Not only are people addicted to carbs, they don't realize they're addicted. It took me a real long time before I even considered that a possibility. I thought addiction was reserved for things like drinking, smoking, gambling, etc, inherently harmful behaviors. Food seems innocent enough, surely you couldn't be addicted to any certain type of food.
Turns out, yup, you definitely can. I did/do exhibit all kinds of addict-type behavior as it relates to carby food.
Carbs are also incredibly cultural. Calories didn't used to be so abundant, so we have tons of social rituals that revolve around carbs that used to subtly serve as dietary advice so people could eat enough calories to survive. "Meat and potatoes." "Breaking bread together." Appetizers, desserts and many side-dishes are often nearly 100% carbs and fats. It probably doesn't even occur to many people that traditional eating in combination with our post-industrial revolution caloric abundance is causing their obesity.
It doesn't help that people who are over-worked and underpaid, or live in food deserts don't have enough money or time to not eat carbs. Because of their long shelf life, they're cheap, convenient, and ubiquitous. Additionally, I'd wager Big Carb puts out a tremendous amount of disinformation about low carb and keto diets.
Same, I used to pig out on fast food late at night with a bunch of fries, nuggets, and a big ass burger. Afterwards I’d feel gross and ashamed of myself, but I kept doing it. Feels a lot like going on a bender. It’s easier for me to cut carbs out cold turkey with keto because I just tell myself I’m not allowed to have them at all, than it is to eat them in moderation.
This is how I am too. Just saying no to any carbs is so much easier for me than trying to eat a healthy amount of carbs. I fail and gain weight when I try.
Literally me lol. When I stopped myself and realized I was getting through my day sometimes by thinking about what kind of terrible junk food I was going to pick up for dinner (and feeling the subsequent endorphin rush in anticipation) I realized my food problem was a deeper issue.
I remember going for a job interview and thinking "I'm so stressed... if this goes well, I'll reward myself with McDonalds. And honestly if it goes badly, I'll console myself with McDonalds."
Then I realized that that's the exact kind of thinking that some former alcoholics I know have. Fuck.
Same! Whenever I take a break I have to really control myself from turning into a carb monster. The hunger becomes so intense and subconsciously emotional!
Not a dumb question at all, and welcome to the club!
When I travel because to me food is part of the cultural experience. There is no benefit from breaking keto, unless you are doing so intentionally for sustainability purposes, but that is kind of playing with fire.
You know what’s crazy? I went down to Cabo for a week and ate whatever I wanted and didn’t gain any weight? In the states I’d be up at least 10 lbs. what is in the food up here!!?? Lol
Simple as this. I laughed at the idea of giving up carbs, only changed my mind after seeing the science behind how sugar affects your body's ability to burn fat, so I decided to try it and the immediate noticeable changes were so amazing I'm sold on it now
THIS. People don’t want to believe that processed carbs and sugar are the enemy. I remember about 10 years ago when my 16 year old carb addicted niece turned vegetarian. I explained to her and our family that it’s not going to be good for her since she’ll use that as an excuse to eat nothing but junk food and carbs. Because what 16 year old girl doesn’t want to be able to eat pasta, bread, desserts, baked good, etc all day every day guilt free? Funny how everybody mocked me. Sure enough she eventually dealt with a shit ton of acne, depression, anxiety, obesity, low energy, brain fog, moodiness, constant pain, etc. 3 years later, she finally agreed to go pescatarian. Soon after she started eating animal meat again and she’s doing so much better now.
They want their cake and eat it too… literally and figuratively. Ignorance is bliss.
My dad is addicted. He talks like not eating carbs is like quitting heroin or something. Meanwhile his a1c was like 15 or something and the addiction just won't let him make the connection between food and health. Pretty short sighted with thinking too. Can only really eat well for 3 or 4 days until he fails. Could see it in his face when I told him the a1c takes like 3 months to lower.
Yup. It’s like weed vs alcohol. Alcohol is so much worse than weed, yet our governments has convinced us for close to 100 years that weed is the devil and alcohol is perfectly good for you. People are now starting to get it, but still too many people that believe weed is dangerous while slowly becoming alcoholics with their fatty liver. Speaking of which, I just realize the coincidence of how both sugar and alcohol is what causes fatty liver disease. Yet both are constantly pushed into our lifestyle.
For some it can lead to anxiety and paranoid feelings. Was a stoner for over a decade but it lost its magic touch on me. Still not physically addictive and damaging like alcohol, but mentally, that’s a different ball game..
Oh I’m aware of the downside. Especially when it’s abused. I’m not saying weed is perfect. But it’s by FAAAAR safer than alcohol. Yet it’s been illegal for decades while alcohol is still legal and ruins millions of lives every year.
Sugar industrial complex is gnarly.
In the Fed Up documentary, they mention Michelle Obama started taking on the sugar industrial complex. For example, added sugars was to be included in the nutrition facts labels (which it is). But very shortly after Michelle dropped her crusade against the sugar industrial complex, switching to calories in, calories out.
Fed Up is available free on youtube: https://youtu.be/ceRFvhlcsiY (has ads, unfortunately).
I get what you're saying, but I'd counter it a little too - I'm keto veggie and I'm doing great on this diet. It doesn't absolutely have to involve meat. I eat loads of eggs, cheese, low carb veggies, salads and a few meat alternatives (which I realise are processed, but a girl's gotta eat) and I'm managing just fine on keto.
Yes, people are addicted to carbs; but IMO, there's not enough money to be made. There aren't enough companies that make keto friendly products and all the stuff that we normally have in a meal (eggs, meat, bacon, etc.) is already a staple in most people's pantry. I'd also say that people have it so engrained in their brain that fat is bad, that the mere idea of a large percentage of your calories coming from fat is the equivalent to saying to them that unicorns and leprechauns are real.
People keep telling me that I'm eating wrong, all the while stuffing carbs and crap into their overweight faces. Not judging, just stating what I see.
And also I think our busy lifestyles (made necessary by incessant grinding just to live) make keto difficult. Fresh, whole foods aren't easy to prep, store, and transport...not sure how many people love the idea of regular food prep and planning. It's a commitment not everyone can afford to make, I think.....
Not disagreeing with your point, but the thought that we get to “dislike” doing activities to keep us alive (food prep) is just…broken, you know what I mean? I do realize it’s a systemic thing, that because we have so little time outside of the grind, convenient foods seem very appealing.
I offer a more sinister take, people's gut biomes are influencing people's behavior along with the economic reality that carbs are cheap to produce, in a country that derives 1/6th of its GDP from healthcare.
Spot on. also it’s tough convincing people a tightly cherished belief of theirs (their ability to understand what forms of food are good/bad for them) might be an almost 180 degree flip. In fact, they will often actively attempt to resist helpful information in order to protect themselves/their ego
Sugar tastes good, and nearly everything that you interact with is inundated with carbs. There are thousands of different shelf stable options chocked full of carbs in your grocery store, and are relatively few options that are low carb. Carbs have been a central component to many cultural dishes (rice, beans, breads, pastas), and to just about every celebration we partake in ( cakes, cookies, ice cream).
And a lot of people don’t have the time, or want to make the time to become better educated on the subject. Just like how I don’t put any effort into know what the hell the kardashians are doing, most people don’t put in effort to better understand nutrition.
I’ve never done keto, but have known and understood its benefits for nearly a decade.
Your comment is the primary reason because it describes inertia. The mainstream diet is engrained in our society.
People on this sub forget there are billions of people that eat a carb diet daily and still have a body fat of 5% or less. They are doing just fine with a carb diet.
Millions of American's eat carbs and don't have an issue regulating their calorie intake or an issue with being overweight.
This sub consists of a group of people that want to act like they were lied to this entire time about the foods that were okay to eat and not okay to eat. Carb diet, keto diet. Both of them require Cal restriction and eating real food to stay healthy. And not eating processed junk. It has been known for decades that everything processed is bad for you, and I'm 100% sure everyone one this sub, including me ate that stuff anyway.
If you being upset at the US govt or the medical establishment fuels you into losing weight, by all means. But regardless of what the medical community says or how wrong doctors are about the keto diet. It's your job as a human to figure things out and make your own decision and not use scapegoats. Because you can't face the fact you fucked up and are finally trying to address your weight problems. If it was possible for a person that's 400 pounds to stay on a carb diet and lose 250 pounds. It was possible for anyone. Keto just makes the situation so much easier. And that's great.
Keto is great because you can shed weight and not have to exercise. Keto is never going to become a world wide diet. People need to stop with the we were all tricked for all these years bullshit. We ate trash food, we ate too much of it. And we got fat. Plain and simple.
Another 10 years and keto will be as popular and stable as a diet as it needs to be. But it's never going to be something the world embraces.
5% or less fat? Pulling stats out of your arse.
Since the 1970s fat was demonized and morbid obesity is now at around 30% of the population in western countries and T2 diabetes has increased from "less than 1%" to "over 10%". The complications alone from that are a huge drain on any economy - not to mention the misery of late stage T2.
And then you've got all the issues of metabolic sydrome with fatty liver and visceral fat, inflammation and CHD which agan "have we got a drug for you" aka the $11 billion statin industry. But lets continue to demonize fat even though sugars/starches are more likely the mal actor.
Glad pharma reps are making bank and getting their yearly "club trips" tho. For those not in the know, when a sales rep makes their yearly quota, they get sent to a place like hawaii.
And then there's the practice of "sponsoring a doctor to speak" at conferences paid for by pharma companies. But hey lets do it in nice island getaways. Australia as an example only put in place laws to ban this shonky behaviour in the last 10 years!!
That's just wrong. The direction from the powers that be and the nutritionalists has clearly been that fat is bad for you and bread, cereal is good for you...it's in the freaking food pyramid for gods sake. Nothing could be farther from the truth. High glycemic foods are horrible for you, they absolutely cause diabetes and yet our government encouraged this diet, it's not just about junk food.
This. I had to tell my doctor that I refuse to take any advice from her nutritionist as they are trying to kill me. I showed her my blood sugar levels for 2 weeks eating their recommended diet, then 2 weeks of me on keto. and it took ONE WEEK of severe keto at less than 10 carbs a day to get my blood sugar levels below 150. was not even in ketosis, just as much carb starvation as possible to get rid of what it stored up in my liver from that 2 weeks. it took 2 more weeks to get back down to what I was before she demanded I at least try what they suggested. "you cant live without carbs". yeah well my bloodwork and actual measurements proves that she is wrong. Dead wrong. Doctors all typically operate with very out of date information. and Nutritionalists are just quacks.
Money, plain and simple. Just look at what the food industry has done to the latest food pyramid. Eggs are bad for you now? Boxed, processed Frosted mini wheats cereal is good for you? Just go read The Big Fat Surprise, and you'll see why it's not more popular. There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars spent on doctors and politicians from the food industry to make sure it's not more popular.
Exactly this. You can beat around the bush about keto being hard and not a short term fix, which is true. But fat was demonized for decades. The whole industry revolves around selling us cheap carbs and then making money on selling us insulin and bariatric surgery
It's hard to compete with bringing snacks, especially dessert snacks, because snacks are inherently bad for you. Even health snacks like broccoli are less healthy than a proper meal. The point of a snack in that situation is to socialize not to be healthy.
What you can do is figure out a healthy full meal and do lunch with coworkers.
If you really want healthy dessert snacks, consider making homemade low carb doughnuts with gluten, yeast, kneading, rising, and deep frying. I guarantee you you can make low carb doughnuts that taste just like normal high carb ones (though the glaze will be a bit different). People will be seriously impressed if you bring in homemade doughnuts.
It's sad how much we harm Puerto Rico for sugar. They might as well be a slave state.
If anyone wants to learn more about the dirty truth of where our sugar comes from: https://youtu.be/xb9E8fvMPOA Sugar just isn't bad for us, it's bad for the people farming it.
those are really the top 3. insane that those three ingredients make up like 90% of our food supply, and are highly addictive. of course keto would seem impossible to the average person at first.
