As you know if you’ve been listening to our previous shows, we have begun eating a low carb, high fat diet – a diet against disease. We found this series hosted by Dr. Mercola called “Diet Against Disease” that takes an in depth look at the many health benefits of a “ketogenic” diet. He also explains some of the strategies for getting it right and how to calculate the right levels of carbs and protein for your particular body. Below you can find the links to the series directed and produced by Jonathan Otto (for as long as it remains accessible), or you can listen to the audio of our show for a short version.
 

Listen to the audio of the show about the Diet Against Disease by Dr. Mercola:

 

The main points of the diet are:

  • No processed foods
  • Organic when possible (you can find the list of the vegetables that you probably don’t need to eat organic here https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean_fifteen_list.php)
  • Lots of colours when choosing your foods.
  • Low carbs 20-50 gm/day
  • Low protein 30-60 gm/day
  • High fat 50-70% of daily calories
  • Lots of healthy fats (not fats from seeds such as canola)
  • Intermittent fasting is very helpful (nothing but water for 12 to 18 hours daily)
  • cyclical variation in high carb and high protein days.

Dr. Mercola recommends 20-50 gm of carbohydrate but he has a qualifier – you subtract the fibre portion of the carbs from the total carbs – because fibre is beneficial to the mitochondria that you are trying to increase.

He also recommends between 30-60 gm of protein for the average person, depending on your body – or 1 gm of protein for every kg of lean body mass. The average person is about 20% body fat, so subtracting that from your total body weight you would be 80% lean body mass. So for ease of figuring, if you weigh 100 kg and your body fat percentage is 20%, your lean body mass would be 80 kg. In that case it would be appropriate to eat 80 gm of protein a day.

In addition to the carbs from low carb vegetables, protein from organic, preferable grass fed meat, you also need lots of healthy fat in your diet. Dr. Mercola recommends between 50 and 70 of your daily caloric intake. The kinds of fats that are good are:

  • Olives and Olive oil
  • Coconuts and coconut oil
  • Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
  • Raw nuts, such as, almonds or pecans
  • Organic pastured egg yolks
  • Avocados
  • Grass fed meats
  • Palm Oil
  • Unheated organic nut oils

One other thing to mention is that plant and nut oils should not be heated.