1- Extremely laughable that this is taught in science as the brain running strictly on glucose, all organs in the absence of dietary glucose can operate on ketones produced by the liver, and the carb requirements of the brain once fat adapted may drop to 30g per day, all of which will be produced as a by product of glycolysis (approx 20g per day) and the rest from gluconeogenisis up to 150g per day. Fatty acids are unable to cross the barrier and provide energy to the brain and this is why glucose is able to be used as fuel, but when those fatty acids are broken down into ketones they can cross the barrier and provide energy. The brain and other organs also seem to operate extremely well on ketones and may be the reason we survived as a species in times where food was scarce, what kind of shitty predator would we be if we're too weak to walk after a couple days without carbs.
On keto it's almost impossible to go into hypo-glycemia unless you're already a type 1 diabetic. On Keto you should have an almost perfectly stable blood glucose level, and after about 6 months on the diet you will probably see it closer to the higher end of fasting blood glucose levels of SAD individuals.
The mind fog is a bit of a misnomer. It certainly does happen and with a couple reasons. Partially it is withdrawl from carbs but ketosis itself requires the liver to be emptied of glycogen to occur and will also dump about 30% muscle glycogen as a result. This acts as a bit of a diuretic and flushes fluids from the body, since you have less water in your body you need to supplement salt and potassium to approx 5g each per day (also approx 400mg Mg) and any mind fog or keto flu is directly attributable to this. You need salt and potassium for your nervous system to work properly and in order to maintain water balance in the cells. That mind fog is usually a combination of low fluids and electrolytes. After you hit ketosis, provided you're hydrating etc, most people notice a sudden clarity and are able to think much more effectively or clearly than before, and would actually tell you the opposite, that how they perceived everything before was through a fog.
I'll touch on this quickly as well, just because you hold less muscle glycogen doesn't mean you're weaker, once your mitochondria adapt to burning fat you will actually spare more muscle glycogen in high output activities than you would normally because you will be able to triple your fat burning potential.
2- You might want to read up on more recent studies for cholesterol, http://highsteaks.com/cholesterol/. Particle size may be more important than count. Initially there may be an increase in all cholesterol in overweight or obese individuals because of rapid weight loss and release of body fat but over time, lets say 6 months lipid panels usually show improvement. While LDL particle counts may rise, this is typically the fluffy large particle LDL that isn't likely to cause damage to arteries.
3- Very little supplementation is needed at all on Keto and many regular "requirements" are drastically reduced when you cut out grains and carbs (Ascorbic acid for example). It's also possible to eat an entirely carnivorous diet and get all the micro nutrients you need as long as you add organ meats. Unlike a vegetarian or vegan diet where you cannot continue without at the very least Vitimin B supplementation, and it's shown time and tiem again that plant proteins are inferior in quality to meats. On the other hand the easiest thing to do is to add dark leafy greens to the diet in order to more easily get some of the nutrients you may lack.
This also brings us to fibre, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. There's is little to no proof at all that fibre is useful in anyway. A lot of the problems it claims to fix are also caused by it. http://highsteaks.com/fiber/ I apologize for linking the site but it's a lot easier than going and linking all the source studies themselves and asking you to read all of them. I agree with you on the processed meats, due to the nitrates it's really not ideal but that's why you should try and eat whole foods.
4- While calorie counting does work for most people it isn't a very good option for anyone with insulin resistance as it ignores the real problem of why they're fat. For these people it's more important to lower insulin in the blood in order to allow for mobilisation of fatty acids to fix hormone levels and eating habits. If they can do that without low carb then great, whatever works.
I for one eat this way because from all the research I've done it seems like a much healthier and extremely easy way to live than I was previously. I've been eating ketogenic for a year and a half. Anecdotally I haven't had a single migraine since (used to be a weekly to bi-weekly occurence) and it's lowered my blood pressure from a whopping 187/110 or whatever the hell it was to 118/79. My diet esentially consists of, meats, cheese, nuts, avacado, dark greens, butter, heavy cream, coconut oil, coffee, and 3 dozen eggs a week.
On keto it's almost impossible to go into hypo-glycemia unless you're already a type 1 diabetic. On Keto you should have an almost perfectly stable blood glucose level, and after about 6 months on the diet you will probably see it closer to the higher end of fasting blood glucose levels of SAD individuals.
The mind fog is a bit of a misnomer. It certainly does happen and with a couple reasons. Partially it is withdrawl from carbs but ketosis itself requires the liver to be emptied of glycogen to occur and will also dump about 30% muscle glycogen as a result. This acts as a bit of a diuretic and flushes fluids from the body, since you have less water in your body you need to supplement salt and potassium to approx 5g each per day (also approx 400mg Mg) and any mind fog or keto flu is directly attributable to this. You need salt and potassium for your nervous system to work properly and in order to maintain water balance in the cells. That mind fog is usually a combination of low fluids and electrolytes. After you hit ketosis, provided you're hydrating etc, most people notice a sudden clarity and are able to think much more effectively or clearly than before, and would actually tell you the opposite, that how they perceived everything before was through a fog.
I'll touch on this quickly as well, just because you hold less muscle glycogen doesn't mean you're weaker, once your mitochondria adapt to burning fat you will actually spare more muscle glycogen in high output activities than you would normally because you will be able to triple your fat burning potential.
2- You might want to read up on more recent studies for cholesterol, http://highsteaks.com/cholesterol/. Particle size may be more important than count. Initially there may be an increase in all cholesterol in overweight or obese individuals because of rapid weight loss and release of body fat but over time, lets say 6 months lipid panels usually show improvement. While LDL particle counts may rise, this is typically the fluffy large particle LDL that isn't likely to cause damage to arteries.
3- Very little supplementation is needed at all on Keto and many regular "requirements" are drastically reduced when you cut out grains and carbs (Ascorbic acid for example). It's also possible to eat an entirely carnivorous diet and get all the micro nutrients you need as long as you add organ meats. Unlike a vegetarian or vegan diet where you cannot continue without at the very least Vitimin B supplementation, and it's shown time and tiem again that plant proteins are inferior in quality to meats. On the other hand the easiest thing to do is to add dark leafy greens to the diet in order to more easily get some of the nutrients you may lack.
This also brings us to fibre, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. There's is little to no proof at all that fibre is useful in anyway. A lot of the problems it claims to fix are also caused by it. http://highsteaks.com/fiber/ I apologize for linking the site but it's a lot easier than going and linking all the source studies themselves and asking you to read all of them. I agree with you on the processed meats, due to the nitrates it's really not ideal but that's why you should try and eat whole foods.
4- While calorie counting does work for most people it isn't a very good option for anyone with insulin resistance as it ignores the real problem of why they're fat. For these people it's more important to lower insulin in the blood in order to allow for mobilisation of fatty acids to fix hormone levels and eating habits. If they can do that without low carb then great, whatever works.
I for one eat this way because from all the research I've done it seems like a much healthier and extremely easy way to live than I was previously. I've been eating ketogenic for a year and a half. Anecdotally I haven't had a single migraine since (used to be a weekly to bi-weekly occurence) and it's lowered my blood pressure from a whopping 187/110 or whatever the hell it was to 118/79. My diet esentially consists of, meats, cheese, nuts, avacado, dark greens, butter, heavy cream, coconut oil, coffee, and 3 dozen eggs a week.