Can binging on carbs while on a keto diet kill you? Maybe?

So this Sunday finds me exploring the rabbit hole that is anti-keto blogs, videos, subreddits, and science papers. Why? I don’t know. I am just a dumb keto dieter and I really doubt that something like *science* will convince me to try something else. For me though, I find this tidbit a motivator as I’ve been in ketosis for nearly a month and the holidays are coming.

So anyway, reading one comment, the poster said that sudden introduction of carbs on a low carb, high fat diet can cause heart damage.

Had to look that one up.

The paper has the catchy name: Short-Term Low-Carbohydrate High-Fat Diet in Healthy Young Males Renders the Endothelium Susceptible to Hyperglycemia-Induced Damage, An Exploratory Analysis

From the abstract:

Postprandial hyperglycemia has been linked to elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. Endothelial dysfunction and/or damage may be one of the mechanisms through which this occurs. In this exploratory study, we determined whether acute glucose ingestion would increase markers of endothelial damage/activation and impair endothelial function before and after a short-term low-carbohydrate high-fat diet (HFD) designed to induce relative glucose intolerance.

then some blah blah blah – and then the conclusion.

One week of low-carbohydrate high-fat feeding that leads to a relative impairment in glucose homeostasis in healthy young adults may predispose the endothelium to hyperglycemia-induced damage.

So it seems these nice folks are saying that your body kinda forgets how to regulate glucose once you are off them for a week and one high carb spluurge can make you blood sugar zoom, whereas if you were a sensible person and ate carbs like normal people do your body wouldn’t allow the blood sugar to go that high – and that blood sugar spike because of that stupid keto diet could cause heart damage.

Want an excuse not to go off your diet for those relatives who tell you that you MUST have a piece of grandma’s pie?

Tell them it might give you heart damage. Bet that’ll stop them in their tracks.

Also – a good reminder when you feel like cheating.

Keto is like the famous song lyric from ‘Hotel California’: You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.