Maintenance Phase - July 06, 2021


The Keto Diet

Topics
keto diet rules keto crotch keto diet side effects
Oprah Winfrey & ＂John of God＂ School Lunches, P-Hacking and the Original ＂Pizzagate＂

Episode Stats


Length

55 minutes

Words per minute

164.51

Word count

9,185

Sentence count

548

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Toxicity

68

sentences flagged

Hate speech

25

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
00:00:00.000 Hello, and welcome to Maintenance Phase, the podcast that butters your coffee.
00:00:18.980 That's a thing, right?
00:00:20.360 Yeah, I mean, sure.
00:00:21.640 I'm Michael Hobbs.
00:00:22.520 I'm Aubrey Gordon.
00:00:23.800 If you'd like to support the show, you can do that at patreon.com slash maintenance phase.
00:00:27.620 We also have t-shirts at TeePublic.
00:00:30.060 Both of those things are conveniently linked for you in the notes for this episode and at MaintenancePhase.com.
00:00:36.540 And slight announcement, this month's bonus episode is going to be a fad diet spectacular. 0.98
00:00:42.860 So we are asking our listeners to send us the wackiest fad diet you've ever tried. 0.99
00:00:49.640 We're going to read a couple of them on the show and we're going to do some extra research 1.00
00:00:53.820 and cover sort of five or six of them in like a lightning round.
00:00:58.120 Yep.
00:00:58.380 So if you want to tell us the fad diet that you tried,
00:01:01.060 email us at maintenancephase at gmail.com
00:01:04.320 and just put fad diet bonus episode as the subject line.
00:01:08.660 And also let us know if you want us to use your name
00:01:11.300 or like you super duper don't want us to use your name.
00:01:13.580 Either one's totally fine.
00:01:14.720 And as usual, you can do that or not do that
00:01:17.660 or support us or not support us.
00:01:19.820 It's totally up to you.
00:01:20.800 Look at that.
00:01:21.240 Keep listening anyway.
00:01:22.240 Yes.
00:01:22.500 Today, Michael Hobbs, we are going to be talking about one of our most requested topics, which is the keto diet.
00:01:30.380 The keto diet.
00:01:31.080 I was very disappointed because sometimes, you know, we do taste tests on this show.
00:01:36.680 I was hoping for this episode you'd, like, make me go buy a steak.
00:01:40.120 I could just, like, sit here and eat meat while you tell me stuff.
00:01:43.360 Look, get a steak, put a cube of butter on top while it's still hot.
00:01:48.180 Mike, I need you to make seven strips of bacon.
00:01:52.500 I will say, before we dive in, heads up, this episode, it's going to be really difficult
00:01:57.800 to talk about this particular diet without talking about calorie counts, tracking macronutrients,
00:02:03.840 and that sort of thing.
00:02:05.000 So if that's something you're not up for, this would be one to skip.
00:02:08.820 And if it's something you are up for, welcome.
00:02:10.880 If you're not up for hearing conversations about bread, this is the episode for you.
00:02:15.700 Because we're going to have zero carbohydrates in this entire episode.
00:02:19.860 So Mike, tell me what you know about the keto diet.
00:02:22.160 Very little, honestly, because I've ignored this entire thing because it's just the Atkins diet again, isn't it?
00:02:28.900 It's like a much more restrictive version of the Atkins diet.
00:02:33.080 The Atkins diet, famously easy to live on in the long term.
00:02:38.280 So, like, yes, it is like the Atkins diet and like Ed McMahon's diet book.
00:02:43.580 And like pretty much all the diets that we talk about fall into a handful of categories.
00:02:49.000 One is low fat, which has heavy overlap with low calorie.
00:02:53.640 There's another category that is low carb diets.
00:02:56.880 There's another category that is like cleanses and sort of crash diets that are designed to be very short term.
00:03:04.200 And then there's another one that is just like restricting food groups like nightshades or like restriction based on things other than macronutrients.
00:03:13.540 There are only like four diets.
00:03:15.320 But they all have utterly bananas origin stories.
00:03:19.500 And that is what we're going to get today.
00:03:21.400 What is your relationship with the keto diet?
00:03:23.480 I've done the keto diet.
00:03:25.020 Have you really?
00:03:25.760 I sure have.
00:03:26.740 It's real hard. 0.94
00:03:28.300 And my experience bear out what I found in the in the data, which is like any fucking 0.99
00:03:34.380 diet. 0.98
00:03:35.780 It works for as long as you do it.
00:03:37.920 So where are we starting?
00:03:39.500 Walk me through this tale of low carb woe.
00:03:43.320 So the keto diet is high fat, low carb, and limited protein.
00:03:49.140 Wait, what?
00:03:49.800 Yeah.
00:03:50.260 What?
00:03:50.660 I thought bros were all about like high protein.
00:03:53.280 Gains, bro.
00:03:54.640 Wait, so what foods is that?
00:03:56.580 It's high fat but low protein?
00:03:58.560 That's like you can't do eggs or nuts, right?
00:04:00.920 It's high fat, moderate protein.
00:04:04.460 You're basically limiting your protein and getting as close as possible to eliminating
00:04:08.580 carbohydrates.
00:04:09.180 If you know anybody who talks about tracking their macros, chances are they're doing that for the keto diet.
00:04:16.000 I don't know anybody who's doing that because I don't know anybody because I haven't left the house in a year.
00:04:19.600 Good for you.
00:04:23.440 So the classic keto diet is a four to one ratio.
00:04:30.020 Four parts of your diet should be fat and one part of your diet should be a combined protein and carbohydrates.
00:04:36.520 OK, give it to me in like Denny's.
00:04:38.240 Like if I walk into a restaurant, what am I ordering if I'm on the keto diet?
00:04:42.300 Probably coffee with butter in it.
00:04:44.240 Okay.
00:04:44.440 You're probably doing eggs.
00:04:45.920 They have protein, but they're also pretty significantly fatty.
00:04:49.820 And maybe, maybe, maybe you get a side salad.
00:04:53.760 Maybe, maybe you get like two or three berries on the side.
00:04:57.800 So moon's over my hammy, but no hash browns and no toast.
00:05:01.620 Yeah, that's right.
00:05:02.660 Okay.
00:05:03.140 Vegetables are carbohydrates.
00:05:04.380 So you're also restricting the kinds of vegetables that you're having.
00:05:08.580 What is the meat situation?
00:05:10.200 Am I just eating like a ton of sausage?
00:05:11.860 You can eat quite a bit of sausage.
00:05:13.840 I mean, it's mostly like people eat a lot of cream.
00:05:16.940 They eat a lot of butter.
00:05:18.720 OK.
00:05:19.100 Because of the way that the diet is sort of functions, people end up eating a lot of what
00:05:23.820 are called fat bombs.
00:05:25.760 So like you keep trying to get like shoehorn more fat into your diet.
00:05:31.460 It does sound harder than the Atkins diet because in the Atkins diet, you only had to remember one thing, like no carbs.
00:05:37.140 So it's like have a Big Mac, but take off the bun.
00:05:39.860 Whereas with keto, it seems like you're trying to maximize fat and then like it's OK to have little bits and pieces of other stuff.
00:05:47.360 It just seems like there's more of a sort of like three dimensional calculation going on.
00:05:51.920 Absolutely. So like there are some sort of mnemonics and some devices that folks come up with to help remember all of the rules about keto.
00:06:00.380 So, like, one of the big ones is folks will talk about, like, only vegetables that grow above ground.
