The Carb-Sane Asylum

image link UPDATE 8//23/2021 The company class action law suit regarding scientific claims made about this product. UCAN Class Action Suit I wonder if Peter Attia will get any payout?  LOL ORIGINAL CONTENT published 11/19/2012    How on earth did SuperStarch fly under my radar?   Thanks to Lerner, I was made aware of the connection between Jeff Volek -- of nutty ketosis and Atkins Nutritionals fame -- and the UCAN Company marketing a new type of sports drink containing SuperStarch (TM and all that near as I can tell, though the term is not unique to the company).    When I think of SuperStarch, the image of Molly Shannon's Mary Katherine Gallagher character from SNL just popped into my mind complete with her "superstar" exclamation.  Suparstarch(aching?)  Methinks so! The bottom line of what I'll abbreviate as SS, is that it is supposedly better for performance -- presumably specifically in endurance activities -- because it effectively ...

Rather than formally reviewing Real Food Keto -- an abomination of a book written by Jimmy Moore and his "Nutritional Therapy Practitioner" wife Christine Moore -- I've decided to compile a collection of my tweets here in a blog post.  I'll sort from most recent, with the newest before the "page break" after each update.  Feel free to comment here, but I'm also embedding tweets if you wish to go respond on Twitter.   Some may include additional commentary, others just the tweet. Enjoy! This book is littered with nonsense about how low stomach acid causes everything from ass itching  to zygomycosis.   No doubt there will be more of these tweets coming! Fun #RealFoodKeto "facts" from @livinlowcarbman and his NTP wife. FACT: Lemon juice (mostly citric acid) gives it a pH ~2.  Add some to neutral water (pH 7), the lemon water will be less acidic (e.g. higher pH, closer to 7) but will not become alkaline (pH >7) #LCHF -raud pi...

April 2018 Update: Here in the year 2018, it's fair to say that #Paleo is pretty much over. Nothing tells us this more succinctly than a quick trip over to Mark's Daily Apple, a website I rarely frequent these days. I'd heard rumors that Mark had "gone keto" ... given the seemingly meteoric rise of #Keto of late, is anyone really surprised?  This is the same man who developed the "more addictive than crack " P90X recovery drink and other things,  Ever the businessman (can't fault him for that), Mark seems to have transitioned from using his blog to sell paleo/primal-related books (did he ever find a proper ghostwriter for his wife's book?) to selling over-priced avocado oil products.   The whole "primal" thing is about as downplayed as possible for someone whose signature product is The Primal Blueprint, can be.    Poor Grok.  Now it's Keto Reset time!  Can these marketeers PLEASE make up their minds?   Wh...

No ... this blog will not become all Jimmy Moore, all the time.  I do have some posts in the works that just need some polish ... including one on the study Ted Naiman bases his 3:1 ratios of grams protein to fat that Jimmy was following.  That said, I can't help but put together a few comments on the Drama Llama supreme's latest n=1. This Episode's n=1 bioHACK:    7 days of "Carnivore" , High Protein (mostly meat) 3:1 grams protein:grams fat.    1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass equaled 270 g protein:90 g fat.   (if you use 40% body fat, that puts his current weight at 300 ... ) RESULT:   Fail.  If you listen at the 43 minute mark of this episode of The Keto Savage podcast , you'll see that it was Jimmy's every intention for this TO fail. The purpose of biohacking is SUPPOSED to be about seeking out ways to improve one's overall health ... to achieve meaningful goals.  This nonsense o...

I've decided to chronicle some of the biohacking madness going on out there here on the blog.   I'm not sure if this helps anyone, but at least it will preserve some of it for posterity.   So this will randomly include publicly shared results of various "hacks" -- dietary or otherwise. First up -- who else? LOL -- Jimmy Moore.  Fresh off his second 7-day fast in three weeks, Jimmy continues focusing on all the wrong things instead of actual improvements in things known to improve health.  Apparently low carb is/wasn't enough for Jimmy Moore, so he adopted an extreme version of a keto diet.  This worked swimmingly for a year until he stopped reporting his weight at the end of the year.  He rapidly regained the 80 re-lost pounds and embarked on his first extended fast in the fall of 2015.  That went so well he tried (unsuccessfully) to forego food for the entirety of January 2016, only to balloon up even further.  Forget the scale, ...

Just have to share, this ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS clip from a recent episode of NCIS Los Angeles (Season 9, Episode 15, around 13 min in).  Shared on Twitter and Facebook if you want to share on social media!

