Give Wheat Belly a read. I don't pretend to be an expert but I agree there's a distinct correlation between the "what is healthier" push in the 90s and how wheat breaks down into glucose (aka sugar).
Not specifically about keto but I found Wheat Belly by William Davis an interesting read. It helped me to realize that wheat and carbs are everywhere and why I was so hungry all the time.
The reason you hear about natural healing in relation to treating Chronic Lyme disease is for one very simple reason; the disease is extremely difficult to treat while also affecting different people in varying ways, which in turn means that both Lyme patients and LLMD's have to be willing to be open minded enough to consider all possibilities when looking for treatments. Chronic Lyme patients are generally infected with multiple other tick borne illnesses, as well as multiple other chronic diseases, many of which are difficult to test for in addition to being difficult to treat. Essentially, the nature of the disease is such that it affects Chronic Lyme patients differently; causing numerous symptoms of varying degrees and in differing parts of the body while also making it so that one treatment that works for one patient, may not work for another.
Both LLMD's and Chronic Lyme sufferers many times have to look outside of the box in order to find something that helps with treatment and/or symptom relief. There are many great LLMD's that mix in natural healing with treating the disease. The trick is just finding someone that you think is suitable for you. My LLMD is one of the more well known LLMD's. He is an MD, but he incorporates natural medicine into his protocols as well because he see's the best success in mixing both western medicine with herbal treatments and natural healing.
It's interesting because you seem to be vehemently against natural healing, but in the same breath, you don't really seem to understand anything about it. Although, you are correct that the link you linked, doesn't really explain everything. So, I'll try to give you a bit of insight from what the author may have been meaning.
The Paleo diet is essentially a lifestyle geared towards eating the foods we believed our ancestors ate (to a certain degree). Biologically speaking, we have evolved to eat certain types of food, but have difficulty eating others. In a nutshell, it's the belief that you should eat nutritionally dense foods while avoiding food types that are bad for you (the biggest being grains, legumes, and usually dairy).
Grains are bad for you for multiple reasons. They contain toxic anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors. Here are two great articles all about why grains are bad for you. Marks Daily Apple: Why Grains are Unhealthy and PaleoLeap: What is wrong with grains?. The logic behind eating Paleo in relation to Lyme is that since you're already sick, and a majority of your immune system is located in your gut, and since you probably also have intestinal permeability (because most Lyme patients have it), then you should limit your exposure to foods that irritate your gut.
There are also a bunch of books on amazon about the paleo diet and/or cutting out grains, where you can see hundreds to thousands of people telling their positive experiences from cutting out the bad food groups. Here's one in particular that's about cutting out grains, and not just going Paleo.
Don't forget Terry Wahls, M.D. who switched her diet from the Standard American Diet into a variation of Paleo and had so much improvement from her ALS that she was able to start walking again and riding her bike after being wheelchair bound.
Regarding the "eat healthy vegetables" comment the author made on that link you referenced, they were probably referring to vegetables that are not high in starch, as those can make chronic intestinal candida albicans infections worse (a chronic fungal infection that's common in Lyme patients as well). This same rule applies to those of us who are hypoglycemic (which again, is very common in patients who have Lyme disease).
Regarding your "healing the soul" comment, my doctor is an MD and acknowledges how important this is. He doesn't ignore science at all, rather it's quite the contrary. Stress affects your ability to get better, as does your mindset. There have been several studies on this that I can try to find if you'd like. Essentially, if you're stuck in a negative mindset and/or constantly stressed, you're going to have a more difficult time healing/be more physically affected than you'd typically be. Because of the difficulty in treating Lyme disease, many Physicians have resorted to taking a well-rounded approach to treating the disease as that gives them the best results.
In a nutshell, it's really up to you and what you believe is best regarding your own treatment. It does sound like you're a bit similar to me in regards to needing to understand the science behind something in order to be open to it. But you really have two choices. You can either stick to LLMD's that only use Western medicine (and all the more power to you if you get the results that you want). Or you can choose to be a little more open minded, and find an LLMD with a medical background who also incorporates natural healing into their treatments. I know for me personally, I was willing to do and try anything. And because of that, I'm a LOT further along in my treatment and I've had a lot of improvements that have been complete game changers for me.
SSRIs are tricky stuff and it is outside of our scope of practice make suggestions on what is appropriate for you in concern to your medications.
That said, a healthy diet does have data to suggest it can help with mental health issues and potentially reduce your need for medications and thus the sleep preventing side effect.
Coelicac Disease and Schizophrenia have been documented to have quicker dischargement rate when cereal was removed from the diet this suggests that wheat products have potential triggering effect on mental symptoms. Consider reading Wheat Belly or Grain Brain for more on this subject.
Keto can alleviates depression via reduction of inflammation
Inversely high sugar diets have higher increased risk with rates of depression and mood disorders A keto diet removes sugar from the diet.
credit to /u/dem0n0cracy for posting sources
Give it a try. Read the ketoscience guide for a simple introduction on how to start:
You should read ‘wheat belly’ it was interesting.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609614798/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_AL-NAbMMMRNGA
> "wheat changing in the last few decades is bollocks then"
If you have the interest, and time, in learning a few things about the human diet, here are a few good reads.
