Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous? • Hacker News Board

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#221

Post by vannevar » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 7:57 PM UTC

heimatau wrote: post #180

rotwoof wrote: post #62

I've been doing Keto since Feb 25 2016. My primary goal when switching over was weight loss, which turned out to be easy. I'm 25, male and was experiencing growing health complications related to obesity. I've lost well over 60 lbs since making the switch despite the fact that I maintain a primarily sedentary lifestyle though I now work out weekly as well as take bi-daily walks. There are downsides though. It's not c…

I've been doing Intermittent Fasting [1] for about 2-3 months now. I didn't realize the electrolytes issue when the body switches into ketosis. One thing I LOVE about IF is that my cravings have naturally leaned me in these directions. 1) I've been drinking more Gatorade because I craved it. 2) I've added salt, mayo, cheese to my sandwiches to 'make it taste better' even though prior to this diet, I'd have a fairly b…

Nutella might be bad...but it's keto-friendly. In what sense is Nutella 'keto-friendly'? Out of a 37g serving, 20g are refined sugar.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#222

Post by eth0up » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #185

eth0up wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few thoughts: Does 'organic' regulation permit the use of paraffin coatings? I imagine the prolific use of paraffin in conventional produce could make rinsing away pesticides quite difficult. Copper sulfate is one of the most common organic pesticides that I am aware of. It's certainly nothing to gorge on. However, when handled safely, it may be preferable to directly engineering a pesticide into the plant. On the…

"For weed control we relied on hay and profuse weeding by hand," For a while I've said that "robotic fast food joints" are one of the touchstones I'm using to say that robotics has really arrived. I've been considering adding "robotic weeders" to my list. How much would our agriculture change if instead of pesticides, we physically weeded everything? The robot may not even need to "remove things by their roots", whic…

Of course, it would result in less hours/pay for some, but I'd still welcome effective robotic (solar-powered?) weeding anytime. Maybe it would work with corn, but the vegetables I'm accustomed to are delicate and I suspect it would be a great undertaking to duplicate the efficiency of the hand on a large scale. I'm honestly not sure if "trimming" would work or not. Seems frightfully difficult to me, but so is ingenuity. PS: I am not a professional farmer, so take my opinions accordingly.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#223

Post by rayiner » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 8:10 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #206

jsprogrammer wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is at least one person in these comments extolling the virtues of keto viz a viz quick weight loss without exercise. I don't know what a normal low fat diet is, but the overruling factor in weight loss/gain is the ratio of work (exercise) to energy input (calories).

Physics, years of evidence and common sense down voted on HN where solyent is seen as a good thing.

The physics is that exercise burns so few calories it's not worthwhile from a weight loss point of view.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#224

Post by teknoxjon » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 8:19 PM UTC

rotwoof wrote: post #62

I've been doing Keto since Feb 25 2016. My primary goal when switching over was weight loss, which turned out to be easy. I'm 25, male and was experiencing growing health complications related to obesity. I've lost well over 60 lbs since making the switch despite the fact that I maintain a primarily sedentary lifestyle though I now work out weekly as well as take bi-daily walks. There are downsides though. It's not c…

I know it's mentioned in the article for long term but for the first couple weeks was there any difference in brain functioning? I'm not talking about anything severe, but if you have a job where you are using a lot of brain power, I'd imagine very low carb diet seems to be a little counter-intuitive. Like the article said the brain gets energy from ketones but is it the same amount/enough energy as regular carbs? Do you feel slightly slower, possibly more tired when performing longer challenging tasks? I've dieted very strictly before with a lack of carbs but also a huge deficit of calories and couldn't think nearly as quick. I agree lack of calories was the primary reason for this but it also seems very low carbs could contribute to constraining optimal brain output.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#225

Post by alakin » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 8:26 PM UTC

trendia wrote: post #21

Genetics plays a very large factor in fat and cholesterol metabolism, and one that I think explains the variance in success with the ketogenic diet. e.g. FTO, PPARG, APOA5, FABP2, and APOE. Essentially, not everyone processes fat the same way, and for some, especially those with APOE4/4, a high fat diet may actually be deleterious to health. People with the right genes will have great success with ketogenic diets...…

This is key.

Apoe status appears to control the absorption rates of LDL cholesterol (tiny balls of fat).

Individuals with apoe4, appear to have really low LDL cholesterol absorption rates between cells, and high blood-LDL cholesterol concentrations.

