It annoying to me the extraordinary divisiveness conversations on ketogenic diets generate at this point. But I get we are still in the middle of the learning curve scientifically, and there is a lot of confusion.<p>If you follow the threads though, it’s becoming more and more clear though that practicing keto on a more or less ‘permanent’ basis, might not be the best choice for everyone. It goes both ways though, the ‘food pyramid’ they taught us growing up where the whole thing is based on bread & pasta is almost certainly bad too.<p>The real benefits come from having a flexible metabolism that can ‘switch gears’ and go back and forth between carb burning and fat burning. This switch triggers a cascade of beneficial mechanisms is our bodies, so riding the line and being flexible is the best place to be I think.<p>In the short term however, there are clear benefits to strict keto. An anecdotal example in my own case after practicing strict keto for about 6 months, I inadvertently cured my lifelong battle with acid reflux.<p>I had no idea that would happen. I was honestly doing it in a general attempt to be more healthy and cut sugar out of my life. But I had a problem with heartburn literally since I was 13 years old. I used to have to eat rolaids like candy. I had on and off bouts with prescription strength stuff like Prilosec & others.<p>After 6 months of keto my gut was permanently healed, even after stopping keto. I no longer need any medicine. Short term keto is a real treatment for acid reflux, this is something I think gets overlooked.<p>I no longer practice keto, but a lot of the concepts I learned still stick with me. I practice intermittent fasting many days but not always. If I feel like eating breakfast I do. If I want some bread or pasta I eat it. But I don’t base my diet on it.
It's important to remember that the whole point of the keto diet is to introduce a near-fundamental change in your body's metabolism, including brain function.<p>It should be regarded the same way you would regard a very potent medication-- one that does not have FDA approval. It's probably the sort of thing you should approach with extreme caution and the advice of a doctor & dietician.
It seems obvious that various animals have different natural diets, that is, different diets that they are evolutionarily adapted to. A horse eats grass, a cat eats meat. I expect that of you performed the same dietary experiments using horses as the experimental animal, you would get very different results than if you used cats as the experimental animal. Cats are obligate carnivores, and are on a ketogenic diet, always.<p>Is the rat natural diet the same as the human? If so, this <i>might</i> have some relevance to the human diet.<p>This appears to be another example of the garbage that passes for nutrition science.
There are a lot of good work digging into the mechanism of how it causes cardiac fibrosis in rats. I don't think we should completely dismiss it just because it is in a non-human model. If anything, this study allows us to try to use the same assays on humans to see if we can observe similar results.
This is concerning, because whilst not strictly ketogenic, my (and my partners) diet has shifted to significantly less carbs, as part of managed weightloss and if the consequence is cardiac fibrosis, thats a significant concern for her: she has pre-existing conditions including lack of strong heart function.
The title of this paper is so deliberately misleading that I flagged the submission.<p>There is no reason whatsoever to think that the human response to ketosis would be at all similar to that of rats. And rats are what they studied.<p>As long as rags like <i>Nature</i> keep publishing this garbage, hacks will keep producing it. Sad state of affairs all around.