The Keto Diet

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the ketogenic diet and its potential benefits for health. When I first embarked on my healing journey, I started researching natural remedies for endometriosis and candida. Dr Axe was one of the holistic medicine doctors whose YouTube videos I started watching obsessively. He is a big proponent of the keto diet, and among some of his dietary recommendations are bone broth, organic bison or beef, collagen powder, and avoiding any carbs. He does encourage consuming leafy greens, blueberries, and other fruit and vegetables high in antioxidants. 

I went all in, and started ordering high quality organic bone broth, adding collagen powder to my morning smoothies, and removing all the carbs from my diet. At the time I also discovered Kristina Amelong from Optimal Health Network, and started following her dietary recommendations as well which were adding raw unpasteurized milk (impossible to find), raw meat as it has certain enzymes (impossible to eat, and I’ve never ventured to try it because I was grossed out and scared to get parasites). All in all, she recommended what you call the Weston Price Diet which is more inclusive compared to Keto. As I was experimenting with different foods, my health was not getting any better and I still had a really bad yeast infection and endometriosis. 

On top of everything, a routine Pap Smear Test showed that I was also positive for HPV which can be a precursor to ovarian cancer. My doctor was pushing colposcopy to check the cervix for signs of cancerous or precancerous tissue. I opted out and called my natural healer friend instead. He immediately recommended that I start with a lemon juice / baking soda / apple cider vinegar cleanse 3 times a day and change my diet. He was not a proponent of a 100% plant-based diet, but he insisted that I eliminate all dairy, red meat, white flour, and sugar. Tehuti also introduced me to Dr Jennifer Daniels, and I began to focus mostly on eating fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains and legumes. 

Now looking back, I realize that starting a new lifestyle is not that hard, it’s hard to stay the course. I slowly deviated from my somewhat plant-based eating and got busy with other things. However, when my husband Nigel got diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2020, I knew exactly that it was a wakeup call for us to research nutrition for real this time and stick to the plan. We immediately transitioned to eating only organic raw vegetables, fruit, and berries – an ample amount of salads, smoothies and juices. Somewhere along the way though, we discovered a naturopath and integrative oncologist from New Hampshire who had his opinions on the best diet for all. He looked very skeptical when we told him about the Square One program, the idea of “overdosing on fruit and vegetables” and removing all animal protein and processed foods. His response was “we only recommend what is backed up by science, and that’s why keto is the best way to go”. 

We had so little confidence and knowledge back then, that all we did was listened and followed Dr Bier’s advice for about a week. The keto diet was so restrictive, and our guts were telling us to switch back to eating real whole fruit and vegetables, not overdosing on chicken and beef. 

It has been 4 years since we embarked on our whole food plant-based journey, and both Nigel and I have healed and reversed our chronic diseases. It hasn’t been just the nutrition, but it played a major role in changing our body chemistry as well as the mindset. 

The keto diet was a consistent hiccup on our nutrition journey due to its growing popularity (especially among people who are trying to lose weight rapidly). As you deprive your body of carbohydrates (glucose being our primary source of energy), the body turns to its alternative source of energy – fat. The process of converting fat into ketones is called “ketosis”. The problem with the keto diet is that there have been very few long-term studies on its effects while eating primarily whole food plant-based has shown to promote health and longevity in populations around the world. 

As far as I am concerned, Dr Thomas Lodi explains it in the most elegant way. When you see a ripe, bright red apple hanging on a tree, you will instinctively want to grab it with your hand, pick it, hold it, and take a bite. When seeing a pig or a cow grazing in the meadow, do you ever think to yourself “It looks so juicy! I can’t wait to taste it!” Do you ever find yourself salivating when seeing a dead chicken or a duck? Will you eat it with your bear hands? Do you have the carnivore teeth to do so? 

All these questions are an invitation to think and make your own informed decisions about such an important thing as nutrition. There’s so much bias, confusion, misinformation, and marketing when you Google search, but the truth is always simple and intuitive. Even scientific research is influenced by the marketing companies these days which may devalue the statement “backed up by science”. I believe that the best way to find your own nutritional healing is to shut down the outside noise, use your own judgement, logic, and inner wisdom.