It seems like everywhere you go, people are on the ketogenic diet. Patti and I kept hearing about the health benefits of it from natural health specialists whom we respected, and were considering it for ourselves. Then, several people on our staff began reporting that they were losing weight and having pains in their body disappear as a result of following the ketogenic guidelines, so we decided to try it for ourselves.

The biggest benefit to me was that my food cravings disappeared! Also, we were able to lose about one pound per week for 14 weeks. (Lots of careful eating and fasting were needed to accomplish this.) Anyone embarking on the ketogenic diet should be aware that it generally does not promote rapid weight loss. You may find that you lose inches before you lose many pounds, so you will need patience and commitment to see results on your scale. However, you will likely experience other, more immediate benefits in your body that will motivate you to continue on.

This diet causes a release of ketones in your body. Fasting also causes a release of ketones. Thus the ketogenic diet produces health benefits similar to fasting, and is even called a fasting-mimicking diet. 

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The ketogenic diet follows a fairly simple formula: Keep healthy fats high (70% of your caloric intake), healthy carbs to 5% (20 - 30 grams net carbs per day) and protein consumption low (25%). This it is a complete inversionof 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. 

The base of the U.S. food paradigm recommends making carbs your largest food intake. As a result of this high carbohydrate consumption, 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 sugarsin one year (and if you add in the carbs that break down into sugar, the total is over 300 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. 

• The CDC's current estimate is that 70% of the U.S. adult population is overweight. A keto diet can help them get down to weight.
• 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.

It is worth noting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture not only provides our food pyramid,  but that its 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 Pyramid

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

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 GreenMedInfoand 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, polyunsaturated 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 researchon Mercola's website, GreenMedInfo's website, Josh Axe'swebsite and Life Extension's website. With Life Extension you can use the buttons on the left to further refine your search for either products or articles. 

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

Healthylife 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 were to entrust myself to current wisdom, then experts say I have only two more years of healthy living left, as by age 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 Ketogenic Diet can be part of a lifestyle that promotes a longer, healthier life. 

In the next two parts of this series, I will share some of the research I have done on the keto diet and how we have incorporated it into our lives.