Ketogenic Diets & Clearing up Carb Confusion with JJ Virgin – Encore Presentation

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show, where I talk with some of the coolest people in the world about the different ways to help you look, think, and feel better. Now, today I'm talking to myself, actually, I'm talking to myself with a whole awesome audience over here on Facebook, super excited to be with all of them. And today we're going to be talking about carb confusion, because for so many of us, carbs are just this big confusing area, or maybe we are craving them and we can't get past it. But I get questions and every single day about ketosis and how many carbohydrates should I really have? And so that's what we're going to be addressing today is we're going to be clearing up the carb confusion. So let's dive right into this. And first off, understand that I meant I'm going to first talk about what carbs are, because all carbohydrates, except for fiber, turn to sugar. So they either are sugar to begin with, which sugar is a carbohydrate, or they turn to sugar because your body starts breaking them down the minute they hit your mouth. All right, so that's the first important thing to remember, is that all carbs, except for fiber, turn to sugar. Now let's talk about ketosis first and a keto diet. And I know right now, it's funny, this goes in and out of vogue. Keto diets have been around for decades as a very therapeutic diet. It just reminds me when I wrote the Virgin diet, and people are like.

Ah, it's a fad.

I'm like, food elimination diets have been around for decades, you know, and so keto diets, keto ketogenic diets have been around for decades because there are some amazing therapeutic uses for them, which I will be talking about. But let me tell you first what a ketogenic diet is. And it's, it's what you do to get your body into a state of ketosis, which is a metabolic state. And I actually have this typed out. It's a metabolic state in which the body obtains its energy from the metabolism of ketone bodies rather than from glycolysis, where sugar, glucose is the main energy source. So you can achieve ketosis a couple different ways, periods of fasting or by reducing the intake of carbohydrates. Now, classically, a ketosis diet is generally about 50 grams of carbs a day, or 5% of the total calories. It's a high fat, moderate protein, very low carbohydrate diet. And that is what's key. It's not jamming on a ton of protein. It's a high fat, usually 70% fat diet. High fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet. And you really have to, for you, test it. Because people can get into ketosis depending on how healthy they are. They're, you know, how much insulin resistance they have, what's going on. Some people can get into ketosis with a higher amount of carbs than others, but that is what ketosis is. Now here's where it can be good. It can be amazing for neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injury because it helps stabilize the brain. So one of the things that happens with traumatic brain injury is you've got an unstable brain subject to seizures. And this type of diet, a ketosis diet, a ketogenic diet, has been used for years to help with seizure activity. It's also good for neurodegeneration, migraines, fatty liver weight loss, longevity, and cancer. There are some issues with it, though. The issues with it are bad breath. You can always kind of smell someone in ketosis and it's this very. It's this weird, sweet, but not nice, sweet smell that I just, I can spot like that. For women, it can give you irregular periods. It can make it hard for you to get pregnant, can elevate your cortisol. So anyone with any kind of adrenal issues, this is not for you. Anyone with any thyroid issues, this actually can create problems with your conversion from T4 to T3. Anyone who's got poor gut microbiota, because that fiber from those carbohydrates is so key for, for healing your, and balancing out and feeding your good microbiome, gut microbiome and gout and kidney stones and acidosis. So basically, if you got adren issues, thyroid issues, GI issues, or issues with your pms, you're trying to get pregnant, you've got infertility issues. Not for you. However, if you're trying to get any of those benefits I talked about before, then this is something that you could give a try. It's not something I believe people should be on long term, unless of course, you've got epilepsy. Different story there. But it's not something that most people should be on long term. But it could be, can be used periodically, possibly to help with breaking through a weight loss plateau, getting the next level. So it can be used there. Now, this is where I want you to really look at this differently. Where I, when I was starting to look at sugar after I wrote the Virgin diet and everyone was asking me about carbs and sugar, that's where I started working on the Sugar impact diet. And here's what really came up during the Sugar impact diet is we've been looking at sugar all wrong. And by sugar, I'm talking carbs. Because all carbs except for fiber turn to sugar. And that we really needed to look at these impact these had on our body. Is it, is it helping you store fat or burn it? Is it giving you energy or crashing it? You know, is it making you inflamed or reducing inflammation? Is it helping you focus better or making you brain foggy? And so that all depended