The Secrets To A Successful Keto Diet - Latest What Your GP Doesn't Tell You Podcast

Nutritionist Beth Zupec-Kania, who has spent over thirty years developing very low carb diets, reveals what you need to know

The latest episode of the What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You Podcast - The Secrets To A Successful Keto Diet is now available on Apple, Spotify and other podcast platforms. And you can sign up to the podcast mailing list at What Your GP Doesn't Tell You, where you can also find out more about the pod. The next episode of the podcast will go out on Tuesday 19 March 2024.

This week, I am talking to nutritionist and dietician Beth Zupec-Kania who has devoted her career to developing very low carb - or ketogenic diets - to treat a range of physical and mental health conditions. She also works as a consultant for the charity The Charlie Foundation, which provides advice on diet therapies for a variety of illnesses. A ketogenic diet pushes the body into a process known as ketosis, which causes it to use fat as its main fuel - not sugar. A number of health conditions, particularly neurological and psychiatric, seem to respond very effectively to this approach, and Beth has worked with many of the leading neurologists and psychiatrists in this field.

But never imagined that she herself would need to use this approach, but then to her surprise just over a decade ago, Beth discovered that her blood sugar levels were rising, and her body was gradually becoming resistant to insulin.

For those interested in following a keto diet, the first step that Beth recommends is removing all processed food and sugar from the daily food that you eat.

Critical to Beth’s approach is developing a strategy to let people gradually transition into a keto diet. So, in the first week, she suggests just replacing one meal with a ketogenic one. Then in week two having two ketogenic meals a day, and by the third week having all your meals replaced by ketogenic ones.

For one of those meals, at least initially, Beth recommends a smoothie recipe which she has developed. (Her recipes will be sent out to all subscribers of the podcast mailing list on the 12 March 2024).

This ketogenic dietary approach was first used to treat epilepsy successfully in the 1920s and was initially the condition that Beth spent most of her time treating, but in recent years, she has moved into working with a range of illnesses. She says while most patients will see a benefit within weeks, to get the full impact of the therapy takes around three months.

One of the things that Beth and I discussed in our conversation was the concerns that have been raised by critics over the high level of fat that ketogenic diets contain and the fact that some people develop high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels while using this approach. And it’s been suggested that this could increase the risk of cardio-vascular disease. It’s an idea Beth refutes:

You can hear Beth’s full interview on the podcast.

You can find out more about the podcast at What Your GP Doesn't Tell You and follow me on Twitter @lizctucker.

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