The Wheat Belly written by a cardiologist who noticed how wheat based foods were slowly killing his patients.
Robb Wolf {a PHd research scientist} - The Paleo Solution will give you a good understanding of why wheats and grains are not good for you.
Loren Cordain {another PHd research scientist} - The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat more good information about what we used to eat compared to what many eat now.
If you read this three books, you'll have a much better understanding of why wheats, grains and breads really aren't good for you.
> "As to whether a low-fat or high-fat diet is better for management- well, we obviously don't know which is better right now"
A physician, a cardiologist to be specific, wrote a book called <em>"The Wheat Belly"</em> that blames a lot of the dietary caused health problems in this country on our grain based diet. Have you read it? It's a good read.
> "You are arguing that all type II diabetes "
I've never said 100% but I do believe a significant percentage is diet & behavior.
I worked in hospitals for 8+ years. Mostly as part of the trauma team in the ER.
I can, with 100% certainty, say that most (not all, so don't put more words in my mouth) of the people in the hospital are there for behavioral problems. Their health issues are caused by their actions - they eat too much (shitty) food, they smoke too much, they don't get enough exercise, they drink too much alcohol or they participate in high risk behaviors such as IV drug use or unprotected sex with high risk partners such as prostitutes.
My father lived to be 80. However, the last 10 years of his life were pretty miserable because of a quadruple bypass operation, circulation problems, a mild stroke and the start of lung cancer. Doctors claimed he had heart disease. This is another thing that is wrong with our healthcare system. My father didn't die from a disease. My father died from his behaviors. He smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day for 40 years. For most of the time I can remember he often drank a 6 pack a night. He put a stick of margarine on everything (because advertisers, doctors & dietitians lied and told us margarine is healthier than butter). He ate a lot of other shitty, highly processed foods and he didn't exercise on a regular basis. His behaviors clogged up his heart arteries, his leg arteries and his neck arteries, not a disease. His behavior, of inhaling toxic, carcinogen laden smoke for 40 years, eventually caused irreparable damage to his lungs.
Our bodies are analogous to a car. If you don't change your oil, if you don't change your tranny fluid or your radiator fluid, if you don't maintain the car, it brakes down and falls apart.
We've been told for 30 years that grains are good for us, that low-fat is good for us and yet diet related illnesses are escalating at rapidly increasing levels.
Do you ever watch what most people eat?
Even better do you often pay attention to what people eat that they think is healthy?
I often see co-workers putting a container of "lean cuisine" food in the micro-wave at work. They are bullshitting themselves that this food is healthy. I have a fat, female co-worker who eats this shit frequently because she thinks it’s healthy and she’ll lose weight. I’m eating coconut fat, avocados, whole milk, whole milk yogurt, bacon, eggs, etc yet I'm in awesome shape with about 10% body fat (I’m 5'10, 170lbs) while she continues to struggle with weight issues.
I see this same behavior everywhere - people eating highly processed, low-fat foods with tons of carbs & grains because they’ve been lied to that it’s healthy and that they’ll lose weight.
Look at the ingredient list of a piece of lean cuisine. 56grams of carbs. Highly selectively bred wheat that is probably GMO'ed that is no good for one's body. It also has lots of artificial ingredients and preservatives such as Sodium Nitrate, BHA, BHT. BHA is considered to be a human carcinogen. BHT also has potential serious health risks to humans
There are many articles & stories about the Alaskan & Northwest Indians who's traditional, high fat diet doesn’t cause the health problems that doctors & dietitians claim would happen when someone eats so much fat. And yet, when the high carb, high sugar Western diet was introduced to their culture, dietary related health issues such as obesity, cardiac issues and low & behold, type II diabetes increased significantly - <em>"So much so that type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other diseases of Western civilization are becoming causes for concern there too."</em> There are better links than this one, but because of a lack of time, this is the one I using today.
> "You are arguing that all type II diabetes is "easily controllable" by dietary changes and exercise, which is entirely false."
No it's not. My step mother had an onset of adult, type II diabetes in her late 50s. Her’s was all diet & behavior related.
> "calling yourself a skeptic"
I'm a skeptic of Monsanto.
I'm a skeptic of the low-fat/multi-grain is good but avocados, coconut fat and grass-fed beef are bad b.s..
I'm a huge skeptic of the dietary information that's being passed around right now.
I'm a huge skeptic of the for-profit health care system. Here's a great example. Four years ago my doctor wanted to put me on statins because my cholesterol was a little high. Cardiac disease is not an issue in my family. My blood pressure is on the low side of normal. My weight is perfect. I work out 3, 4 times a week. There was absolutely no reason to put me on statins. My doctor never even mentioned diet to me. He immediately wanted to put me on statins, many of which have far worse side effects than any issue they would have helped me with. So, that told me a couple of things about my physician. He was either lazy and unprepared about diet & health or he has a pharmaceutical rep coming through on a regular basis giving him samples and he's just pushing their products without accurately addressing my actual health needs. I refused to take statins. And I showed my physician how I <strong>dramatically</strong> improved <strong>all</strong> my cardiac lipids through diet alone. After seeing my improvements he said "I guess you don't need to take statins now". He's no longer my physician.
