Carbs, Fats, and the Mortality Maze: What Your Diet Means for Your Life Expectancy Grandma used to constantly say, "Eat your carbs, they give you energy!" but now, personal trainers are encouraging you to stop eating carbs and switch to keto. What gives, then? I stumbled uncovered an intriguing cohort research that may or may not put some of these arguments to rest. But guys, it's data! In addition, data makes me more excited as a medical student than an aerobic workout. The study looked at how
this is an interesting study to see. it’s a survey of mortality among japanese men and women and how their diets correlate with causes of death
personally, i’m not sure i find this a compelling argument against keto for men. their finding is increased mortality if their carbohydrate intake is <40% of their total energy expenditure. 40% is a pretty high bar for keto, where you’re looking to be at 5% at most (at most, 20g of carbs a day = 80 calories; 2000/80 comes out to be about 4%)
so probably, a lot of these people aren’t in keto, which i would consider a clinically relevant distinction (we don’t know for sure, since the nuances of the population’s eating habits weren’t published)
second, i don’t know that i would want to try keto in japan? like, i don’t know what their fat sources are, but… if i ate enough fish to sustain myself on keto, i’d get fucked up by mercury. and like… idk how much better it is? but a lot of my food comes from beef and dairy, which i don’t think are as commonplace there (i know it’s bad for the environment. i know. i know. i don’t want to starve though. i’m sorry)
i’m not that educated on how food looks in japan. but it strikes me as very keto unfriendly. depending, this might be a huge factor, or a minor one, but it’s hard to say without clarification
anyways, it’s an interesting post from a transmasc point of view. i originally fled carbs while running on estrogen. i feel like i tolerate them better (not well, per se) on testosterone. there’s a definite challenge on keto to eat enough calories on testosterone, especially now that i work out and i’m trying to build a considerable amount of muscle
but at the end of the day, i still feel better on keto, and now that i’ve figured out how to reliably provide like 3k calories in fat, i’m doing pretty well
While I can’t say much about the specifics of Japanese health and nutrition, I’d argue it confirms the general tenet of dietetics that restrictive dieting is largely not good for you (and isn’t easily maintained either).
Eating too little (or unbalanced) taxes your metabolism to free up glucose from your organ stores and store what it has, plus running the risk of nutrition deficiencies too. Plus eating too much also has it’s obvious risks.
I think in regards to keto, the risks of high fat diets are independent from the effects of ketosis. You still run the risk of CAD, obesity, high cholesterol and the issues those bring. (It raises LDLs but lowers triglycerides according to a paper from the ACC, they and the AAND are not convinced one way or another it seems on if keto should be recommended)