In this episode, You'll learn about the history of the ketogenic diet and how it has been found to benefit an array of health issues from epilepsy to cancer.

I'll share five important ways that the ketogenic diet can benefit breast cancer survivors and five easy ways to implement this diet into your life.

If you want to learn about a scientifically proven way to support your breast cancer recovery and to shed some extra body fat. You won't want to miss this episode

.

Read the full transcript:

00:01

This is Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm a healthy lifestyle coach, a clinical Ayurveda specialist, a personal trainer, and I'm also a breast cancer survivor. In this podcast, we talk about healthy thinking and mindfulness practices, eating well, moving your body for health and longevity. And we'll also hear from other breast cancer survivors who have reengaged with life, and have incredible stories to share. This podcast is your go to resource for getting back to life after breast cancer.

00:38

Welcome to Episode Eight of the breast cancer recovery coach, five facts you need to know about ketogenic diets for breast cancer recovery. I'm really excited about this episode, we're going to be talking about the benefits of a LCH F or low carb, high fat and ketogenic diets. And we're going to talk about them from the perspective of how studies show that this type of diet can support cancer survival rates, and also from the perspective of weight loss. And how eating this way can make it surprisingly easy to lose excess body fat, which that's very exciting, right? Before we get into this, I just want to remind those of you who are listening to this podcast from the let your lifestyle be your medicine link, or subscription, that beginning today and moving forward, my podcast is going to be listed as the breast cancer recovery coach in the iTunes Store. And so the URL that you subscribe to will change. So if you could take a moment and please find the new podcast at the breast cancer recovery coach and subscribe to that link so that you never miss an episode. That would be awesome. I'm posting this one, episode eight in both places, because I want to make sure that I don't leave any subscribers behind before they figure out the change. I did post a special announcement about it yesterday as well. And just a little explanation, a little background on that I made this change because I have been consulting with some people who know a lot more about producing podcasts that I do. And they helped me to see that making this change in the podcast would make it more clear about the content. And in doing so it helped more survivors to find this show going forward. So I really appreciate your patience and support. And I hope that you follow me through this transition. And for those of you who found this podcast through the breast cancer recovery coach length, thank you and welcome. And it would be great if you would take the time to subscribe to this podcast in the iTunes Store or Android or Google or wherever you came to it from. And if you like what you hear, leave a positive review for me in the iTunes Store. And that also, we'll make it much easier for other survivors to find this show as it moves up in its rankings. So thanks again, I appreciate your patience. And I really really appreciate the support of everyone who's been regularly subscribing, downloading and listening to this podcast. Thank you for that. So I have another really exciting announcement and actually kind of an invitation. Next month, July 11 2017, I will be celebrating six years of cancer survival. And for that month, I would love to highlight stories of other breast cancer survivors. I'd love for you all to join me in that celebration. So I'm putting out this request now that if you're willing to share your story of survival, will you please email it to me at Laura at Laura lummer.com. And I would love to have that privilege of sharing your story on my website, through my blog, on my podcast with other survivors. And if you're interested in talking with me about your story on my podcast, please let me know that in your email as well, because I would love to be able to have a couple of you on the show so that you could share your story through your own voice. I am a real believer that there are a lot of women out there who are struggling, surviving breast cancer after treatment. And they just need to hear that one story that connects them with this story that's that maybe would help them believe that they can overcome that what their struggle is. And, you know, everybody has a different experience. And oftentimes, hearing somebody overcome the same thing you're going through. It's just that one catalyst that you need to have that paradigm shift and to begin thriving. So I'm really looking forward to receiving stories, not only about how you survived your treatment, but how you thrived after treatment. What changed in your life, did you begin to pursue some kind of a dream? Do you have a different perspective on life that you don't think you would have had? If you had not gone through the experience of breast cancer? I can't wait to hear these stories and I can't wait to share them. So please send them in. If you know someone who you think has remarkable story

05:00

Have them email that to me if they would. And Let's all celebrate surviving together in the month of July. And thank you for participating in that. Okay, so let's get to the topic of low carbohydrate, high fat, also known as LCHF, and ketogenic diets. And before we go too deep into this, I want to talk to you about the difference between these two diets so that you understand why I'm referring to them in two different ways. And I also want to give this little disclaimer, this caveat, that as breast cancer survivors, many of us continue to have special needs regarding our health, maybe we're still taking prescription medications to manage hormones to manage our risk of recurrence. And I've shared in previous podcasts and blogs about my own experience, having high levels of insulin, glucose, cholesterol, high blood pressure, all of these things following my treatment, and especially when I was on Tamoxifen. So it's important for me to remind you that I am not a doctor, I am not a registered dietitian. And although I do spend a lot of time researching, reading, and ensuring that the information I'm putting out to you is valid and comes from professional educated and credential resources, it's important that you always put your health and safety first. So anything you hear, please do your own research, follow up with your doctor if you need to, especially if you're on medication, or if you have a metabolic condition that's under medical supervision, or that requires medical supervision, because especially a ketogenic diet can be very powerful. And if you're taking medication to control some of the metabolic facets, like blood glucose or insulin, that this diet can affect, you want to make sure that you're being very, very careful, your health and safety is the most important thing. So I will be providing the resources that I use for this show on the show notes page on my podcast page, which you can find at Laura lummer.com forward slash podcasts dot HTML.

07:03

Okay, so last week's show. Last week show was part one of this series on managing weight after breast cancer treatment. And I talked on that show about the struggle that I went through the different avenues, the different resources that I exhausted while trying to manage my weight after breast cancer treatment, and talked about how that was really the first time in my life that I have faced this extremely difficult challenge of managing weight gain. I talked a little bit about how I had noticed people around me experiencing a lot of success following low carb high fat diets. And it was difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact of staying healthy and eating really high fat. Also, I've never been a big fan of dieting, quote unquote dieting. And I've always been an advocate of very balanced eating, eating in moderation, or at least what I perceived at that time was being balanced. But I also do try to keep an open mind to other options. So I started doing some research into the ketogenic diet because I wanted to lose weight. And I also wanted to be sure that it was safe in the sense that it wouldn't increase my risk of cancer recurrence. As breast cancer survivors, I think you will know we stay away from foods and products and other things that maybe seem a little risky or may present some kind of an increase in exposure to estrogen or progesterone or might just throw some hormones out of whack and any endocrine disruptors. And I wanted to be sure that this diet was safe from that perspective, the perspective of hormone control as well. Well, what I discovered was that there are a couple of different versions of the ketogenic diets. Let me clarify those now. One version is called the LCHF, or low carb high fat diet, and the other is really the traditional ketogenic diet. You may see them refer to in both of these ways, or you may hear people refer to both of them just as ketogenic diet. So the ketogenic diet includes up to 90% of its calories from fat. Whereas a low carb high fat diet is more of a modified Atkins diet. The Atkins diet recommends from 50 to 60% of the calories come from fat, versus a low carb high fat diet, which recommends that more than 75% of the calories should come from fat sources. And that if you go below that 75% mark, it's really not considered that ketogenic or high fat. So Atkins also includes more protein than a ketogenic diet, or a low carb high fat diet, because they recommend that you keep your protein intake between 20 and 25% of your calories, and then you adjust that downward as needed for weight loss. And that's because these diets are really concerned with controlling levels of insulin release, and levels of glucose.

10:00

in your blood, and high taking in higher amounts of protein can cause an insulin release. And so they try to keep the protein moderate. It's not a high protein diet. So by no means does this mean that I'm criticizing Atkins or any other type of diet, I'm just trying to offer this comparison to help you get an understanding of exactly what the low carb, high fat or ketogenic diet actually is. So one of the resources that I was fortunate enough to come across when I began to look into the ketogenic diet, and I mentioned this on the last show as well, was a researcher named Dr. Dominic de Augustino. And this guy is just brilliant and listening to his interviews led me to some other excellent resources that he recommended, and I was surprised to learn that the ketogenic diet has been around since 1921. At that time, it was discovered that the ketogenic diet worked exceptionally well for children who suffered from epileptic seizures. And when these kids with epilepsy were put on a ketogenic diet, the majority of them completely recovered and stopped having seizures, which is incredible. Now, after a period of time, this diet fell out of fashion because more and more pharmaceutical drugs were being created to control seizures. And as those drugs were developed, doctors began prescribing the drugs rather than putting these epileptic children on ketogenic diets, and it just kind of fell by the wayside. Then, in the early 1990s, James, Abraham's are Jim Abrams, the writer of many movies that you probably are very familiar with, including airplane The Naked Gun, Scary Movie forward just to name a few. His son Charlie was a toddler, 15 months old, and he suffered from severe epilepsy. And James was searching for help for his son. And in doing that he his search took him to Johns Hopkins, where he became acquainted with a dietitian who recommended the ketogenic diet for his son, Charlie. So even though the drug therapies that Charlie had been subjected to, in the short 15 months of his life, had failed to manage his condition. The ketogenic diet worked, eating a ketogenic diet allowed him to get off of the drugs he was taking to manage his seizures. He recovered from his absolute epilepsy, and he lives a normal life, even though his original prognosis was that he would live a life of seizures, which would result in Progressive Mental retardation. And his dad was so amazed at the results of the ketogenic diet. And he was also so angry at the medical institutions for not freely giving this information out to people who had epileptic children, that he became. He became passionate about getting this information out about the ketogenic diet to other parents who were in the situation he was in. And so, James started the Charlie foundation to spread the word and to educate people who really needed this help for their epilepsy or for their epileptic children. And he got such a great response once he started putting this information out there, that he wrote and directed and produced a movie in 1997 that you probably have heard of, as well. It's called first do no harm with Meryl Streep. And it's the story of an epileptic child whose life was changed through eating a ketogenic diet.

