Some things are as well established in nutrition science as the immense health benefits of Low-carb and Keto Diet. It supports weight loss, improves acne, reduces the risk of certain cancers, and improves heart health and brain function. But what made some leading practitioners adopt Keto?
Martina Slajerova\’s Keto Journey:
Martina Slajerova is the creator of the KetoDietApp.com and International Best Selling Author of various Keto Diet Cookbooks. She holds a degree in Economics and has worked in auditing, but has always been passionate about nutrition and healthy living.
When she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. She had no energy and found it more and more difficult to maintain a healthy weight. That’s when she decided to quit sugar, grains, and processed foods and started following a whole-foods-based ketogenic approach to food.
After having to witness the incredible benefits of low-carb eating firsthand, Martina and her partner created KetoDiet, a tracking, and planning application with hundreds of low-carb recipes, which is now one of the bestselling apps on the App Store and Google Play.
Then, in 2012, she launched the KetoDiet blog, which helps millions of people follow a whole-foods-based, low-carb, ketogenic lifestyle. Since 2016, she\’s authored 6 low-carb & keto books to help people follow a healthy diet and to show them that this way of eating doesn\’t have to be complicated or boring.
According to her, KetoDiet is not just about losing weight at any cost; it\’s about adopting a healthier lifestyle. Her mission is to help people reach their goals, whether it\’s someone\’s dream weight or simply eating healthy food.
Read More About Keto Diet Here
How She Discovered Keto
So I discovered the keto diet in 2011. At that time, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto\’s. So hypothyroidism, which is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid, the common treatment for that is to put you on medication. It was about six months in and I still had the terrible symptoms. I gained weight. And I was trying to figure out, is there anything else I can do? And this is how I ended up focusing on my diet.
Martina says that it was in 2011 when she was diagnosed with Hashimotos, an autoimmune disease that affects the Thyroid. She added that common treatment is Medication and it had been 6 months and her symptoms went terrible and she gained weight. Martina mentions that she was trying to figure out if she could do something to fix it and ended up focusing on her diet.
How Low Carb Was Good But Wasn\’t Enough
I realized that if I reduced my carb intake and if I eliminate gluten, which was one of the biggest issues for people with Hashimoto\’s and other foods like soy and legumes. All these foods, if you eliminate them, it\’s more likely, it\’s very likely it\’s going to help your Cytal and your Syros. So I went low carb and it just wasn\’t enough. I was at over 50 grams of total carbs a day, and I just couldn\’t manage my cravings. So I ended up reducing my carbs and that\’s when I realized what ketosis does.
Martina says that she realized that if she reduces her carb intake and eliminates gluten she could help her Cytal and Syros. She mentioned that low carb wasn\’t enough and she wasn\’t able to manage her cravings so she reduced her carbs more and saw Ketosis do the work.
Her First Experience
It wasn\’t really pleasant, to be honest, to start with because I found out what it was to have terrible headaches, muscle cramps. I actually woke up in the middle of the night with my heart sharp, just out of control. And I thought I was doing something wrong. It must be all the fat I\’m eating. It must be something wrong I\’m doing about, uh, you know, with my diet. So I realized I was just not getting enough electrolytes and this is one of the biggest and best advice I could give to anyone who wants to try to go keto, make sure to get plenty of electrolytes because you don\’t, it\’s really horrible and you may be discouraged by a diet that is amazing that I\’ve been following for almost a decade.
Martina mentions that her experience wasn\’t great, she had terrible headaches and muscle cramps, which got out of control. She says she realized that there was something wrong that she was doing with her diet where she got to know that she wasn\’t taking enough electrolytes. Martina says that the best advice she wants to give someone who wants to start Keto should focus on taking their Electrolytes always or it can go horrible and one may get discouraged to follow it.
How It Will Get Okay And Better Every Day
Only because you have some first, the symptoms of keto flu will pass, but it can discourage you. So definitely foods like avocado, spinach, or zucchini help. The other thing that I\’m doing is I\’m taking magnesium supplements every day, even at this point, because I find that commonly, I don\’t get enough magnesium from my diet. Don\’t be afraid of salt because that can really help with headaches because you\’re going to need extra sodium when you start keeping up. So this was how I started keto. This is pretty much how I ended up with the idea of creating a keto app. Um, and this was first something we wanted to do just for ourselves.
