How the Keto Diet Wrecked Me
Are you on the fence about going keto?
Have you read some pretty convincing literature that this diet could be your golden ticket to healing?
Or maybe you’ve had personal experience losing a ton of weight with this diet?
If this way of eating is detrimental to your vital organ health long term then why do so many people see results immediately upon ditching the carbs? How does the keto diet reek havoc on the liver?
And finally, when is the keto diet even medically indicated?
Sure, the counter-literature is out there bringing to light why keto isn’t so glorious after all. However, from my personal experience and research, the counter evidence is not the literature that is promoted nor highlighted. Early on in my healing journey, a Functional Medicine practitioner recommended that I implement the keto diet for mitochondria function and sustained healing results. I dove in headfirst, dropping the carbs and reading all I could on how keto would save me from chronic illness. Soon after implementing plates full of meat, oils, and green veggies, I went through the traditional keto flu. Then not long after I started peeing ketones on a urinary tracking device, I actually started feeling quite well. I was eating all the meats, oils, healthy fats, no dairy, no gluten, completely Paleo and only one piece of fruit a day maximum!
Things Got Bad
What I didn’t know at the time was that my autoimmune liver (completely burdened by an underlying viral illness and heavy-metal toxicity in my body) would eventually crash and burn from this way of eating. I lost a little bit of weight initially but I soon noticed I wasn’t performing well in workouts and cystic acne began to spread along my chin. My body was clearly under stress. But the “research“ said keto was going to be my lifeline into mitochondrial revival and autoimmune healing. I started noticing my fatigue increasing, my weight not budging, and emotional symptoms arising in me like anger coming straight from my right upper quadrant.
One morning when I was praying over my body, I felt the spirit speak to me about my liver… I was in complete disarray about the symptoms going haywire in my body. After all I had read about going keto, I was no longer experiencing the glorious benefits proclaimed. So I lifted my hands and asked “what on earth do I even do now?” And I heard, “It’s your liver Jen, it’s your liver”. I really had no idea what that meant at the time but in hindsight I was being guided down a more optimal healing path for my body.
A couple days later on the way to an appointment with my practitioner, I remember sitting up straight in the driver seat feeling my liver bulging out of the right side of my rib cage. “What in the world?!?” I thought, “I don’t even drink alcohol; how could this be?!”. When I mentioned this new finding to my practitioner, they just said “it is a parasite” and gave me a new bottle of supplement support. I won’t negate that there was probably an incredible quota of bugs and critters in my body, but in my heart I knew another anti-parasitic supplement was not going to do my body justice. My body needed deep cleansing and to utilize nutritional therapy to open up my detox pathways and cleanse my blood!
This appointment with my practitioner happened right before the turn of my healing journey when I felt led to throw all my supplements in the trash and leave the care of my current practitioner team.
I wasn’t getting better, in fact I was getting worse.
Fast forward a few months later, my fatigue had increased and I eventually became bedridden sick. I was dabbling in between keto and adding juicing into my diet – my mind was at war with my heart. The science says do the keto Jen, but I felt like the Spirit was leading me into another way.
The Last Straw
In the winter of 2017 I came down with the flu like viral illness that was the straw that broke the camel’s back hauling me along my chronic illness journey. After this acute viral illness, I could not recover to go to work, I wasn’t strong enough to go to the gym and I was no longer even able to leave the house without feeling incredibly defeated by fatigue. Interestingly enough, I remember drinking coconut water for about a week during this viral attack only because I was so sick to my stomach. I was terrified of all the “sugar “ but it was the only thing I could keep down. Surprisingly, my cystic acne cleared up and after recovering from the illness for just a few days before I went keto again, I felt more energy than I had and several weeks. This gentle clue from my body had me thinking and I began to question if keto was right for me on my healing path.
I don’t remember the exact moment, but lying on the couch fevering off and on for days, I knew my body just could not take it any longer - I threw my hands up and surrendered. I don’t even remember ordering them (possibly due to confusion from the fever) but a couple days later a few books came in the mail that would change my life and career forever. I started leaning into the works of Anthony William, Mastering Diabetes by Cyrus Khambatta & Robby Barbaro, Dr. Joel Furman, and many other best kept secrets in the functional medicine healing industry. Upon reading just the first two pages of each book, I felt like the words were jumping off of the page at me and resonating deeply within my soul.
I remember collapsing onto the chair in church one Saturday evening in tears. I just wanted to be healed and live life again. I was soo tired all of the time. I had eczema on my face from collarbone to forehead & when I went out in public people stared or asked if I had been in a fire. It was incredibly humiliating and defeating to say the least. I was willing to do about anything to be able to take a selfie with my girlfriends again (no lie) so in between my long naps on the couch and not doing much of anything, I dug hard into the literature. I was astounded at what I found and wondered why this evidence isn’t talked about. Plant-based, high-carb and low-fat nutrition was healing people by the thousands, reversing malignancy in patients - this stirred something deep within my being.
Turn of Events
It took me several weeks to slowly transition, but once I reversed my keto diet into a plant-based, low-fat, high-carb healing protocol, I FINALLY, after YEARS, began to heal. I was undoing all of the damage that the keto diet did in my body. My digestive system was completely shot, as my liver could barely produce enough bile to move even the lightest, most raw foods. My blood was like a thick, dirty sludge when I was eating high-fat and the toxicity grew and grew in my body with no way out. As soon as I started juicing and eating a whole food, plant-based diet, my eczema actually got worse. It was like years of toxicity and months of the keto diet blocking it in finally began to leave my body.