00:06:06.560 No root vegetables, no onion or very limited onion.
00:06:11.320 No squash, even though that grows above ground.
00:06:14.300 No, like, winter squash, right?
00:06:16.540 Leafy greens are okay, but you do have to be careful about which ones you do.
00:06:22.240 So, like, brussel sprouts, for example, are kind of like a yellow light food.
00:06:27.200 Okay.
00:06:27.600 But, like, spinach is fine.
00:06:29.700 It's confusing, frankly.
00:06:31.740 This sounds hard.
00:06:32.260 I have to learn how plants grow.
00:06:34.840 I'm not doing this.
00:06:35.620 People can sort of like do keto in this way that is like very like lots of salads, veggie
00:06:41.380 heavy.
00:06:42.020 They can do it in a way that resembles other weight loss diets.
00:06:45.920 There's also a way that folks can do it that is like I eat a bunch of keto branded bagged
00:06:52.280 foods.
00:06:53.180 I'll have bacon.
00:06:54.900 I'll wash it down with diet soda, like that whole thing.
00:06:58.760 Oh, yeah.
00:06:59.180 That is something that folks who are keto devotees will refer to as dirty keto.
00:07:04.800 So they're like, you're technically doing it, but you're doing it wrong.
00:07:08.500 I love it when diets start engaging in weird gatekeeping.
00:07:11.200 As soon as you create something, it's like all of a sudden you have to say, like, you're not doing it right.
00:07:16.420 Like, that's the first thing to happen.
00:07:17.840 Yep. Well, I mean, like, we've also talked about this, that quite a bit of sort of the social aspect of dieting is like a performance of like, this is the kind of person I am.
00:07:27.260 Right. Yeah.
00:07:28.340 It's like vegan YouTube.
00:07:29.720 So the goal of a ketogenic diet is to enter ketosis, which is a real thing.
00:07:36.020 It's the state in which your body burns fat for energy instead of burning glucose.
00:07:40.800 And this is where the protein restriction thing comes in.
00:07:44.800 Amino acids in proteins, especially in meats, can be converted into glucose and can sort
00:07:50.860 of upset that balance.
00:07:52.720 That's why it's so important to limit the protein part.
00:07:55.080 And that's also a part that many people who are sort of casually on this diet don't do.
00:08:00.540 I don't know that I have a good understanding of what ketosis actually is.
00:08:04.920 Isn't it like your body going into like basically a starvation state where it starts burning fat?
00:08:11.780 It's really wild.
00:08:12.560 I have a quote for you from today's dietician.
00:08:15.940 Give it to me.
00:08:16.700 Quote, essentially, the ketogenic diet promotes a pseudo fasted state.
00:08:21.180 After three to four days of fasting or following a very low-carbohydrate diet, the body, deprived of dietary sugar and starch, reduces insulin secretion and switches to primarily burning fat for fuel.
00:08:35.820 The resulting overproduction of acetyl COA leads to formation of ketones in a process known as ketogenesis.
00:08:45.600 Whereas the brain can't use fatty acids for fuel, ketones can cross the blood-brain barrier, providing fuel to the typically glucose-hungry brain as well as to other tissues.
00:08:57.760 The transition to physiological or nutritional ketosis usually takes about a week.
00:09:02.460 So it's basically you're depriving your brain of carbohydrates, which it usually needs.
00:09:08.720 And then your body, in response to that, starts making this other kind of brain food called ketones and starts feeding that to your brain.
00:09:16.220 And it takes about a week to sort of transition.
00:09:18.160 Yes, absolutely.
00:09:19.280 And it's not enough to have some ketones in your blood.
00:09:24.020 You have to have a critical mass to get to ketosis.
00:09:28.840 That's why there's this like extraordinary restriction of carbohydrates.
00:09:33.300 You're having less than one slice of bread a day.
00:09:36.460 And you're just having a ton of fat as much as you can.
00:09:41.220 Do you think that when you were on the keto diet, you got to ketosis?
00:09:44.340 I thought so at the time.
00:09:46.000 Now, knowing what I know about this diet, like there are these they'll sell these ketone strips that you use for urinalysis.
00:09:55.060 What?
00:09:55.460 Yeah. So you pee onto these strips to tell you how many ketones there are in your urine.
00:09:59.920 What I've read from the research is like that isn't actually a measure of anything because you shouldn't like it doesn't really matter if they're present in your urine.
00:10:07.880 It matters if they're present in your blood.
00:10:09.580 So the only way to really test for that is with a blood test.
00:10:12.880 OK.
00:10:13.300 And most people don't get blood tests and most people kind of fudge the diet because it is so extraordinarily restrictive.
00:10:19.600 So what ends up happening is that folks are maybe in ketosis, probably not.
00:10:25.460 And are just eating a shit ton of very fatty foods.
00:10:29.500 You know those photos that you know aren't photoshopped, but they look photoshopped?
00:10:34.640 Yes.
00:10:35.320 This sounds like a similar thing where, like, I know it's not fake, but it sounds fake. 0.76
00:10:40.880 Like, there's these magical ketone elves in your blood, and they're feeding your brain. 0.62
00:10:47.240 Like, it sounds like something from, like, the never-ending story.
00:10:49.580 I feel like a YouTube commenter on all of this. 0.98
00:10:51.700 Just, like, fake, gay. 1.00
00:10:52.880 so do you know where the ketogenic diet comes from no none whatsoever it does not come from 1.00
00:11:01.820 weight loss not by a fucking long shot the ketogenic diet was developed as a modified
00:11:08.040 form of fasting that's where the sort of pseudo fasted state comes in and it was developed in 0.96
00:11:14.600 order to treat epilepsy in children oh interesting so fasting since like ancient
00:11:21.460 Greece, for like hundreds and hundreds of years in many societies, fasting had been used as a
00:11:27.320 treatment for epilepsy, and it seemed to work, particularly in children. But the challenge with
00:11:32.640 that treatment is epileptic people still need to eat. Ah, footnote, asterisk. So the first time
00:11:39.240 anyone tested and studied fasting as a treatment for epilepsy was in 1911. It was in France.
00:11:47.000 Epileptic people were put on a very low calorie vegetarian diet, which included phases of both fasting and of purging.
00:11:57.540 So we're in like full eating disorder territory here.
00:12:00.940 Fasting and purging?
00:12:01.740 Of the 20 patients who took part in that study, two of them showed reduced symptoms.
00:12:07.700 and the rest of them, about half of them, ended up falling off of the diet altogether
00:12:12.620 because it was so incredibly restrictive and hard to stay on, right?
00:12:17.120 So a 90% failure rate.
00:12:19.420 Yes.
00:12:20.040 18 out of 20.
00:12:21.000 Okay.
00:12:21.560 But also, if you're talking about epilepsy and you're talking about people who are having
00:12:24.380 up to 90 small seizures a day, like you can imagine there are a lot of things that you
00:12:31.220 would do, right?
00:12:32.280 You would be up for a lot of things to treat that.
00:12:34.480 in the early 20th century, there's sort of a big boom at that time in what we would now call sort
00:12:41.880 of like wellness stuff, right? The early 20th century is when we get Coca-Cola, which is like
00:12:47.360 considered sort of a health beverage at the time. It's where we get breakfast cereal,