S ummary: BUMPED January 26, 2018 This post was written around three and a half years ago, and through some bizarre twist of dietary fate, somehow ketogenic diets are still trending on Google for everything from weight loss to hang nails.  So I thought I'd bump this post which was my attempt at dispelling some myths regarding ketosis and the role of dietary protein in the mix.   In the end, and some of these points are not made specifically in this post but I'll make them here: Carbohydrate restriction is the greatest determinant of ketogenesis  Protein (various amino acids) can feed into the Krebs Cycle and attenuate the reduction in oxaloacetate that favors ketogenesis from fatty acids. Ketogenesis represents a conversion of fat energy to ketone energy but it is not evidence of the ultimate usage of that energy.   Like glucose, ketones will be burned for energy before fatty acids, so ketogenesis is not an indicator of actual fatty aci...

T his mix of snarkasm and practical advice is brought to you by Facebook Memories reminding me of a post I made around a year ago -- The #LCHF Weight Loss Industry & Evangelizing Low Carb  -- and the upcoming Keto Clarity Academy event featuring Melanie Miller and Jimmy Moore "influencing" people on how to stay healthy for the holidays. The holiday season will be soon upon us, and even those who celebrate no December holidays will likely still have to navigate related social engagements.  Let me preface this by saying that I recognize there are a number of people who absolutely cannot, or probably should not, stray from their dietary regimen.  There are others who, when they do, have a much harder time getting "back on the wagon" compared to whatever issues staying on plan will cause.  If you are any of these people, this blog post is not for you.  This blog post is aimed at all of those who are angst-ridden going into and through the upcoming holi...

I think this post has needed a bump for a while.     I also think the data on growing animals eating a keto diet should be cause for at least caution in encouraging such diets for kids, teens or even young adults. ORIGINAL POST DATE 3/20/2012 One of the more difficult things to sort out from the enormous amount of information out there is the actual effect, if any, of dietary composition on resulting body composition.  This is complicated from the get-go by many rodent studies that are done on reproductively mature animals that are still growing.  How to compare this to humans who cease growing vertically once they reach adulthood?  Next we have to sort through the studies that are done, and the implications of them, in the context of weight loss/underfeeding vs. those in the context of weight gain/overfeeding.  Clearly there are compensatory mechanisms at play in both situations that are drastically different.  Lastly, and here's where we probab...

In light of the recent brash of coconut oil articles following the Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association , I thought I'd bump this post.  Of course all the coconut oil advocates are up in arms over this.  Mind you, coconut oil is the most nutritionally bereft oil out there ... "empty calories".  This post discusses a study in the Sixties on two Atoll island populations that live in virtually the same environment, etc. but with nearly opposite diets in terms of total fat content, where the majority of fat comes not from coconut oil, but the more nutrient dense coconut meat and embryos. One Line Summary :   The increased fat content in the Tokelauan diet correlates in increased adiposity in this population as compared to nearby Pukapuka.   While the cited study abstract says the following: Vascular disease is uncommon in both populations and there is no evidence of the high saturated fat i...

Is Gary Taubes losing it?  His grip on reality, that is?  I submit that it is the only "innocent" explanation for his behavior of late. Gary Taubes and Mike Eades in Better Days for Low Carb "Science"  8/13/2008 direct image link I'll have more to say when I can recoup from the busy time of year in my real job coupled with traveling weekend before last.  But if you haven't heard, two studies conducted by NIH scientist Kevin Hall: The unveiling of the results of the NuSI funded multi-center study at an obesity conference.  See Nutrition Wonk for the most info.  This was a 2 month metabolic ward study. The followup results of a study on The Biggest Loser with some confusing metabolic outcomes.  I say confusing as the numbers don't add up, but that hasn't stopped pretty much everyone from painting a picture of doom and gloom topped with a large dollop of CICO/ELMM is going to destroy your metabolism fatalism.    I will have more...