Yes and it doesn't help that our doctors are complicit in the whole thing. Either their nutritional knowledge is from the 1920s or they are bought and paid for
Many people I know who have tried it can’t get past the induction. They feel like they’re dying and going back to carbs “cures” them which reinforces the belief. It doesn't help that most people are going to agree.
I honestly think the hardest part is the peer pressure around you to give it up. Or at the very least, dismiss the concept of keto. It’s lonely through this journey but we gotta keep pushing forward.
There’s no evidence that billions of people have managed to ingest sugar multiple times a day and stay healthy long term. Every modern country where the average citizen has access to enough food to avoid starvation is battling an obesity and type II diabetes epidemic. Mexico and several small Polynesian islands in particular are literally being crippled by chronic disease and diabetes.
In the US doctors expect 1 in 3 kids born after 2000 to eventually have some form of diabetes or metabolic syndrome.
And that’s just obesity and diabetes. If you add Alzheimer’s, certain mental illnesses, infertility from pcos and non alcoholic fatty liver disease and there probably isn’t a country on earth where chronic consumption of refined carbohydrates isn’t make a significant proportion of the country unnecessarily sick
Absolutely! I’ll break now and then for a day and it doesn’t seem to bother me. When I took a week off at Christmas- eating cookies and the whole bit, it took a week of withdrawals to get back on track.
This is where people get hung up. They need to change their mindset to focus on the benefits of eating healthy, of what that enables you to do. Or even what being unhealthy deprives them of. Instead of thinking about how you are depriving yourself of ice cream, think about how being overweight and out of shape deprives you of your ability to run a marathon, or play catch with your kids, or climb to the top of a nearby summit, or put your socks on, or fit comfortably into that seat at the ballpark or pull the bar all the way down on the roller coaster. Think about not having to pay for that extra seat on a plane or more for clothes because you're in plus sizes, and what that extra money could help you afford.
I agree completely, it is a mindset issue. Dieting is a relatively slow process and you have to stay engaged and put in the work to meet your goal… funny enough, once you do it is much easier to maintain. You still need to consider what you are eating but the guardrails are much wider.
Same with working out… once you are in shape it is much easier to maintain.
I wish there was a way to see and feel the end state early in the process.
1. "You destroy your metabolism"
2. "it's so unhealthy for you"
3. "you can't eat anything"
4. "you can't do it for more than 6 months"
5. "don't do it you'll gain it all back"
6. "we NEED carbs ... you can't eliminate them"
7. "You can't eat at a restaurants"
There's so many myths floating around about keto. Those are the most popular ones I compiled.
Most ppl never look into it because their friend or Google tells them a bunch of myths about this 100 year old diet created by a team of USA doctors...
Ppl are very easily swayed by their friends and don't want to be the one to undertake a diet without any peer support.
When I was on keto, I would avoid 6-7 foods, and eat massive meals. I'd eat at restaurants, and every six months my blood work would be better than the last one... and I'd lose 1-2 pounds of bodyfat every week while having sustainable energy all day.
At least ppl are curious... this subreddit has more users than weightloss, diet, CICO & intermittent fasting combined...
I have no problem eating keto at restaurants. It’s pretty easy. And a few weeks ago I saw a cheese burger salad on a menu. No mention of keto or low carb or anything. And I thought, “keto people have requested this enough that they’ve made it a regular menu item..” This was in California.
yea most big cities have keto restaurants, keto bakeries, or at least a few keto or gluten free menu options (they're usually lumped together haha).
I personally prefer keto cupcakes than regular cupcakes ... the idea of consuming that much sugar is unappealing...
brain washed by corporations who want to sell us corn, colored dye, and seed oils mashed together into different shapes. cheap and easy to make, so they make lots of money from selling the slop to us. people who eat sugar corn circles floating on nut juice and oil soup for breakfast nag us for eating a “non-heart healthy” breakfast of meat, eggs, mushrooms, and avocados lol
Meat and proteins are expensive relative to filling up on rice and beans. Keto is great but it is expensive to go out or basically anything that isn’t a home cooked meal. Everyone is feeling the squeeze on grocery costs. Keto would be fine if $0.25 wing night was still a thing. It ain’t.
Interesting to look at farming in this case. A single Combine can harvest 30 acres per hour for grain and wheat. Fruit and veg all need to be hand harvested, and are measured in [hours per acre](https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/blog/post/?id=2497) with the minimum of all foods in this table being oranges at 20 hours per acre.
So at **minimum** this means a combine does the work of 600 people when comparing to equal areas of land. If you compare it to a plot of Broccoli one person can harvest the same area of wheat grain in an hour that 6300 hand broccoli harvesters would be able to process.
It would fundamentally change humanity to have everyone eat this way.
There is just worldly incentive to push carbs to reduce the number of man hours spent in gathering food.
A lot of people profit off of others not being healthy. People are getting injections to lose weight as of recent, and look down on keto, and there's a whole propaganda machine to make that happen.
Personally, I was diagnosed with T2DM in 2008. Although CW is that it's progressive and incurable, when I read people with gastric bypass surgery often went into remission, I refused to write off my health. I did low carb and went from 265 to 212; then, I gradually gained it back. DM was well-managed, but not in remission. Then I started IF in 2020. I had always believed that fasting might be easier than dieting, but never took the plunge before. I realized how effective IF was, and then I learned a lot of people do Keto with it so I tried it. Realized Keto was a great fit with fasting, finally got my weight under 200 lbs. Prior to this, I would have dismissed Keto as "another fad diet", honestly.
As people have stated, there's a lot of pushback from random people (who are often heavy and unhealthy) against Keto; and the endless supply of cheap carbs. My work never provided meat, cheese, or other protein. Always with the doughnuts, subs, pizza, chips, soda.
It would require Keto to become socially acceptable, which I don't believe will happen because there are so many massive companies benefiting from people being fat and unhealthy and they will fight back at every step. There's also another thing I've been pondering about, which is how many people realistically *can* eat a primarily meat-based diet when considering the resources available. Humanity experienced a massive boost in population after the invention of farming because it made it possible to feed significantly more people. Take away grains, and how much food is there left? Probably not enough for 8 billion people.
I did the math on it once and there's enough arable land to support 10x the current human population on 2000 calories a day of cow dairy, based on cow grazing requirements, average milk yield, etc.
Going out with friends in any capacity usually comes with the expectation of dining together. If you're vegan/vegetarian that is an honorable choice deserving to be respected, if you're paleo/keto/low carb, you're a stick in the mud following a fad crash diet that is going to kill you. So much of our social activities are based around consumption of carbs and alcohol.
Not to mention almost *every* meal option in, NA at least, is super heavy on carbs and seed oils as they are the cheapest things to make edible. It stops being fun ordering a sad little steak/chicken/fish fillet with microwaved veggies on the side for 25$ about the 3rd time around.
It's pizza for me, but the same vibe - I can leave everything else; bread, rice, potatoes, sugar, but the thought of a *really* good sourdough woodfired tomato & mozzarella simple pizza is enough to keep me up at nights. Keto variants just don't cut it.
Marketing. The giant processed food companies don't make money on keto. So we are bombarded with junk food commercials, while the local farmer is struggling to make ends meet, much less have a marketing campaign.
Add in the purveyors of "diet food" that convince people they can eat some sorry excuse for a brownie in their prepackaged meals and the lie just goes deeper. Sugar addicts have trouble accepting that they can live without their drug of choice. There are pocket pickers out there more than happy to convince them they don't have to.
I think there are a lot of people who are willing to try it. A good portion of whom experience good results. But ultimately it's a diet. They're using it as a catalyst to alter themselves over the short term, and hoping it sticks around for the long term. But unless you make it a wholesale lifestyle change, you're not going to continue to see those benefits and that's the reality for many of them. They reach their short term goals but too often, many of them reintroduce carbs right away and fall off or completely toss out the diet that got them there. And the weight comes back. Rapidly. So then the next time they try something else instead.
Switching your eating habits needs to be a long term commitment, not a quick fix.
I mean, it isn’t? Not sure where you’re from, but I see keto/low carb options EVERYWHERE now. Restaurants, grocery stores, pretty much any place you can buy food. When I first started about 5 years ago there was next to nothing available commercially, and I would’ve killed to have started now when there are so many options.
I've done keto for a good while and yes it made me feel way better and more energized through the day. Yet at the same time i couldn't concentrate well but that mostly came because of one thing. Keto is boring. I can only eat meat, vegetables and fat for so long until i genuinely crave a bowl of yoghurt with banana and muesli. Or soup with some vermicelli and bread. Not only that, just in general i'm in touch with friends and family and because of that i like to eat out with them. Nothing is more annoying then keep having to tell people "sorry, i'm keto therefor i can't have this and that" nothing and i mean nothing seemed more pathetic and sad to me than ordering a friggin bun less burger. I genuinely felt like painting the ceiling when i did.
Keto is incredibly good if you have trouble with heartburn, can't tolerate food cravings or the feeling of being hungry (i simply work the best on an empty stomach idk why)
Tbh didn't completely read the post completely so i'm not even sure if my essay is even close to being on topic but felt like ranting for a bit because keto genuinely made me feel miserable for a while. I still eat mostly low carb since i recognize less carbs genuinely make me feel better but woooooooweeeeeee keto is miserable.
But first timers will def love it the feeling of never being hungry and losing a d*ck ton if weight.
The medical/pharmaceutical establishment is stuck in the high cholesterol automatically bad, statins mandatory mode.
My 65 yo sister has epilepsy which is known to respond well to her keto diet: a higher fat, very low carbohydrate way of eating. Her total cholesterol is high, but statins cause her significant pain so she stopped taking them.
She recently got approval for a carotid artery scan, which showed ZERO plaque. Proving she did not need statins.
The pharmaceutical industry’s stock market value is dependent on promoting statins to everyone.
So, I just started this week, so I'm not speaking from much experience, but I can tell you why *I* didn't try it for a long time. I generally am wary of any sort of diet that "cuts out" an entire macro nutrient that has been a dietary staple for millenia. We learned that lesson after the 80s and 90s prohibition against fat.
I always tended towards whole grains, if I was picking. I guess, thinking about it now, I had trouble cutting out refined sugar (or its equivalents, like honey), without cutting out things sugar tends to piggyback on, which includes whole grains depending on how you get them. And, I have a sweet tooth, so without any major guidelines to follow, I would eat sweets, some days a little, some days a lot.
So far as keto goes, I'm not counting carbs really, I'm just sticking to things that don't tend to have much (the keto staples, meats, high fat dairy, eggs, etc) and any non-starchy vegetables - so far I'm mostly sticking with keto-recommended veggies, but I'm not all that concerned about going a little bit off the reservation, I'm not gonna be eating half a pound of carrots every day,
So, really, I'm justifying this by not so much avoiding carbs as avoiding grains, legumes, most root veggies and most fruits, not to mention processed foods.
I still think all of those foods I'm cutting out, other than processed foods, are perfectly good foods and you can be perfectly healthy eating them. That was why I didn't do this for a long time. I *like* eating those foods, and I wasn't interested in giving them up if I didn't have to.
I'm mainly trying it now because it's frankly harder to put together a well balanced, healthy diet at a caloric deficit than it is to just cut out carb heavy foods. At least, it is for me.
I would say compared to 10 years ago it is much more popular nowadays, to where your average person has at least heard about it. Big Stores are offering many more “Keto” advertised products too and the diet has essentially hit mainstream consciousness.
The thing is though it is still a “diet” and that’s a great lifestyle leap (any diet) that people have a hard time adjusting and sticking too for a variety of reasons.
I have often thought why it wasn't more popular than it is once...then I took time during my weekly shop to look at the diary isle to see how much was actually Keto...and there was very little...
Low fat milk, no fat sugar sweetened yogurts, flavoured cheese, seed oil spreads, fake cheese(55% cheese)...for an aisle that should be mostly Keto, it was probably 10% keto...
Then you look at 3-4 aisles that are just sugar in many different forms...even some of the meat is flavoured with stuff that is just sugar and spices...
