hey ekaterina, so what’s the big deal with sugar?
Over-consumption of sugar is linked to an increase in the incidence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, skin problems, fatigue, mood swings, migraines, hormonal dysfunction…
When we eat carbohydrates (desserts, chocolate but also pasta, rice, pizza, potatoes, etc.), we cause a glucose spike in our blood. It is these blood sugar peaks, and more precisely their frequency, which are inflammatory, cause glycation (major aging factor) and the release of free radicals
On the other hand, sugar use stimulates a release of hormones involved in the brain’s reward system. We enjoy the pleasure feeling so much that we often crave for more. We can thus talk about sugar addiction. There is no doubt that it is essential to manage our carbohydrate intake to stabilize blood sugar levels.
what is your approach to nutrition ?
The foods and beverages we consume have the power to either fuel our success or sabotage our efforts. What we put on our plates directly influences how we think, our energy levels, and our daily effectiveness. This isn’t just about occasional indulgences, it’s about understanding that nutrition profoundly affects our cognitive function, emotional stability, and physical performance.
I firmly believe in the power of the compound effect in nutrition. It’s not one “perfect” meal that transforms your health, nor is it one “bad” meal that ruins your progress. Rather, it’s the accumulation of consistent daily choices that creates lasting change. Each meal is an opportunity to move closer to or further away from your goals. This is why I advocate for a steady, sustainable approach rather than dietary extremes.
My work goes far beyond meal planning and calorie counting. I recognize that our relationship with food, particularly with sugar and processed foods, often reflects deeper psychological patterns. Many people turn to sugar as a coping mechanism, seeking temporary comfort or an energy boost. However, this creates a cycle that ultimately amplifies the very problems we’re trying to escape.
I help my clients understand that sugar won’t solve their problems. In fact, it often amplifies them by creating energy crashes, mood swings, and dependency patterns. Together, we identify these psychological blocks and develop healthier coping strategies that address both the nutritional and emotional aspects of eating.
True nutritional wellness occurs when we align our food choices with our values and goals, creating a sustainable lifestyle rather than relying solely on willpower.
why do you use low carb diet in your practice?
I use low carb and ketogenic diets primarily as a therapeutic tool. Keto has the significant advantage of eliminating most sugars and ultra-processed products from our plate.
It is like a reset for our bodies, which have been drowning and suffering from hyperglycemia for far too many years.
With 3 customizable approaches, paleo, ketogenic, and carnivore, I work with a gentle transition to a healthy diet, taking into account each person’s motivation and personal taste.
However, the ketogenic diet is not for everyone and comes with significant drawbacks for some of us. There are also contraindications.
Most important, it is not necessary to be in ketosis all the time to benefit from the therapeutic effects! Historically, humans have always alternated between periods of hunger and times when carbohydrates were more abundant in the form of berries or tubers. For example, one of my patients adopted a ketogenic lifestyle during winter time while incorporating more carbohydrates (in their natural form) in summer.
Moreover, there isn’t just one but several ketogenic diets. I like to make my patients self-aware, providing them with a toolkit that they can adapt to their current needs and preferences.
There have been (and there will always be) trend practices. A few years ago, veganism was very popular (by the way, I was vegan). Today, the trend is towards carnivore diet and fasting. Besides, we follow a trend because we share the same ideas with other people and thus we feel we belong to a social group.
There is essentially nothing new in these customs. I think we need to prioritize what works well for each of us individually, beyond the circumstances dictated by society. Over time, we experiment until we find our own biological and not ideological nutritional balance.
ok ok.. but keto is difficult to implement and to maintain!
Maybe you think that the keto diet is right for you but the idea of giving up carbs scares you? It’s totally normal to have reservations !
So what exactly do you think would be difficult ? By listening to their beliefs, I often hear fear. For example, one of the major concerns of my patients is the impact their new diet will have on their social life. They don’t want to rock the boat, to be different or stand out. These thoughts generally hide the fear of being excluded from the group, of being misunderstood, judged or even mocked.
However, I hope the people around you aren’t here for what you eat ! If so, you have to be prepared to leave some of them behind. Like a recovering alcoholic, he grows beyond his drinking buddies for a better health and finds a more suitable environment.