00:12:53.120 Post and General Mills, which are considered health foods at the time. It's where we got
00:12:57.720 health spas. Yeah, I saw a documentary about that starring Matthew Broderick.
00:13:04.480 The Sausage King of Chicago?
00:13:06.020 Yes.
00:13:06.480 Matthew Broderick. 0.96
00:13:09.120 So by the 19-teens and 20s, fasting in particular is being popularized for everyone by a couple of doctors who are disciples of this guy who is absolutely not a fucking doctor, whose name is Bernard McFadden. 0.95
00:13:29.920 Okay.
00:13:30.100 He was born Bernard with a D at the end, but he liked the name Bernard with two R's at
00:13:37.260 the end because he said it sounded like a lion roaring.
00:13:41.700 What?
00:13:42.560 Surprise.
00:13:43.220 This is now a history episode, at least just for a little bit, because I found out about
00:13:47.840 this guy and I was like, sorry, we're talking about this guy for a while.
00:13:51.360 Deep dive. 0.99
00:13:52.540 He is fucking bananas. 1.00
00:13:54.700 He is a wild ride. 0.99
00:13:55.920 So Bernard McFadden is credited as being kind of like the godfather of physical fitness culture in the U.S.
00:14:04.280 He is a sort of early American bodybuilder.
00:14:09.540 He is considered, I think, a precursor to folks like Jack LaLanne and Charles Atlas.
00:14:16.120 He didn't have formal training in fitness or nutrition.
00:14:20.080 but in 1899 he founded this magazine called physical culture which was sort of like a proto
00:14:27.780 men's fitness it was also a little bit like oprah magazine because he was on almost every cover
00:14:34.200 and because almost every story was illustrated by photos of him and actually i'm gonna send you
00:14:45.020 yeah a couple of these photos okay oh wow okay so you sent me the one where it looks like he's
00:14:58.840 wearing a diaper first i feel like you did that on purpose i mean they all look like
00:15:03.280 he's wearing these like weirdly high-waisted like underpants basically so we've got a photo of this
00:15:11.940 white dude who looks to be in his like mid 40s or something yep and in one photo he's wearing a sort
00:15:20.980 of a jock strap thing but it's like a jock strap with a girdle so it goes up past almost past his 0.59
00:15:27.160 belly button and it's sort of holding his waist in and then his his junk looks upset like it's all
00:15:34.380 it's all packed in there and then in the other one he's wearing what really looks like an adult
00:15:38.980 diaper yep and he has a sort of like joe pesci kind of look to him he does have a joe pesci
00:15:45.300 i can also tell from his proportions that this is a short king it's also a really interesting look
00:15:52.880 i think at sort of like what are the muscular ideals at the time so he's like a dude who has
00:16:00.280 I would say, fairly muscular legs, fairly muscular arms, not really pecs.
00:16:07.620 Yes.
00:16:08.060 And sort of a little bit of abs.
00:16:10.620 It's also, yeah, the beauty centers for men are so fascinating because they've grown up
00:16:13.980 around sort of the invention of fitness culture and the invention of gyms.
00:16:18.460 And so previously, like, fit men, quote unquote, they didn't have, like, giant pecs.
00:16:23.980 Like, they didn't look like the rock because the techniques of going to the gym and specifically
00:16:28.500 working out like that didn't really exist then yeah you were doing a lot of calisthenics and
00:16:33.980 sort of more gymnastic techniques yeah i mean looking at these photos other than the pose that
00:16:39.460 he's in you wouldn't necessarily think like this is obviously a fitness guy right you're just like
00:16:44.020 yeah he he seems like a fit enough guy but that's not like the first thing you notice about him
00:16:47.840 the first thing you notice is the diaper yeah this is the pre-he-man era yeah yeah of like
00:16:55.480 men's musculature so what i'll say about mcfadden i have so many things to say about this guy
00:17:01.080 he started this magazine physical culture he then started one called sport which was 0.95
00:17:08.060 kind of like a proto sports illustrated and he had the wildest fucking takes i have a quote for 0.78
00:17:16.460 you from money magazine if you're ready to hear it do it mcfadden remained obsessed with health 0.90
00:17:22.560 both his own and the nation's. He issued coffee, alcohol, tobacco, white bread, hats, bad for the
00:17:30.020 hair, and often shoes. He opposed vaccines apparently due to a bad experience he'd had as
00:17:35.900 a boy and expressed nothing but contempt for the medical profession, which returned the compliment.
00:17:41.860 He was a big believer in fasting, milk drinking, high fiber food, lots of chewing, sleeping on
00:17:49.400 hard floors. And of course, Bernard McFadden. By following his own advice, he believed he could
00:17:56.560 easily live to 125. There it is. Possibly 150. I feel like some of the people that were taking
00:18:03.340 his diet advice should have been like, wait a minute, this guy is against shoes. Maybe some
00:18:09.520 of the other stuff that he's saying also isn't super credible. Hats are bad for your hair.
00:18:14.000 i mean so much of this stuff has the same sort of masculine like let's toughen up our boys
00:18:21.280 you know society is getting soft all that stuff about like sleeping on a hard
00:18:25.600 board on the floor it's just like discomfort for discomfort's sake absolutely there's always like
00:18:32.220 a weird morality wrapped up in this yeah and it feels like not dissimilar from sort of health and
00:18:38.360 wellness trends now right there's like this belief that like celery juice works more because it
00:18:44.120 tastes like garbage right yeah it's also just like totally a scientific right like there's not yeah
00:18:49.440 there's not really data on like not wearing shoes sleeping on hard floors yeah well although we did
00:18:56.540 get those toe shoe running shoes oh my god 10 years ago do you remember those dude the worst
00:19:02.060 date i've ever been on i made the mistake of criticizing those shoes and then i got a 15
00:19:07.020 minute monologue uninterrupted wait what was the headline of the monologue they're good and you
00:19:13.880 should shut up so in addition to all of this he ran a little sort of wellness empire including
00:19:22.880 a chain of what he called healthatoriums oh nice where people could go and get trained up on his 0.96
00:19:29.160 like real garbage health takes he opened one of new york's first vegetarian restaurants which
00:19:35.000 included a bunch of raw food options he started a couple of sort of military style boarding schools 0.54
00:19:42.520 focused on physical education and they were advertised i believe in the new york times
00:19:48.140 using the slogan to meet the needs of a nation at war was it m-e-a-t
00:19:53.880 to meet the needs that would have been lit
00:19:58.060 so basically mcfadden and a number of other sort of like health and wellness dudes they're all
00:20:05.940 dudes are promoting fasting as being generally a healthy thing to do as much as you can
00:20:12.020 and that popularization of fasting broadly fed into doing some more studying of fasting
00:20:20.360 as a treatment for childhood epilepsy in particular.
00:20:24.920 So he's a fasting guy, not a keto guy.
00:20:29.320 That's correct.
00:20:30.260 He's a fasting all the way.
00:20:32.100 He's like, just stop eating food and you'll live to 150 is essentially his vibe.
