I don't actively participate in a lot of ketogenic groups and a lot of the research I've done on the issue of low carb/ketogenic dieting is from my own personal trial and error and research. Earlier this morning I shared my experience in taking a prescription drug and how it affected my blood ketone levels, and it basically got me ran out of the group. (I have screenshots of the discussion log if anyone wants it.)

The ketogenic community is becoming almost cult-like.

The primary triggers seem to be:

1. Any suggestion that gluconeogenesis can occur from eating too much protein.

I'm honestly not sure why this became controversial. I can definitely testify that it has happened to me, which is why (when not taking prescription medicines) in order to achieve blood ketone levels greater than 1-1.5mmol I had to make sure I followed this particular protocol: Mostly fat, a moderate amount of protein, with some vegetable fiber to help slow the digestion of the protein. I learned this protocol from reading Dr. Dominic D'Agostino, and it seems to be necessary for the diet to work for me. But everyone's metabolism is different, and part of the issue could be that I damaged my pancreas through diabetes, and that just makes me more sensitive to too much protein. Maybe.

So the people who insist that this is fairytale is giving bad advice. Each person should be left to detect whether this is the case for them by testing their blood glucose levels 1-2 hours after eating.

2. Any suggestion that a product or prescription can assist with inducing ketosis is met with extreme scorn.

I think this is because of the way most exogenous ketones are being marketed, almost like a pyramid scheme. (If you want the best prices on your ketones, you need to sell it to five other people, and so on.) People are tired of being told to buy something, and a lot of these products are very expensive. I've tried some of them before, and the results were not that impressive for me. (I saw a minimal bump of blood ketone levels of maybe 0.5mmol upon consuming them and after a few hours, the affect is gone. Again, my experience.)

That was before I started taking Jardiance. Now I take 25mg of Jardiance once a day. (I also take 1000mg of extended release Metformin twice a day.) Jardiance is such a powerful drug that it's capable of creating a ketoacidosis-like situation if you consume *too few* carbs a day. I say it's ketoacidosis-like and not real ketoacidosis because ketoacidosis doesn't truly occur unless your blood sugar is also off the charts, so a blood sugar of >200 and >15mmol of blood ketones, which should never happen if your pancreas is at all functional.

However, when I first started taking Jardiance and restarted my ketogenic diet, after several days I became very lethargic, rapid heart beat, etc. I tested my blood ketone levels at above 6.5 mmol. I ended up going to the ER that evening. There I was given a Pepcid IV and fluids for dehydration. (Gotta be sure to drink lots of water with Jardiance because it functions by dumping the sugar out of your blood through your kidneys into your urine. Another lesson learned.)

So before I even got close to 15mmol, I started having symptoms. I dealt with this situation by adding a moderate amount of complex carbs back into my diet, beans, lentils and the occasional tomato.

Whereas before if I even looked at a tomato I'd be thrown out of ketosis, now I could consume some carbs (about 80 a day) and still reach levels of 2.5-3mmol without much effort at all.

Seems like people should want to know about this, right?

You would think so.

I shared this information with Dr. Dom who initially reacted by stating that the information was interesting and that he had been looking into a similar pathway for inducing ketosis as well. That was several months ago, and I haven't heard back, despite two attempts to follow up.

I tried posting this on a ketogenic dieting group, and that didn't go well.

What's the deal? I'm starting to get a little paranoid. Why are people not talking about this?

Is it because people are both 1) tired of products being pushed, and 2) the ones that have a platform within the community aren't talking about it because they seek to benefit more monetarily from producing and marketing exogenous ketones than they would by saying, "hey, you could get a much better and easier result from this prescription over here"?

So I'm thinking about starting a little letter writing campaign, see what's up, get some more interaction on this. The resistance I'm getting has made me even more curious as to what's really going on.

I'll keep you informed.