13:30

So since the Charlie Foundation was founded was started, the ketogenic diet has been found to benefit many other conditions. And here's the shortlist Parkinson's disease, ALS, Cancer, autism, traumatic brain injury, type two diabetes, and it goes on. And as a result of this discovery that the ketogenic diet supports so many other conditions, the foundation has changed its name to the Charlie foundation for ketogenic therapies. And that just kind of opens up their spectrum so they can continue to promote the studies and the trials of the ketogenic diet to this whole broad spectrum of other diseases and their management. So I highly recommend checking out their website because it's super informative. The website is www the Charlie foundation.org. And there's some great information, dietary plans, recipes, and I think you'll love it, you'll find a lot of great stuff on there. So I could go on for a long time about the science of the ketogenic diet, because there's a lot of science out there, and it's just popping up more and more every single day. But today, I'm going to try to focus here and we're going to hone in on how the ketogenic diet can support cancer patients and cancer survivors and improve our odds of survival, which I know I want and I'm sure you want to do

15:00

I'm going to talk about five key pieces of information that you should know. And then I'll give you five tips on getting started with a ketogenic diet plan. I'm also going to list a lot of resources on the podcast page on my website, so be sure to check that out too, to help you get started, okay, so number one key point that you need to know, cancer cells need glucose to survive to grow to metastasize. So in 1923, pretty close to around the time that the ketogenic diet was discovered to be effective for epilepsy, a German biochemist named Otto Warburg publicly stated his hypothesis that cancer was a metabolic disease. So this means that he believes something went wrong in the body, and that was the root of cancer, whereas the popular belief at that time was that cancer was a genetic disease. What Warburg discovered was that cancer cells use a different way of creating or accessing energy, the normal cells did normal healthy cells. Cancer cells use a process called fermentation, even if there was oxygen present for them to use, which is what a healthy cell would go to first for its energy source. Fermentation, though, requires glucose or blood sugar to be present. In fact, when cancer cells do not have glucose, they often die. And this process of cancer dying in the absence of glucose to this day is called the Warburg effect because of Otto Warburg hypothesis, and discoveries. So now we all know because of the present prevalence of type two diabetes in our society that we don't want our blood sugar to be too high, because that's dangerous. And I think there's also a common understanding that you have to have a certain level of blood sugar glucose in order to function. And that's partly true. However, when there's not a lot of glucose, we can use ketones for energy. And when our body is using ketones for the majority of its energy, rather than glucose, we're sad to be in ketosis. So you can be in nutritional ketosis by eating a high fat diet to get you to that state. Or you can also be in a fasting, fasting ketosis, which is something I'll talk about in a minute. So another thing it's important to distinguish between is that ketosis, and keto acidosis are two very different conditions. One of those conditions is very dangerous, and the other is quite safe. So when we're talking about when we're in ketosis, we're using energy of the ketone bodies that our liver is making. But when a person usually a type two diabetic is in Quito, acidosis, their system has become really acidic, and their body is producing ketones. But just as the body has become resistant to insulin, and is not able to correctly use glucose for energy, they're also not able to correctly use ketone bodies for energy. So the ketones build up making very acidic environment in their body in their blood, and then a lot of the ketones are filtered out through the kidneys and found in the urine. So a lot of times, you know, people confuse these two conditions. And so they think that if you're in ketosis, that's the same thing as keto acidosis. And that is dangerous. But it's important to realize that being in ketosis is not something to be afraid of it is not the same as keto acidosis. Okay. So another situation, which I just referred to that when your body makes ketones for energy is when you're in a fasted state. So when you're fasting, your body starts to pull these triglycerides out of fat storage and break them down and use the fatty acids to make ketone bodies. And because it's accessing stored fat, a lot of people realize really rapid weight loss. So of course, your body can also create its own glucose and it does it, your body creates what it needs to survive. And because we all have a need to have some level of glucose for our brain for our red blood cells for functioning, we continue to make them but our brain also loves functioning off of ketones. So there's a lot of science involved in that. And it's more than we're going to get into here on the podcast, but I just want you to understand the basics. And then as I said, I'll provide resources. So if you're a researcher or science buff, like me, go to those resources and look into it and find out more about how your body makes ketones and how they work for you. Okay, so the basic understanding here that we want to get to is that the ketogenic diet is producing energy for the body through making energy off fat stores rather than using glucose. So it's keeping insulin responses low and blood glucose low and not allowing that blood sugar level to be high and accessible for cancer cells and cancer.

20:00

growth. Okay, point number two ketogenic diets keep glucose low and reduce insulin response. The bottom line again, following ketogenic diet keeps blood sugar and insulin levels low. Why is that important? Why is that a benefit for us as cancer survivors?