Martina believes that Symptoms of Ket Flu will just pass but can discourage you so foods like Avocados, Spinach, and Zucchini help. She adds that she takes Magnesium Supplement every day because of not getting enough of it from her diet. Martina suggests not be afraid of the salt because it helps with the Headaches as Sodium will help you keep at it. She says that that\’s how she began her Keto Journey and developed an idea of creating a Keto Diet App and this was something that she and her partner wanted to do for just themselves.
How She Shared It With Her Audience Through Her App
We decided that we\’re just going to collect all the recipes that we\’ve been cooking and put it in one album, to just use it. And then we realized there\’s actually an audience for this. And we decided to really go for it And it was just one feature after another one, we added tracking, right now we\’re actually working on something really exciting because in the next release, we are going to enable users to create their own custom diet plans. That will be based on their macros, their specific needs, and allergies preferences.
Martina says that she and her partner just collected the recipes and put them into an album together. She adds that suddenly she realized that there\’s a lot of audiences requiring it, so they created this app and added one feature after the other where they added tracking too. Martina mentions that she is also currently working on something exciting which would enable the users to create their personalized plans too.
Dr. Eric Westman\’s Keto Journey
Dr. Eric Westman is the Director at Duke Keto Medicine Clinic, Founder at Adapt Your Life, and Associate Professor Of Medicine at Duke University.
Dr. Eric Westman is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University. He is Board Certified in Obesity Medicine and Internal Medicine and founded the Duke Keto Medicine Clinic with Dr. William S. Yancy Jr. in 2006 after 8 years of clinical research regarding low carbohydrate ketogenic diets.
Dr. Westman is a Past-President and Master Fellow of the Obesity Medicine Association and Fellow of The Obesity Society.
He is an editor of the textbook: Obesity: Evaluation & Treatment Essentials, and author of the New York Times Bestseller The New Atkins for a New You, Cholesterol Clarity, and Keto Clarity. Also, he is the co-founder of Adapt Your Life, an education and product company based on low carbohydrate concepts.
He is the course coordinator for MED415c, a Fourth-Year Medical Student Elective on the Medical Management of Obesity, and a faculty member of the Duke Clinical Research Training Program.
How His Journey Started
So my story started when I had two patients doing a diet that I didn\’t know much about. And that\’s important to know. Most doctors don\’t know much about diets. We just don\’t get that in our training. And so I learned as much as I could and then didn\’t just start using it. I, as a researcher, wanted to study it and see if it was good or bad. And you know, at the time everyone said it was bad. In the first study, I tried to do, the hospital director tried to stop it. So today there\’s much less resistance because the research is there.
Dr. Eric narrates his Keto Journey by mentioning that his story started when two of his patients started doing it. He adds that he had no idea about what it was and it was important that he should know it. Dr says that he started learning as much as he could, to see if it was good enough. He adds that everyone said it was terrible and his first study itself was stopped. Dr. finishes by saying that now there\’s much resistance because researchers are there.
His First Clinical Trial
So we started one of the first clinical trials, meaning you take real people, put them on a diet, you follow them. You publish it in peer-reviewed medical journals. And, um, for us, that first paper came out in 2002. So we\’ve published ever since. And so have now, dozens of other places have tried studying it and the results are really pretty incredible. I mean, what I see in my clinic now, I opened a clinic about 15 years ago is way beyond what the research shows.
He mentions the process of Clinical Trials and after a successful one it got published in 2002, and he has been publishing since then. Dr. says that the results are incredible which is what he sees in his clinic now which he opened way back 15 years ago.
How Everybody Is Indifferent
So the world if you\’re going to wait for a study to be published on this, you know, it\’s just not going to happen because nobody wants to give money to fund it. You know, there\’s no company that is able to pay a large amount of money for big clinical studies, like a drug company, for example. So. Now I use Keto, it\’s really kind of old-fashioned Keto because it just uses real food. I don\’t ask people to add in keto drinks and things like that. I mean, you can, but we just don\’t do that.
Dr. says that nobody will fund the studies and publishings as there\’s no company which will be able to pay a large amount of money for Big Clinical Studies. He mentions hence, he uses Keto, which uses real foods, where he doesn\’t ask his patients to add in Keto Drinks, just real food.