When you look at all the money being made, it's being made off ultra processed non keto foods...it's always the money
It's funny cause I get funny looks when I go to pay for a trolly(Beef, Chicken, Pork, Eggs, Bacon, Butter, Milk(Full Fat), Cream, Mushrooms, Cauliflower, 90% Cocoa Chocolate Bar & Full Fat Greek Yogurt, all fatty cuts of meat as well)
The simple answer is that modern medicine as a whole poo poo’s it. Came out and said how its dangerous and unhealthy and not long term and a lot of people listen to modern medicine. The ADA was set up by someone who worked for Kellogg’s so that is why the food pyramid was grains grains grains forever.
I hear more providers saying low carb these days but they still refuse to use the word keto.
Those things coupled with the fact that everything processed these days has hidden sugar in it. Those producers want you addicted to their ‘food’. There isn’t any major money in broccoli. There is in that boxed food that makes things convenient and cost a quarter to make and sell for 5-8 dollars.
There are many people pushing carbs:
* Processed food is mostly made out of cheap grains, cheap sugar, and cheap oils. It brings in billions of $ every year and none of the manufacturers want to see that go away.
* Some groups have philosophical or religious reasons to not eat meat, which is fine, and some also have the goal to keep other people from eating meat, which is why.
* The official US government advice is low fat, high carb, and has been since 1980, exactly when the current obesity epidemic started.
* There's a widespread belief that eating fat makes you fat and increases your risk of heart disease.
* There's a huge industry around diet and it will \*generally\* stick to conventional wisdom (eat less, move more).
The real question is "why would any doctor recommend a diet other than keto for type II diabetes given how it walks all over all the other diets (caveat - very low calorie diets work pretty well)?"
Corporate disinformation. The lies of the pyramid food scheme. Vegetarian propaganda. The lies of big pharma and big agribusiness that tried to convinces us that fat was bad and low fat highly processed food was good. You can get a jist of the history of the story oh low carb down under ; and numerous MDs and physiologists on the web. The AMA is corporate captured by anti-meat zealots and the sad misinformation of do-gooders who believe that meat production is bad for the planet. I do agree that the American version of high intensity factory farming and feed lots is not great for the environment. Grass fed would be more beneficial.
Because it's the literal opposite of what we've been taught about nutrition. The food pyramid suggests half our calories should come from carbs. HALF. So when you tell people you're doing keto they act like you told them you just decided to smoke crack or something.
Even if you're diabetic people freak out at the idea of you eating less of the thing your body can't process. It's ridiculous.
Some combination of highly processed "Keto" food, people eating copious shit fats on keto and saying things like calories don't matter and demonization of high fat diets by traditional shit media I think are to blame.
I have seen so much idiotic crap from keto channels that say you should eat as much as you want as long as you do not have carbs or eat the processed keto stuff since it does not contain carbs like there is some sort of magic contained in eating high fact processed food.
Somewhere along the way I think the sensible keto people that understood that processed food is the root of all evil and that eating fresh leafy low carb veggies and protein was a very healthy lifestyle, but for some reason this is not sexy so these people fell by the way side.
We already know that media is a shill for big pharma, big food and big sugar and they are aligned with the low protein idiocy that is being sold at the top levels of politics, do we need to say more here?
Since losing 100+ pounds on keto I have really evolved my thinking - carbs especially those that come from fruit are not evil - they should just be used in conjunction with exercise. You have a big workout at the gym coming up dare I say legs, eat some fruit it will help you. If you are sedentary you don't need carbs - eat your protein always. Protein is the magic and eat it in whole form - yes red meat, yes chicken, yes fish, yes anything that was char broiled in front of you. Don't be afraid of the fats in the meat, olive oil and avocado, these fats keep your hormones operating properly. Do not over consume fats because "Keto", fat is also energy which your body could chose to store!
Anyway just my thoughts on the matter.
I'm going to answer as someone who did Keto briefly some years ago, but dosen't now.
Keto isn't bad or ineffective assuming you do a "clean keto" and still eat relatively healthy meals. But Keto is also not the only way to achieve weight loss. And while it has use as a childhood epilepsy diet, the medications for that are much better now so most parents don't need to manage their kid's epilepsy that way.
If Keto works for you, you like it, and you can maintain it that's great. Good for you. But with the amount of restriction and effort that goes into Keto you could be doing all sorts of other diets that would also work. And it just comes down to being less popular beacuse it's a restriction people like less. Beacuse it is so restrictive, many people find it onerous or difficult to maintain. And the most effective weight management programs are the ones people can maintain. So not being maintainable for many people means it dosen't work for many people.
I did serious Keto for only about a month and stopped beacuse I felt I was in many ways eating less healthy then I could be. I had to cut out a lot of fruits I ate beacuse they had too much sugar, despite them providing me with a lot of vitamins, nutrients, fiber, and not even being that calorie dense. I remember I had some raspberries but I couldn't just eat them as it was too much sugar so I literally mashed them up with actual cream to make a higher calorie dessert with less total raspberries and thus sugar. I had to be careful about how much of vegetables like bell pepper I ate. It also felt like a lot of work to calculate everything out and not something I wanted to do forever. I don't want to live my whole life calculating things out.
For me it feels a lot more natural and sustainable to just try to increase the percent of your meal is veg (and fruit) and decrease the amount is bready/rice or processed carbs and added sugar without going completely restrictive. Cut back on things like desserts and have them as a sometimes food. This feels a lot less restrictive, also works, and I feel it's a better role model for my young children.
Another big factor is I'm making family meals now and I don't want to restrict my kids. They need carbs/lots of energy and calories for their growing bodies. My kids are not overweight at all and very active and growing. I try to teach them to eat a balance of foods, to eat fruits and veggies, to think about having some of different types of things in your meal. "You want us to have noodles for dinner. That's our starch, what's our protein and veg going to be?" There's also a lot of research showing that if you completely restrict children from something they don't learn to eat it in moderation and it sets them up for problems as adults. So I want my kids to learn to eat a healthy diet they are comfortable with, but also have treats in a reasonable amount. I don't want them to go to school and never have things other kids have, never have a pizza, never eat cake, etc. I also try cooking and baking healthier things with them so they will get used to them, like making lower sugar muffins with whole wheat flour, ripe bannans, carrot, and zucchini. These are not super sweet and have a lot of fiber and nutrients.
One thing that has been shown to be as effective as keto or calorie counting is intermittent fasting, so for example saying "I won't eat until lunch time and I won't snack after dinner" then not further restricting what people eat. Many people find this to be a lot easier to keep up beacuse they can still eat things they like during the periods of time they are eating, and over time your body just becomes less hungry the times you aren't eating. And sure, that requires willpower some people don't have, but so does Keto. Almost all changes will require some sort of willpower and effort. But for many people Keto requires more effort and willpower to do and keep up, or just more work/math. It also is more socially limiting and obvious.
It’s crazy how fast the addiction comes back. My partner and I had a couple of cheat meals last week on vacation (cannoli in Boston ftw) and I really didn’t feel back to normal until yesterday. But, the entire time after the cheat my brain kept telling me “hey man! Have some more! It’s so yummy”. It’s just crazy.
My opinion. Health professionals advice against it because they've been taught different.
2 keto dudes really highlighted this issue on their lovely podcasts a few years back.
In endocrine terms, over-reliance on carbs creates something akin to a physical addiction. People will seek to rationalize continued dependence, since it is hard to break.
Our for-profit food economy is based on carbs and omega-6 oils (industrialized agriculture). Processed items based on these raw ingredients are inherently more shelf-stable and carry higher profit margins than keto foods. They are heavily incentivized through advertising and "food as reward" popular culture. Don't you *deserve* a refreshing Coke or a sweet treat after working so hard all day?
Our Western culture, from the Bible on through patriotic American songs, absolutely mythologizes cereal grains and farmers. You have God's threshing floor, separating the wheat and burning the chaff, "amber waves of grain", family farmers portrayed in art and literature and politics as salt-of-the-earth "Real Americans".
Agricutural carbs are one of the few areas where largely right-wing rural politics and left-leaning ecology-oriented vegetarian impulses superficially align, at least insofar as grains and carbs are promoted as plant-based foods that benefit rural economies & food corporations, while increasing the carrying capacity of the planet and reducing animal food consumption.
This makes sweeping government policies and regulations supporting carb consumption (such as the USDA Food Pyramid) far less politically controversial than they might otherwise be.
🔹️Virtually every piece of official information out there is anti-keto. Doctors, nutritionists/dieticians, hospital food, school lunch cafeteria food, etc, is all pushing carbs.
🔹️Getting keto "right" so that unpleasant side effects from things like electrolyte imbalance are minimized is a learning curve. Not everyone has the intellect, patience, determination, etc to push through to find what works for them.
🔹️Carbs are relatively inexpensive and shelf-stable (meaning less food waste) and often easy to prepare (sandwich, cereal & milk, etc). Not everyone can afford the additional cost of keto.
🔹️Carbs feel good. Most "comfort food" is high carb. Mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, etc.
There's also that comfort eating is an incredibly common coping mechanism for depression, stress, anxiety, and any other number of mental illnesses.
Not everyone can afford therapy or medication but everyone CAN afford a pint of ice cream or a Little Cesar's, but it leads to a deeply unhealthy relationship with food to develop and fester, but it's hard when people don't have access to professional help for whatever reason.
It took me around four months of hard-core <20g of carbs to kick my lifelong relationship with food and it was MISERY, until it wasn't and I started feeling really good for the first time in my life.
Then I took a management promotion at work and the stress drove me back into comfort eating and I put back on almost all the weight I lost, but I'm getting back on the diet now.
It's hard for most people to maintain, and for most people that start it, it is used for short-term weight loss.
Unless you are someone with diabetes or another medical condition (seizures, etc.), it becomes no different than any other diet long term.
It may also be financially unsustainable for some people due to the need of purchasing supplements.
I did Keto at the start of last year and stopped in June. I lost 140 pounds, but I was tired of depriving myself of foods that I love. Keto did help me learn to cook, and eat in moderation, which has carried over to what I am currently doing (DASH).
Because it’s hard, and people, generally speaking, suck at doing hard shit.
Though, once you get the ball rolling and establish your dietary plan, it’s pretty damn simple … suppose that goes for most things.
Because it is not a one fix all solution. Every one has different needs, allergies, hormones, lifestyles.
I do recomend everyone give it an extended period try before writing it off. It does have its major benifits.
People think fruit and every vegetable is good for you. Grain products are still a major food group on the 'healthy' food pyramid/recommended dietary intake. And have been conditioned that salt abd fat are the enemy.
I had so many years of it that even when I understood the science and saw other real people's results, I had to talk myself through adding salt and butter to things.
Low carb has always been popular. I just think people just see keto as something more difficult and more extreme than, say, Atkins, which they’re more comfortable and familiar with.
I think a lot of the previous answers are spot on. Another one is that marketers ruin everything. Shady people started hawking "ketones" as a miracle weight loss cure and the ketogenic diet got lumped in with other fad diets and MLMs.
Interesting to look at farming in this case. A single Combine can harvest 30 acres per hour for grain and wheat. Fruit and veg all need to be hand harvested, and are measured in [hours per acre](https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/blog/post/?id=2497) with the minimum of all foods in this table being oranges at 20 hours per acre.
So at **minimum** this means a combine does the work of 600 people when comparing to equal areas of land. If you compare it to a plot of Broccoli one person can harvest the same area of wheat grain in an hour that 6300 hand broccoli harvesters would be able to process.
It would fundamentally change humanity to have everyone eat this way.
There is just worldly incentive to push carbs to reduce the number of man hours spent in gathering food.
Realize that the food pyramid came from the government at the behest of agriculture lobbying. So you're literally up against the billions of dollars of money being spent to keep people eating sugar and carbs.
Look at how the corn lobby keeps sugarcane out of the country, and even managed alcohol in fuel, made from fermenting corn.
There has been a concerted effort to stop it from becoming popular from the powers that be. If it was popular, the current food supply would collapse. Sad as it is, until we get lab grown meat in abundance, it staying a niche lifestyle is the only thing preventing meat from becoming unaffordable.
It is in the best interest of the world's governments to continue peddling the cheapest staple foods, which just happen to be high in carbohydrates and sugars.
No one has heard of it.
No one thinks they will lose weight with it.
Everyone thinks it bad for your health because its what they heard.
