So, I emailed the Schwarbein people asking their opinion on whether or not ketosis is safe. They said that it is absolutely unsafe and that if I wanted to know why I would have to read Schwarzbein II.

Could someone who has read Schwarzbein II please explain the rationale behind this claim that ketosis is very unsafe? I have certainly read plenty of information pointing to ketosis being completely safe, and I've been in ketosis for much of the time over the past 10 months without any effects besides 60lbs+ of fat loss. I would really like to know, though, if there is something harmful about ketosis that I'm just not seeing.

Thank you in advance for your advice,

Tim

SPII and ketosis

Jen

Hi Timbo

Before I start, congrats on your weight loss

I looked in my book and here is what it says - please note that in this quote she says that ketosis is never a good thing - she doesn't say it is dangerous.

from page 95 of SPII


"Your cells require energy biochemicals to stay alive. Brain Cells, red blood cells and specialized cells of your kidneys initially use sugar as th eir energy biochemical The rest of your cells can use sugars and fats interchangeably.

The only time tht your brain, red blood and kidney cells use fats for energy is when you have not eaten in over seventy-two hors At that point these cells can switch to using ketones (a breakdown of product of fats) for energy.

However, do not think that this is a good thing - it is not. By the time you start to utilize your ketones for energy, yu have used up your glycogen stores and have destroyed functional and structural biochemicals while your body has eaten istself up to survive. When you stop this "famine" or fast, your insulin levels will rebound higher than before to help you rebuild. So you will rebuild your functional and structural biochemicals and rebuild more fat stores. Putting your bodyinto ketosis is never a god thing."

There is another paragrah on page 167 about ketosis, I won't type the whole thing but she explains to a diabetic that a diet too low in carbs that results in ketosis because the isulin levels are too low - she states that too little insulin is just as damaging to the body as too much. To understand why this is would be much to long to type out here - it involves the roles of adrenalin and cortisol - and what happens to the adrenal glands when they are constantly stressed by too little/much insulin. Since SPII is all about reaching hormonal balance through diet - she dosen't recommend a WOE that causes hormonal imbalances.

Hope this helps you

To add to my previous reply. Adrenal glands will not suffer immediately from being in ketosis, but if a person were to stay on an extremely low carb diet for an extended period of time especially if they used alcohol, caffeine or other stimulants, nicotene and or led stressful lives. Then eventually they would reach the adrenal exhaustion or burn out - resulting in a lot of problems - one of which is a difficulty in losing weight.

Jen I must've been typing all that out while you were posting

Bless your heart! Guess your fingers got their exercise today!

Jen

Thank you both for your replies. And thank you KoKo for taking the time to type all of that!

I followed caverjen's link and read that entire thread. I am still not convinced that there is anything wrong with ketosis. I think Scwarzbein is great and have read her first book and recommended it to a diabetic friend starting LCing, but I just don't think that her ketosis argument holds any water. This post says it better than I could: