I write this a few days after New Year’s, and that means that people are inevitably going to be starting new diets.
I don’t have a problem with cleaning up your diet but many people are also going to be trying out the more extreme diets (the Keto diet, the Paleo diet, the Carnivore diet, or whatever crazy diet the last kooky guy on some Spotify podcast endorsed).
Here’s the thing though: not everybody has the genetics, metabolic pathways, or enzymes to make every diet work.
For example, the high fat and high meat diets do work well for some people, but the exact same food can have some really negative side effects for other people.
(I know this because I was one of those people. Essentially the Keto would have sent me to an early grave.)
When it comes to diet, sport and exercise I am definitely in favor of experimenting on yourself.
But you need data to make good decisions.
It’s like flying an airplane by instrument. You need numbers. If you don’t have those numbers and that data then you’re going to make bad decisions.
You can’t ‘feel’ your coronary arteries clogging up. You can’t ‘sense’ your body getting closer a thrombotic stroke.
If you’re going to do an extreme diet then you need data from bloodwork in order to judge whether that diet is helping you or killing you.
So if you’re going to try that Keto/Paleo/Carnivore diet then PLEASE talk to a doctor first and at, a minimum, get them to measure your blood lipids before, during and after the diet.
Remember, that which can can be measured can be improved.
Same goes for any other diet. Want to try the Alfalfa Sprout Diet? The Fermented Appenzell Cheese Diet? The Pacific Islander Coconut and Fish Diet?
Cool – talk to your doctor and get him or her to arrange before, during and after bloodwork for you.
I ranted more about this topic in an article and podcast in an article I wrote a couple years ago called My Experience with Keto for BJJ.
Or, as I prefer to call it now, How Keto Nearly Killed Me.
Cheers!
Stephan Kesting
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