20:18

Well, when our body is making ketones, and we're using them for energy, studies show that cancer cells don't have the food that's necessary to grow and to multiply. So in a situation where people are being currently treated for cancer, this is a supportive therapy for chemotherapy or for radiation. And tremendous success is being found using both fasting and a ketogenic diet for people who are currently being treated for cancer. So I'm going to circle back to my opening statement here where I said that I finished chemotherapy and my blood work showed that my insulin, my glucose, my cholesterol, were all really high, in addition to other hormones in my body being out of whack. And I've met a lot of women since then, who have had trouble managing glucose have had high insulin levels after chemotherapy. And so that's a really touchy situation. And it can lead to developing type two diabetes. And in addition to the fact that it helps it contributes to storing extra body fat. And we know that having extra body fat also increases our chances of having a cancer recurrence. So at the time, when I was battling to get my blood sugar low, I had a physician recommend that I go on Metformin to control my blood sugar and keep it lower. And since that time, the discovery has come that people who are on Metformin also seemed to have a lower risk of cancer, and then circling back and doing more investigation and more studies. Now they're seeing that taking Metformin, which helps keep glucose low seems to be supportive in reducing chances of cancer recurrence and helping with survival rates. So, Dr. Jason Fung, he is the author of the obesity code unlocking the secrets of weight loss, and he's a kidney specialist in Canada. He's a huge advocate of the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. So Dr. Fung talks in his lectures and his books about how important it is to keep the insulin response low, so that our bodies don't become insulin resistant. And then that leads to us having high blood sugar. It's also commonly known that insulin encourages fat storage, and that's its basic job is to store energy in the body to get the glucose out and tuck it away wherever it needs to be to keep the blood levels normal. So the more carbohydrates we eat, the higher our blood sugar goes, the more frequently we have an insulin response, and the fatter we get. So let alone the fact that higher the blood sugar is the more fuel that just floating around eligible in our body to be consumed by cancer cells. So you can see how keeping the insulin regulated keeping the blood sugar low, can help our bodies stay at a much safer progression, and how that diet can be safer without without providing fuel for cancer growth. All right, number three, ketogenic diets reduce metabolic syndrome and risk of diabetes. So metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that when they occur together, they increase your chance of heart disease, and your risk of becoming type two diabetic. And metabolic syndrome is the second step on your way to diabetes, maybe even further than the second step, the first step being chronically high blood sugar, and then that chronically high blood sugar, as we just talked about, creates the insulin response creates weight gain, and that stimulates metabolic imbalances. So metabolic syndrome is a case where you have at least three of the following conditions occurring at the same time. One is that for females a waist circumference that's larger than 35 inches or 89 centimeters, for men, that measurement would be 40 inches or 102 centimeters. Number two is you have high triglyceride levels. Number three, low levels of high density lipoproteins or HDL, I'm sure you've heard that referred to as the good cholesterol. So in women if you have less than 50 milligrams per deciliter of HDL that's considered low. For men, it's 40.

24:38

If you have number four, the fourth point is high blood pressure, or your blood pressure is consistently 130 over 85 or higher. Or five, your fasting blood sugar is greater than 100 milligrams per deciliter or higher. So even when you go for that blood test and you haven't been able to eat for 12 hours and it's still 100 or higher.

25:00

or on a consistent basis, then that's considered high fasting blood sugar. So if you have three out of those five conditions, you're said to have metabolic syndrome, and you're at an increased risk for heart disease, stroke and type two diabetes. On a ketogenic diet studies have shown that all of these conditions are improved in most people. Additionally, most people experience a decrease in their waist circumference pretty quickly after following ketogenic diet. And that's important because belly fat is considered to be one of the most dangerous places to carry around extra body fat. And it's also lucky for us ladies, the first place the body fat loves to accumulate after menopause, right? So this is beautiful thing because it helps to reduce these circumstances. And it almost seems counterintuitive, right? You're thinking, Oh, hold on, I'm eating more fat. And that's making less fat, lower triglycerides, higher good cholesterol, how can that be. But again, read the studies look at the information. There are so many stories of people, and some really brilliant people that I'm gonna give you a resource to find some of the stories and interviews out here in a few minutes, that have access to regularly being able to test their blood and have done so on an astronomical level, like testing blood levels, daily, weekly, and testing the ketogenic diet and their dietary intake and how it impacts their serum cholesterol levels. And so that's a real, it's some really interesting stories to look into. All right, so number four, ketogenic diets reduce cravings, and hunger. So there's an ongoing debate as to whether people lose weight on a ketogenic diet because they're eating less, or because they metabolize fat differently than carbohydrates. In my experience, and the experience of those around me, the high fat of the diet, it really leaves you feeling satisfied. And so you do eat less, you're not hungry all the time. You're not feeling that need to graze and you're not having cravings. It's not like you finish and you finish a meal, and then you're feeling like Well, I'm still not satisfied. I'm still, how many times do you hear yourself saying, I want something, you know, there's just that something, I don't know what it is, you're not feeling satisfied. But I have found that eating this way is very, very satisfying. And I've talked with several people recently, and some of whom are really health conscious. And some of who are really trying hard to become health conscious. And one of the most amazing things that I hear from both groups of people is that they're very surprised that they've lost their cravings for junk food and for sugar. And I can definitely attest to that, that craving for something sweet that maybe you normally get in the afternoon, you know, a couple hours after lunch, or maybe when you come home in the evening and you're like, oh, I want something sweet, that that really just disappears, there's some something that's going on that that craving for sweetness just kind of goes away. However, desserts and treats are a really fun part of lots of social gatherings or special events. And the great thing about a ketogenic diet is that there are delicious treats available to you. So you're thinking more high fat treats than high sugar treats, and you can enjoy these full fat ingredients and yumminess. And they'll leave you satisfied after just a couple of bites. So you only need small portions, and they're made sugar free. So great thing getting rid of your cravings for food when you're not hungry and definitely getting rid of those cravings for sugar. Number five, ketogenic diets improve brain function. For Cancer survivors who went through chemotherapy as a part of their treatment, chemo brain is no joke. And again, I can attest to that.