00:20:37.680 The initial sort of theory behind why fasting worked for childhood epilepsy
00:20:43.860 was that it caused dehydration.
00:20:46.480 That sort of got disproved.
00:20:48.220 Then they thought maybe it was acidosis, which is increased acidity in the blood.
00:20:52.560 That kind of got disproved.
00:20:54.440 And within a few years, they pursued this new theory of ketosis.
00:20:58.840 Basically, the folks at the Mayo Clinic figured out that the body didn't need to fast completely.
00:21:05.480 It just needed to enter this sort of state of ketosis.
00:21:09.600 And that appeared to be the mechanism that kind of reduced these seizures.
00:21:14.580 Right.
00:21:14.720 So what they're looking for is the effects of fasting, but something sustainable.
00:21:17.580 because obviously you can't just not eat forever.
00:21:20.060 So the Mayo Clinic runs the first trial of the ketogenic diet in 1921.
00:21:27.780 Their findings at that time was that a strict ketogenic diet reduced seizures in 95% of epileptic
00:21:35.680 kids, which is kind of incredible. It's still on the books as a treatment, and it's still
00:21:41.320 something that folks use. Its popularity kind of takes a dip in the late 30s when they
00:21:47.260 discover and sort of introduce more effective anticonvulsant drugs. Prior to the sort of late
00:21:55.000 30s, the only anticonvulsants were like really heavy duty sedatives like phenobarbital. So if
00:22:02.520 you're taking an anticonvulsant, you are also asleep for 24 hours or something like that, right?
00:22:08.120 And because the ketogenic diet had this really specific use, that was kind of the end of the
00:22:13.700 diet for decades to come right some people still used it as a treatment for epilepsy if
00:22:18.620 that epilepsy was like drug resistant or their kid didn't do well on the drugs they would go
00:22:23.020 okay ketogenic diet but it really sort of died out until the 1990s oh we're gonna go on a little
00:22:30.260 hollywood interlude here oh it's fun the number of characters in this story is really through the
00:22:35.500 roof is it gonna be popularized by mel gibson or something you're so close oh god there is a
00:22:40.820 movie producer called jim abrams it's 1992 his son charlie has been diagnosed with epilepsy
00:22:48.700 and he's looking for treatments and looking for treatments and looking for treatments and he goes
00:22:53.420 back through old literature and sees reference to old studies at johns hopkins and at the mayo
00:22:59.020 clinic about the ketogenic diet he puts his kid on the ketogenic diet and says that within a matter
00:23:07.500 of weeks, he fully stops having seizures.
00:23:11.660 OK.
00:23:12.000 So he starts this foundation called the Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies.
00:23:17.700 Around this time, because of who this guy is, who's like relatively prominent, Dateline
00:23:22.720 does an episode on the ketogenic diet as treatment for epilepsy.
00:23:27.360 Oh, no.
00:23:27.900 And there's quite a bit of public interest in response to that.
00:23:30.500 So Jim Abrams, being a movie producer, does not stop there.
00:23:35.400 he directs a movie about his family's experience and that movie was lethal weapon part four
00:23:42.820 so in february of 1997 abc airs this made for tv movie called first do no harm okay i'm not
00:23:53.740 going to say anything about it i will just say i live for a trailer for a 1997 made for tv movie
00:23:58.780 oh yes and you and i are going to watch one oh please give it to me
00:24:02.340 Two-time Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep returns to television
00:24:12.140 in a film directed by Jim Abrams.
00:24:19.860 Somebody help me, please!
00:24:21.940 Somebody help us!
00:24:24.260 This is Dr. Neves. He knows a lot about epilepsy.
00:24:28.820 Epilepsy?
00:24:29.460 when modern medicine can't find the answer maybe he's gonna die
00:24:35.460 how much suffering would you endure he's in status epilepticus you run an overwhelming
00:24:44.320 risk with permanent brain damage even death that's the choice there's something wrong here
00:24:49.140 there's something really really really wrong how far would you go matt matt excuse me do you know
00:24:56.580 What would have happened if he hadn't stopped you?
00:24:58.120 I was a mother. 0.93
00:24:59.240 The institution can petition for legal guardianship
00:25:01.620 of any child whose interests and well-being they feel
00:25:03.820 aren't being served by his parents.
00:25:05.900 Well, what if I feel that his interests are not
00:25:08.500 being served by the institution?
00:25:10.120 I've been doing some reading, and I've
00:25:11.780 come across a treatment for epilepsy.
00:25:14.220 She needed an answer.
00:25:16.020 They took 58 of the sickest kids, 0.86
00:25:18.140 put them on a ketogenic diet, and almost a third of them
00:25:20.580 had their seizures go away.
00:25:22.180 There is absolutely no scientific evidence
00:25:24.420 this diet works.
00:25:25.340 I'm just doing what I think is right.
00:25:27.460 What she found.
00:25:28.620 Yeah, it worked!
00:25:30.340 I think he's coming back to us, Dave.
00:25:33.200 Was a miracle.
00:25:36.580 First, do no harm.
00:25:39.740 Okay.
00:25:40.440 Tell me your reactions.
00:25:41.740 I have never said something like this cancelable on the show before, 0.95
00:25:46.160 but Meryl Streep is not good in this. 0.99
00:25:49.160 She seems like she's bad at acting in this, and I don't know why. 0.92
00:25:51.960 I will also say.
00:25:53.300 I feel very uncomfortable. 0.98
00:25:54.220 Alice and Janney is a mean doctor.
00:25:56.760 Right.
00:25:57.120 Very into Alice and Janney being in this.
00:25:59.420 So here's the interesting thing about this is that there's this whole through line of like modern medicine doesn't have the answers and blah, blah, blah.
00:26:07.560 And it's like, no, no, this was medically studied.
00:26:10.840 There is evidence.
00:26:12.060 Right.
00:26:12.220 It's weird because they're saying there's no evidence for this.
00:26:14.700 But what she's holding in her hand, the piece of paper is literally evidence.
00:26:18.200 It's a study from Johns Hopkins.
00:26:19.500 Clearly, this is like a deeply, deeply, deeply personal project for Jim Abrams.
00:26:25.240 I have no concept of what it's like to be a parent to an epileptic child, and I have no desire to like dunk on that.
00:26:33.840 Here's what I will say is a little bit funny about the background story here.
00:26:38.280 Jim Abrams is not at this point known for writing and producing and directing dramas.
00:26:44.040 he is known for writing and producing and directing comedies oh is he zucker and abrams
00:26:51.960 you got it did he do airplane he wrote airplane top secret the naked gun hot shots part deux
00:27:02.320 and scary movie four i didn't know it was that abrams oh my god uh-huh also meryl streep in the
00:27:09.940 performance of a lifetime, was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy for this performance.
00:27:16.540 Okay, I'm clearly incorrect about my read of the situation from this trailer.
00:27:20.480 I mean, I will say, okay, circling slightly back to not wanting to dunk on people who are like
00:27:26.960 trying to do the best for their kids. Yes. Like, it seems like what he's done
00:27:30.680 is totally understandable. Yeah, totally. But then sort of it seems like the issue here
00:27:35.960 is when these stories get turned into TV-ready, Meryl Streep-ready narratives,