How He Fixes Obesity and Diabetes
I fix now not just manage obesity versus most known for fixing obesity, but I fix diabetes. That\’s type two diabetes. Uh, but type one, if you have type one, you can be on much less insulin. And then, uh, you have, you are low blood sugars, those people find so, um, but then, the kind of, uh, these are sort of old hat, but still, they\’re huge. I mean, to have one treatment that fixes obesity and type two diabetes is.
Dr. Westman proudly mentions that he does not just fix Obesity but Diabetes too. He mentions that if one is able to fix Obesity, that way the person can manage his Diabetes and Blood Sugar Levels too. Dr adds that Keto is the solution to both the problems.
How Food Alone Does Wonders
It\’s exciting to look at things like inflammatory diseases, like arthritis that\’s inflammatory, the heart disease that\’s inflammatory. The Crohn\’s and irritable bowel, inflammatory bowel diseases, which are, you know, the medical mainstream folks don\’t have good treatments for it. We don\’t have drugs to fix it basically. So it\’s what I do is I take away medicines from people now by changing the food, which again, most doctors don\’t know about it. We weren\’t really taught about it. What food does it\’s pretty amazing? And the versatility it\’s very flexible. I mean the main issue is keeping the carbs really low, but you can do a meatatarian or vegetarian, low carb, keto diet.
Dr. Eric says that it\’s exhilarating to treat Inflammatory diseases like Arthritis, Heart Issues, Irritable Bowel Disease. He adds that there are no good treatments for them, neither are there useful drugs. Dr. mentions that he takes the meds away and puts change to the food. He says that this is something that most doctors don\’t know as they haven\’t been taught this way. Dr. adds that food can do wonders, and provided you keep the carbs low, whether you are a Non-vegetarian or Vegetarian, you can fall right into Keto.
Dr. Ken Berry\’s Journey
Dr. Ken Berry is affiliated with Henry County Medical Center in Tennessee, US. He has an extremely popular youtube channel with over 1 Million Subscribers across the globe.
Dr. Ken Berry is the author of the bestseller \”Lies My Doctor Told Me\” which exposes myths and misleading health advice from well-meaning doctors, such as avoiding fat. He in fact himself embraces the Ketogenic diet and often is seen terming Keto as the Proper & Natural Human Diet.
How His Journey Started
Yeah. So the reason I started this journey was that I was a doctor. As a physician, I became morbidly obese and pre-diabetic. And so that didn\’t work for me because I wanted to be healthy. Not only for myself but also to project a healthy image for my patients. So I had to change my diet and the diet recommended by all of the regulatory bodies, like the ADA. Those guys didn\’t work for me at all. I actually gained more fat on those diets. And so I started playing around with the paleo diet for a few years. That helped a little, but it wasn\’t what I was looking for. And it was only when I discovered the ketogenic way of eating. Then I really started to burn fat very quickly.
Dr. Ken mentions that the reason he started out his journey towards keto, was because he became Obese and Pre-diabetic. He adds that as a physician, this was not ideal for him to project in front of his own patients so he had to change his diet. Dr says that the generally recommended diets didn\’t work for him and he rather gained more weight. He adds that he then started playing with Paleo which turned out to be something that he was not looking for. Dr. mentions that it was then when he discovered the ketogenic way of eating and then started to burn fat very fast.
How He Started Out His Youtube Channel
I reversed my pre-diabetes. And once I had all these benefits for myself, I decided to start recommending them to patients. And then actually my wife, Nisha, her handle is NishaLovesIt. She said if you\’re able to help 30 people a day in the clinic, a YouTube video can help thousands. And I said that\’s a good idea So I started making it two and a half years ago. And my channel has done pretty well. I feel like I\’m able to help a lot more people on YouTube than I can in the clinic.
Dr. Berry mentions that he was able to reverse his Pre-diabetes with Keto. He adds that once he saw all the benefits of it, he started to recommend Keto to his patients. Dr. says that it was his wife who then recommended starting a Youtube Channel. He says that she suggested that helping 30 people in a clinic would mean helping thousands through Youtube. He says that he agreed with the idea and got on-board with the idea. Dr. says that it has been 2.5 years since he has been making videos. He feels he has helped a lot of people with it so far.
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