A side note: I worked in hospitals for about 8 years. I dated a nurse who worked at a private practice. It was literally obscene and shocking how much money pharmaceuticals spent to get doctors to prescribe their medications. Every week, at the most expensive restaurant in my area at that time, pharmaceutical reps would host free dinners for the doctors at that restaurant, as they would try to get doctors to prescribe their pills. And quite a few doctors have been indicted for getting kick backs from pharmaceuticals in exchange for prescribing certain meds.
It is literally frightening how easily people sell out their morals and their fellow human beings all for a few silver pieces. Greed is a scary, scary thing.
> "There's no evidence that will convince you"
I'm skeptical of Monsanto's research and testing and motivations. I honestly believe it will take generations to see what the long term health effects are of glyphosate.
It was only 100 years ago or so when our food was not polluted with artificial flavors & colors, preservatives, HFCS, pesticides and many other lovely chemicals created by modern science.
And considering how diet related health issues are exploding at near epidemic levels, I'm skeptical of the safety of the chemicals that are currently in the food chain.
I choose to eat like my great, great grand parents did rather than eat corn that's been GMO'ed to have a pesticide in it.
Here's another reference for you The Wheat Belly. It's a book written by a cardiologist, you know, a fairly educated man who's studied the sciences. He goes into detail on hgow highly processed grain based food, some of it GMO'ed and some of it very selective bread, is killing this nation.
For starters he brings up the worse stereotype of the paleo diet, that it is, as he said a ”caveman, meat heavy diet”
That right there tells me he has done little to no research on the diet.
It is not meat heavy. Vegetables are the predominant food stuff of eating paleo, when you read the correct texts about the diet.
I no longer fear meat, eggs and cholesterol, like I used to do, when I believed the ”low fat/multi-grian is good, meat & eggs are bad” dietary misinformation.
His rambling on about consuming milk after being a baby is a minor issue. Stricter forms of paleo don’t eat dairy because of lactose intolerance. I have no lactose issues so I still eat a little bit of dairy - whole milk in my coffee or some organic, plain yogurt.
He never mentions grains. Not eating grains because phytates, gluten and lectins cause so many dietary & health issues and because of the way carbs are metabolized by the body, is probably the single most important part of paleo.
Then he talks about primitive man eating a primarily plant based diet (and nuts) when trying to disprove the incorrect "meat heavy diet" stereotype . That’s what paleo eaters should do, eat lots of veggies, some fruits and some nuts. The paleo diet is based on the hunter/gatherer diet where primitive man ate veggies, fruit, nuts, insects, animal meat, animal fat and animal offal.
The doctor then blames heart disease on meat & dairy heavy diets. He makes no mention of grains, highly processed wheat, carb heavy, highly processed foods, HFCS, added sugar, etc. Even one of his peers wrote this book, The Wheat Belly, which properly puts the blame on the epidemic of food based illness where it belongs, on highly processed, wheat/grain based foods
Then his closing statement about the diet ”doesn’t represent the best available science”.
Loren Cordain, one of the leaders of the Paleo diet movement is a Phd who has spent a lot of time researching primitive diets. Robb Wolf, is another Phd, who has also spent a considerable amount of time researching primitive diets.
> "You need a slap in the face"
You need a slap in the face for writing a paragraph that is a complete demonstration of your ignorance of diet and how our bodies process food.
> "Its suger and you need it, your blood suger levels are low in the morning, and carbs are a fast way to bring it up and because its what our bodies have been burning for hundreds of years"
You have absolutely no idea what your're talking about. If your bloodsugar is low, and you load your body up with pancakes, toast and syrup, your body will create a huge amount of insulin to counter those grain & sugar carbs, then your blood sugar will come crashing down even harder. Keep doing this for 10, 20 years and get ready for adult onset type II diabetes.
> " fries everyday"
French fries are not grass-fed beef my friend. Do you know why french fries are bad? For starters, they are empty carbs. Secondly they are deep fried in vegetable oil which is one of the most unhealthy food items you could possibly eat. Do a little research how vegetable oil is made. Here's a decent start
> " carbs are a fast way to bring it up and because its what our bodies have been burning for hundreds of years. "
Just an FYI Einstein, our bodies, for 99.5 percent of their evolution, have evolved by eating meats and especially fat.
We've only been eating farm raised grains for 00.5% of our biological evolution. Our bodies haven't adapted to eating grains, breads, pasta, etc. That's why celiac disease is becoming more common. It's why gluten sensitivities are become more prevalent. This is why obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiac disease are escalating at near epidemic levels.
Here's a good book for you to read, <em>"The Wheat Belly"</em> it was written by a cardiologist to better explain why the U.S. is turning into a bunch of disease laden fat fucks. All the grains, breads, pastas and other wheat/grain based food are killing us.
And just an FYI, the government has been retracting the dietary misinformation/lie that dietary cholesterol, such as in eggs, is bad for you.