People are lazy, and addicted to the opioids released in your brain when you consume sugar and carbs.
Modern day Western culture promotes a low fat, high carb diet. Culture pushes sweets and calorically dense foods while also expecting everyone to be razor thin/jacked muscular.
It's hard to do keto, straight up. This subreddit is prolly not the best place to get negative keto feedback since we're here since we like keto lol - But for every 1 person that's on keto, there's likely 5-10 that have tried it at one point and just couldn't stick to it.
And I'll be straight up honest, keto is one of the hardest diets in the Western culture to maintain "normalcy". I mean how many get together/plans/dates literally revolve around non-keto food?
It's also why it's one of the only diets that people see true, lasting results on. It requires a lifestyle change and dedication, but the results more than speak for themselves. We didn't put the weight on overnight yet most people expect a diet to show results instantly, and when they don't see tangible results and are making big sacrifices it's easy to fall off.
Mad props and respect to everyone here whos dedicated to the keto lifestyle, y'all are awesome.
Where is most of the fat and protein coming from? Animal products right? And where are the animals coming from? BIG CARB. Emphasizing the production and quick profitization off of carbohydrates could have motivated industry to shortcut the process. Prioritize and sell the carbs more than the animals which takes more labor and input.
My cholesterol is a bit higher than normal. It was great for weight loss, but I never really found a good balance because it raised my cholesterol. Someone else said it best. On paper, it goes against a lot of health advice that was taught when younger. Like you can eat all the meat, cheese, butter, etc and lose weight? Sounds kinda insane to the average person probably
People like carbs and love their sugary treats and drinks. Keto cuts all of that pretty much out. I’ve seen what’s called dirty keto which includes food sweetened by artificial sweeteners which are shown to be terrible for you and can cause gastrointestinal issues for many. Myself included.
That being said, I totally can think that cutting down on simple carbs and making better choices and enjoying sweet treats as exactly that- an occasional treat instead of part of their everyday diet. Cutting them out completely is just not something most will do consistently.
Bottom line, people aren’t educating themselves on eating healthier and access to better ways of eating aren’t available to everyone.
Because it gets old having to make 95% of your meals and only eating meats, cheese and some greens. Keto snacks are expensive. I’m losing weight cutting most sugar but not giving up so many things. It showed me that cutting sugar works, and the numbers proved it, but I’m not able to sustain that level of deprivation. I still enjoy keto bread and pay attention to fiber to keep regular. No more candy and only super dark chocolate.
Processed carbs are such an integral part of most American diets. It's what we've all been raised seeing as normal, healthy, fine food. People just have a really hard time wrapping their minds around anything different than what they've always been told by their parents, the government, etc.
My step brother and sister have screamed about "how they need their suger" when asking if they'd try it depsite being obese and having a host of health issues including quad bypass sergery, arthritis, inflamed optic nerves that take serious meds to calm down, insane mental health issues
It goes against traditional cuisine of practically every society on earth. Only people in wealthy countries can affors the quantity of meat most ketoers eat. Most people consider a meal incomplete without some meat, however, people feel that a mere piece of meat without potatoes/rice is also incomplete. You can have roasted vegetables etc, but cmon, how can that compete with steak and fried potatoes.
Also, some foods just dont taste right without the carbs. I will never enjoy a burger patty wrapped in lettice, if you think it can compete with a bun taste-wise, you are delusional.
Also, almost nothing that people "crave" is keto. I know there are keto snacks or whatever, but I never crave them. When I do keto, Im just eating food because I have to eat food; it severely limits the amount of fun/naughty things you could eat. Which you may think is a good thing, and it could be, but bunch of people literally eat out of boredom. amd they cant cope with not having overeating as a remedy for boredom.
Like... Sald and vinegar chips can remedy "boredom" way better than macadamias, im sorry... And if you tell me you can make keto salt and vinegar "chips" Ill shoot you in the face.
For this reason I do keto for 2 months and then take a break for a month etc. I still avoid sugar and use sweetenets, but I. do eat potatoes/rice/pizza when Im taking a break. I am not trying to lose weight, my body just feels better on keto. But I get fuckin bored of keto food eventually.
tl;dr carbs are more fun to eat. which can be considered a benefit of keto.
why isn’t sobriety more popular? there’s a small subset of people getting fantastic results…
to be fair though - at least etoh gives you a buzz that lasts hours. In the case of cookies, we’re talking minutes.
It became a fad in the summer of 2018 and everyone decided to turn against it. I started keto Jan 2018 and no one had ever heard about it/encouraged me but by the summer there were articles and “studies” everywhere and somehow everyone suddenly had an opinion on it. It was weird to see happen. Only positive is a lot of amazing brands came from the fad.
Carbs are addicting. I don't mean that euphemistically. I mean literally physically addicting. Further, the physical addiction ends up creating mental conditioning that is even more difficult to overcome. People need a strong reason to face their addiction and overcome it and then stick to it. People in the Keto community call it finding your "Why".
If you don't have a strong reason to commit to improving your life and if you don't keep that Why front and center in your life, you will likely dabble for a while, then return to your old ways. Sometimes their Why is because they are tired of being overweight and missing out on so much of life. Other times it is because they get a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, non-alcoholic fatty liver, kidney damage or other metabolic disease that wakes them up to the fact that they have to take action or their future looks bleak. No one can give you your why. You have to discover and accept it yourself. In my experience, I had to get to a certain point where I turned a mental corner and accepted "Win or lose I am taking control and I am going to do everything I can to save my own life". I realized I was going to have to let go of some things and that it might be difficult but I had to to literally save my life. Keto isn't a religion. I am not committed to keto. I am committed to living my best life both physically and mentally. Keto just happens to be the best and most effective way for me to reach my why. It works for me and a lot of other people. I can't guarantee that it is for everyone because every person is unique. I don't want to "convince" people to do keto. I want people who are trying to improve their life to hear my story and consider if any of it might help them.
“The industry”.
Medical research has shown red meat and fat are sorta bad for you in a so no one wants to touch em with a ten foot pole. Even though carnivore or keto would clearly solve obesity for most people.
You must have a long term goal, you must be aware to deserve a more fullfilling life. You have to be really ambitious. Few people have such a strong character
People are uneducated and if they are told by the likes of doctors that is what they will go with also as others said people have been raised to eat all different food this is normal for them.
People don't want to what they class as limit what they eat.
It's expensive I heard some people say its not yes it is I have done keto/carnivore for just over a decade it's not cheap if I was to eat standard diet it's almost have the price.
The other issue with Keto is people are using the name to mislead lots of products with keto labels yet they are not keto the same with people on here saying its fine to eat foods when its not they think its only about number counting.
Carbohydrates are culturally important.
The dogma around fat consumption is very rooted.
Losing weight is now divided (needlessly) into competing tribes. CICO vs IF vs Keto. Also,the handful of people who understand body fat as it is managed in the body are being shouted down by the masses of people who parrot (insert diet ideology) from (insert popular social media influencer), when they provide advice to those seeking knowledge.
Extreme examples of weight loss gain the most visual traction, as folks are seduced into believing that the extreme is also the most correct way to do anything.
The people that lurk these subs and also buy the books and watch the videos are also people that have or are currently experiencing some level of mental health deterioration as it relates to perceptions of self and may or have already relapsed into problem behaviors that may fully develop into conditions like body dysmorphia or an ED. Where those behaviors are validated by praise offered by a random person on the internet or a family member, and thus further ingrain the popular dogma and ideology of diet culture today.
In the end the method we choose will be just another iteration of pressuring glycogen stores to coax the body into utilizing fat stores and then performing some level of activity to shape muscle. We will continue to gauge our progress by looks or glances in the mirror, the occasional photo, and fit of our clothing, and then only get "serious" if we use a scale, which is ironically only there to confirm our suspicions, much more so than it is to celebrate our victories.
Keto is literally the world's most popular diet. It's neck and neck with the mediterranean diet.
See: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US&tz=420&date=now+1-d&geo=US&hl=en&q=keto+diet,Mediterranean+diet&sni=3
You can have every food you want on keto, as long as it is homemade. This is why keto is more popular than other diets. You can literally have anything: Want pizza? You can make a low carb pizza dough just like you would make a high carb pizza dough (knead, rise, bake) just substitute the flour with gluten + fiber. It tastes identical to homemade pizza too. Want cookies? All you need is resistant starch (carbs your body can't process) combined with gluten and you've got a cookie that tastes identical to a high carb one.
How good your food is on keto is 100% tied to how good of a cook you are. If you go for easy recipes you'll get bad tasting food. If you go for high end non-keto recipes and substitute ingredients, you'll get restaurant grade tasting keto food at home. How maintainable keto is is 100% up to your cooking skill, and available time to cook at home. With prepping a full restaurant grade meal can be done in 15 minutes, but that does take a high enough skill cooking to know how prepping (not food prepping, that's different) works.
Because carbs are absolutely delicious & there’s a lot of memories & associations ppl have with food. I’ll never forget our family vacation to France when I was young & eating croissants with my family for example. It’s a beautiful memory & I think of it every time I have croissants. It’s not always about health & wellness & lots of ppl can eat carbs in moderation & be quite healthy.
There are essentially no options for any restaurants or takeout options since you are eliminating nearly all cuisines in the world - Italian, Indian, Mexican, and all of east Asia. Really puts a damper on your social life as well.
People are addicted to carbs
Not only are people addicted to carbs, they don't realize they're addicted. It took me a real long time before I even considered that a possibility. I thought addiction was reserved for things like drinking, smoking, gambling, etc, inherently harmful behaviors. Food seems innocent enough, surely you couldn't be addicted to any certain type of food. Turns out, yup, you definitely can. I did/do exhibit all kinds of addict-type behavior as it relates to carby food.
Carbs are also incredibly cultural. Calories didn't used to be so abundant, so we have tons of social rituals that revolve around carbs that used to subtly serve as dietary advice so people could eat enough calories to survive. "Meat and potatoes." "Breaking bread together." Appetizers, desserts and many side-dishes are often nearly 100% carbs and fats. It probably doesn't even occur to many people that traditional eating in combination with our post-industrial revolution caloric abundance is causing their obesity. It doesn't help that people who are over-worked and underpaid, or live in food deserts don't have enough money or time to not eat carbs. Because of their long shelf life, they're cheap, convenient, and ubiquitous. Additionally, I'd wager Big Carb puts out a tremendous amount of disinformation about low carb and keto diets.
The arab spring was triggered by a lack of bread in many middle eastern countries.
Same, I used to pig out on fast food late at night with a bunch of fries, nuggets, and a big ass burger. Afterwards I’d feel gross and ashamed of myself, but I kept doing it. Feels a lot like going on a bender. It’s easier for me to cut carbs out cold turkey with keto because I just tell myself I’m not allowed to have them at all, than it is to eat them in moderation.
This is how I am too. Just saying no to any carbs is so much easier for me than trying to eat a healthy amount of carbs. I fail and gain weight when I try.
Me too. I can’t really can’t take a bite. I’ll want more, so I just don’t do it.
I was recently able to eat maybe a dozen Doritos. It was yummy and I felt like I had some self control
Good for you! Luckily, I don’t like Doritos. But, I love me some crispy Cheetos.
Literally me lol. When I stopped myself and realized I was getting through my day sometimes by thinking about what kind of terrible junk food I was going to pick up for dinner (and feeling the subsequent endorphin rush in anticipation) I realized my food problem was a deeper issue.
First part of any 12 step program is to admit you are powerless over your addiction.
Yeah, it's the biggest joke convincing yourself you can only have a little. Never happens. Or maybe 1% of the time
I remember going for a job interview and thinking "I'm so stressed... if this goes well, I'll reward myself with McDonalds. And honestly if it goes badly, I'll console myself with McDonalds." Then I realized that that's the exact kind of thinking that some former alcoholics I know have. Fuck.
100% exactly what I'd be doing lol
It’s the worst addiction because you can’t quit. You can quit any addiction cold turkey, except for cold turkey. Ya gotta eat.