00:27:42.620 then it's like they have to play up all of the conflict.
00:27:45.860 Like they have to make it seem for the sort of third act triumph,
00:27:49.280 they have to make it seem like the entire medical establishment was against her
00:27:53.020 and they were going to put her kid in jail and like take him away 0.60
00:27:56.580 and like play up the degree to which the medical authorities were opposed to it.
00:28:01.620 Those kinds of triumph over medical adversity stories
00:28:04.900 end up getting into the public bloodstream and just planting this idea that like doctors don't
00:28:09.740 actually care what's best for their patients. Right. That plus mean Dr. Allison Janney
00:28:14.820 really feels like a real now that's what I call maintenance phase kind of moment.
00:28:20.500 Right. Where you're like doctors are mean and they don't care about you and you got it like
00:28:24.280 you know best like they don't know shit. Right. It didn't feel like this was like a thing that 1.00
00:28:30.060 had happened and that he was sort of documenting in this way. It felt like we need a plot for
00:28:34.740 this movie that is more than I did some research and I found this and it worked for my kid.
00:28:39.560 Yeah. Essentially, what happens from here is that this leads to this major spike in research around
00:28:49.440 the ketogenic diet as treatment for epilepsy. So there's a study that comes out in 1998,
00:28:55.000 once again, from Johns Hopkins University. They published an update in 2001. This was a larger
00:29:00.780 study. There were 150 participants. And basically, their findings were a more modest version of what
00:29:07.960 had been discovered in the 20s, that the diet could reduce seizures in epileptic kids, but that
00:29:13.940 the biggest stumbling block was just being able to stick to a very restrictive and often very
00:29:19.580 costly diet, right? Oh, right. Yeah. So after a year of this study, almost half of their subjects
00:29:25.780 had dropped off of the diet. So they couldn't really measure its effects because folks couldn't
00:29:29.960 stick with it. It's like a metaphor for all diets, right? That whether or not they're effective is
00:29:34.480 kind of secondary to the fact that most people can't maintain this level of restriction over
00:29:39.280 the long term. So it's almost like irrelevant whether it works or not, because like no one's
00:29:42.900 ever going to be able to do it forever. Totally. So currently, the ketogenic diet is approved for
00:29:47.880 use by the NHS in the UK. It's covered by many US insurance plans. It's pretty mainstream,
00:29:54.900 although it's usually these days considered sort of a last resort for kids with drug-resistant
00:30:00.760 epilepsy that sort of you get to drugs before you get to a dietary sort of fix right they know
00:30:07.840 that it works but they don't know why it works and they don't know why it only works for some
00:30:12.460 kids like why it isn't sort of universally applicable it's like why do some people fart
00:30:16.540 on lester and some people don't basically it's exactly like that yes thank you i needed that
00:30:22.940 help me understand it. Here is where things take a turn. We've got this like, you know,
00:30:28.600 the lion's share of a century. This diet has been specifically for children who have this one 0.58
00:30:34.540 specific health condition. Right. And something happens where it sort of takes a turn into
00:30:41.020 weight loss land. It turns out all those kids are thin and fit, looking amazing.
00:30:45.880 They're ripped. Yeah. These ripped ass kids. So low carb diets had already been a thing. As you
00:30:52.360 noted we had like the atkins diet his first dr atkins first book came out in 1972 there was a
00:30:59.340 big wave of popularity then there was another big wave of popularity of atkins in the sort of like
00:31:03.560 late 90s early aughts there is in 1976 there's another low carb diet comes out called the last
00:31:12.760 chance diet which is a real creepy name so this is a quote from men's health magazine
00:31:18.800 In 1976, a ketosis-leveraging method called the Last Chance Diet took off.
00:31:24.660 Its rule, you drink a fat and protein-rich concoction until you lose your desired amount of weight.
00:31:30.920 The diet's creator, osteopath Robert Lynn, sold $40 million worth of his elixir.
00:31:38.560 But you were also supposed to have a physician's supervision to ensure that you were getting the necessary vitamins and minerals.
00:31:44.660 Few people did.
00:31:45.740 robbed of minerals your body can't perform certain functions like sending electrical impulses to your
00:31:52.580 heart oh as a result the last chance diet contributed to the deaths of at least 60 people
00:31:58.700 what the fallout included new regulations a negligence lawsuit for dr lynn and research
00:32:07.160 on ketosis being banished to academic siberia whoa well yeah you kill 60 people people aren't 0.99
00:32:14.540 gonna cite your publication chad totally fucking wild the entire paradigm of that is ridiculous 0.99
00:32:20.060 drink a shake until you reach the desired weight okay great then what right you're gonna go off 0.99
00:32:25.700 the shake and you're just gonna gain all the weight back because that's what bodies do or 1.00
00:32:28.580 you're gonna stay on the shake and you're going to die and you're gonna die like fuck dude those 0.99
00:32:34.220 are your options there is this sort of like false economy of like thin people thinking that the 1.00
00:32:40.760 mechanisms to lose 10 pounds and the mechanisms for fat people to lose 100 pounds are sort of the
00:32:47.700 same so they're like you just do it more right right so because of that kind of facile logic
00:32:52.780 which like i get how folks get there there's also like i would bet you money that a lot of the
00:32:59.280 people who died were fat people right i also i should say i i have people in my life that have
00:33:05.160 been on low carb diets for like years sure i think like most people they sort of started doing it on
00:33:10.680 during the Atkins wave and have ended up adopting like a modified version of it that like more fits
00:33:17.620 in with, you know, your life that you have to go to social events and you have to be a person and
00:33:21.840 eat at restaurants sometimes. I don't think anybody can maintain the amount of restriction
00:33:26.260 that was prescribed by Atkins or keto, but it's like some modified version of just like eating
00:33:31.500 sort of, I don't know, half or a quarter of the carbs that most people eat. Like that is actually
00:33:36.580 a lifestyle that works for people yeah totally and that's like fine if you want to eat less bread
00:33:41.260 or less pasta or whatever of course like eat however you want eat whatever you want yeah i
00:33:46.760 mean like the number one sort of gateway into disordered eating and full-on eating disorders
00:33:52.600 is diets so like that's the other thing to know is i think people have this idea that like a diet
00:33:57.740 is just sort of a benign thing that you do for a while and that there aren't really consequences to
00:34:02.280 it and as we will see like there are really significant consequences to diets broadly but 0.88
00:34:08.400 to this one in particular right fucking tread lightly tread lightly everybody especially when 0.95
00:34:14.080 we're talking about kids yes i don't know that's always the scariest thing is people 0.98