29:03

The American Cancer Society says on their website that even though the direct cause of chemo brain is uncertain, that the results are real. And here's a list of some of the results that chemo brain can include memory lapses, trouble concentrating, trouble remembering details, like names and dates, even if you knew them before. Trouble multitasking so having difficulty doing things like cooking and answering the phone at the same time, or just losing track of where you're at, and suddenly finding yourself standing there going, what was I doing? And having to refocus, taking longer times to finish things. So feeling disorganized thinking a little slower processing things a little slower, and trouble remembering very common words like maybe you know how many times you stop and say, Well, I can't think of the word I'm searching for, or just at a loss for words or the ability to finish a sentence.

30:00

ens so those are some of the symptoms of chemo brain and at the American Cancer Society even acknowledges that the symptoms can last for months or years after treatment. And I know that that's a big frustration for a lot of women after chemotherapy. So I did some research, I tried to do some research on the ketogenic diet specific to chemo brain, and I really didn't find anything that was targeted to looking at how it affected chemo brain. But what I did find was a study several studies, but this one in particular stood out to me. It was published in March of 2016, by the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. And this report said that part of the problem in Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive dementia is that the brain isn't able to properly use glucose as fuel. And yet the report said that published clinical trials have shown that increasing ketone availability to the brain in this situation through supplying a moderate nutritional ketosis has shown a benefit to the cognitive outcomes to the way people are able to think with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, and even an other mild to mild cognitive impairment. So it also states that nutritional ketosis can be safely achieved through high fat ketogenic diet. And I thought that was really cool. I thought that was really encouraging. Because I mean, chemo brain would definitely fall into that category of a mild cognitive impairment. So if you think like me, you might be wondering as I did, why you have not heard more about a ketogenic diet, especially because we're seeing all these benefits in regard to cancer patients, and we've been cancer patients and we are cancer survivors. Why is this not a part of our treatment and recovery. So I was really astounded at how little information, actually no information that I ever heard. And when I read this book called tripping over the truth, by Travis Kristofferson in his book, he gives us history of cancer treatment of chemotherapy, kind of the evolution of chemotherapy, and he talks about the theory of cancer as a metabolic disease, as opposed to it as a genetic disease. He has a lot of fascinating information and case studies on results that have experienced and results that cancer patients have experienced by going through a restricted, restricted calorie ketogenic diet, either by itself, or just taking it in support of chemotherapy and radiation or other treatments, or even using the ketogenic diet with hyperbaric oxygen treatment. So he talks about the remarkable results and the studies that have been produced on the by the ketogenic diet. And he makes a really good case about how much money would be lost by drug companies supporting cancer treatment, if more people are getting these results by using a completely free therapy called the ketogenic diet. Now, if your experience with chemo is anything like mine, you know firsthand that cancer treatment is big business. So it's not hard to understand or to accept Christofferson theory. I know for myself personally, that, you know, the waiting room was always busy with people who are waiting to get into the next open chemo chair. So we know that a tremendous amount of money flows through that industry of treating cancer. And again,

33:40

making popular a treatment that has no cost associated with it. And I guess to that, you know, there is science that supports it, but you know that our doctors like to have a lot of science, a lot of clinical trials, things like that, before they administered different treatments. So there's all this out there that may or may not have something to do with it just not being more talked about in oncology and with cancer patients. So as I talked about a little earlier, a ketogenic diet

34:11

is known by a couple of different aspects. So let's talk about a strict ketogenic diet, you can look at it as strict which means that less than 20% of your intake even less than that, but 20% of your intake is going to be from proteins, and less than 5% Really from fat. So you're kind of moving around this keeping the fat at 90% 80 to 90%. And then maybe it's a four to one ratio. So for your protein and your carbohydrate combined, you'd be eating four times more calories than that through fat. So you can imagine that that's going to be challenging for a lot of people, not only because you need to cut carbohydrates back so low, so