on four factors. First off, how much fiber is in this? The more fiber the better. Obviously tempers the blood sugar response. And remember, fiber doesn't count here. Your body's not absorbing it. How many nutrients are in it, which is why we eat. So a lot of these nutrients can offset some of the carb sugar issues. How much fructose is in it? Super problematic. Fructose is key in fatty liver development. Elevated triglycerides, hypertension feeds some of the worst cancers. So this is a big issue. And then how much does it raise your blood sugar and insulin. And some of these foods that were, that may look like they're fine, you know, may make you more insulin resistant like milk. So. Or let's look at artificial sweeteners that don't really have any calories, they don't really raise your blood sugar, but they can make you, they can create insulin problems. So let's look at all of those factors. And that's what I did with Sugar Impact Diet. And I created this idea of these, of the sugar impact scales. And I mentioned that because when I was writing that book, I was looking at how do you get people to get rid of their cravings for carbs and sugar. How do you do it? And what I saw was what wasn't working. And the first thing I always look at when I'm looking around is like, what's not working? So I don't do more of that, right? Because I don't want to be insane. And what I saw was that people were just trying to go cold turkey. So I say that because when you think about a keto diet, what I don't want you to do ever is go cold turkey. Really, the sugar impact diet is really a diet based to figure out your carbon tolerance level. How much can you handle carbs? How many should you eat? Should you be in ketosis? Should you be on the higher end of the scale, which to me is about 150 grams per day. On the lower end of that scale, 100 grams per day, where should you fall? And so the first thing that I have you do, and if you been through the sugar impact diet, you know that I don't say, okay, let's just go cold turkey, because that actually, if you've been eating a higher carbohydrate diet, bad fats, maybe not getting enough sleep, you're probably a sugar burner right now, not a fat burner. That means that you're hungry every couple of hours when you lose weight, can't seem to lose your waist. And so if you just pull all the carbs out to someone like that, you're going to be crashing for a couple days. And that crashing often sends you running over to the cookie jar, which is not what we want you to do. Instead, what I want you to do is taper. So in the sugar impact diet, I have you start looking at higher sugar impact carbs, things like pasta. And I have you trading it for medium or lower sugar impact carbs. So you trade it for, for lentil pasta, trade the juice for the piece of fruit. So we just have you start tapering down. And then after you've done your tapering down, then I have you go to very low carb, very low sugar impact. And then we start rating how you feel when you start to test back with some carbs. Here's the whole point of that. How do we know where you should be? Well, really, really, you need to go through your own personal health journey. You need to be your own detective here and go, all right, do I feel best when I'm doing about 50 grams of carbohydrates a day? 100 grams, 150 grams, maybe even up as high as 200 grams. And that's again going to Depend on your adrenals, on your insulin sensitivity, what kind of training you're doing. So it's really up to you to figure out where you feel best. And it may be that a ketogenic diet used periodically is really helpful for you. It may help you break through some plateaus, it may help you stabilize your blood sugar. It does some really interesting therapeutic things. But again, I'm going to go back to long term. You're really going to want to identify, this is just another tool. And then you'll want to identify, where do I sit best? Where do I live best? Again, the general thought here is you're going to end up, you'll go through the program, then you'll see how you feel. And the easy way to move into ketosis is just to start lowering your sugar impact and then swapping some of those carbs for fat. And then really track how you feel and track how you feel over a matter of days and goes, this giving me more energy or crashing me down? Now, if you've tapered correctly, that shouldn't happen. Is this something giving me more clarity, more focus? Do I feel better? Check in with yourself. Remember, food is information. It's going to dictate all of these things. So you just want to really be connecting the dots between what you're eating, how you feel and what you weigh. It's that simple. All right, so that's the basics on a ketogenic diet. Again, I'm going to send you over to grab the sugar impact diet so that you'll really be able to taper into it and then do that trial for knowing how many carbs. And as you go through the trial with the sugar impact diet, the next trial, if you really want to go right after you've done the first trial, is go straight into a pure ketosis trial. And the easiest way to do ketosis, start to swap those low sugar impact carbs, things like squash, just trade them straight over for non starchy vegetables or fat as again, a ketosis diet is high fat, moderate protein, very low carbohydrate. All right, now after the break, I'm going to be answering the listeners questions, so stay with me.