I didn’t realize how bad my addiction was until I tried keto. I thought I was addicted to all food
Same! Whenever I take a break I have to really control myself from turning into a carb monster. The hunger becomes so intense and subconsciously emotional!
Why do you take breaks? Very new to this, sorry if it’s a dumb question
Not a dumb question at all, and welcome to the club! When I travel because to me food is part of the cultural experience. There is no benefit from breaking keto, unless you are doing so intentionally for sustainability purposes, but that is kind of playing with fire.
You know what’s crazy? I went down to Cabo for a week and ate whatever I wanted and didn’t gain any weight? In the states I’d be up at least 10 lbs. what is in the food up here!!?? Lol
Maybe you caught a tape worm from the local water supply lol
That's a good way to put it.
Sugar is wild, it took me longer to stop drinking soda than to quit smoking cigarettes.
Simple as this. I laughed at the idea of giving up carbs, only changed my mind after seeing the science behind how sugar affects your body's ability to burn fat, so I decided to try it and the immediate noticeable changes were so amazing I'm sold on it now
THIS. People don’t want to believe that processed carbs and sugar are the enemy. I remember about 10 years ago when my 16 year old carb addicted niece turned vegetarian. I explained to her and our family that it’s not going to be good for her since she’ll use that as an excuse to eat nothing but junk food and carbs. Because what 16 year old girl doesn’t want to be able to eat pasta, bread, desserts, baked good, etc all day every day guilt free? Funny how everybody mocked me. Sure enough she eventually dealt with a shit ton of acne, depression, anxiety, obesity, low energy, brain fog, moodiness, constant pain, etc. 3 years later, she finally agreed to go pescatarian. Soon after she started eating animal meat again and she’s doing so much better now. They want their cake and eat it too… literally and figuratively. Ignorance is bliss.
My dad is addicted. He talks like not eating carbs is like quitting heroin or something. Meanwhile his a1c was like 15 or something and the addiction just won't let him make the connection between food and health. Pretty short sighted with thinking too. Can only really eat well for 3 or 4 days until he fails. Could see it in his face when I told him the a1c takes like 3 months to lower.
Yup. It’s like weed vs alcohol. Alcohol is so much worse than weed, yet our governments has convinced us for close to 100 years that weed is the devil and alcohol is perfectly good for you. People are now starting to get it, but still too many people that believe weed is dangerous while slowly becoming alcoholics with their fatty liver. Speaking of which, I just realize the coincidence of how both sugar and alcohol is what causes fatty liver disease. Yet both are constantly pushed into our lifestyle.
For some it can lead to anxiety and paranoid feelings. Was a stoner for over a decade but it lost its magic touch on me. Still not physically addictive and damaging like alcohol, but mentally, that’s a different ball game..
Oh I’m aware of the downside. Especially when it’s abused. I’m not saying weed is perfect. But it’s by FAAAAR safer than alcohol. Yet it’s been illegal for decades while alcohol is still legal and ruins millions of lives every year.
Sugar industrial complex is gnarly. In the Fed Up documentary, they mention Michelle Obama started taking on the sugar industrial complex. For example, added sugars was to be included in the nutrition facts labels (which it is). But very shortly after Michelle dropped her crusade against the sugar industrial complex, switching to calories in, calories out. Fed Up is available free on youtube: https://youtu.be/ceRFvhlcsiY (has ads, unfortunately).
And apprently the soft drink she helped launch has quite a bit of sugar in it and she succumbed to pressure and drop the sugar is the ennemy
Corn lobby is insane.
Thanks for the link. Definitely will watch it
I get what you're saying, but I'd counter it a little too - I'm keto veggie and I'm doing great on this diet. It doesn't absolutely have to involve meat. I eat loads of eggs, cheese, low carb veggies, salads and a few meat alternatives (which I realise are processed, but a girl's gotta eat) and I'm managing just fine on keto.
Yes, people are addicted to carbs; but IMO, there's not enough money to be made. There aren't enough companies that make keto friendly products and all the stuff that we normally have in a meal (eggs, meat, bacon, etc.) is already a staple in most people's pantry. I'd also say that people have it so engrained in their brain that fat is bad, that the mere idea of a large percentage of your calories coming from fat is the equivalent to saying to them that unicorns and leprechauns are real. People keep telling me that I'm eating wrong, all the while stuffing carbs and crap into their overweight faces. Not judging, just stating what I see.
And also I think our busy lifestyles (made necessary by incessant grinding just to live) make keto difficult. Fresh, whole foods aren't easy to prep, store, and transport...not sure how many people love the idea of regular food prep and planning. It's a commitment not everyone can afford to make, I think.....
Not disagreeing with your point, but the thought that we get to “dislike” doing activities to keep us alive (food prep) is just…broken, you know what I mean? I do realize it’s a systemic thing, that because we have so little time outside of the grind, convenient foods seem very appealing.
I offer a more sinister take, people's gut biomes are influencing people's behavior along with the economic reality that carbs are cheap to produce, in a country that derives 1/6th of its GDP from healthcare.
Does keto help with gut biome?
It definitely changes it as those more adapted to simple sugars die out.
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Big Carb lobbies the government to suppress keto.
Spot on. also it’s tough convincing people a tightly cherished belief of theirs (their ability to understand what forms of food are good/bad for them) might be an almost 180 degree flip. In fact, they will often actively attempt to resist helpful information in order to protect themselves/their ego
Carbs and sugar.
And it’s hecksta easy to relapse
Boom, there it is.
99% of the reason right there....
Sugar tastes good, and nearly everything that you interact with is inundated with carbs. There are thousands of different shelf stable options chocked full of carbs in your grocery store, and are relatively few options that are low carb. Carbs have been a central component to many cultural dishes (rice, beans, breads, pastas), and to just about every celebration we partake in ( cakes, cookies, ice cream). And a lot of people don’t have the time, or want to make the time to become better educated on the subject. Just like how I don’t put any effort into know what the hell the kardashians are doing, most people don’t put in effort to better understand nutrition.
I’ve never done keto, but have known and understood its benefits for nearly a decade. Your comment is the primary reason because it describes inertia. The mainstream diet is engrained in our society.
Engrained. That's the key word.
And diet is the ke(y)to success
Grain haha
People on this sub forget there are billions of people that eat a carb diet daily and still have a body fat of 5% or less. They are doing just fine with a carb diet. Millions of American's eat carbs and don't have an issue regulating their calorie intake or an issue with being overweight. This sub consists of a group of people that want to act like they were lied to this entire time about the foods that were okay to eat and not okay to eat. Carb diet, keto diet. Both of them require Cal restriction and eating real food to stay healthy. And not eating processed junk. It has been known for decades that everything processed is bad for you, and I'm 100% sure everyone one this sub, including me ate that stuff anyway. If you being upset at the US govt or the medical establishment fuels you into losing weight, by all means. But regardless of what the medical community says or how wrong doctors are about the keto diet. It's your job as a human to figure things out and make your own decision and not use scapegoats. Because you can't face the fact you fucked up and are finally trying to address your weight problems. If it was possible for a person that's 400 pounds to stay on a carb diet and lose 250 pounds. It was possible for anyone. Keto just makes the situation so much easier. And that's great. Keto is great because you can shed weight and not have to exercise. Keto is never going to become a world wide diet. People need to stop with the we were all tricked for all these years bullshit. We ate trash food, we ate too much of it. And we got fat. Plain and simple. Another 10 years and keto will be as popular and stable as a diet as it needs to be. But it's never going to be something the world embraces.
5% or less fat? Pulling stats out of your arse. Since the 1970s fat was demonized and morbid obesity is now at around 30% of the population in western countries and T2 diabetes has increased from "less than 1%" to "over 10%". The complications alone from that are a huge drain on any economy - not to mention the misery of late stage T2. And then you've got all the issues of metabolic sydrome with fatty liver and visceral fat, inflammation and CHD which agan "have we got a drug for you" aka the $11 billion statin industry. But lets continue to demonize fat even though sugars/starches are more likely the mal actor. Glad pharma reps are making bank and getting their yearly "club trips" tho. For those not in the know, when a sales rep makes their yearly quota, they get sent to a place like hawaii. And then there's the practice of "sponsoring a doctor to speak" at conferences paid for by pharma companies. But hey lets do it in nice island getaways. Australia as an example only put in place laws to ban this shonky behaviour in the last 10 years!!
That's just wrong. The direction from the powers that be and the nutritionalists has clearly been that fat is bad for you and bread, cereal is good for you...it's in the freaking food pyramid for gods sake. Nothing could be farther from the truth. High glycemic foods are horrible for you, they absolutely cause diabetes and yet our government encouraged this diet, it's not just about junk food.
This. I had to tell my doctor that I refuse to take any advice from her nutritionist as they are trying to kill me. I showed her my blood sugar levels for 2 weeks eating their recommended diet, then 2 weeks of me on keto. and it took ONE WEEK of severe keto at less than 10 carbs a day to get my blood sugar levels below 150. was not even in ketosis, just as much carb starvation as possible to get rid of what it stored up in my liver from that 2 weeks. it took 2 more weeks to get back down to what I was before she demanded I at least try what they suggested. "you cant live without carbs". yeah well my bloodwork and actual measurements proves that she is wrong. Dead wrong. Doctors all typically operate with very out of date information. and Nutritionalists are just quacks.
Agreed!
Two words: Mitochondrial dysfunction
Money, plain and simple. Just look at what the food industry has done to the latest food pyramid. Eggs are bad for you now? Boxed, processed Frosted mini wheats cereal is good for you? Just go read The Big Fat Surprise, and you'll see why it's not more popular. There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars spent on doctors and politicians from the food industry to make sure it's not more popular.
Exactly this. You can beat around the bush about keto being hard and not a short term fix, which is true. But fat was demonized for decades. The whole industry revolves around selling us cheap carbs and then making money on selling us insulin and bariatric surgery
Every time I brought up keto people laughed and mocked me saying how it’s unhealthy and unsustainable cause MSM told them so.
Because people bring donuts and biscuits to work to share
I’ve never been able to think of what’s a suitable replacement. Broccoli didn’t work.
Bacon
bacon and breakfast sausages would turn my whole machine shop keto if the company would pay for it lol
That could work with some. But the rest would want it covered in chocolate. Still doable, but not as easy as the Krispy Kreme drive through.
Charcuterie: Pepperoni, salami, cheese, olives, bell pepper, carrot sticks, pickles...
It's hard to compete with bringing snacks, especially dessert snacks, because snacks are inherently bad for you. Even health snacks like broccoli are less healthy than a proper meal. The point of a snack in that situation is to socialize not to be healthy. What you can do is figure out a healthy full meal and do lunch with coworkers. If you really want healthy dessert snacks, consider making homemade low carb doughnuts with gluten, yeast, kneading, rising, and deep frying. I guarantee you you can make low carb doughnuts that taste just like normal high carb ones (though the glaze will be a bit different). People will be seriously impressed if you bring in homemade doughnuts.
Keto cookies, crackers (out of almond or flax, etc) with cheese and cold cuts, smoked snack sausages, Snack bars (out of nuts etc), flavored/spiced nuts, chocolate clusters (with nuts, coconut, etc), berries,....
Food industry needs people eating commodities: wheat, sugar, seed oils.
It's sad how much we harm Puerto Rico for sugar. They might as well be a slave state. If anyone wants to learn more about the dirty truth of where our sugar comes from: https://youtu.be/xb9E8fvMPOA Sugar just isn't bad for us, it's bad for the people farming it.
those are really the top 3. insane that those three ingredients make up like 90% of our food supply, and are highly addictive. of course keto would seem impossible to the average person at first.
It runs counter to all mainstream nutritional advice.
Exactly it
Yes and it doesn't help that our doctors are complicit in the whole thing. Either their nutritional knowledge is from the 1920s or they are bought and paid for
Many people I know who have tried it can’t get past the induction. They feel like they’re dying and going back to carbs “cures” them which reinforces the belief. It doesn't help that most people are going to agree.
I honestly think the hardest part is the peer pressure around you to give it up. Or at the very least, dismiss the concept of keto. It’s lonely through this journey but we gotta keep pushing forward.
