One of the great and also super frustrating aspects of the health and fitness realm is that the advice is always changing - just look up news on drinking coffee for the last five years and count up all the contradictory articles. A lot of people see that as an excuse to just keep doing what they're doing, but I take a different and, perhaps, more unfocused approach in that I'm always trying new things and questioning whether I really am "doing it right." Case in point: I read an article on a holistic health website that said coffee, one of the great loves of my life, increased cortisol (stress hormone) production, so I stopped drinking it for almost a month. Then I read a whole lot of other articles that gushed about its benefits and...well, I love coffee so I'll *probably* never leave it again.
About two years ago, I started doing a lot of research on different nutritional approaches - Paleo/primal, IIFYM (If it Fits your Macros), Intermittent Fasting, etc. All of them were fascinating to me, but even with the little knowledge I had, I knew to take everything with a grain of salt. Maybe it worked for some folks, maybe it ruined others. There were certainly enough testimonials online for all sides, that was for sure. Paleo struck me as too cultish, a result of the Crossfit craze that was pseudo-religious in its rigidity and aggressive in its self-defense. What was wrong with peanut butter, anyway? You can't tell me a caveman wouldn't eat a bucket of that stuff if he had the chance. (I realize I am oversimplifying the Paleo theory for the sake of an example, but you get the point).
I actually tried IIFYM - breaking down everything you eat into macronutrients (fat, protein, carbs) and tracking the amounts - for about two months. I don't think I saw any changes in my body, but I did become pretty obsessed with a Macro tracker I had on my iPad, mostly because I was trying to figure out how to make ice cream a regular part of my diet. This dream was based on articles like this: How Donuts Gave me Abs. In the end, I think someone more disciplined could make it work, but personally I've never been good at keeping meticulous records of everything I stuffed in my mouth.
Then Came Keto
Anyway, in the midst of my research, the Internet black hole eventually brought me to Stephanie Person, pro skateboarder turned Ketogenic diet proselytizer. Check out one of her YouTube videos - for real though, how many people do you know who have a body like that and are pushing 50 years old? How many people, period?
Stephanie claimed she didn't do cardio and her secret to that body, which she refers to as "the bizness" (seriously) was the Ketogenic diet - high fat, moderate protein, very low carb. Lots of avocados and butter and coconut, but no bread, no rice, no oats, no sugar, no fun.
I watched some of her peppy YouTube videos, where she bounced around a lot and talked about how great keto was and how the diet had saved her mom from cancer.
Then I ignored it.
Until last year, when my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Amidst the fear and stress of being far away from her (we live three time zones away on an opposite coast, in a different country), I did frantic Google searches which at one point, ended up back on Stephanie and her cancer-curing diet. Now it seemed interesting. Now, maybe it was life-saving.
The basis of a ketogenic diet is this: Teach your body to use FAT for energy instead of carbohydrates. In the absence of carbs, your body goes into a state called ketosis, in which the liver produces ketone bodies that are used for energy. Eat fat, burn fat. Sounds counterintuitive, I know. Generally (and my understanding is that the exact ratios can differ among individuals), most of your calories will be from fat, some from protein, and very, very little will come from carbs, usually 20-30 grams or less. To put this in context, a medium apple has about 25 grams of carbs. No donuts on this diet!
Conclusion
I don't know if this diet will make a difference in her cancer, but it's already made a difference in how my family is approaching food and health. Keto has them thinking about whole foods because it simply doesn't allow for anything processed - there are always too many carbs/sugars. Check out a label on something that's billed as healthy - granola bar, Greek yogurt cup, whole wheat bread - and see. I think it's important to note that diet or not, genetics or not, what you eat matters. My family may have understood this theoretically but they never had to place such sharp focus on it. Obviously it remains to be seen if keto really cures cancer, but for now, maybe it'll just make them a little bit healthier. That sounds pretty good to me.