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Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And I just had a load of questions come through Facebook. I was doing a Facebook Live while I was recording this and so I'm watching all these questions come through. I'm going to read a couple of them. I might take more than just one today. And one of them is from Jennifer. And Jennifer says, I have your Sugar Impact book book but need to really read it. All right, so step one, someone had asked me earlier, like, does your diet work? I'm like, if you work it, you know. So yes, you have to buy the book and read the book and then do the things in the book. Those are three, like simple steps to help ensure your success.

Okay.

But I digress. Okay. And I've tried with low carb diets and seem to have many sweet cravings. I do have hypothyroidism too. Any help? Yes, number one, go through the program. That program was designed to help lower sugar cravings. But the other thing I want to remind you about is Hypothyroidism, adrenal issues, any kind of issues with infertility, pms, irregularity of periods. No keto for you. In fact, probably you'll do better in the hundred 150 gram of carbohydrate range. But again, you'll figure that out as you go through the program. That's super important. I'm going to answer one more. And this is about fibromyalgia, and if I can find it quickly here. Oh, yes. Lisa asks, is the keto diet okay for fibromyalgia? I'm 52 years old, and over the past year, I crave sugar and carbs all the time. Gave it up three years before with no problem. My guess is, so whenever I hear fibromyalgia, I also think of adrenal issues. They tend to go hand in hand. And a lot of times when you have adrenal issues, you'll crave sugar and carbohydrates. So I'd really look at this as not a time to go keto. It's really a time to taper, but to heal your adrenals, reduce your inflammatory food. So look at the virgin diet, reducing any food intolerances and building that before you try anything like this. I think that's going to give you all of the changes that you're really looking for. All right, thank you so much for jumping on my Facebook live with me while I recorded this and asking all those cool questions. I super appreciate it. And the other thing that I super appreciate is when you guys jump in and leave amazing reviews on itunes. And I'll tell you what, this is how my whole team gets what I call their. Their grades, their stars, their A's. Like, we all read these and, you know, don't think you're just writing them in and no one's paying attention. Not the case. We are all checking them out. So, again, if you've been watching this show and you're thinking, gosh, I'm so happy she does this. Well, you know what? I kind of feel like sometimes I'm sitting in my. My cave here, doing my podcast, and I'm like, is anyone listening out there? So if you are loving it, gosh, it means the world when you let us know. And so I'm just going to read this one from D. Sokolowski. D. Sokolowski from the USA. And she has five stars. Thank you, JJ. I feel so fortunate for having stumbled upon JJ's podcast. I'm a mother of little boys. One is, which has Tourette's. I had no idea how my son got Tourette's. The increasing, increasing prevalence of neurological disorders and food allergies among our children scares me. Scares me too. By the way, Tourette's used to be rare, but I know of three boys and one girl in my community that have it. I also know several children with add, adhd, and severe food allergies. The only thing I can think of is food. I've been in the fitness industry for 16 years, but I never learned how to properly eat, and I certainly never learned how to feed my children to help the or brain felt. JJ has made learning about nutrition accessible and has broken down the whys of what to eat in a fun, simple way.

Yay.

I love hearing that. That's like. My goal is to simplify this. I've also learned more about self care so I can be 100% to help my son navigate a life with Tourette's. She is so relatable as she is a mom and has had to fight for her own son. Damn right I have. I call us warrior moms over here, D. Sokolowski. We're warrior moms. I also appreciate that you didn't expect everyone who has a ton of money to spend it on food or time to spend hours in the kitchen. She's demystified, eating healthy, and I'm confident that now I'm now giving my son the best nutrition in these crucial years. This brain develops from the bottom of my heart. Jj, thank you. Oh, man, did that make my day. Week, month, year. Thank you so much, and thank you all for tuning in. Now, if you'd like to leave a review, gosh, we'd love it. I so appreciate it. And hopefully I get to read yours on air. And all you need to do is jump on over to itunes while you're there. Hey, share it with friends. Pretty please. Please. Yes. That's a. That's a little bit of a bag, but, you know, we record it. We. We work hard on these, and I just want to get. My goal is to help a billion people get healthy. I think that people knew better, they do better, and that it's. It's not easy, but it's simpler than we think. And I'm just dedicated to getting this information out there on a broad bod scale. So thank you so much for joining me. I super appreciate it. And I want to remind you that all this stuff that I talk about is cool and works again if you work it. So make sure that you take one nugget from today, just one and start doing it and watch what happens. Because it's the little hinges, my friend, that swing the big doors. Make it a great week. Bye Bye.

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