35:00

Under 50 grams, 40 grams, 20 grams a day somewhere in that range. And so some ketogenic diets have been modified, and they'll do a three to one ratio. So you keep your calories from fat three times as much as your calories from protein and carbohydrates combined. So a moderate ketogenic diet keeps your carbohydrate intake between 20 to 50 grams per day, okay, 20 being on the low end, much more strict 50 Being more lenient. So, a lot of people when we start talking and grams and percentages and macronutrients, they're just lost, because that's just not how your brain works. And I get it. So I'm going to list on the podcast, show notes and links to ketogenic calculators. These are really easy. And there's one that I really like, it's particularly simple. It's called the keto diet, buddy, you just enter your information on their website, and the little fields for height, weight, gender. And this website calculates for you what your goal is, as a maintenance level, what a ketogenic diet would look for you to maintain your current weight, what it would look like to have a moderate calorie deficit, so seeing some weight loss happening, and what it would look like for a larger calorie deficit or to have faster weight loss. So it's really pretty cool. And they even have an app that you can put on your phone, you know, to look at food and recipes and that type of thing. I use my fitness pal, which is a really popular diet tracking tool, and I enter my food into that. And I go by the little pie chart that tells me my percentage of fats to carbohydrates, to proteins, and I can also look at how many grams I've eaten. So these kinds of tools, make it easier for you to kind of understand the diet and make it much easier to follow. So I think that you'll be surprised when you go out there and you start looking at tools after listening to this podcast, and you start Googling the ketogenic diet, that you're going to find a lot of resources out there, there's actually a ton of information and it's growing every single day as this diet becomes more well known. So, I mean, if somebody says to you, hey, you know, you can eat a bunch of cheese and cream and bacon and butter and you're gonna lose weight. First of all, you're gonna think they're crazy. But then if you try it, and it actually works, you're gonna love it. And I think that's what's happening. We're really in this wave of people trying it and getting really great results from it. And it's just because it's just blossoming in popularity now. So that being said, I don't want to turn a blind eye to the very real challenge that our society faces with sugar addiction. Because eating a ketogenic food plan might cause a bit of panic in people that hear that because you think I have to go through this emotional struggle of detaching from sugar. And that can be pretty powerful for some people. So it's important to understand that a ketogenic diet is not something that you do halfway, okay, you can't be taking in large amounts of fat, and still eating large amounts of carbohydrate and sugar at the same time. So it's something you really have to commit to. Once your body adapts to eating this way, then you know, you can have a treat now. And then even if you still desire it, because as I said that that desire for sugar or sweetness really diminishes considerably. So think about it, do your research, understand, even though it's a very simple diet to follow, and I'm about to give you five ways to do that. Simple, doesn't necessarily mean easy for some people. So depending on what your dietary intake now is, and how hooked on carbohydrates you are, you know, you may have to have some coaching through this process, you may have to have a real support system. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But please know that it is not a healthy thing to increase your fat intake and still be eating sugar. Alright, that's one sure way to start packing on some pounds and we don't want to do that. So to get started benefiting from a ketogenic diet, lowering your glucose lowering your insulin levels. Here's a few simple steps. Number one, eat whole foods. One of the first things that you have to do in beginning ketogenic diet is get the processed food out of the house. If your food comes in boxes or bags when it shouldn't, then it has things added to it to keep it preserved to make it stay fresh for a longer period of time to make more money for the companies that produce it because there's less waste. You're going to find sugar hitting in sausages, sauces, salad dressings, places that you might not expect to see it so make sure that you check labels. Look for sugar, high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, maltose, dextrose, or sugar by any other name, and then steer clear of those products. You do not want sugar in your diet. So this includes eating even if

40:00

Fake or low carb foods. So just to touch on that for a second, you know, people on this diet, I have seen that people use honey, people use stevia. And of course, Atkins has a whole line of food products I have found, and I have read the suggestion that especially when you first begin and you're kind of trying to adapt, then you just keep that sweet taste out of your food, you stay with whole foods that can taste delicious and be very fulfilling. But sometimes our bodies, especially if they're carbohydrate intolerant, they just have a reaction to that sweet taste. So even using artificial sweeteners can cause that reaction and kind of make it difficult for you to begin weight loss. So try to steer clear of it until you really adapt to this way of using ketones for energy. And then you can test things and try things and see how your body responds to it. But it's really focusing on whole foods. So something that I want to clarify, because I've had this question for many people. And I want to say here now fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates. The word carbohydrate has been so vilified that, when we say we tend to immediately think of bread, donuts, cookies, and that's just not the case. Fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, these are carbohydrate rich foods. But they're also rich in phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. And they have beneficial effects on our digestive system and other body functions. So don't be afraid of fruits and vegetables, because they are carbohydrates. Just be mindful of how many that you eat, and be mindful of how sensitive your body is to any or all types of carbohydrates. So when you're starting, even with the whole food diet, really keep your focus on vegetable intake. And again, then once you adapt, go ahead and start adding in a little bit of fruit or something like that. But you know, looking at the amount of carbohydrates that is in any of these foods, and keeping it in your prescribed area is something that's really important. Okay, and again, you'll see all of that in the resources that I'll provide. Number two, don't fear fat.