00:34:17.820 people anybody under 18 but especially like littler kids sorry you don't like experimenting
00:34:24.300 on children. I know. Interesting. So the sort of turn into keto specifically around weight loss
00:34:33.520 really starts in 2013 and continues throughout the sort of 20 teens.
00:34:40.460 Oh, we're getting to the Instagram chapter of the story.
00:34:43.800 Oh, buddy, it's not Instagram. It's actually podcasts.
00:34:47.120 What? We're the real enemy, Mike.
00:34:49.340 maintenance base comes out podcasts are trash do not believe anything you hear in your earbud
00:34:57.060 basically there is a study published in science uh in 2013 there's a press release sort of attached
00:35:04.980 to the release of this study and the press release says that the keto diet can quote
00:35:10.540 slow the aging process and may one day allow scientists to better treat or prevent age-related
00:35:17.300 disease including heart disease alzheimer's and many forms of cancer wait this was in science 0.99
00:35:24.020 yep this sounds like some dr oz citation needed shit so this of course shit like this 0.97
00:35:31.040 catches the ear of a bunch of biohacker kind of dude bros the first and at the time biggest 0.99
00:35:39.460 person to get on board is tim ferris oh no as soon as you said podcast i was like oh don't let
00:35:45.620 it be the six hour work week guy there it is four hours how dare you oh is that what it is okay yeah
00:35:50.600 do you want to um say something about tim ferris for folks who are for the uninitiated i mean
00:35:57.760 among us i just associate him with the ted talkification wave between 2000 and i want to
00:36:05.920 say like 2015 i think it was before any of the sort of very realistic cynicism about technology
00:36:13.820 that we all have now really kicked in it was a time when you could just say stuff like all college
00:36:19.580 will be online in 15 years or like all cars will be self-driving in five years you could just say
00:36:24.380 stuff like that people like yeah that sounds about right tim ferris whose podcast i've never listened
00:36:28.440 to and like i'm sure he's a nice guy and i'm sure he means well he was kind of part of that wave
00:36:33.700 there just was a decade there where there was just a lot of like pop science coming out that
00:36:39.240 people just bought hook, line and sinker. Yeah, it was an era of like science telling you what
00:36:44.420 you want to hear. And you being like, that sounds great. Moving on. But yeah, it sounds like this
00:36:49.220 would very much fit into that framing because a lot of the science stories we heard at the time
00:36:56.140 were very like silver bullet ish. And something like the keto diet, like we already know what the
00:37:01.920 ideal diet for humans is. We already know the way that everybody can lose weight will solve the
00:37:07.000 obesity epidemic. We have it right here. Like, it just seems very tailor-made for that time and
00:37:13.700 that platform. Yes. Tim Ferriss has this doctor on, Peter Attia, who makes kind of a hell of a
00:37:21.160 pitch for the benefits of a ketogenic diet. A little bit after that, Tim Ferriss has Dr. Dom
00:37:27.980 D'Agostino on, who's a professor of pharmacology and physiology. He's one of the biggest proponents
00:37:33.440 even now of a ketogenic diet for kind of anybody at that point tim ferris has about a million
00:37:39.580 listeners each month so the diet starts taking off as like sort of a weight loss thing but also
00:37:46.140 sort of like an optimization thing yeah as we've said science communications is hard hard and there
00:37:54.020 is a particular way in which tim ferris's show kind of beefs it here's a quote from men's health
00:38:01.680 magazine about the episode with Dr. D'Agostino. It says, quote, Ferris told the story of a friend
00:38:09.100 with testicular cancer who would fast for three days entering into ketosis before chemotherapy. 0.99
00:38:16.720 Oh, my fucking God. D'Agostino. Just wait for it, buddy. D'Agostino noted that anyone with 0.99
00:38:24.520 cancer needs medical supervision of their diet, but also said, quote, if you put your physiology
00:38:29.800 into a state of fasting ketosis that puts tremendous metabolic stress on cancer cells
00:38:36.240 that are highly dependent for survival and growth on high levels of glucose and insulin
00:38:41.760 by subtracting them from those growth needs they can die and you could potentially purge yourself 0.99
00:38:49.260 of some precancerous cells i hate this shit there's always this like perfunctory like no 0.98
00:38:56.100 I'm not saying it's going to cure cancer, followed by, basically, it'll cure cancer. 0.98
00:39:01.580 And then if anybody calls you on it, you're like, well, I never said it was going to cure
00:39:04.180 cancer.
00:39:04.980 But like, of course, that's the impression you're leaving people with.
00:39:07.720 Dr. D'Agostino now says cancer is, of course, like much more complicated than just like
00:39:13.520 starve it of sugar and you'll be fine, right?
00:39:15.820 Really?
00:39:16.320 But this like particular episode is released with the title, Dom D'Agostino on Fasting, 0.79
00:39:23.800 ketosis and the end of cancer fuck right so there is a pipeline from tim ferris to other 0.76
00:39:35.460 garbage podcasters do you want to take a guess oh i know we're gonna get a joe rogan appearance 0.98
00:39:40.480 in this episode next up tell me what you would say for the uninitiated i'm thinking particularly
00:39:45.880 of folks listening in other countries what would you say about joe rogan uh joe rogan is a actor
00:39:52.120 stand-up comedian commentator guy who ended up starting a podcast and has become i believe he's
00:39:59.000 the most popular podcaster in the country he does i think like four or five episodes a week
00:40:03.220 like he's unbelievably prolific and he has guests on who some of them are really good like he he has 0.99
00:40:10.640 like smart people on and then he also like every fourth guest is just like a fucking crackpot 0.51
00:40:16.940 and he doesn't like really push back yeah he'll just have like alex jones on who's like yeah like 0.94
00:40:23.300 the aliens are shooting lasers at us and joe rogan's like oh interesting wow yeah or like
00:40:27.880 jordan peterson or whoever right where you're just like no why i know why are these the dudes
00:40:33.900 and also he's very very popular with like a specific tranche of dudes who are probably 18
00:40:40.180 to 34 straight white lean conservative but don't necessarily identify as conservative
00:40:46.580 There's like a massive group of like this type of bro in the country who really like his show.
00:40:51.460 Yeah, I would say folks who say, I don't really subscribe to a particular political party.
00:40:56.700 I like to think for myself.
00:40:58.060 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:40:58.680 So according to Men's Health Magazine, at this point, Tim Ferriss had a million monthly listeners.
00:41:04.660 Joe Rogan had 30 million monthly listeners.
00:41:07.600 Jesus Christ.
00:41:09.040 Rogan also has the same guy, Dom D'Agostino, on, but it's the first of many guests that
00:41:16.160 he has on to talk about keto diets.
00:41:18.160 Some of them are doctors and researchers and other scientists, but a lot of them are like
00:41:23.000 athletes and sort of biohacking bro guys, right?
00:41:26.840 And all the while you can pretend that all you're doing is asking questions.