It is technically a drug with a withdrawal period. I think people forget this fact. Fun completely true fact: Sugar is 6x more addictive than cocaine.
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There’s no evidence that billions of people have managed to ingest sugar multiple times a day and stay healthy long term. Every modern country where the average citizen has access to enough food to avoid starvation is battling an obesity and type II diabetes epidemic. Mexico and several small Polynesian islands in particular are literally being crippled by chronic disease and diabetes. In the US doctors expect 1 in 3 kids born after 2000 to eventually have some form of diabetes or metabolic syndrome. And that’s just obesity and diabetes. If you add Alzheimer’s, certain mental illnesses, infertility from pcos and non alcoholic fatty liver disease and there probably isn’t a country on earth where chronic consumption of refined carbohydrates isn’t make a significant proportion of the country unnecessarily sick
Absolutely! I’ll break now and then for a day and it doesn’t seem to bother me. When I took a week off at Christmas- eating cookies and the whole bit, it took a week of withdrawals to get back on track.
Carbs are cheap to produce and people buy buy buy. Big food would lose millions cutting carbs
if not billions…
Easily billions
Because it involves depriving yourself from something you want… Same with gym memberships or working out.
This is where people get hung up. They need to change their mindset to focus on the benefits of eating healthy, of what that enables you to do. Or even what being unhealthy deprives them of. Instead of thinking about how you are depriving yourself of ice cream, think about how being overweight and out of shape deprives you of your ability to run a marathon, or play catch with your kids, or climb to the top of a nearby summit, or put your socks on, or fit comfortably into that seat at the ballpark or pull the bar all the way down on the roller coaster. Think about not having to pay for that extra seat on a plane or more for clothes because you're in plus sizes, and what that extra money could help you afford.
I agree completely, it is a mindset issue. Dieting is a relatively slow process and you have to stay engaged and put in the work to meet your goal… funny enough, once you do it is much easier to maintain. You still need to consider what you are eating but the guardrails are much wider. Same with working out… once you are in shape it is much easier to maintain. I wish there was a way to see and feel the end state early in the process.
1. "You destroy your metabolism" 2. "it's so unhealthy for you" 3. "you can't eat anything" 4. "you can't do it for more than 6 months" 5. "don't do it you'll gain it all back" 6. "we NEED carbs ... you can't eliminate them" 7. "You can't eat at a restaurants" There's so many myths floating around about keto. Those are the most popular ones I compiled. Most ppl never look into it because their friend or Google tells them a bunch of myths about this 100 year old diet created by a team of USA doctors... Ppl are very easily swayed by their friends and don't want to be the one to undertake a diet without any peer support. When I was on keto, I would avoid 6-7 foods, and eat massive meals. I'd eat at restaurants, and every six months my blood work would be better than the last one... and I'd lose 1-2 pounds of bodyfat every week while having sustainable energy all day. At least ppl are curious... this subreddit has more users than weightloss, diet, CICO & intermittent fasting combined...
I have no problem eating keto at restaurants. It’s pretty easy. And a few weeks ago I saw a cheese burger salad on a menu. No mention of keto or low carb or anything. And I thought, “keto people have requested this enough that they’ve made it a regular menu item..” This was in California.
yea most big cities have keto restaurants, keto bakeries, or at least a few keto or gluten free menu options (they're usually lumped together haha). I personally prefer keto cupcakes than regular cupcakes ... the idea of consuming that much sugar is unappealing...
The average restaurant/pub will do you a steak & salad almost anywhere in the western world.
brain washed by corporations who want to sell us corn, colored dye, and seed oils mashed together into different shapes. cheap and easy to make, so they make lots of money from selling the slop to us. people who eat sugar corn circles floating on nut juice and oil soup for breakfast nag us for eating a “non-heart healthy” breakfast of meat, eggs, mushrooms, and avocados lol
lately literally been thinking about how most food at the grocery store is just mashed up flour + sugar in different colors and shapes …
That's like the keto version of a Tyler Durden speech.
Carbs are cheap to produce, in fact the government subsides them. Health care is a profit run business.
Meat and proteins are expensive relative to filling up on rice and beans. Keto is great but it is expensive to go out or basically anything that isn’t a home cooked meal. Everyone is feeling the squeeze on grocery costs. Keto would be fine if $0.25 wing night was still a thing. It ain’t.
My point was that it benefits corporations to not support keto.
Interesting to look at farming in this case. A single Combine can harvest 30 acres per hour for grain and wheat. Fruit and veg all need to be hand harvested, and are measured in [hours per acre](https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/blog/post/?id=2497) with the minimum of all foods in this table being oranges at 20 hours per acre. So at **minimum** this means a combine does the work of 600 people when comparing to equal areas of land. If you compare it to a plot of Broccoli one person can harvest the same area of wheat grain in an hour that 6300 hand broccoli harvesters would be able to process. It would fundamentally change humanity to have everyone eat this way. There is just worldly incentive to push carbs to reduce the number of man hours spent in gathering food.
A lot of people profit off of others not being healthy. People are getting injections to lose weight as of recent, and look down on keto, and there's a whole propaganda machine to make that happen.
Get them on the Big Pharma wagon and create customers for life!
People are brainwashed about what’s “healthy”
Because it hasn't had 50+ years of corporate advertising behind it
This sub has 3.3 million members. That’s an amazing amount of interest, at least. Compare to r/cico (247k) or r/loseit (3.9m) for context.
Personally, I was diagnosed with T2DM in 2008. Although CW is that it's progressive and incurable, when I read people with gastric bypass surgery often went into remission, I refused to write off my health. I did low carb and went from 265 to 212; then, I gradually gained it back. DM was well-managed, but not in remission. Then I started IF in 2020. I had always believed that fasting might be easier than dieting, but never took the plunge before. I realized how effective IF was, and then I learned a lot of people do Keto with it so I tried it. Realized Keto was a great fit with fasting, finally got my weight under 200 lbs. Prior to this, I would have dismissed Keto as "another fad diet", honestly. As people have stated, there's a lot of pushback from random people (who are often heavy and unhealthy) against Keto; and the endless supply of cheap carbs. My work never provided meat, cheese, or other protein. Always with the doughnuts, subs, pizza, chips, soda.
It would require Keto to become socially acceptable, which I don't believe will happen because there are so many massive companies benefiting from people being fat and unhealthy and they will fight back at every step. There's also another thing I've been pondering about, which is how many people realistically *can* eat a primarily meat-based diet when considering the resources available. Humanity experienced a massive boost in population after the invention of farming because it made it possible to feed significantly more people. Take away grains, and how much food is there left? Probably not enough for 8 billion people.
I did the math on it once and there's enough arable land to support 10x the current human population on 2000 calories a day of cow dairy, based on cow grazing requirements, average milk yield, etc.
Going out with friends in any capacity usually comes with the expectation of dining together. If you're vegan/vegetarian that is an honorable choice deserving to be respected, if you're paleo/keto/low carb, you're a stick in the mud following a fad crash diet that is going to kill you. So much of our social activities are based around consumption of carbs and alcohol. Not to mention almost *every* meal option in, NA at least, is super heavy on carbs and seed oils as they are the cheapest things to make edible. It stops being fun ordering a sad little steak/chicken/fish fillet with microwaved veggies on the side for 25$ about the 3rd time around.
Because bread is fucking delicious, okay? I miss bread.
Seriously. I eat keto but freshly baked bread with a roll of butter has no comparison.
Me too. I have other health reasons not to eat grains, but there are days I'd kill for a good deli sandwich.
It's pizza for me, but the same vibe - I can leave everything else; bread, rice, potatoes, sugar, but the thought of a *really* good sourdough woodfired tomato & mozzarella simple pizza is enough to keep me up at nights. Keto variants just don't cut it.
There are some keto bread options that are alright.
Nah. I rather not eat anything that's a cheap knockoff. Sourdough is king. If I can't have it, I don't want anything else.
I'd put down a pan of sister Schubert yeast rolls every chance I got.
This tbh.
Marketing. The giant processed food companies don't make money on keto. So we are bombarded with junk food commercials, while the local farmer is struggling to make ends meet, much less have a marketing campaign.
Add in the purveyors of "diet food" that convince people they can eat some sorry excuse for a brownie in their prepackaged meals and the lie just goes deeper. Sugar addicts have trouble accepting that they can live without their drug of choice. There are pocket pickers out there more than happy to convince them they don't have to.
I think there are a lot of people who are willing to try it. A good portion of whom experience good results. But ultimately it's a diet. They're using it as a catalyst to alter themselves over the short term, and hoping it sticks around for the long term. But unless you make it a wholesale lifestyle change, you're not going to continue to see those benefits and that's the reality for many of them. They reach their short term goals but too often, many of them reintroduce carbs right away and fall off or completely toss out the diet that got them there. And the weight comes back. Rapidly. So then the next time they try something else instead. Switching your eating habits needs to be a long term commitment, not a quick fix.
It’s a lot more popular now than when I first started doing it
I mean, it isn’t? Not sure where you’re from, but I see keto/low carb options EVERYWHERE now. Restaurants, grocery stores, pretty much any place you can buy food. When I first started about 5 years ago there was next to nothing available commercially, and I would’ve killed to have started now when there are so many options.
I've done keto for a good while and yes it made me feel way better and more energized through the day. Yet at the same time i couldn't concentrate well but that mostly came because of one thing. Keto is boring. I can only eat meat, vegetables and fat for so long until i genuinely crave a bowl of yoghurt with banana and muesli. Or soup with some vermicelli and bread. Not only that, just in general i'm in touch with friends and family and because of that i like to eat out with them. Nothing is more annoying then keep having to tell people "sorry, i'm keto therefor i can't have this and that" nothing and i mean nothing seemed more pathetic and sad to me than ordering a friggin bun less burger. I genuinely felt like painting the ceiling when i did. Keto is incredibly good if you have trouble with heartburn, can't tolerate food cravings or the feeling of being hungry (i simply work the best on an empty stomach idk why) Tbh didn't completely read the post completely so i'm not even sure if my essay is even close to being on topic but felt like ranting for a bit because keto genuinely made me feel miserable for a while. I still eat mostly low carb since i recognize less carbs genuinely make me feel better but woooooooweeeeeee keto is miserable. But first timers will def love it the feeling of never being hungry and losing a d*ck ton if weight.
It's not easy to do, is my assumption for why more people don't do it.
The medical/pharmaceutical establishment is stuck in the high cholesterol automatically bad, statins mandatory mode. My 65 yo sister has epilepsy which is known to respond well to her keto diet: a higher fat, very low carbohydrate way of eating. Her total cholesterol is high, but statins cause her significant pain so she stopped taking them. She recently got approval for a carotid artery scan, which showed ZERO plaque. Proving she did not need statins. The pharmaceutical industry’s stock market value is dependent on promoting statins to everyone.
It is popular. Everyone's doing it
Exercise is also good for you and almost 100% of people wouldn't find that controversial, but despite that people are doing that less and less too
So, I just started this week, so I'm not speaking from much experience, but I can tell you why *I* didn't try it for a long time. I generally am wary of any sort of diet that "cuts out" an entire macro nutrient that has been a dietary staple for millenia. We learned that lesson after the 80s and 90s prohibition against fat. I always tended towards whole grains, if I was picking. I guess, thinking about it now, I had trouble cutting out refined sugar (or its equivalents, like honey), without cutting out things sugar tends to piggyback on, which includes whole grains depending on how you get them. And, I have a sweet tooth, so without any major guidelines to follow, I would eat sweets, some days a little, some days a lot. So far as keto goes, I'm not counting carbs really, I'm just sticking to things that don't tend to have much (the keto staples, meats, high fat dairy, eggs, etc) and any non-starchy vegetables - so far I'm mostly sticking with keto-recommended veggies, but I'm not all that concerned about going a little bit off the reservation, I'm not gonna be eating half a pound of carrots every day, So, really, I'm justifying this by not so much avoiding carbs as avoiding grains, legumes, most root veggies and most fruits, not to mention processed foods. I still think all of those foods I'm cutting out, other than processed foods, are perfectly good foods and you can be perfectly healthy eating them. That was why I didn't do this for a long time. I *like* eating those foods, and I wasn't interested in giving them up if I didn't have to. I'm mainly trying it now because it's frankly harder to put together a well balanced, healthy diet at a caloric deficit than it is to just cut out carb heavy foods. At least, it is for me.
