{"id":53007,"date":"2020-12-16T12:15:58","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T17:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=53007"},"modified":"2020-12-16T14:49:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T19:49:27","slug":"end-your-carb-confusion-a-dietary-plan-customized-to-your-metabolic-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=53007","title":{"rendered":"End Your Carb Confusion: A Dietary Plan Customized to Your Metabolic State"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been following a very low-carb diet since my Type 1 diabetes diagnosis in 2013. Over the years, I have had many family members and friends ask me if my way of eating could improve their own evolving health conditions. Typically, people have heard the buzz regarding low-carb and keto diets, but are uncertain, as the success stories conflict with what they think they know about nutrition. These conversations highlight a devastating confusion. Common myths and misinformation, such as \u201csaturated fat clogs the arteries,\u201d paralyze positive action.<\/p>\n

The confusion has become a huge barrier to achieving good health outcomes. It\u2019s a tragic situation, since about half of all U.S. citizens are either pre-diabetic or have Type 2 diabetes, and obesity rates in the western world are already at epidemic levels and continue to rise. Clearly, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive, accurate and digestible protocol that will allow us to regain our metabolic health.<\/p>\n

\"end-your-carb-confusion\"End Your Carb Confusion<\/em><\/a>,<\/u> by Dr. Eric Westman and Amy Berger, CNS, meets this need. This newly published book provides an introduction to the central, relevant details of metabolism, and even more importantly, End Your Carb Confusion<\/em> gives a detailed and concrete action plan customized to your specific metabolic state.<\/p>\n

Both Dr. Westman and Ms. Berger have been on a mission to address the crisis of modern metabolic disease. I met Dr. Westman in 2016 at the Low Carb USA conference. There, he spoke about his clinical experience advising his own patients to adopt a low-carb lifestyle. The results were profound: he saw a dramatic reduction in both A1c and required medications in his Type 2 diabetes patients. End Your Carb Confusion<\/em> is the detailed guide describing his patient protocol.<\/p>\n

\"Amy
Amy Berger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Co-author Amy Berger<\/a> is an international speaker on low-carb and ketogenic nutrition, has authored peer-reviewed journal articles, and serves on the review committee for the Certification Examination for Nutrition Specialists. She blogs at Tuit Nutrition<\/a>, where she writes about a wide range of health and nutrition-related topics, such as insulin, metabolism, weight loss, and thyroid function.<\/p>\n

End Your Carb Confusion<\/em> is a comprehensive manual of clinical information required for a reader to get their health back on track, all in one easy to read reference. The book addresses the basics of physiology, including the topics of diabetes and body weight as well as important details on the role of insulin, and offers a concrete low-carb dietary approach, including a program detailing what to eat depending on your determined metabolic state.<\/p>\n

\"Low
Author Dr. Westman (third from left) and I (standing with microphone) participated on a panel at Low Carb USA 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

In my talks with friends and family, I\u2019ve found that most people have a level of healthy skepticism about the \u2018standard\u2019 food pyramid approach. Even so, they are still extremely hesitant to go against the norms, at least without some basic understanding of the physiology. End Your Carb Confusion <\/em>develops the groundwork for the action portion of the book by introducing these basics of physiology. The authors, for example, explain that our response to hunger is not rooted in willpower or discipline, but instead in the hormonal effects induced by the types of foods we eat. Eating the wrong foods makes us hungrier, and this hunger is what eventually leads us to weight gain, high insulin levels, high blood sugar, metabolic syndrome, and the complications of diabetes, from swollen legs and erectile dysfunction to high blood pressure, neuropathy, and early death.<\/p>\n

A simple, concrete plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

End Your Carb Confusion<\/em> presents an ingenious approach to identifying the appropriate dietary strategy for you. <\/em>This is explicitly not<\/em> a one size fits all approach. The plan achieves this individualization by smartly considering your metabolic condition. This individual context is key, and corrects the blunder of the high-carbohydrate government guidelines that push breads and cereals without any regard to the metabolic health of the citizen or their ability to tolerate carbohydrates.<\/p>\n

While the professional diabetes associations have recently shifted gears and now acknowledge that dietary approaches should be individualized, they so far have failed to provide any real, effective, or sensible program for how to do so. End Your Carb Confusion<\/em> solves this problem. The book\u2019s program essentially provides the basis for new – and finally correct! – dietary guidelines.<\/p>\n

The authors first present a \u2018metabolic checklist,\u2019 which allows readers to identify their correct dietary approaches or \u2018phase\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n