00:41:31.500 It's this built-in defense mechanism where it's like, well, we're not necessarily saying
00:41:35.660 everybody should go on the keto diet.
00:41:37.000 We're just dedicating hours every month to saying, well, will it improve sports performance?
00:41:42.480 Will it cure cancer?
00:41:44.240 And so the amount of attention that you're placing on this one very specific thing is
00:41:49.580 in many ways like more important than what you're actually saying about it.
00:41:52.680 Totally.
00:41:53.380 So it also, I will say, is like astonishingly marketable.
00:41:58.520 Yeah.
00:41:58.720 Here's another quote from this great men's health piece.
00:42:01.140 Within a year of the Rogan podcast, Orion Research estimated keto as a $5 billion industry.
00:42:09.420 And because people on keto often lack nutrients like vitamin C, magnesium, and fiber, there's
00:42:15.420 been a supplement gold rush for brands behind products that make staying on the diet easier.
00:42:21.380 Wow.
00:42:21.540 So it's a diet that seems a little bit faddish.
00:42:26.240 Do we have a term for this?
00:42:28.500 I wonder if we have some sort of pithy phrase that we use when diets peak in interest.
00:42:33.980 I will say I did some searches for Joe Rogan Keto just to see sort of what's out there.
00:42:39.600 And the like top responses were keto food and supplement brands who've done some SEO being like, we're Joe Rogan's favorite keto supplement.
00:42:51.320 So like overwhelmingly, the responses were folks figuring out how to market their product around Joe Rogan in particular.
00:42:59.560 It's also the perfect fad diet structure because it's like cleanses.
00:43:02.700 It's almost impossible to maintain. 0.94
00:43:05.280 Yes.
00:43:05.700 So people are going to end up breaking the rules because they can't handle it.
00:43:10.680 And then it's never the diet that failed.
00:43:12.920 It's you who failed.
00:43:14.060 That's right.
00:43:14.900 That's essentially how we get to today, right?
00:43:17.840 is it becomes this big thing amongst men ages 18 to 34,
00:43:24.140 which is an extraordinarily desirable advertising demographic.
00:43:27.540 It sort of blows up as an industry and it becomes one of the most popular diets in the United States.
00:43:35.560 Is that where it is now?
00:43:36.200 Has it crashed or is it still peaking?
00:43:38.700 It's still up there.
00:43:40.680 But what is often missing from conversations about the keto diet,
00:43:44.640 even in the research honestly is discussion of sort of the risks of the diet yeah the laundry
00:43:51.860 list of considerations is sort of astonishing so i found a bunch of research and a bunch of
00:43:57.580 popular media articles that were like here are like three or five things to know before you go
00:44:04.000 on the keto diet all of those listed different things and almost all of them said you don't
00:44:11.380 really have to worry because you'll be losing weight and isn't that what matters the most oh
00:44:14.500 my god including in the research like including researchers are saying like it's not that big a
00:44:19.300 deal because you're losing weight and really what you need to do is lose weight so here are the 0.88
00:44:22.920 things that they're saying is are not that big a fucking deal the first one that folks do talk 0.94
00:44:27.960 about quite a bit more is something called the keto flu is this a phrase you've heard before 0.96
00:44:32.200 no the sort of theory is that this is sort of like you get run down while your body is figuring out
00:44:38.620 how to operate without glucose. Side effects include dizziness, fatigue, headaches, nausea,
00:44:47.020 vomiting, insomnia, lowered tolerance for exercise, lethargy, and constipation.
00:44:53.200 Another one that folks talk about a fair amount is bad breath. Folks will describe it as being
00:44:58.060 kind of fruity, but like bad fruity. Bad fruity? That's what people called me in high school.
00:45:03.580 I was going to say that's how I identify, bad fruity.
00:45:06.800 There is also a phenomenon that is mostly anecdotal, so there hasn't been research into it, but I wanted to include it because it's so gross.
00:45:16.700 Thank you.
00:45:17.800 You're welcome. 0.98
00:45:18.680 I know what you like, Mike, and you like talking about vaginal odor. 0.96
00:45:23.160 Oh, why all the smell stuff? 0.95
00:45:26.860 I don't get it.
00:45:27.900 There are these sort of anecdotal reports of something called keto crotch, which I hate. 0.92
00:45:33.580 And that is essentially like people with vulvas reporting that they have vaginal discharge 0.98
00:45:40.980 that has a stronger and more unpleasant smell. 0.95
00:45:44.640 So are we learning this whole time throughout human history, carbs were what kept our junk
00:45:50.440 fresh?
00:45:52.360 That was it?
00:45:53.400 Like now we know? 0.98
00:45:54.520 Just use them as air fresheners.
00:45:56.340 Just like dangle a bagel.
00:45:58.780 I knew there was a reason for carbs.
00:46:00.500 In addition to losing fat on the keto diet, folks will lose muscle mass.
00:46:06.480 So folks do lose fat, like lose body fat, but they also lose more muscle mass than on other diets, which is really interesting to me given that it is sort of popularized by like shred bros like Joe Rogan, right?
00:46:21.960 But keep in mind, they're also disgusting to make out with or go down on and lethargic and irritable and maybe vomiting.
00:46:30.500 So in addition to all of this, the keto diet has been linked to really significant liver, kidney and gallbladder problems because all three of those things are processing macronutrients in your body and all three of those things can get really fucked up by radically changing how much work they have to do.
00:46:52.720 So if you have any liver issues like fatty liver disease, like cirrhosis, like whatever, adding so much fat to metabolize could make those worse.
00:47:05.200 And if you don't have them, it can increase your risk for future liver issues.
00:47:09.980 Right.
00:47:10.280 Your kidneys metabolize protein.
00:47:13.140 So when folks don't get the sort of protein balance just right, the keto diet can cause major kidney issues.
00:47:20.900 It can also cause kidney stones.
00:47:23.420 Those hurt.
00:47:23.740 And your gallbladder is responsible for producing bile to break down fat and eating that much
00:47:29.440 fat, especially abruptly, can overwhelm it. 1.00
00:47:33.200 Holy shit. 1.00
00:47:33.520 Yeah. 0.99
00:47:33.760 So it's real rough.
00:47:35.220 Like these are serious side effects that are for keeps, right?
00:47:38.580 Like those are long term issues.
00:47:41.020 On top of all of that, the keto diet is one that is very low in fiber because you can't
00:47:47.640 eat beans.
00:47:48.880 You can't eat grains.
00:47:50.000 you can't eat a lot of vegetables so that can cause both constipation and diarrhea depending
00:47:57.280 on which direction your body goes with it so either way you're gonna have weird poops it can
00:48:03.920 lead to mood instability and reduce cognitive function because again because your brain needs 0.99
00:48:10.320 sugar to function right and the last one which is fucking wild as shit is that it has been linked 0.99
00:48:17.860 to an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. 0.99
00:48:21.280 Oh, my God.
00:48:22.220 This is one of those moments where it's like, oh, cool, we're throwing everything out the
00:48:27.100 window for the promise of weight loss, right?
