Cool NYT article on ketosis/epilepsy page

[skyscraper light]

Apologies if this was already posted, but in this article they examine an extremely high fat/low carb ketogenic diet and its success in combating epilepsy in a young boy. Interesting read, and thought all of you fat lovers may enjoy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/ma...d=1&ref=health

[lizch]

Fascinating article, thanks.

Particularly interesting how the keto diet was a known remedy, and then as soon as a pharmaceutical treatment arrived on the scene, the diet disappeared from medical wisdom, despite the drugs not working for everyone.

I wonder what other non-drug, non-surgery remedies have fallen by the wayside for other conditions?

[hazmat]

So much anti-fat bias in this article. They act like this type of diet is going to kill the boy if it's not done perfectly. And that the rest of his life he's going to suffer and have CVD. I love how they have companies now making pills that are similar to the fat that a person would get from eating this type of diet.

It must be shocking for CW believers that someone could actually live on a non whole grain low fat diet. It must also be shocking to them that this diet actually cures epilepsy.

[iniQuity]

I haven't read the whole thing but why don't they give this kid some non starchy veggies? They say he takes a multivitamin because he lacks nutrients so why not include some low carb vegs? I understand he's 9 and probably hates them but still...

they also don't seem to make a distinction (on the first page at least) between the fats they're giving him and conventional fats. His diet is NOT like a Happy Meal, it's fatty, but it's better fats. Coconut oil, butter and bacon... not sure if the butter is GF or if the bacon is pastured, probably not, but still, people need to learn the difference between these fats and vegetable oils, transfats, etc. Sick of saturated fat getting lumped in with the rest.

[stef]

This was interesting:

The penalty for cheating, at least in Sam’s case, is seizures. During the first few weeks on the diet, a friend in his carpool shared a piece of toast. We lost seizure control for a week. Miraculously, Sam has done this only once.

I wonder how much of the success of the diet is due to ketosis, and how much is related to elimination of gluten/grains?

[skyscraper light]

So much anti-fat bias in this article. They act like this type of diet is going to kill the boy if it's not done perfectly. And that the rest of his life he's going to suffer and have CVD. I love how they have companies now making pills that are similar to the fat that a person would get from eating this type of diet.

It must be shocking for CW believers that someone could actually live on a non whole grain low fat diet. It must also be shocking to them that this diet actually cures epilepsy.

True, but it is the Times. Unfortunately concessions are going to be made when you're dealing with a publication whose Health section centers largely around "high quality breakfast grains" or vegetarian recipes. And I do agree that I think it's absurd that big pharma companies are trying to replicate this diet through pills, but I can't say I'm terribly surprised.

What I DO like about the article is its overall uplifting message. This family chose to take the situation into their own hands and found that something very unconventional and almost entirely frowned upon by the public actually worked best. Sounds pretty familiar if you ask me.

[hazmat]

I wonder if the patients would have the same type of responses with a high fat, moderate protein and plenty of non starch vegetables. You would think that eating grass fed beef cooked in coconut oil along with some broccoli would be much easier then measuring every single little thing.

[skyscraper light]

For Sam’s diet to be effective, he must eat a certain number of calories every day with specific ratios of fat, protein and carbohydrates. These are not back-of-the-envelope calculations, but ratios that have to be hit exactly at every meal. If Sam wants a snack after school, he gets 18 grams of bacon (about two slices), 14 grams of macadamia nuts (about seven nuts) and 18 grams of apple (less than an eighth). In keto-speak that’s 3.04 grams of fat to every gram of protein and carbs combined.

That sounds like a pretty militant regimen, but if that's what's working for him, I'd think it'd be hard to allow for lots of non-starch veggies? I'm not sure if they've experimented with smaller ratios with less success, or are simply not willing to take chances with different ratios if this seems to be working best, but the way they're measuring does sound extremely onerous.

[hazmat]

Why is he eating an apple and not some broccoli/cauliflower? Did they say the diet is something like 90% fat?

[Anand Srivastava]

It seems like the glucose metabolism might cause some electrical impulse disturbance in neurons of an epileptic persons.
This would mean that the problem is occurring due to glucose. The root problem may still be due to gluten.
That is why the boy needs to be on a high fat diet with moderate to low protein (to prevent conversion to glucose), and very low carb, barely enough to allow some vegetables/fruits to be eaten.