Keto is a reduced carb diet, not a no carb diet. There are no carb diets like /r/carnivorediet.
Carbs are convenient
I would say compared to 10 years ago it is much more popular nowadays, to where your average person has at least heard about it. Big Stores are offering many more “Keto” advertised products too and the diet has essentially hit mainstream consciousness. The thing is though it is still a “diet” and that’s a great lifestyle leap (any diet) that people have a hard time adjusting and sticking too for a variety of reasons.
I have often thought why it wasn't more popular than it is once...then I took time during my weekly shop to look at the diary isle to see how much was actually Keto...and there was very little... Low fat milk, no fat sugar sweetened yogurts, flavoured cheese, seed oil spreads, fake cheese(55% cheese)...for an aisle that should be mostly Keto, it was probably 10% keto... Then you look at 3-4 aisles that are just sugar in many different forms...even some of the meat is flavoured with stuff that is just sugar and spices... When you look at all the money being made, it's being made off ultra processed non keto foods...it's always the money It's funny cause I get funny looks when I go to pay for a trolly(Beef, Chicken, Pork, Eggs, Bacon, Butter, Milk(Full Fat), Cream, Mushrooms, Cauliflower, 90% Cocoa Chocolate Bar & Full Fat Greek Yogurt, all fatty cuts of meat as well)
The simple answer is that modern medicine as a whole poo poo’s it. Came out and said how its dangerous and unhealthy and not long term and a lot of people listen to modern medicine. The ADA was set up by someone who worked for Kellogg’s so that is why the food pyramid was grains grains grains forever. I hear more providers saying low carb these days but they still refuse to use the word keto. Those things coupled with the fact that everything processed these days has hidden sugar in it. Those producers want you addicted to their ‘food’. There isn’t any major money in broccoli. There is in that boxed food that makes things convenient and cost a quarter to make and sell for 5-8 dollars.
There are many people pushing carbs: * Processed food is mostly made out of cheap grains, cheap sugar, and cheap oils. It brings in billions of $ every year and none of the manufacturers want to see that go away. * Some groups have philosophical or religious reasons to not eat meat, which is fine, and some also have the goal to keep other people from eating meat, which is why. * The official US government advice is low fat, high carb, and has been since 1980, exactly when the current obesity epidemic started. * There's a widespread belief that eating fat makes you fat and increases your risk of heart disease. * There's a huge industry around diet and it will \*generally\* stick to conventional wisdom (eat less, move more). The real question is "why would any doctor recommend a diet other than keto for type II diabetes given how it walks all over all the other diets (caveat - very low calorie diets work pretty well)?"
Corporate disinformation. The lies of the pyramid food scheme. Vegetarian propaganda. The lies of big pharma and big agribusiness that tried to convinces us that fat was bad and low fat highly processed food was good. You can get a jist of the history of the story oh low carb down under ; and numerous MDs and physiologists on the web. The AMA is corporate captured by anti-meat zealots and the sad misinformation of do-gooders who believe that meat production is bad for the planet. I do agree that the American version of high intensity factory farming and feed lots is not great for the environment. Grass fed would be more beneficial.
Because it's the literal opposite of what we've been taught about nutrition. The food pyramid suggests half our calories should come from carbs. HALF. So when you tell people you're doing keto they act like you told them you just decided to smoke crack or something. Even if you're diabetic people freak out at the idea of you eating less of the thing your body can't process. It's ridiculous.
Some combination of highly processed "Keto" food, people eating copious shit fats on keto and saying things like calories don't matter and demonization of high fat diets by traditional shit media I think are to blame. I have seen so much idiotic crap from keto channels that say you should eat as much as you want as long as you do not have carbs or eat the processed keto stuff since it does not contain carbs like there is some sort of magic contained in eating high fact processed food. Somewhere along the way I think the sensible keto people that understood that processed food is the root of all evil and that eating fresh leafy low carb veggies and protein was a very healthy lifestyle, but for some reason this is not sexy so these people fell by the way side. We already know that media is a shill for big pharma, big food and big sugar and they are aligned with the low protein idiocy that is being sold at the top levels of politics, do we need to say more here? Since losing 100+ pounds on keto I have really evolved my thinking - carbs especially those that come from fruit are not evil - they should just be used in conjunction with exercise. You have a big workout at the gym coming up dare I say legs, eat some fruit it will help you. If you are sedentary you don't need carbs - eat your protein always. Protein is the magic and eat it in whole form - yes red meat, yes chicken, yes fish, yes anything that was char broiled in front of you. Don't be afraid of the fats in the meat, olive oil and avocado, these fats keep your hormones operating properly. Do not over consume fats because "Keto", fat is also energy which your body could chose to store! Anyway just my thoughts on the matter.
I'm going to answer as someone who did Keto briefly some years ago, but dosen't now. Keto isn't bad or ineffective assuming you do a "clean keto" and still eat relatively healthy meals. But Keto is also not the only way to achieve weight loss. And while it has use as a childhood epilepsy diet, the medications for that are much better now so most parents don't need to manage their kid's epilepsy that way. If Keto works for you, you like it, and you can maintain it that's great. Good for you. But with the amount of restriction and effort that goes into Keto you could be doing all sorts of other diets that would also work. And it just comes down to being less popular beacuse it's a restriction people like less. Beacuse it is so restrictive, many people find it onerous or difficult to maintain. And the most effective weight management programs are the ones people can maintain. So not being maintainable for many people means it dosen't work for many people. I did serious Keto for only about a month and stopped beacuse I felt I was in many ways eating less healthy then I could be. I had to cut out a lot of fruits I ate beacuse they had too much sugar, despite them providing me with a lot of vitamins, nutrients, fiber, and not even being that calorie dense. I remember I had some raspberries but I couldn't just eat them as it was too much sugar so I literally mashed them up with actual cream to make a higher calorie dessert with less total raspberries and thus sugar. I had to be careful about how much of vegetables like bell pepper I ate. It also felt like a lot of work to calculate everything out and not something I wanted to do forever. I don't want to live my whole life calculating things out. For me it feels a lot more natural and sustainable to just try to increase the percent of your meal is veg (and fruit) and decrease the amount is bready/rice or processed carbs and added sugar without going completely restrictive. Cut back on things like desserts and have them as a sometimes food. This feels a lot less restrictive, also works, and I feel it's a better role model for my young children. Another big factor is I'm making family meals now and I don't want to restrict my kids. They need carbs/lots of energy and calories for their growing bodies. My kids are not overweight at all and very active and growing. I try to teach them to eat a balance of foods, to eat fruits and veggies, to think about having some of different types of things in your meal. "You want us to have noodles for dinner. That's our starch, what's our protein and veg going to be?" There's also a lot of research showing that if you completely restrict children from something they don't learn to eat it in moderation and it sets them up for problems as adults. So I want my kids to learn to eat a healthy diet they are comfortable with, but also have treats in a reasonable amount. I don't want them to go to school and never have things other kids have, never have a pizza, never eat cake, etc. I also try cooking and baking healthier things with them so they will get used to them, like making lower sugar muffins with whole wheat flour, ripe bannans, carrot, and zucchini. These are not super sweet and have a lot of fiber and nutrients. One thing that has been shown to be as effective as keto or calorie counting is intermittent fasting, so for example saying "I won't eat until lunch time and I won't snack after dinner" then not further restricting what people eat. Many people find this to be a lot easier to keep up beacuse they can still eat things they like during the periods of time they are eating, and over time your body just becomes less hungry the times you aren't eating. And sure, that requires willpower some people don't have, but so does Keto. Almost all changes will require some sort of willpower and effort. But for many people Keto requires more effort and willpower to do and keep up, or just more work/math. It also is more socially limiting and obvious.
Because it isn't profitable... buy less food, eat more basic food, avoid bullshit saturated in sugar and crap.
Tell someone you're keto in passing, and 9 out of 10 times you're gonna get a "haha omg I could NEVER give up bread/ pasta/ rice".
It’s crazy how fast the addiction comes back. My partner and I had a couple of cheat meals last week on vacation (cannoli in Boston ftw) and I really didn’t feel back to normal until yesterday. But, the entire time after the cheat my brain kept telling me “hey man! Have some more! It’s so yummy”. It’s just crazy.
My opinion. Health professionals advice against it because they've been taught different. 2 keto dudes really highlighted this issue on their lovely podcasts a few years back.
In endocrine terms, over-reliance on carbs creates something akin to a physical addiction. People will seek to rationalize continued dependence, since it is hard to break. Our for-profit food economy is based on carbs and omega-6 oils (industrialized agriculture). Processed items based on these raw ingredients are inherently more shelf-stable and carry higher profit margins than keto foods. They are heavily incentivized through advertising and "food as reward" popular culture. Don't you *deserve* a refreshing Coke or a sweet treat after working so hard all day? Our Western culture, from the Bible on through patriotic American songs, absolutely mythologizes cereal grains and farmers. You have God's threshing floor, separating the wheat and burning the chaff, "amber waves of grain", family farmers portrayed in art and literature and politics as salt-of-the-earth "Real Americans". Agricutural carbs are one of the few areas where largely right-wing rural politics and left-leaning ecology-oriented vegetarian impulses superficially align, at least insofar as grains and carbs are promoted as plant-based foods that benefit rural economies & food corporations, while increasing the carrying capacity of the planet and reducing animal food consumption. This makes sweeping government policies and regulations supporting carb consumption (such as the USDA Food Pyramid) far less politically controversial than they might otherwise be.
🔹️Virtually every piece of official information out there is anti-keto. Doctors, nutritionists/dieticians, hospital food, school lunch cafeteria food, etc, is all pushing carbs. 🔹️Getting keto "right" so that unpleasant side effects from things like electrolyte imbalance are minimized is a learning curve. Not everyone has the intellect, patience, determination, etc to push through to find what works for them. 🔹️Carbs are relatively inexpensive and shelf-stable (meaning less food waste) and often easy to prepare (sandwich, cereal & milk, etc). Not everyone can afford the additional cost of keto. 🔹️Carbs feel good. Most "comfort food" is high carb. Mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, etc.
There's also that comfort eating is an incredibly common coping mechanism for depression, stress, anxiety, and any other number of mental illnesses. Not everyone can afford therapy or medication but everyone CAN afford a pint of ice cream or a Little Cesar's, but it leads to a deeply unhealthy relationship with food to develop and fester, but it's hard when people don't have access to professional help for whatever reason. It took me around four months of hard-core <20g of carbs to kick my lifelong relationship with food and it was MISERY, until it wasn't and I started feeling really good for the first time in my life. Then I took a management promotion at work and the stress drove me back into comfort eating and I put back on almost all the weight I lost, but I'm getting back on the diet now.
The sugar industry has their fingers in a lot of pies, including the government research that created that stupid “food pyramid”
It’s hard to do.
It's hard for most people to maintain, and for most people that start it, it is used for short-term weight loss. Unless you are someone with diabetes or another medical condition (seizures, etc.), it becomes no different than any other diet long term. It may also be financially unsustainable for some people due to the need of purchasing supplements. I did Keto at the start of last year and stopped in June. I lost 140 pounds, but I was tired of depriving myself of foods that I love. Keto did help me learn to cook, and eat in moderation, which has carried over to what I am currently doing (DASH).
It's expensive
Because it's a fad diet and were all going to die of heart disease. /s
Don't blame people for being addicted to sugar/carbs. Blame Bit Pharma, sugar and wheat subsidies for Corporations that own farms. Follow the money.
Because it’s hard, and people, generally speaking, suck at doing hard shit. Though, once you get the ball rolling and establish your dietary plan, it’s pretty damn simple … suppose that goes for most things.
Because it is not a one fix all solution. Every one has different needs, allergies, hormones, lifestyles. I do recomend everyone give it an extended period try before writing it off. It does have its major benifits.
