet in Gen. 1:29, it included healthy fats, healthy carbs and plant-based protein, however there is no mention of the proportion of these three ingredients in the Bible.

The base of the U.S. food paradigm says make carbs your largest food intake. As a result of this high carb intake, almost 50% of the population of America is either pre-diabetic or diabetic and we are fatter and sicker than ever. Carbs break down into sugar in our bodies. Sugar causes and feeds cancer. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that the average American consumes between 150 to 170 pounds of refined sugars in one year (and if you add in the carbs that break down into sugar, the total is over 3000 pounds)! Sugar is in everything, and sugar destroys your health!  Every 4 grams of sugar is a teaspoon so be sure to look at labels before you buy and really get an idea of how sugar-laden a food may be. 

1. The CDC's current estimate is that 70% of the U.S. adult population is overweight so keto can help them get down to weight
2. It is estimated that 80% of the U.S. population has leaky gut, so bypassing non-organic wheat and grains and gluten will help the gut lining heal.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture not only provides us our food pyramid. The USDA's stated purpose is to protect and promote the interests of our nation’s farming industry. Their vision, taken right out of the official USDA website: “…to provide economic opportunity through innovation, helping rural America to thrive…” Talk about a conflict of interest!

The ketogenic food pyrmid

Used by permission from NEWS THAT SPARKS - AUG 6, 2018 - Read entire article here

Reflections on above pyramid: Marcia Upson, a trainer on "eating slim" states that "Fruit is nature’s candy and meant to be had in moderation." Marcia goes on to say, "I have an occasional person who go 'nuts on nuts.' What I mean is nuts are very calorie dense and they consume too many calories on nuts. I tell them to check the amount of calories in the amount of nuts they like to eat." 

Why we choose to only eat natural food created by God. If man has created or modified the food, there are many studies proving this modified food damages your health. To see these studies go to GreenMedInfo and using their search bar, type in anything you want to know about, then scroll down for a list of amazing researched articles.

For example do searches on such phrases as: refined foods, low fat foods, GMO foods, poly unsaturated fats, trans fats, sugar, artificial sweeteners, sugar substitutes, beets, turmeric, ginger, coconut oil, Milk Thistle, vitamin B, vitamin D, synthetic vitamins, whole food vitamins, liver, heart, bladder, cancer, circulation, vaccination, soda, flu shot, etc. Only ten items appear per list, so on the bottom of page 1, click on 2, etc. to see more articles.

Do your own research on the GreenMedInfo website. You can do similar searches on Josh Axe's website and Life Extension website. With Life Extension you can use the buttons on the left to further refine your search for either products or articles. Mercola's website generally has a search bar, though occasionally it seems to disappear.

You will gain all the knowledge you need to make wise healthy decisions. It is your body and your health and the health of your family. 

Healthy life expectancy is now longer in China than in the U.S.!

I do not trust the health of my body or my diet to others. If I do entrust myself to current wisdom, then statistics say I have 2 more years of healthy living left, as by 68, according to their statistics, I enter a decade of poor health before I die at 78. I am choosing a different path. The quote below was in this article which was posted on Drudge on May 30, 2018.

China has overtaken the United States in healthy life expectancy at birth for the first time, according to World Health Organization data. Chinese newborns can look forward to 68.7 years of healthy life ahead of them, compared with 68.5 years for American babies, the data - which relates to 2016 - showed. American newborns can still expect to live longer overall - 78.5 years compared to China's 76.4 - but the last 10 years of American lives are not expected to be healthy.

The U.S. ranks 49 in life expectancy out of 220 nations. The American healthcare system is ranked 37th amongst the nations of the world by the World Health Organization. With 1/4 of the nations living longer than U.S. citizens, I know something is broken. What I believe is broken is that the foods we eat are artificial and manmade and thus destructive to our bodies. Also the current healthcare approach to degenerative disease focuses on treating the symptoms rather than removing the root cause. In addition, most doctors only received 3 - 17 hours of training on nutrition while in medical school!  I choose to let food be my medicine. These are the reasons I take responsibility for my own health.

U.S. doctors are excellent for trauma care and putting you back together if you have been in an accident. I will surely use them if I need trauma care. However, reports of the number of accidental deaths in U.S. hospitals are absolutely staggering.

Dr. Mercola explains the Ketogenic diet (avoid using Chrome when accessing)

• Everything You Need to Know About the Ketogenic Diet
• Basic Introduction to Metabolic Mitochondrial Therapy – Fat for Fuel - Mark's comment: Note Mercola discusses the need to cycle out of ketosis one or two days a week so your body is still comfortable burning carbs for fuel.  Mercola discusses cycling in-depth here.
• How the Sugar Industry Managed to Dupe the World for Decades - Fats were blamed for poor health, yet the studies show sugars are the cause of poor health, and healthy fats are essential for good health! These TWO big mistakes got rolled into one mammoth misdirection which is: "Don't eat fats, and do eat carbs and sugar."
• Every cell  membrane is made from fats. Healthy fats nourish healthy cell membranes and unhealthy fats create unhealthy cell membranes. Fats are the building blocks in your body.