You must understand that as long as you do not want to impose constraints on your loved ones, you are imposing unhealthy food on yourself. How much longer will you neglect and forget yourself?
This is perhaps the paradox of our society today: you have to have courage to be healthy.
On the other hand, cutting carbs can be very difficult for true sugar addicts. The most complicated thing for addicts will be responding to the emotions that resurface when we stop relieving them with food. Don’t panic, the first days are the most difficult and relapses are normal.
For these patients, being in ketosis is a bit like wearing an armor against sugar cravings of our increasingly tempting environment.
Before you heal someone, ask him if he’s willing to give up the things that make him sick.
Hippocrate
all right, but is keto scientifically proven?
According to numerous recent studies (sources at the bottom of the page), the ketogenic diet appears to be something of a miracle diet. The ketogenic diet aims to drastically reduce carbohydrates in favor of fats in order to induce a state of ketosis. It is this state of nutritional ketosis that would supposedly heal us of many diseases.
Indeed, when the body is no longer overloaded with carbohydrates, insulin levels remain low, our cellular mitochondria become much more efficient at producing energy from fats, our neurons regenerate, we feel less hungry… In short, our metabolism purrs along smoothly!
As early as the 1920s, the ketogenic diet proved particularly effective in treating epilepsy (a neurological disease) in children. However, just because it has been documented for about a hundred years doesn’t mean the ketogenic approach didn’t exist before. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were likely quite familiar with ketosis. Not always having access to carbohydrate sources, humans developed this mechanism of using fat reserves instead.
After all, science merely illuminates the extraordinary healing capacities of our bodies by trying to explain them through studies.
The ketogenic diet has proven its benefits particularly against overweight and obesity, but also diabetes by helping to control blood sugar levels. Its benefits for athletic performance and recovery, as well as its anti-inflammatory properties, are now well established.
The ketogenic diet is being tested in treatments for cancer, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), fibromyalgia, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
awesome! how do i start?
Nutrition is a subject prone to confusion and doctrines. Navigating between beliefs, contradictory scientific studies, and colossal economic stakes, makes is difficult to stay unbiased. I believe it is important not to fall into any ideology and start eating against all common sense.
The evolution of human species has taken over 7 million years to perfect our organism and adapt to our environment. Nature certainly did not intend for us to drown in an overabundance of ultra-processed foods, which we mistakenly believe we can consume without any consequences. On the contrary, modern nutrition undeniably creates a whole cocktail of diseases.
We can start by letting go of dogmas and popular beliefs and choose instead foods that respect our natural biology.
Secondly, we must have the courage to implement significant changes in our diet (within the ketogenic framework or not), even if it means facing resistance, both internal and external.
For example, you can start by eliminating sugary drinks, fruit juices and alcohol. Then, ultra-processed foods, sugary items, and flour-based products. If the ketogenic diet seems daunting, explore paleo and hypotoxic recipes. Gradually, your palate will get used to less sweet taste.
We can choose natural, whole foods that nourish us, that is in harmony with the Earth and the seasons. It is a diet that protects us and gives us energy for everything we want to accomplish in life.
sources
“The present study shows the beneficial effects of a long-term ketogenic diet. It significantly reduced the body weight and body mass index of the patients. Furthermore, it decreased the level of triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and blood glucose, and increased the level of HDL cholesterol. Administering a ketogenic diet for a relatively longer period of time did not produce any significant side effects in the patients. Therefore, the present study confirms that it is safe to use a ketogenic diet for a longer period of time than previously demonstrated.”
“After 12 weeks, anthropometric and body composition measurements revealed a significant reduction of body weight (− 9.43 kg), BMI (− 3.35), FBM (8.29 kg) and VAT. There was a significant, slightly decrease of LBM. A significant decrease in glucose and insulin blood levels were observed, together with a significant improvement of HOMA-IR. A significant decrease of triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL were observed along with a rise in HDL levels. The LH/FSH ratio, LH total and free testosterone, and DHEAS blood levels were also significantly reduced. Estradiol, progesterone and SHBG increased.”
