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This "pseudo-diabetes" appears to be fairly straightforward: 1. Someone stops consuming carbohydrates 2. This causes them to produce significantly less insuli

This "pseudo-diabetes" appears to be fairly straightforward: 1. Someone stops consuming carbohydrates 2. This causes them to produce significantly less insulin 3. In order to preserve ~~insulin~~ glucose for the brain, other insulin receptors are downregulated 4. Because of this downregulation, the subject is less tolerant of carbohydrates This is "pseudo-diabetes" and not "diabetes" because a person on a ketogenic diet isn't producing insulin, whereas a diabetic can't produce (enough) insulin, or is so desensitized to it that glucose stays in the blood steam.

jaggs 4y ago
I think in 3. you mean preserve 'glucose' for the brain?
- thomascgalvin 4y ago
  Yes, that's correct, sorry.
rhinoceraptor 4y ago
I would expect any organism that uses glucose derived from gluconeogenesis for glycogen instead of the select tissues that absolutely require glucose, would be selected out quite quickly.
_haoa 4y ago
Nailed it. This is also the same mechanism of action for almost any addiction. 1) Consume external drug 2) Receptors downregulate (thanks to homeostasis) 3) Need more of said drug or withdrawals kick in (analogous to needing to take external insulin so body can get rid of excess glucose) 4) Rinse & repeat From a United States perspective: What we have is a duopoly of Big Pharma and Big Ag that gets people hooked on sugar and then uses medicine-as-a-service to hook them on insulin forever. There is no money in preventative medicine. There are other countries in the world that have already taken steps to get junk foods and sugary drinks out of the hands of children [0]. What excuses does the United States have? [0] https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/aug/06/mexico-oaxaca-sugary-drinks-junk-food-ban-children https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/aug/06/mexico-oaxaca-s...
- chiefalchemist 4y ago
  To be fair, the government is complicit in this food pyramid scheme. People are told time and again that it's healthcare system. Yeah, it's not health / customer focused. But all the more reason to do a decent job at avoiding that system. Instead, the status quo diet + lifestyle persists. (Political) leaders can't risk the push back trying to change the narrative.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
wyager 4y ago
The brain runs fine off ketones. Better than on glucose, in many cases. This is why so many of the therapeutic targets of ketogenesis are neurological. Only red blood cells and a couple other actually need glucose.
- JamesBarney 4y ago
  I'm not so certain a ketogenic diet is healthy. The Inuit who have been eating an almost entirely ketogenic diet for centuries can't effectively produce ketones. The ability to produce ketones was selected our of their population. I think nature might know something we don't know.
  - thebigspacefuck 4y ago
    What do they produce instead?
  - whb07 4y ago
    I do not know what you’re referring to, perhaps some supporting data would help. The current method of testing for ketones is ketones freely available in blood stream. The ketones are released by the liver when it’s too full of them and thus they spill over to the blood stream. The consequence therefore is that once you’re fully keto adapted, your ketones won’t spike too high as your body can efficiently generate the required amount. Most people who do a long fast, they’ll have 1+mmol (higher at 3+) ketones, whereas someone who’s adapted maintains sub 1mmol. Also, if all you’re eating is protein and large fats, youre producing ketones otherwise you’d die as there’s no carbs/glucose. So yeah, Inuit and carnivore diet people couldn’t exist. live experiments and observations are a thing, and they are happening everywhere if you do a quick search
    - JamesBarney 4y ago
      They have a defective CPT1A enzyme so they're body can't produce ketones very well. It lead to a high infant mortality, but despite that has been selected for in Inuit populations.
Seeing_Things 4y ago
sph 4y ago
I've experienced this: after a month of zero carb, I had a couple bananas and an apple and went into a crazy sugar rush that lasted hours. Then I crashed and felt like shit for two days. But my metabolic system is out of whack from years of abuse, so in general I find the lower the amount of carb I consume, the better I feel.

jaggs 4y ago

I think in 3. you mean preserve 'glucose' for the brain?

thomascgalvin 4y ago
Yes, that's correct, sorry.

rhinoceraptor 4y ago

I would expect any organism that uses glucose derived from gluconeogenesis for glycogen instead of the select tissues that absolutely require glucose, would be selected out quite quickly.

_haoa 4y ago

Nailed it. This is also the same mechanism of action for almost any addiction. 1) Consume external drug 2) Receptors downregulate (thanks to homeostasis) 3) Need more of said drug or withdrawals kick in (analogous to needing to take external insulin so body can get rid of excess glucose) 4) Rinse & repeat From a United States perspective: What we have is a duopoly of Big Pharma and Big Ag that gets people hooked on sugar and then uses medicine-as-a-service to hook them on insulin forever. There is no money in preventative medicine. There are other countries in the world that have already taken steps to get junk foods and sugary drinks out of the hands of children [0]. What excuses does the United States have? [0] https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/aug/06/mexico-oaxaca-sugary-drinks-junk-food-ban-children https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/aug/06/mexico-oaxaca-s...

chiefalchemist 4y ago
To be fair, the government is complicit in this food pyramid scheme. People are told time and again that it's healthcare system. Yeah, it's not health / customer focused. But all the more reason to do a decent job at avoiding that system. Instead, the status quo diet + lifestyle persists. (Political) leaders can't risk the push back trying to change the narrative.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

wyager 4y ago

The brain runs fine off ketones. Better than on glucose, in many cases. This is why so many of the therapeutic targets of ketogenesis are neurological. Only red blood cells and a couple other actually need glucose.

JamesBarney 4y ago
I'm not so certain a ketogenic diet is healthy. The Inuit who have been eating an almost entirely ketogenic diet for centuries can't effectively produce ketones. The ability to produce ketones was selected our of their population. I think nature might know something we don't know.
- thebigspacefuck 4y ago
  What do they produce instead?
- whb07 4y ago
  I do not know what you’re referring to, perhaps some supporting data would help. The current method of testing for ketones is ketones freely available in blood stream. The ketones are released by the liver when it’s too full of them and thus they spill over to the blood stream. The consequence therefore is that once you’re fully keto adapted, your ketones won’t spike too high as your body can efficiently generate the required amount. Most people who do a long fast, they’ll have 1+mmol (higher at 3+) ketones, whereas someone who’s adapted maintains sub 1mmol. Also, if all you’re eating is protein and large fats, youre producing ketones otherwise you’d die as there’s no carbs/glucose. So yeah, Inuit and carnivore diet people couldn’t exist. live experiments and observations are a thing, and they are happening everywhere if you do a quick search
  - JamesBarney 4y ago
    They have a defective CPT1A enzyme so they're body can't produce ketones very well. It lead to a high infant mortality, but despite that has been selected for in Inuit populations.

Seeing_Things 4y ago

sph 4y ago

I've experienced this: after a month of zero carb, I had a couple bananas and an apple and went into a crazy sugar rush that lasted hours. Then I crashed and felt like shit for two days. But my metabolic system is out of whack from years of abuse, so in general I find the lower the amount of carb I consume, the better I feel.