The more natural glucose I consumed the better my blood sugars became and my insulin resistance dissipated. Furthermore, my hormones balanced and my energy began to skyrocket. Within one year I was a completely new person. Friends and family asked me what happened to me and how I did it. I believe in the bio individuality for every person and their nutrition, but I can guarantee you a plant-based, whole foods diet (not skimping on the fruit and natural glucose) will bring healing to EVERY body.
Inadequate Glucose
Let’s break down what happens in the body when we are not adequately intaking healing sources of glucose. I’m not talking about cakes and candy here, but rather fruits, all kinds of potatoes, squash, raw honey, pure maple syrup, dates, etc.
Remember in high school biology when we learned about cellular human biology? Well even if you have no idea what I’m talking about just know this: the body’s preferred source of fuel is glucose. The cells powerhouse, the mitochondria, make ATP from glucose. But what happens if someone is on a keto or carnivore diet and they do not consume glucose or carbohydrates other than green vegetables (which don’t even begin to scratch the surface or adequate glucose consumption)? When we don’t ingest adequate glucose for our bodies a process called “gluconeogenesis” takes place in the liver.
What is important about this process is to know that the liver will take the chicken breast and coconut oil you just consumed with that tiny bit of broccoli (carbohydrate) and convert the fat and protein macronutrients from this meal into a usable form of glucose for the cells. This gluconeogenesis process again takes place in the liver, and for every one molecule of glucose the cellular process produces we also receive two molecules of cortisol in return. Why is that important?
Point blank, if you are not receiving adequate glucose you are stressing the liver and increasing your cortisol production. In a chronically ill body that is like throwing gasoline on a pathogen fire!!!
This is critically important for all chronic illness warriors who already have an overburdened liver due to toxicity in the body. A stronger, healthier person, such as a Crossfit athlete, can experience positive side effects from a keto diet for a relatively long while but everyone, eventually, will begin to develop a fatty or prefatty liver and from there, experience a cascade of hormone and chronic toxicity complications. I promise you, avoiding healing forms of glucose will not bring you the revitalization and robust health you’re searching for long term!
So why does the keto diet get all the praise? And why do some people see fantastic results? Let’s look at it this way… If you take someone from a Quicktrip and McDonald’s diet and ask them to eat meat and green vegetables they’re going to feel better and they’re going to lose weight. Surely, keto can be a steppingstone in your nutritional healing protocol but long term is not sustainable for vital organ health. Medically, the ketogenic diet is only indicated short term for epileptic or seizing patients. Long-term, it reeks havoc on your liver, digestive system, and cardiac function. I promise you it is not the bananas, sweet potatoes, and honey you’re consuming in your diet that is causing your high blood sugar and hormone imbalance. Rather, the nut butters, abundance of animal protein, protein shakes, and this high fat high protein nonsense we’re led to believe, is left to examine for our dysfunction.
Hear me out, I am not demonizing any of these foods I just mentioned, they are just simply not conducive in large amounts to your healing.
When you are chronically ill there are two main objectives to heal the body. Are you ready for them?
Here they are:
THIN and OXYGENATE the blood.
Pathogens and toxicity cannot survive and will be detoxified by the body when the blood is thin, hydrated, and oxygen rich.
How do you do this?
Lots of raw living plants and less of the foods that are going to slow down your digestive system and thicken your blood. When you have impaired thyroid function and a high toxic load your hydrochloric acid production as well as your bile production are both LOW.
What does this mean?
Food will not move through at the rate it should. So if you clog your gastric system with steak and eggs every morning you’re sure to feel like garbage or not operate at optimal performance.
Of course, this approach can look slightly different for every person depending on their gender, age, activity level, and chronic illness history. But again, modifying your nutrition (and avoiding the keto diet) will lead to abundant health and vitality in every body I am convinced.
This doesn’t mean you have to give up meat or never have your beloved crunchy peanut butter (hey-oh my favorite!).
What this means is quite possibly the main stream nutritional biases were led to believe are complete crap for your health and only holding you back.
You better believe our ancestors did not grow up on a carnivore or ketogenic diet. Sure, in the winter months in cold climates fresh produce was not available and they may have had to survive on meat, but they did not thrive on this. The spring, summer, and fall months brought them living foods, abundant sunshine, and fresh honey (which is miraculous glucose medicine)!
Why is it that were taught to fear the sugar that will heal us and instilled with the belief that we need extra mount of protein at every meal or we will surely wither away. Agenda? Does our healthcare system really have our best interest in mind? What about the government and big Pharma, what do they have to do with this?
Below are a few links for the other side of the argument to read thoroughly. Your vital organ health and the future of your chronic illness depend on your nutritional therapy!
Bottom line is this: if you were thinking about going keto or even “low carb” Paleo for that matter I want you to strongly consider the biases you’ve been consuming.
Of course, if you have questions or just so dang confused you don’t even know where to start, reach out to me. I would love to chat and help guide you on your way towards abundant health and vitality be on your wildest dreams!
Resources
Mastering Diabetes
Anthony William
Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz
