Welcome weary web traveler! If you didn’t subscribe to my posts some time ago and still haven’t opted out, I don’t know how you found this place.
Like Menudo, Route 66, CB Radio, floppy disks, dittos, webrings, website guest books, avocado green appliances, Dippity Do, hula hoops, Carrot Top, chrome bumpers on cars, and 8-track tapes, ‘blogs’ are a part of the past.
And yet you have bypassed all the obstacles and landed here. I’m sorry to say there will be little reward beyond maybe few gems hidden within mostly mediocre-to-awful contents with plenty of link rot scattered within.
So why am I here? I would say I’m a drinker with a writing problem but I don’t drink anymore. So now I’m just an old fuck who likes stringing words together, hiding in plain sight, writing whatever my fingers type, for reasons that aren’t clear. I don’t care if anyone reads this stuff and oftimes I’m glad you don’t – some of the things feel very personal and I don’t know why I post my thoughts for strangers to see. I’m not making money, I’m not trying to be an ‘influencer’. I don’t have some larger plan to launch an ambitious website on the topic of low carb/keto. It’s been done over and over already by people far more devoted than I, with quality standards and good content. I would have figured you’d have gone to any one of them before coming here.
I do tend to focus my posts on dieting and low carb / keto diets. I haven’t had the greatest results in the past 10 years since my appendix came out. I gained 70 pounds in about 9 months after that and my stupid doctor’s explanation was ‘lack of exercise’. He was one of those people who had to have an answer for everything, even if wrong. Hey doc – I didn’t exercise *before* the surgery. At least my new doc will shrug and say ‘I dunno’, which is the best answer I’ve gotten so far and I can respect that answer.
I used to really be interested in the science but not so much anymore. Nutrition science is so hard to do right, and so many people have an emotional (and possibly financial) interest in certain nutrition ‘facts’ being true, that the cherry-picking in the field of nutrition is beyond belief.
And people argue so much! The topic of what a ‘right diet’ is has been a blood sport for way longer than US politics.
And what to you call a low carb / keto dieter that can’t seem to actually lose weight on the low carb / keto diet?
The most charitable label I’ve come up with for myself is: ‘Stunt Dieter’.
I get some motivation and I try stuff. I write about it. I give up. And then, since I have nothing to write on the topic – I don’t write here. I journal a lot and keep most of my thoughts there – it’s only the diet-related stuff that gets posted, though sometimes the line blurs.
Months or years pass until I come up with another angle and give the ‘ole diet another try. Then I write here again.
If / when my current attempt crashes and burns then I won’t write anything until I try yet again or I exit this mortal coil.
And then this blog will just disappear the first time my credit card is rejected. It will be gone like much of the old internet already has – and that’s OK.
So – no obligation – but if you have stumbled over this fossil and you feel like it, leave a comment as to just what wrong turn you took on the Internet Superhighway to end up on this dead-end dirt road with a junkyard dog barking in the distance amid boarded up buildings, and a car on blocks on the front lawn of the abandoned house with a hole in the roof. This place across the street from the house still has a neon ‘Open’ sign flickering in the dirty window and while the front door is open there’s little activity going on. Yet you still came in.
What’s your story, stranger?
Low Carb Confidential 
“I never know how much of what I say is true.” Bette Midler
I used to ask lots of people how they would define truth, discernment, and wisdom. Most don’t have a clear understanding of these concepts. They’re simple. Truth is what is so. Discernment is the ability to distinguish truth from fallacy. Wisdom is doing what is right.
Without discernment, one’s chances of doing what is right diminish accordingly. So my advice? Never assume your assumptions are correct. Regard with suspicion any choices of nutrient intake that seem to work over the short term but eventually fail. For any shift in nutrient intake, there is a latency period during which the body and its resident microbiota population make adjustments to alterations in the food environment. Over time, the body will either heal or transition into a different state of discomfort.
So, what do we know for certain about nutrient intake and health. Here is a clue. “The degree of fatty acid unsaturation of mitochondrial membrane lipids has been found to be one of those biochemical parameters that are most strongly correlated with longevity, when different species of mammals and birds are compared, with a low degree of fatty unsaturation being correlated with less lipid peroxidation and a longer normal life-span.” https://lipidworld.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-511X-9-37
We also know that “…major changes have taken place in the food supply over the last 100 years, when food technology and modern agriculture led to enormous production of vegetable oils high in ω-6 fatty acids, and changed animal feeds from grass to grains, thus increasing the amount of ω-6 fatty acids at the level of LA (from oils) and arachidonic acid (AA) (from meat, eggs, dairy). This led to very high amounts of ω-6 fatty acids in the food supply for the first time in the history of human beings.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5093368/#!po=17.8571
Further commentary: A 1992 Review by Olaf Adam begins, “Within the last 50 years, changing nutritional habits in Western communities led to a fourfold increase in the supply of dietary arachidonic acid (AA), provoked by the same increase in the consumption of meat and meat products. A low oxidation rate and a high affinity uptake system result in the accumulation of AA in cell lipids. Clinical experiments with AA supplements showed the efficient enrichment of AA in plasma lipids and a consecutively exaggerated production of eicosanoids.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00180737
In 2021, around 132.3 million tons of poultry meat were consumed worldwide, making it the most consumed type of meat globally. Pork was the second most consumed meat worldwide, followed by beef and veal. https://www.statista.com/statistics/274522/global-per-capita-consumption-of-meat/
Arguably, poultry and pork are likely the most important sources of excess omega-6s intake. “Chicken meat with reduced concentration of arachidonic acid (AA) and reduced ratio between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids has potential health benefits because a reduction in AA intake dampens prostanoid signaling…Much AA in the diet may contribute to prostaglandin overproduction in disease situations in humans, but some AA is necessary for virtually every body function.” https://lipidworld.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-511X-9-37
As far as I can tell, a dietary approach that reduces arachidonic acid and linoleic acid intakes to levels that do not significantly exceed physiological requirements will likely improve metabolic markers of health. https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4141/rr-6