00:48:31.260 There's one doctor in a piece that I read who called it a cardiologist's nightmare.
00:48:35.620 Do we have a sense of what it does to be on this ketosis for a long time?
00:48:41.040 Yeah, we don't really, in part because this level of popularity is very new, right?
00:48:46.540 We're talking about the last six years tops.
00:48:49.800 I mean, luckily, nobody can do it for very long.
00:48:52.960 Totally.
00:48:53.700 That reduces the risk that no one can like last more than a month or two on this.
00:48:58.060 So almost all of the research, what they found is that it works well for weight loss for
00:49:04.800 somewhere between two and six months.
00:49:07.240 Oh.
00:49:07.620 And then after that, it kind of levels off and performs the same as a low fat diet or
00:49:12.180 as like any other diet that you might go on.
00:49:14.380 Right.
00:49:14.560 And like, it's the same kinds of numbers that you see from those diets, right?
00:49:19.160 It has a bunch of that splashy, like it works twice as well, but it's like instead of three
00:49:23.900 quarters of a pound lost in a month, you'll lose a pound and a half.
00:49:27.940 There is also, according to Prevention Magazine, keto can increase the likelihood of eating
00:49:34.500 disorders and particularly of binging behaviors.
00:49:37.660 Yeah, that makes sense.
00:49:38.520 Yes, totally.
00:49:39.960 So this is from Prevention Magazine, quote,
00:49:42.280 Cutting out carbs can cause the brain to release a chemical called neuropeptide Y, which tells the body that we need carbs.
00:49:51.900 When we don't get those carbohydrates our body needs, this chemical builds up and can intensify cravings, which can increase the risk of developing disordered eating patterns.
00:50:01.620 It has nothing to do with not having enough willpower.
00:50:05.500 It's more to do with the body's biological response to deprivation, says Laura Yu, a registered dietitian.
00:50:12.680 Yeah, I mean, there's a reason why we have these three macronutrients and like most, you know, there's vast diversity between diets around the world.
00:50:22.020 Like different world regions have different crops.
00:50:24.220 But the ratio of these different macronutrients is like reasonably consistent.
00:50:28.740 and there's probably like a biological reason for that yeah there totally is and this level of
00:50:35.180 fixation on which food groups you can or can't eat for optimal health and for weight loss and
00:50:41.600 all of that sort of stuff is in the scope of human history like extraordinarily recent yes yes so
00:50:48.420 here is the final side effect are you ready early death this is a quote from health magazine quote
00:50:55.680 A 25,000-person study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress suggested that people on the lowest-carb diets had the highest risk of dying from cancer, cardiovascular conditions, and all other causes.
00:51:12.440 Oh, weird.
00:51:13.040 Another study published this month in The Lancet also found that people who followed diets that were low in carbs and high in animal proteins, typical of the keto diet, had a higher risk of early death compared to those who consumed carbs in moderation.
00:51:29.060 Yes, but most of that risk is because they're listening to Joe Rogan and they fall off of a ladder.
00:51:34.880 They're just not paying attention to their surroundings.
00:51:36.660 It was really overwhelming to me to me to look at these like aside from Fen Fen, we have not looked at a diet or a cleanse that has been like one of the side effects is you might die from like four different things.
00:51:49.960 Right. 0.99
00:51:50.700 It's kind of fucking bananas. 0.98
00:51:53.000 I know it's funny compared to the Halo Top episode where it's like the worst thing was that the ice cream was just OK. 0.98
00:51:58.520 It's like, you know, might not be as good as Breyers.
00:52:02.180 Yeah, that's exactly right.
00:52:03.580 So U.S. News & World Reports every year ranks the best and worst diets for overall health via a panel of doctors and dieticians and other health care providers.
00:52:17.300 They ranked 39 diets last year.
00:52:21.020 Keto was ranked number 37.
00:52:23.140 Oh, wow.
00:52:24.080 What was the best diet?
00:52:25.340 So the number one diet is the Mediterranean diet.
00:52:27.440 Number two is the DASH diet.
00:52:29.380 And tied for number two is the flexitarian diet.
00:52:32.940 So basically the diets that like allow you to live a semi-normal life are the ones that are the most sustainable.
00:52:38.920 Shock, horror.
00:52:40.240 And the ones that include pretty much every food group.
00:52:43.300 Right.
00:52:43.700 The other thing that I will say that we haven't really touched on much here is – and this is just anecdotal from my own personal experience on this diet.
00:52:52.300 I was astonished at how costly it was and how time-consuming it was.
00:52:58.120 Yeah.
00:52:58.360 Because you can't really get food at restaurants because you don't know for sure what they're putting in their burger patty.
00:53:04.860 Do they have fillers in there?
00:53:05.920 Do they have breadcrumbs to bind it or egg or whatever?
00:53:09.460 You have to prepare your own food overwhelmingly. 0.99
00:53:13.220 And that food is fucking expensive. 0.96
00:53:16.300 My grocery bill just about doubled. 0.99
00:53:18.460 Yeah.
00:53:18.820 So it could be the skeleton key for all kinds of things.
00:53:21.900 It probably isn't.
00:53:23.460 Right.
00:53:24.420 But even if it was, like, you would then have to grapple with, okay, we already know that 0.52
00:53:30.060 minority stress increases the risk of almost every disease.
00:53:33.900 So the people who are the poorest and have the greatest barriers to accessing basic needs
00:53:38.460 in their life are at the greatest risk for those disease.
00:53:41.740 How are they going to pay twice as much for a diet that they can't stick to and that most
00:53:48.240 research says you should probably only stay on it for two to six months? 0.97
00:53:51.960 And that's before we even get to the cost of all the Febreze for your crotch.
00:53:57.180 Your summer's Eve bill is going to be astronomical. 0.99
00:54:04.400 And then like the last thing I would say on all of this is like fucking Joe Rogan likes it. 0.99
00:54:10.480 Yeah, Jesus Christ. 0.98
00:54:11.700 And do you really want to agree with Joe Rogan on like anything?
00:54:14.760 I don't really.
00:54:16.280 Anything that sits adjacent to like an hour and a half long conversation about race and IQ.
00:54:21.960 You should probably just like discard on its face.
00:54:25.680 Right.
00:54:26.060 Versus us having a two hour and 15 minute conversation about the keto diet.
00:54:31.040 I know.
00:54:32.980 But like, yes, totally.
00:54:34.880 Right.
00:54:35.200 Like, don't.
00:54:36.260 That's not the guy.
00:54:37.380 So if you're on, I was going to say, so if you're on the keto diet, stay on it.
00:54:41.220 But no, if you're on the keto diet, stop.
00:54:46.140 I mean, listen, I'm not here to tell you don't eat the keto diet. 0.99
00:54:49.980 And even if I did, fucking glass house, I did it.
00:54:52.960 This is a place where it's really worth sort of digging in on what the actual research actually says and like straight up like doing your own research into some primary sources. 0.95
00:55:04.900 And also anyone who is trying to sell you on this diet, first check whether or not they are wearing shoes.
00:55:12.580 That's the first place to look.
00:55:19.980 Thank you.