“Summarizing the extensive scientific evidence, the ketogenic diet is a promising nutritional model in the context of cardiovascular disease prevention and therapy. Through its pleiotropic properties, it is able to influence the cardiovascular system on multiple levels. Scientific evidence mostly confirms its beneficial (even more beneficial compared to other diets) effects on the lipid profile and other CVD risk factors. However, there is a lack of strong evidence of the CVD risk from dyslipidemia due to the ketogenic diet. A potential advantage of the ketogenic diet is the strong anti-inflammatory effect that interacts with the cardioprotective properties.
In addition, the effect on cardiomyocyte metabolism and the increased uptake of ketone bodies in cardiac disorders means that ketone bodies can be described as “rescue fuel” for the heart. The multifaceted effects of the ketogenic diet may also be confirmed by the effect of ketone bodies on the vascular endothelium, modulating vascular endothelial cells, improving their function or delaying their ageing.
This also confirms the beneficial effect of the ketogenic diet on blood pressure values and other indirect CVD risk factors, i.e., reduction in excess body weight. A number of these factors contribute to the overall cardioprotective potential of the ketogenic diet in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. This is confirmed by an increasing number of recent scientific studies.”
“Reductions from baseline to 2 years in the CCI group resulting from intent-to-treat analyses included: HbA1c, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, weight, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and liver alanine transaminase, and HDL-C increased. Spine bone mineral density in the CCI group was unchanged. Use of any glycemic control medication (excluding metformin) among CCI participants declined (from 55.7 to 26.8%) including insulin (-62%) and sulfonylureas (-100%). The UC group had no changes in these parameters (except uric acid and anion gap) or diabetes medication use. There was also resolution of diabetes (reversal, 53.5%; remission, 17.6%) in the CCI group but not in UC. All the reported improvements had p < 0.00012.”
“The ketogenic diet therefore presents antitumor properties and appears to be a good strategy in the fight against cancer. Current studies show that it helps slow down the metabolism of cancer cells through carbohydrate restriction (Klement et al., 2020). Moreover, this restriction inhibits oncogenic signaling pathways (notably PI3K-Akt) due to decreased insulin secretion, which consequently slows down cellular proliferation (Weber et al., 2019).
However, the ketogenic diet is not sufficiently effective on its own, especially in the late stages of disease development, so it cannot be used as an exclusive cancer treatment (Abdelwahab et al., 2012). Its effects are beneficial when used concomitantly with conventional or specific anticancer treatments. The ketogenic diet appears to reduce the side effects caused by these treatments and improve their effects on the tumor. By affecting cellular metabolism, it makes them more sensitive to the effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Furthermore, by blocking oncogenic pathways, it prevents cancer cells from bypassing the mechanisms of action of medications and allows them to be more effective. Its future is therefore as a complement to anticancer therapies (Abdelwahab et al., 2012; Weber et al., 2019), as well as in preventing the development of these pathologies.”
“In our study, we showed that the combined 22-week Mediterranean–Ketogenic diet program for patients with PSO and PSA led to beneficial results in indices of disease activity and pro-inflammatory markers. These beneficial changes were mainly attributed to KD, but MD also showed a beneficial tendency.
“We enrolled seven CDR 0.5, four CDR 1, and four CDR 2 participants. One CDR 0.5 and all CDR 2 participants withdrew citing caregiver burden. The 10 completers achieved ketosis. Most adverse events were medium-chain triglyceride–related. Among the completers, the mean of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale score improved by 4.1 points during the diet (P = .02) and reverted to baseline after the washout.”
“Low-carbohydrate diets are claimed to have beneficial effects on brain function. A switch to KD is recommended both in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and to improve memory and learning efficiency among healthy individuals. Authors of studies on the effects of the KD on improving cognitive function in people with AD or PD point to its positive effects on neuronal function. This prevents the progression of neurodegeneration, which significantly improves the patient’s quality of life.
The risks associated with adverse effects of the diet prevent the KD from being recommended for routine use among individuals with AD and PD. The KD may support the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, but further studies involving larger numbers of patients are required to recommend it as a preventive measure among those at high risk for these conditions. There are also no long-term studies that can confirm that following a KD can inhibit the development of dementia in Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patients without causing harmful side effects..”