42:13

We've been so programmed to fear fat, that even we were given free rein to consume it, it's a struggle to get your mind around the fact that that's okay to do. A ketogenic diet is not a high protein diet, which is the first thing people tend to go to right. So when we cut down carbohydrates, we tend to increase protein. But a ketogenic diet is a moderate protein diet. So you want to keep that protein intake between 20 and 25% of your total calorie intake and maybe even a little bit lower on the lower end. So let me give you an example of something. The other night I was having dinner with my sisters, all of whom are following a ketogenic diet, and all of whom are having a lot of success. So I was working with one of my sisters helping her enter all of her information in my fitness pal. And we saw that her fat intake was below 60%, which she found surprising because she felt like she was eating a lot of fat. But as we began entering her food, and we were listing what she was actually eating, she was actually eating much higher protein than fat. And so we kind of tend to get that mixed up in our head, you know, it feels like a big a fatty steak is the oh, this is a fat food, but there's actually a lot of protein in that. So we looked at what she was going to have for dinner, which was a ribeye steak and a side of vegetables. Instead of leaving it just like that I had her order an extra side of drawn butter and some blue cheese crumble to put on top of the veggies and steak. And that brought her fat consumption up to the level where it needed to be in, it was delicious. So don't be afraid of the butter and the cheese. Don't be afraid of the fat, you want to have more fat. That's what makes this diet work. Now obviously, if you're lactose intolerant, you're going to have to work around the dairy. And if you're vegan, you're going to turn more to fabulous oils that you can use on your food rather than cheese and butter. So on my last podcast, I am the last show I even in the show notes page posted a vegan ketogenic cookbook. So if you need some ideas, please go to that and check it out because it's a actually kind of a guide book with an accompanying cookbook, and it's really cool. All right, number three, get a cookbook or sign up on one of these websites that's focused on a ketogenic diet. So it's really a simple diet, as I said earlier, but you have to understand how it works. Many people see a lot of very quick weight loss when they start a ketogenic diet and then they might plateau. So if that happened, it's important to know what your options are like drinking more water reducing the amount of your protein intake, increasing exercise a little more, adding more fat in so on part one of this show, I said that I was going to try to put together a little menu plan for

45:00

This week to put out to everybody. But while working on that, I came across what I consider a fantastic resource. And so I'm going to put that out there for you instead, because it has far more information than I would be able to write up for you. This is called the diet doctor.com. It is a website. It's beautiful. It's beautifully laid out. Lots of infographics, lots of pictures, lots of videos. And so rather than having me reinvent the wheel, I'm going to recommend that you check out the diet doctor.com. It has interviews with physicians with specialists that can answer all and address all of the concerns you might have about eating a high fat, low carb diet, and including, you know, how it affect cholesterol. How does what happens if you have a sugar addiction? What is the ketogenic diet actually do what foods and this website is really cool, because it's got delicious recipes. And I mean, delicious recipes. And I thoroughly enjoying them. And you can opt for them, you can sign up for their membership, which is free for the first 30 days. And then it's $9 A month after that. So I signed up for the $9 a month option because you get access to all of the courses and the interviews. And you can watch with all these different physicians and they're posting new information all the time. So it's really informative, and I love learning about these new things. But it also has a great option on the membership site where you can check the different editions you want to try. And as you check them, it produces a grocery list for you. And it just lays out everything it is super simple. So if you're interested in getting started, or even just learning more, I think that's a great resource for you to go to. Okay. Let's see, we're gonna

46:49

Oh, and I want to just remind you here that any eating plan is not just a diet, as I said a little bit earlier, it's got to become a lifestyle. And so an eating plan is going to revolve around special occasions and traditions, it's part of your life. So nothing should put you in the position where you can participate in those special moments. So we just need to find new ways to participate in them. So we incorporate them as a part of our lifestyle and don't feel like you have to be deprived or miss out on some great stuff because you're going to eat a ketogenic diet. Okay. Number four, be aware of what's called the Keto flu. So a common experience that people have when they begin a ketogenic diet lifestyle, or ketogenic lifestyle is that when they're transitioning from using glucose as their primary source of fuel in the body to using ketones as the primary source of fuel, you can go through an adjustment period that can feel pretty crummy. So common side effects can be leg cramps, fatigue, constipation, and just an overall lack of endurance. And this is often referred to as the Keto flu. In my personal experience, I had a challenge in getting through my workouts for the first two weeks, I would start to work out and feel like holy cow, I can't do this. And I would stop. And so I was surprised that one day I showed up in the gym thinking, you know, how long is this going to last. And it was that day that I felt like Wonder Woman working out. And I knew that my body had adapted, and it was now starting to use ketones much more effectively. So be patient with this way of eating. And maybe for the first couple of weeks, as you're adapting, be more gentle with yourself. And instead of working out intensely, take some walks, do some restorative yoga, and just give your body time to adjust as you eliminate processed carbohydrates. And you may notice that this time that your body flushes fluid very rapidly when you start a ketogenic diet, because carbohydrates have a tendency to help us to retain water. So when you cut the carbohydrates, you're going to notice a release of a lot of extra fluid. And I know one person who lost six pounds the first day. And of course, that's not burning six pounds of fat, that's a lot of fluid, but really important and cool and showing how much fluid her body was actually retaining. So sometimes the side effects of the Keto flu can be a result of this quick loss of fluid. So remember to keep yourself hydrated, add more salt to your food, and drink sugar free electrolyte types of beverages, and watch some of the videos on that diet Doctor website where they do address this issue of the Keto flu, I think you'll find it really interesting. Number five,