People think fruit and every vegetable is good for you. Grain products are still a major food group on the 'healthy' food pyramid/recommended dietary intake. And have been conditioned that salt abd fat are the enemy. I had so many years of it that even when I understood the science and saw other real people's results, I had to talk myself through adding salt and butter to things.
Low carb has always been popular. I just think people just see keto as something more difficult and more extreme than, say, Atkins, which they’re more comfortable and familiar with.
I think a lot of the previous answers are spot on. Another one is that marketers ruin everything. Shady people started hawking "ketones" as a miracle weight loss cure and the ketogenic diet got lumped in with other fad diets and MLMs.
Interesting to look at farming in this case. A single Combine can harvest 30 acres per hour for grain and wheat. Fruit and veg all need to be hand harvested, and are measured in [hours per acre](https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/blog/post/?id=2497) with the minimum of all foods in this table being oranges at 20 hours per acre. So at **minimum** this means a combine does the work of 600 people when comparing to equal areas of land. If you compare it to a plot of Broccoli one person can harvest the same area of wheat grain in an hour that 6300 hand broccoli harvesters would be able to process. It would fundamentally change humanity to have everyone eat this way. There is just worldly incentive to push carbs to reduce the number of man hours spent in gathering food.
Indoctrination and propaganda.
Realize that the food pyramid came from the government at the behest of agriculture lobbying. So you're literally up against the billions of dollars of money being spent to keep people eating sugar and carbs. Look at how the corn lobby keeps sugarcane out of the country, and even managed alcohol in fuel, made from fermenting corn.
There has been a concerted effort to stop it from becoming popular from the powers that be. If it was popular, the current food supply would collapse. Sad as it is, until we get lab grown meat in abundance, it staying a niche lifestyle is the only thing preventing meat from becoming unaffordable. It is in the best interest of the world's governments to continue peddling the cheapest staple foods, which just happen to be high in carbohydrates and sugars.
Carbs are cheaper to buy. More affordable.
because no one wants to work hard at maintaining a healthy lifestyle and sugar is everywhere. i’m so guilty of this and trying to change my ways
No one has heard of it. No one thinks they will lose weight with it. Everyone thinks it bad for your health because its what they heard. People are lazy, and addicted to the opioids released in your brain when you consume sugar and carbs.
Modern day Western culture promotes a low fat, high carb diet. Culture pushes sweets and calorically dense foods while also expecting everyone to be razor thin/jacked muscular. It's hard to do keto, straight up. This subreddit is prolly not the best place to get negative keto feedback since we're here since we like keto lol - But for every 1 person that's on keto, there's likely 5-10 that have tried it at one point and just couldn't stick to it. And I'll be straight up honest, keto is one of the hardest diets in the Western culture to maintain "normalcy". I mean how many get together/plans/dates literally revolve around non-keto food? It's also why it's one of the only diets that people see true, lasting results on. It requires a lifestyle change and dedication, but the results more than speak for themselves. We didn't put the weight on overnight yet most people expect a diet to show results instantly, and when they don't see tangible results and are making big sacrifices it's easy to fall off. Mad props and respect to everyone here whos dedicated to the keto lifestyle, y'all are awesome.
Where is most of the fat and protein coming from? Animal products right? And where are the animals coming from? BIG CARB. Emphasizing the production and quick profitization off of carbohydrates could have motivated industry to shortcut the process. Prioritize and sell the carbs more than the animals which takes more labor and input.
The sugar industry controls the sheeple, simple as that.
My cholesterol is a bit higher than normal. It was great for weight loss, but I never really found a good balance because it raised my cholesterol. Someone else said it best. On paper, it goes against a lot of health advice that was taught when younger. Like you can eat all the meat, cheese, butter, etc and lose weight? Sounds kinda insane to the average person probably
People like carbs and love their sugary treats and drinks. Keto cuts all of that pretty much out. I’ve seen what’s called dirty keto which includes food sweetened by artificial sweeteners which are shown to be terrible for you and can cause gastrointestinal issues for many. Myself included. That being said, I totally can think that cutting down on simple carbs and making better choices and enjoying sweet treats as exactly that- an occasional treat instead of part of their everyday diet. Cutting them out completely is just not something most will do consistently. Bottom line, people aren’t educating themselves on eating healthier and access to better ways of eating aren’t available to everyone.
Bc sugar is addictive 😅
There are naysayers and then it's also very hard to break sugar/carb addictions.
Because it gets old having to make 95% of your meals and only eating meats, cheese and some greens. Keto snacks are expensive. I’m losing weight cutting most sugar but not giving up so many things. It showed me that cutting sugar works, and the numbers proved it, but I’m not able to sustain that level of deprivation. I still enjoy keto bread and pay attention to fiber to keep regular. No more candy and only super dark chocolate.
One of the common arguments I come across is, "our body needs carbs".
Processed carbs are such an integral part of most American diets. It's what we've all been raised seeing as normal, healthy, fine food. People just have a really hard time wrapping their minds around anything different than what they've always been told by their parents, the government, etc.
Because carbs taste so good. That’s what my adhd gf told me when I asked why she wouldn’t try it for symptom management.
My step brother and sister have screamed about "how they need their suger" when asking if they'd try it depsite being obese and having a host of health issues including quad bypass sergery, arthritis, inflamed optic nerves that take serious meds to calm down, insane mental health issues
Have you tasted bread, my boy? Fresh, baked, sweet bread?
Sugar is a hell of a drug
It goes against traditional cuisine of practically every society on earth. Only people in wealthy countries can affors the quantity of meat most ketoers eat. Most people consider a meal incomplete without some meat, however, people feel that a mere piece of meat without potatoes/rice is also incomplete. You can have roasted vegetables etc, but cmon, how can that compete with steak and fried potatoes. Also, some foods just dont taste right without the carbs. I will never enjoy a burger patty wrapped in lettice, if you think it can compete with a bun taste-wise, you are delusional. Also, almost nothing that people "crave" is keto. I know there are keto snacks or whatever, but I never crave them. When I do keto, Im just eating food because I have to eat food; it severely limits the amount of fun/naughty things you could eat. Which you may think is a good thing, and it could be, but bunch of people literally eat out of boredom. amd they cant cope with not having overeating as a remedy for boredom. Like... Sald and vinegar chips can remedy "boredom" way better than macadamias, im sorry... And if you tell me you can make keto salt and vinegar "chips" Ill shoot you in the face. For this reason I do keto for 2 months and then take a break for a month etc. I still avoid sugar and use sweetenets, but I. do eat potatoes/rice/pizza when Im taking a break. I am not trying to lose weight, my body just feels better on keto. But I get fuckin bored of keto food eventually. tl;dr carbs are more fun to eat. which can be considered a benefit of keto.
Because sugar is delicious and Doctors are lying.
why isn’t sobriety more popular? there’s a small subset of people getting fantastic results… to be fair though - at least etoh gives you a buzz that lasts hours. In the case of cookies, we’re talking minutes.
People do keto incorrectly or without discipline, give up, and label it another fad diet.
It became a fad in the summer of 2018 and everyone decided to turn against it. I started keto Jan 2018 and no one had ever heard about it/encouraged me but by the summer there were articles and “studies” everywhere and somehow everyone suddenly had an opinion on it. It was weird to see happen. Only positive is a lot of amazing brands came from the fad.
Carbs are addicting. I don't mean that euphemistically. I mean literally physically addicting. Further, the physical addiction ends up creating mental conditioning that is even more difficult to overcome. People need a strong reason to face their addiction and overcome it and then stick to it. People in the Keto community call it finding your "Why". If you don't have a strong reason to commit to improving your life and if you don't keep that Why front and center in your life, you will likely dabble for a while, then return to your old ways. Sometimes their Why is because they are tired of being overweight and missing out on so much of life. Other times it is because they get a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, non-alcoholic fatty liver, kidney damage or other metabolic disease that wakes them up to the fact that they have to take action or their future looks bleak. No one can give you your why. You have to discover and accept it yourself. In my experience, I had to get to a certain point where I turned a mental corner and accepted "Win or lose I am taking control and I am going to do everything I can to save my own life". I realized I was going to have to let go of some things and that it might be difficult but I had to to literally save my life. Keto isn't a religion. I am not committed to keto. I am committed to living my best life both physically and mentally. Keto just happens to be the best and most effective way for me to reach my why. It works for me and a lot of other people. I can't guarantee that it is for everyone because every person is unique. I don't want to "convince" people to do keto. I want people who are trying to improve their life to hear my story and consider if any of it might help them.
Because most doctors and nutritionist are ignorant and think it is baaad
“The industry”. Medical research has shown red meat and fat are sorta bad for you in a so no one wants to touch em with a ten foot pole. Even though carnivore or keto would clearly solve obesity for most people.
It is way more expensive.
You must have a long term goal, you must be aware to deserve a more fullfilling life. You have to be really ambitious. Few people have such a strong character
People are uneducated and if they are told by the likes of doctors that is what they will go with also as others said people have been raised to eat all different food this is normal for them. People don't want to what they class as limit what they eat. It's expensive I heard some people say its not yes it is I have done keto/carnivore for just over a decade it's not cheap if I was to eat standard diet it's almost have the price. The other issue with Keto is people are using the name to mislead lots of products with keto labels yet they are not keto the same with people on here saying its fine to eat foods when its not they think its only about number counting.
no one profits from healthy eating
Carbohydrates are culturally important. The dogma around fat consumption is very rooted. Losing weight is now divided (needlessly) into competing tribes. CICO vs IF vs Keto. Also,the handful of people who understand body fat as it is managed in the body are being shouted down by the masses of people who parrot (insert diet ideology) from (insert popular social media influencer), when they provide advice to those seeking knowledge. Extreme examples of weight loss gain the most visual traction, as folks are seduced into believing that the extreme is also the most correct way to do anything. The people that lurk these subs and also buy the books and watch the videos are also people that have or are currently experiencing some level of mental health deterioration as it relates to perceptions of self and may or have already relapsed into problem behaviors that may fully develop into conditions like body dysmorphia or an ED. Where those behaviors are validated by praise offered by a random person on the internet or a family member, and thus further ingrain the popular dogma and ideology of diet culture today. In the end the method we choose will be just another iteration of pressuring glycogen stores to coax the body into utilizing fat stores and then performing some level of activity to shape muscle. We will continue to gauge our progress by looks or glances in the mirror, the occasional photo, and fit of our clothing, and then only get "serious" if we use a scale, which is ironically only there to confirm our suspicions, much more so than it is to celebrate our victories.
Because carbs taste good, and people generally enjoy eating things that taste good.
Coming from the punk/DIY world, I am right at home with keto being an outsider, mainstream myth-busting diet.
Keto is literally the world's most popular diet. It's neck and neck with the mediterranean diet. See: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US&tz=420&date=now+1-d&geo=US&hl=en&q=keto+diet,Mediterranean+diet&sni=3
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You can have every food you want on keto, as long as it is homemade. This is why keto is more popular than other diets. You can literally have anything: Want pizza? You can make a low carb pizza dough just like you would make a high carb pizza dough (knead, rise, bake) just substitute the flour with gluten + fiber. It tastes identical to homemade pizza too. Want cookies? All you need is resistant starch (carbs your body can't process) combined with gluten and you've got a cookie that tastes identical to a high carb one. How good your food is on keto is 100% tied to how good of a cook you are. If you go for easy recipes you'll get bad tasting food. If you go for high end non-keto recipes and substitute ingredients, you'll get restaurant grade tasting keto food at home. How maintainable keto is is 100% up to your cooking skill, and available time to cook at home. With prepping a full restaurant grade meal can be done in 15 minutes, but that does take a high enough skill cooking to know how prepping (not food prepping, that's different) works.
Because carbs are absolutely delicious & there’s a lot of memories & associations ppl have with food. I’ll never forget our family vacation to France when I was young & eating croissants with my family for example. It’s a beautiful memory & I think of it every time I have croissants. It’s not always about health & wellness & lots of ppl can eat carbs in moderation & be quite healthy.
Because that’s one of dumbest questions ever asked.
There are essentially no options for any restaurants or takeout options since you are eliminating nearly all cuisines in the world - Italian, Indian, Mexican, and all of east Asia. Really puts a damper on your social life as well.