If you've circulated in the realms of nutritional science or sorcery for any length of time, you've probably heard the phrase ... Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food ... enough for it to have long past turned to the point of cliché.   Whether or not it was actually said by Hippocrates notwithstanding, you've probably seen it misused as often as it is appropriately applied.   This post is about its misuse in the image below. Starving cancer:  Dominic D'Agostino at TEDx TampaBay Screenshot

Hello all!  A short detour in the sporadic blogging as I came across this 2013 paper yesterday:   A decade of the modified Atkins diet (2003–2013): Results, insights, and future directions     Eric H. Kossoff, Mackenzie C. Cervenka, Bobbie J. Henry, Courtney A. Haney, Zahava Turner The acronym in my title has been used to denote the Modified Atkins Diet, and as the title of the paper implies, it has been utilized clinically in the treatment of epilepsy for over a decade now.  The lead author of the paper is Eric Kossoff, and here are some relevant bio points for him: Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Director of the Pediatric Neurology Residency Program.  Coauthor of Treatment of Pediatric Neurologic Disorders and the 5th edition of The Ketogenic Diet  (Amazon affiliate link) . Wrote the foreward to The New Atkins for a New You (2010) written by Eric Westman, Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek....

This Blog's been awfully quiet and boring lately! This post is another backgrounder for the upcoming post revisiting ketogenic diets and the treatment of cancer:   Ketones are NOT the End of Cancer. Tim Ferriss & Dominic D'Agostino Should Be More Responsible    (link will work when published).    The whole topic of ketone therapy for epilepsy provides a great example with which to discuss various concepts of therapies, and what can or cannot be extrapolated to non-therapeutic contexts.

I'm working on some posts on "the list" from a recent one , and find myself in need of a few backgrounders for the upcoming Ketones are NOT the End of Cancer. Tim Ferriss & Dominic D'Agostino Should Be More Responsible   (link goes live when it's published) post.  Recently I tweeted out the following:   It's time for responsible scientists & docs to rein in keto cancer cure and alternative therapy hype. #KetogenicDiet pic.twitter.com/k82Rh82JmT — Evelyn (@CarbSane) November 19, 2015 My tweets are auto-posted to Facebook (including to my mostly-private page) where a friend responded to the statement that "a ketogenic diet is [...] safe". The comment basically challenged how we know this, or even if we know this to be true, My response is essentially the impetus for this post, but it was, in a nutshell: CONTEXT

Minor Update:  Sorry, sometimes I hit Publish instead of Close when I'm in a rush and want to make sure I have most recent version saved.  I had intended to include this video -- Instant Ketosis -- along with this "report" on the MLM angle in my post --  Pruvit Review – Another Ketones Based MLM Company?    My first thought from that title is a question:  "There are others?"  The tagline on this article reads: Will Pruvit's core products and MLM-modeled opportunity have what it takes to make it in the ketones health space? Let's prove it one way or another for you. I want to also make very clear that I am NOT encouraging anyone to get into this or any other MLM -- matters not the code words used to sell something.  Indeed I warn strongly against such.  If you search on MLM truth, or MLM scams, or MLM fraud, or any number of short phrases, you'll hit on ... well hits too numerous to count.  Here's one I suggest:   MLM-theTruth...

If you interact with me at all on social media ... or if you just keep your eye on that Twitter feed over there on the right ... you're probably aware by now that Jimmy Moore is fasting.  Today would be Day 9, I think .... But first, a little intro from a podcast interview with Abel James -- aka the Fat Burning Man -- taped either shortly before or a day or so into the fast.

Recently I shared some "blinded" study results from a real study conducted on two strains of mice, each studied after eating one of two diets.  More correctly these mice are of the same strain, but one set has a mutation in the brown fat cells.  I did this along with some simple -- obvious -- questions, and then a more open ended question regarding interpretation.  I intended for one more installment, but I think it just got tedious, so I'll incorporate that into this reveal post.   So from the first post, here is the data I provided:

gratuitous image of the Drs. Eades, early 2015 A little while back I wrote  Nutritional Ketosis is an Oxymoron .  I was taken to task a bit in comments for the inappropriate use of oxymoron, but I'm going to plead for leniency in the spirit of the use of the term.  The crux of that post was that the terms nutritional (as in being in a calorically sufficient, weight stable state) and ketosis are metabolically contradictory.  This is perhaps evidenced in no more profound manner than the extremes required to produce and sustain such a state, and the ease with which it is abolished. Ketowars rage on as the standard bearer appears to be imploding on the sidelines ...  I got into a discussion on Twitter with Dr. Eades about a side issue, and here you go ... SUMMARY: Starvation ketosis is distinctly different from nutritional ketosis. No human populations in sustained nutritional ketosis (not even the Inuit). Dietary reasons why the Inuit weren't in nu...

In 2004, Jimmy Moore lost 180 lbs on the Atkins diet. In September 2006, here was one week of  menus .