49:34

find a community or a buddy for support. So I highly encourage you to find somebody to begin this new lifestyle with. If you have children, a best friend and partner at home someone who might be excited to try this out with you. And if not, then reach out to website reach out to Facebook communities. A lot of cookbooks and ketogenic diet books have private Facebook communities that they start as a result of

50:00

them, follow my Facebook page, I often receive questions from people who are looking for support. And part of the whole reason of starting this Facebook community is to get breast cancer survivors together where we can support each other in making our lifestyles as healthy as they possibly can, may have changed the name of the podcast, but let your lifestyle be your medicine is still the tagline because it is a foundational belief of mine. And so as we come together, to support each other in those healthy lifestyles, to just be able to thrive more after cancer, and reaching out and connecting with other survivors can have that effect. So having support can make the whole transition a lot easier for you. And

50:45

you'll see other people experiencing, maybe some of the struggles that you go through, or even sharing things that kind of help you get over those struggles. So those are the top five tips on starting to integrate a ketogenic diet into your lifestyle. So I encourage you to be patient with yourself and remember that we're different after going through cancer treatment. If you've had especially radiation, chemotherapy, it affects our DNA. And so we respond differently to things Be patient with yourself. Even though I've lost several inches and 10 pounds in the first two months following this way of eating, my sister's, my husband, they've all lost a lot more weight than me. So it's important not to compare yourself to others. Because I know my body's been through a lot of stressors that their bodies have not. And I'm just really grateful to find something that successful, not only a weight loss, but that I know is benefiting me in supporting my risk of cancer recurrence. So I can tell the difference in the energy level that I have fewer hot flashes, less joint pain, less fatigue. And so, you know, don't let the weight loss be your metric. We're looking at overall health. Remember, our lifestyle is our medicine. All right. So that's the intro to the ketogenic diet. And I hope that I've inspired at least a little curiosity in you so that you'll go to the podcast resource page, and check out some of the things that are posted there, between the books there and the websites, I know that you'll find a lot of support and get the questions that you have answered. You can also email me at Laura at Laura lummer.com. And if you don't already, follow me on Facebook, find me look for Laura Lummer, like my page and you can ask questions or post information there. I'm always looking for information that I can put out there to be a go to resource for other cancer survivors. And I really believe that the ketogenic diet has a tremendous amount of benefit to offer to us. So I look forward to hearing your buddy's feedback. As you try this out. I'm excited to hear some of the recipes, some of the experiences and all of the successes. So before we sign off, I want to remind you send your survivor stories to me so we can all celebrate together next month. Also, beginning in July, I will have two spots open to take on one on one personal coaching. So if you're interested in working with me, email me at Laura at Laura lummer.com. And let me know what you're thinking and what you'd like to work on. So I can't let you go without acknowledging the support that I get to put this podcast on through beauty counter. beauty counter is an amazing company with a mission to get safer cosmetics into the hands of every woman. And as a breast cancer recovery coach and a breast cancer survivor myself, I know how concerned we are about not only what we put in our bodies, but what we put on our bodies. Because once you've had cancer, you don't want to have it again. Beautycounter is a company that strives to produce skincare, and cosmetics not just for adults, but also for children. Because the cosmetic industry in the United States is so poorly regulated. It's just horrific to think of the dangerous and toxic chemicals that were exposed to in the name of beauty. So I'm proud to be a part of this mission, and to help educate people to get safe and effective skincare and cosmetics out there for every woman and for every survivor because you know, we like to look good, we like to feel good. Makeup is fun. So in fact, in last week, June 15 Beautycounter released an incredible new product called counter match, which is a responsive face lotions that kind of adjusts itself to the needs of your skin. It's sold out the first day, but I highly suggest that you go to beauty counter.com forward slash Laura Lummer And check out this incredible product because it's gonna be back in stock soon and I think you're really gonna want to check it out. So thanks again for joining me for episode eight. I look forward to hearing the feedback. I look forward to receiving your stories and talk with you again in two weeks. You'll remember

55:00

Rachel's like to lifestyle. Be your medicine.

55:04

Give it all you

55:07

know has

55:09

you been waiting on

55:16

this