Dr. Steven R. Gundry - Unlocking the Keto Code: The Revolutionary New Science of Keto That Offers More Benefits Without Deprivation

To searchers and researchers, whose purpose is to always question conventional wisdom, including our own.

Spoiler alert! How ketones work is not how you think they work. With so many things, whats old is new again. While the ketogenic, or keto, diet, has been around since the 1930s, theres been a resurgence of interest in this high-fat, ultra-low-carb way of eating in the past few years. Talk to your friends, surf the internet, or scan the nutrition articles in your favorite magazine, and youll see many variations on the keto theme. Theres dirty keto, clean keto, calorie-restricted keto, high-protein keto, the Paleo/keto hybrid, keto cycling, protein-sparing keto, and even a lazy mans version of this popular dietary regimen. Its proponents will tell you that this eating plan is life-changingdo keto right, whatever that means, and youll soon find yourself not only shedding unwanted weight quickly but improving your cholesterol, blood pressure, energy levels, and sleep quality in the process. Who wouldnt want all that?

While each type of ketogenic diet has its own unique quirks, the premise of them all is basically the sameand, as it so happens, deceptively simple, and wrong. Keto experts will tell you that when you drastically reduce your carbohydrate intake and instead consume 80 percent of your daily calories from fat, your body shifts into a unique metabolic state called ketosis. In ketosis, the liver transforms fats into special molecules called ketones (sometimes referred to as ketone bodies), a so-called miraculous fuel source that can be used to power the body and brain instead of glucose that comes from carbs. The basic idea is that a ketogenic diet will make you an incredibly efficient fat burner, allowing you to rapidly lose weight and enjoy a host of other health benefits. Sounds great, right?

This very elementary explanation of ketosis (dont worry, Ill go into more detail in the following chapters) has been the presiding theory of why ketogenic diets, though challenging to maintain, are so beneficial to well-being. In my first book, The Plant Paradox, I even put forth my own keto-based intensive care program to help people boost mitochondrial function and improve their overall health in the process. Its the diet Ive been prescribing to my own patients for the past twenty-two years.

Theres only one problem: ketones are not the miraculous cellular fuel that so many of us thought they were. We now understand they actually arent a good fuel source at all. In fact, the entire theory of how ketones improve health is just plain wrong. Thats not to say ketones arent important. As Ill explain in the following chapters, these little molecules play a vital role in helping to ease the burden of your mitochondria, your cells energy factories, in ways that can help prevent as well as reverse not only weight gain but also diseases of aging. Even more important? Once you learn what ketones really do, youll realize you dont have to force yourself to eat a heavy, high-fat, and, frankly, boring diet to harness their power.

Janet, a forty-three-year-old mother of two, came to my Palm Springs clinic for help after her family physician diagnosed her as prediabetic. Her resting blood sugar, or glucose level, was higher than the normal rangebut not yet high enough to be considered full-blown type 2 diabetes. Her doctor wanted to start her on a statin drug for high cholesterol and revamp her diet in order to right the ship, so to speak. That brought her to my door.

After running my standard battery of tests, I agreed with her doctor that she had metabolic syndrome, a cluster of health issues that can increase ones risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as insulin resistance, a condition where your body actually resists the insulin your pancreas produces so your cells cant get the vital glucose they need to thrive. As youll soon learn, Janet, like nearly all Americans, was metabolically inflexible. Sounds bad, right? It is. The tests also showed signs of excess inflammation. But I didnt see a reason to start her on the statin. I thought we could manage her issues with diet and I suggested she try my Plant Paradox Keto Intensive Care Program.

Three months later, Janet came back into the office for new lab tests. We found that she had lost 15 pounds and her blood work showed she was no longer prediabetic. Shockingly, at least to her primary care doctor (but certainly not to me), her cholesterol had also improved to the point where, according to her regular doc, a statin was no longer necessary. Needless to say, Janet was delighted. She felt more energized and was sleeping betterand, like many of my patients, she was motivated to keep going. We eased up on the high amount of good fats I had recommended she eat to promote ketosis and scheduled a follow-up appointment.

When Janet returned six months later, she was down another 20 pounds and her lab work looked spectacular. Her blood tests showed no signs of inflammation and her HbA1c, a measure of how well controlled your blood sugar is, was down to 4.9 (anything under a 5, in my opinion, is worthy of a literal gold star). In short, Janets case presented as a perfect keto success story.

Except for one thing: Janet was not happy. She, like me, was pleased with her test results. But despite the fact that she was eating like a horse, concerned friends were commenting that she looked a little too thin. Even as she added different foods back into her diet, her weight continued to fall. She told me she was ready to stop losing pounds and stabilize.

Let me tell you that Janet is not the only person who has experienced this phenomenon. Many of my patients have gotten to a similar point with my eating plan where they actually had trouble keeping their weight stable. Given common wisdom regarding ketogenic diets, I told them, as I told Janet, that they had simply metamorphized into extremely efficient fat burners. I know you might be thinking, What are they complaining about? I wish I had that kind of problem! Follow some food rules, take a few supplements, and get to a point where you want to gain a few pounds? It sounds like a dream come true.

Now contrast Janets story with that of another patient of mine. Miranda came to see me around the same time as Janetand the similarities didnt end there. She was also a busy mom in her forties. But unlike Janet, she was obese. Her previous doctor had suggested she go on a ketogenic diet a few years prior. She had been trying to follow the traditional keto diet to the letter, yet she was not only unable to shed any of her excess weight, she had actually added more than 15 pounds over the course of a year. The more fat she ate, she told me, the more weight she gained.

Miranda came to see me because her primary care physician, the one who had recommended she go keto in the first place, didnt believe she was following the diet correctly. This is quite common: often, when ketogenic diets dont deliver the promised results, the assumption is that the dieter isnt eating enough fats to trigger ketosis (and is, perhaps, sneaking in too many carbohydrates and/or protein foods). This presumption, for the most part, is not meant to question the integrity or will of the dieter. We know our patients are working hard. But traditional ketogenic dietsand this is one of their biggest downsidesare extremely challenging to maintain, especially over time.

I gently explained to Miranda that despite her best efforts, it was clear that whatever she had been eating (or not eating) hadnt helped her body make ketones. She was shocked, even apoplectic, to hear this. I softened the blow by saying she was like many of the people who come to see me after struggling to eat the keto way. They