Studies on the health benefits of the Ketogenic diet

• 50 studies on the health benefits of the Ketogenic diet. Click here for the first of these studies. Then on the bottom of the page go on to pages, 2,3,4,5 for a total of 50 studies.
• Explore these links on Longevity and the Ketogenic diet and these links also.
• The Scientific Guide to Keto
• PubMed has 2300+ studies listed on the effects of the ketogenic diet
• PubMed – article search on the words “fasting cancer” (5000 plus results)
• PubMed – article search on the words “fasting immune system” (1500 plus results)

John Hopkins University and Keto (they have used Keto for 100 years)

• The Ketogenic Diet Center an John Hopkins
• John Hopkins Medicine – search for low carbohydrate ketogenic diet
• John Hopkins Medicine - High-Fat Ketogenic Diet Misunderstood, Underused
• John Hopkins Medicine - Ketogenic Diet Shown Safe and Effective Option For Some with Rare and Severest Form of Epilepsy

“The rationale for the high-fat ketogenic diet, popularized by neurologists at Johns Hopkins over the past 30 years, is based on the fact that it accelerates the body’s metabolism of fats, similar to fasting, which appears to alter the excitability of nerve cells in the brain. When most of a person’s calories or energy come from fat, the body accumulates metabolic breakdown products known as ketone bodies. Ketones are easily measured in the blood and urine. After two days, all patients had detectible levels of ketones, showing that they were metabolizing fat — rather than carbohydrates or proteins — for cellular energy.”

Ketogenic Tips

1. You NEED a reason - The reasons we choose healthy living are because we: Want to enjoy our grandchildren; we believe our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit; we want to celebrate our golden years in vibrant health and not in bed; we see the misery of others who enter their golden years in pain. What is your reason and do you hold it with enough passion to put in the work to maintain health? I pray so! Look around and say to yourself, "I do not want to be in the health condition of so many that I see."
2. Our initial period on the ketogenic diet was 9 weeks. Now we are experimenting with cycling out of ketosis on some periodic schedule. 
3. Restricting food intake to two meals a day, within a 6 - 7 hour window (12:00 and 6:00 works for us). This is called intermittent  fasting, and has many proven health benefits. Lower calories also seems wise to us. We are averaging about 1400 calories a day which is about 1/3 less than we used to eat. Since the ketogenic diet removes food cravings, not eating till noon is no problem.
4. We sure love keto (bulletproof) coffee first thing in the morning. Just so you know, studies show drinking coffee extends your life. This holds us till noon.
5. We have a cup of green tea daily which has many proven health benefits. 
6. To lose weight, you need stay in ketosis: Keep healthy fats high (70%) and healthy carbs to 5% (20 - 30 grams net carb) and protein consumption low (25%).Keep in mind when calculating this that 1 gram of fat = 8.9 calories, while 1 gram of carbs or protein = 4 calories. 
7. We have chosen to avoid soy for the reasons mentioned in this linked article.

Products and steps of action

1. We add 1 or 2 tablespoons of MCT Oil (Medium Chain Triglycerides) into one or two drinks each day to help insure we stay in ketosis (lunch smoothie and morning keto coffee). For our keto coffee, we add to regular coffee 1 TBS of MCT oil, 1 TBS of butter and 2 squirts of stevia and whip it up nicely in a blender. It is truly delicious and we muscle test strong for it, meaning it is healthy for our bodies! Be cautious as taking too much MCT as it can cause loose stools. Your body gets used to it, so maybe one TBS for a week, then try going to two. MCT Oil has many health benefit listed here and here. Here is an excellent article detailing the science showing the fascinating health benefits of MCT Oil. Drinking this first thing in the morning insures we stay in ketosis for the day, and totally wipes out our craving for food for the day. Can I say AWESOME!!!
2. We check to insure we are staying in ketosis by using Ketone test strips.
3. When in ketosis you do not have the same muscle strength. I found I could not do as many push-ups as I was doing. Same will be true with weight training.
4. You need to keep your electrolytes high. the Ketogenic diet tends to lower electrolytes in your body so you need to take some steps. Blogs which discuss appropriate steps are here, here, here, and here. We take a calcium,magnesium, potassium supplement.

