There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all keto diet that works for everyone. Different people have different metabolisms and do well on different amounts of carbs.
At one extreme of the spectrum are the people who need lots of carbs to thrive. At the other end of the spectrum are people who should eat a strict keto diet with no carbs whatsoever. Most people are somewhere between these two extremes.
How can you find out what your type is?
The easiest way is to get a Bio-Energy Test®. But if you don’t have a Bio-Energy provider near you, you can figure it out yourself in your own home using a technique developed by my mentor and one of the original pioneers in orthomolecular medicine, Dr. Richard Kunin. In the early 1980s, Dr. Kunin described this technique in his book, The Orthomolecular Diet. Here’s what Dr. Kunin discovered:
(1) Start out with a super-restrictive ketogenic diet. I don’t care which keto plan you follow; it can even use the old Atkins’ books. The point is that you are going to eat lots of fat, and you are going to eliminate fruit, grains, root vegetables, sugars, and legumes.
That means no bread, no rice, no potatoes and carrots, no beans or legumes, no corn or other grains. During this time, you should eat as much fat from any source that you can. That’s because ketones are made from fat.
(2) Stay on this diet for at least four to five days, until your body starts to produce ketones. You can measure ketones using urine strips, or you can use a breath-analyzer device like the Ketonix. Whatever method you use is up to you, as long as you can measure whether your body is making ketones.
(3) Once your body is making ketones, you are ready to go to the next step. Go get yourself some highly processed white bread like Wonder Bread. Let’s say that the bread you have contains 20 grams of carbs per slice. You are going to take that piece of bread and cut it into 4 equal pieces that are 5 grams each.
(4) You will then stick to the exact same diet you’ve been on, except that you will add 5 grams of carbs per day by eating one of those pieces of bread. You will then measure to see if your body is still producing ketones.
(5) If your body is still producing ketones, test yourself again the next day, adding a second piece of bread so that you are now getting 10 grams of carbs. And if you’re still producing ketones after that, add a third piece of bread the following day so that you are getting 15 grams of carbs.
(6) Keep increasing your bread intake per day in 5 gram increments until you get to the point where your body is no longer producing ketones. You will have now reached the point of your optimal daily carb intake. This will be the ideal amount of carbs you should eat per day … unless you are looking to go into ketosis for therapeutic reasons. What kind of therapeutic reasons?
Well, we know that ketosis is helpful for people who have cancer. We know that it’s helpful for people with seizures and dementia. And we know that it’s helpful for losing excess weight.
So … if you’re trying to lose weight, or fight cancer or dementia, then you will want your body in ketosis. If, on the other hand, you are already healthy and trim, then you will want to keep your body just on the other side of ketosis.
Yours for better health,
Frank Shallenberger, MD