Having done a bit of research on optimal dieting, its pretty inconclusive.

This study shows negative consequences resulting from high fat diets for apoe4: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27656136

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#226

Post by caub » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 8:39 PM UTC

I think the body can generate fat from any type of food, even sugars, the thing is just to learn to use that stored fat, instead of overconsuming

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#227

Post by rudolf0 » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 8:46 PM UTC

serg_chernata wrote: post #218

rudolf0 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also get a lot of mental clarity and alertness after extended periods of not eating, followed by tiredness and fogginess after a meal. This might be one reason why I'm underweight. Unfortunately, a keto diet isn't really an option for me (vegetarian, and allergic to many vegetarian protein sources). I wonder what the underlying science behind it is.

Science behind keto? This article explains it pretty well.

No, the science behind feeling mental clarity after extended fasting.

Unfortunately, everything I could think to Google just returned a bunch of grandiose pseudoscience.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#228

Post by gnaritas » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 8:47 PM UTC

AJ007 wrote: post #192

gnaritas wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said eat normal and healthy, not eat low fat; low fat is also a fad diet. And yes, keto is a fad diet with no empirical evidence to support its claims, testimonials are not evidence. There was actually a recent scientific study done and it found keto claims lacking. I've done keto, I'm well aware of what it is, but the weight loss is far more likely to come from eating less than from not eating carbs because it's…

That is wrong, the ketogenic diet is prescribed by doctors to patients suffering from seizures and it works. There are long term studies and the NYTimes has been reporting about this since the 90s. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21Epilepsy-t.html Everyone picks a diet. If you just randomly eat anything thats available to you, in the developed world, you are most likely significantly overweight and at very…

Your argument is flawed, doctors prescribe lots of things that aren't good for you because for that person, they're better than the alternative, chemo for example. That something is done by doctors does not make it good.

> but the rest of the details are finally getting fleshed out and accepted by mainstream science.

Uh, no, mainstream science is the only one doing the fleshing out; you're implication that they're behind and only now accepting what diet science already knows is anti-intellectual bunk. If it isn't mainstream science, it isn't science.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#229

Post by fatman2poh » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 9:04 PM UTC

gnaritas wrote: post #163

snuxoll wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're also neglecting another benefit of keto for maintaining a low-caloric intake, it encourages you to eat fat . Fat takes a substantially longer amount of time for the stomach to process, meaning you feel satiated for a longer period of time. Whenever I eat carbs I try to supplement them with a good amount of fat to avoid this, yesterday I had a 300cal snack of 5 saltines topped with roughly 3tbsp of peanut butte…

Normal and healthy diets are balanced; most people's diets are excessively heavy in carbs, so no, I didn't neglect that at all. People should eat less carbs and more fat until they're somewhat of a balance, going in either direction by cutting out one or the other is not eating healthy. Keeping your body in long term ketosis is neither healthy nor particularly pleasant. Yea, eating a pure carb snack is going to make…

It's unbelievable what kind of hive mind exists behind this anecdotal unscientific community.

Absolutely every thread on fat, sugar is filled with huge amounts of anecdotal evidence that is entirely worthless and delusional.

Fat people comment that they've lost weight by planning their diets more carefully (what a luck that it was keto), what a surprise.

I'm aware that being overweight is a huge issue in developed world and that most people easily lose weights on restrictive diets but it's all a fad.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#230

Post by fatman2poh » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 9:08 PM UTC

johnward wrote: post #203

gnaritas wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said eat normal and healthy, not eat low fat; low fat is also a fad diet. And yes, keto is a fad diet with no empirical evidence to support its claims, testimonials are not evidence. There was actually a recent scientific study done and it found keto claims lacking. I've done keto, I'm well aware of what it is, but the weight loss is far more likely to come from eating less than from not eating carbs because it's…

"plenty of veggies and fruits" "cut out sugar" You can't do both.

checkout studies on fructose/glucose in a glass that is consumed, and the equivalent in fruits.

good thing that the physical reaction isn't equivalent despite the fact that calorical intake of that sugar is the same.

it's a huge shame not to consume fiber, or berries, or other fruits.

fruits were made by plants to prolong the life of the consumer, it's absolutely impossible to overdose on bananas if you aren't deliberately consuming huge amounts and aren't prepared to sit for hours on the bathroom.