To your question I think people in far greater numbers are doing low carb keto but we have a nation of sick overweight people. Even millions is a drop in the bucket. The best cure for sweet andccarb craving issues is to follow a keto diet for at least a good while. You will see this comment by numerous people even after reverting to a diet with carbs reintroduced.
I have been following a keto diet for 20+ yrs. I have a starch day about 1x per month. But almost never have any refined sugars. Maybe 4x per year. When I was younger I followed something similar but I added low gi but starchy carbs a hour or so prior to workouts but then was very low carb until the next workout. I was able to develop large awmounts of lean muscle in my 20 and 30s.
Now as I am older, early 50s, I stick almost exclusively keto over 300 days per yr. I feel better, my energy levels stay very consistent along with the typical benefits. Anotherr significant benefit is appetite supression. I have very few days where I feel hunger outside my feeding window. More recently I switch to a shortfeeding window for a single meal of 2-4 hrs. I am now working toward moving my meal earlier in the day from currently 5pm (used to be 7-8pm). Goal is 3pm.
Limiting the number much more than quanitity of protein doses decreases total daily mtorc1 AUC. This was one thing I do not see mentioned but I learned from research and testing many yrs ago. But my target at the time was maximizing muscle hypertrophy not minimizeing mtorc1. Thus was looking for maximizing the number of mtor amino acid feeding curves for the 24hr post wkout.
Amino acid intake stimulated MTORC1 has a limited activity time irregardless of constant or high volume supply of those amino acids. There are numerous studies that even used intravenous suppled leucine, EAA, and BCAA yet the ATK mtor complex S6 etc returned to nominal roughly 3 hours after ingestion or of tge start of constant IV supply. It peaked around the 30-1hr mark There is also a maximial limit to amino initiated mtorc1 activity. 20-30g EAA or 50g complete protein like whey beef egg reaches this threshold at least in fit non-seniors. More aminos will not drive mtor activity higher.
As an example if you had 100gr daily protein intake. A single meal even if stretched out over a few hours will stimulate mtorc1 less TAUC then the same 100gr broken into 2x 50g / 3x 33g / 4x 25g doses separated by at least a few hours. The 4x would actually have the largest TAUC of the combined dosing curves. For EAA I computed this pattern to continue till 10g EAA.
So if you are trying the limit mtorc1 and keep ampk active longer the number of meals matters. Not to mention its effect on insulin. Low carb keto type meals are ideal for this type of TRF as protein needs are rather fixed at least in the short term. Fat makes up the needed energy substrate and has the least stimulation of insulin. Carbs on the otherhand while 2.25x less energy dense stimulate the a large insulin response gram to gram let alone cal to cal.
So for me with the goal of keeping mtorc1 and insulin as the lowest auc as well as frequency of curves a longer 2 hr single meal achieves that while still allowing to a net nitrogen balance that is neutral.
As for any study indicating health issues from a low carb diet. Show my any study where the quality or specific types of food consumed were factored and adjusted for. It does not exsist because low carb does not cause health issues eating low quality processed food does.
Its rather amusing that some of the same people that seem to alway bring up these studies of negatives to low card at the sametime are clamoring to use both acarbose and SLGT2 Inhibitors. So some how the logic is low crabs = unhealthy but consuming carbs then taking a drug to first block their breakdown and absorbtion and another drug to excrete any that does make it to glucose and into circulation. Further it has the added effect of increasing ketones. This diet drug combo though is great and health? So stoping carbs being asborbed…check, have kidneys excrete glucose in circulation…check. It can have the effect of ketone production…check. Or just not consuming these starchy carbs nor any simple carbs achieves the exact these same results without these drugs. Dedcutive reasoning the position is …somehow not taking the drugs to achieve this is unhealthy? The ketogenic diet also supresses SLGT2 as well admittely to a lesser extent that a potent drug.
Keto also achieves very good appetite supression, keeps insulin quiet, tends to cause no effort CR, show to extend lifespan in mice rats.
The research is also starting to show that decease in gut bacteria volume is only transient. Keto diets while severely decrease Bifidobacterium but at the same time significantly increased Akkermansia muciniphila and Parabacteroides spp . Both strongly associated with overall good health.
The hepatic produced ketone B-Hydroxybuyrate makes it into the mucosal lining and has the same positive effects as buyrate. As does the isobutyrate, acetoacetate that are produced in the low carb high protein fat intake keto gut. They are taken up by from the gut lumen by gut epithelial cells These are all used by the epithelial cells for energy same as buyrate but actually more effeicently. It you actually look at the pathway to ATP for buyrate produced by the fiber loving bacteria such as Bifidobacterium. Buyrate is first turned into the intermediates which are Hydroxybuyrate CoA then into Acetoacetate CoA then it enters into the TCA cycle to produce ATP. So the hydroxyburate and acetoacetate in the keto gut are one or two steps, respectivly, closer to ATP and thus more effiecent as fuel then buyrate itself.
You could also very easily incorporate soluble fiber in any low carb diet. Would be interested if anyone knows of any studies at all that look at keto diet induced ketosis with the addition of various fibers know to be strong buyrate producers. What ends up being the microbiome landscape in this situation?
Ketones we seem to know inhibit Bifidobacterium specifically but there are many buyrate producing species and strains. The Hazda hunter gathers have no dectectable Bifidobacterium at all. Yet they have almost no existent metabolic diseases, extremely low cancer rates. Makes me wonder what their life expectancy and general health would be if they had basic sanitation and modern medical care?? So its certainly not a requirement for a healthy gut even in fiber eaters as the Hazda have been forced into out of necessitiy since the end of the 20 and now into the 21st century. They were predominately meat eaters prior to the loss of land.
But mixing keto with heavy fiber supplementation would be interesting to see the gut landscape it produced. Could be a positive, negative, or neutral. Interesting none the less.
Its not as if my keto is consuming pounds of bacon and deep fried hotdogs dipped in a huge jar of mayo. The most processed thing I eat is our homemade sauage and not that often. 80-90% of what I eat we raise and grow ourselves.