Renewed interest in fasting

We have a renewed interest in the health benefits of a fasting as many of the sites we were reading recommend a 5 day water fast. So we tried one. Water only is truly a challenge and at the close of day 4 we took a cup of bone broth. I had been hoping that since we were already in ketosis before the fast began, it would be easier than normal. However it wasn't. We still felt weak during it. However, one really amazing result was that we both lost more weight in 5 days than we ever have before when fasting. I lost 8.5 pounds, which of course is very exciting when you are trying to get down to weight. 

So I did some muscle testing at the close of the fast to see if the bone broth had been damaging to the fast, and here is what I found. It was shocking to me and not what I expected to learn.

Using MRT, both Patti's and my body answered this question: "Will adding to a water only fast keto coffee and bone broth affect the health benefits of the fast?"

1. Keto coffee is fine once a day
2. Bone Broth is fine twice a day
3. Will still maintain many of the benefits of the water fast 
4. We will lose as much weight as a water fast only (normally 1 pound a day)
5. Taking MCT oil will NOT harm the fast.
6. Our bodies will still make new stem cells
7. Will not reboot the immune system and 60% of the autophagy benefits are lost (as this requires a water ONLY fast of 3 days to accomplish these things) 

Summary: Since it is so much easier to maintain a fast if we add bone broth and keto coffee to it, we will next time be adding them. It then technically is no longer a water fast, but still maintains many health benefits.

Whenever we want to reboot our immune systems, we will stick with water only for 3 days. 

Other answers we got using MRT

1. We noticed that we lost more weight than normal during our 5 day water fast so MRT told us it was 40% due to us already being ketosis before the fast began and 60% due to the fact we added two tablespoons of MCT daily.
2. Autophagy WILL occur in a three day water fast, but is 60% hindered if we add keto coffee and bone broth. (Note: autophagy is when your immune system eats up the weak and damaged cells in your body so new healthy ones can replace them - Isa. 58:8). See article on Autophagy. Autophagy DOES occur in an 18 hour water only fast (i.e. intermittent fasting), although much less than in a 3 day water fast, and adding green tea and keto coffee did not appear to hinder this smaller amount of autophagy from taking place.
3. Taking MCT oil will NOT harm the fast other than stopping the rebooting of your immune system.
4. Taking Oxy Powder will kill bad bacteria in the colon and this kill off produces diarrhea.  Don't take so much as to make you have a bowel movement in the middle of the night. Taking Oxy Powder in the morning is as effective as taking it in the evening but then don't eat eat during that day.
5. Taking SF722 kills yeast overgrowth in the gut, thus restoring the gut.
6. Taking 1/2 tablespoon of Coconut Activated Charcoal (in a glass of water) daily is beneficial to removing toxins from your body.
7. Taking L-Glutamine Powder and Restore will strengthen the colon wall. 

Summary: When focusing on losing weight, we will enter a fast already on ketosis and add MCT during the fast. When focusing on rebooting the immune system and autophagy, we will do a 3 day water only fast, and in severe health crisis, longer. Since all disease begins in the gut, we will take SF722 and Oxy-Powder daily, until our bodies tell us our gut is healed.

What looks to us like an exciting way to live comfortably, be healthy and lose weight

The lady who produced the bone broth we are using at this point (may be purchased here), suggests 2 days a week on bone broth, water, coffee and teas. We are going to try this as this looks like an exciting life-style change we can put into our lives fairly easily and it will result in better health and weight loss. So keto coffee has 230 calories in it, and two cups of bone broth has 140 calories, so we would be down to 370 calories for those two days of the week. This is very exciting as we expect this to promote extra weight loss, greater health and be easy to live with! So we will see. 

Since we are likely to take weekends for our higher carb meals, Monday and Tuesday are great days for us to do keto coffee, bone broth, and green tea. We may have a meal Tuesday evening (i.e. 48 hours from dinner Sunday evening to dinner on Tuesday), depending on our hunger level.

Our favorite Keto websites

1. Free streaming video series on the Ketogenic diet that convinced us!
2. Great websites for healthy, delicious Ketogenic foods (food, shakes, fat bombs and chocolate treats)

• www.peaceloveandlowcarb.com
• https://draxe.com/?s=keto+recipes
• https://www.allrecipes.com/search/results/?wt=Keto&sort=re
• www.dietdoctor.com
• https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/category/Recipes
• https://www.ditchthecarbs.com
• www.ketoconnect.net
• https://www.wholesomeyum.com
• https://www.mypcoskitchen.com
• Low carb keto-friendly bread
• Moon Cheese snack – there are lots of options on Amazon
• Jovial – a place to get healthy carbs - flour, pasta
• Dr. Kellyann and Dr. Kellyann store - Collagen, bone broth, bars and shakes

Excellent resources for healthy living

1. How to heal up a leaky gut 
2. Phytoplankton from Ocean's Alive
3. Restore – Strengthen tight junctions in the gut wall
4. Digestive Freedom Plus - The BEST digestive product I have experienced in my life!