What is Ketogenic?

This diagram by Dr. Ken Berry, a family physician in Tennessee, outlines what he coined as the “Proper Human Diet” or PHD. According to Dr. Berry and others in the low-carb space, the PHD diet is ancestral in nature, harkening back to what we as humans consumed more than 15,000 years ago. It’s a nutrient-dense diet that humans evolved to thrive on over the last 3.5 million years.

Visit www.drberry.com for more information about Doctor Berry and the proper human diet.

History Tells the Story

We now know through stable isotope analysis of both fossilized remains of prehistoric mammals and humans exactly what types of foods each species ate (and didn’t eat). We’ve learned that prehistoric humans were “super carnivores” in that they not only consumed any herbivore animal they could catch but also consumed other predators when they could. Later, when animal food was not as prevalent,1 they adapted to add wild vegetation to survive, including tubers, nuts and berries in season (hence the term hunter-gatherers).

It wasn’t until the advent of modern agricultural practices around 12,000 years ago that humans began to regularly cultivate and consume more vegetable matter and less animals, as evidenced by stable isotope analysis of Egyptian mummies. Tissue samples studied from that time begin to show consistent diseases, such as atherosclerosis, heart disease, dentition problems and shrinking brain size across the population that were not evident in the earliest Homo Sapiens skeletons. Isotopes also showed that they were eating mostly grain, (a favorite was bread) and vegetables, and animal protein was at a minimum. Sound familiar?

Basically, our modern diet has since devolved even further from what our ancestors evolved to eat, to include sugar and manufactured seed oils to replace saturated fat from animals, and the exponential rise in non-communicable diseases across the world has tracked right along with it, including diabetes, heart disease, gut diseases, arthritis, mental illness, degenerative neurological disorders and cancer.

Ketogenic Isn’t New

In the early 20th century, doctors discovered that a diet low in carbohydrate and high in animal fat and protein produces an environment where the body produces ketones for fuel instead of glucose (hence the term Ketogenic), which mimics a fasting state while providing the body with adequate nutrition. Fasting and later a ketogenic diet protocol were some of the first medical interventions to successfully treat epilepsy, which became standard of care until pharmaceuticals were invented.

Dr. Robert Adkins invented the Adkins Diet for Weight Loss in the 1960s, and the first 2-week phase was essentially Keto (less than 20 grams of carbohydrate daily). This ketogenic state converts the body from glucose burning to fat burning, which is a great way to lose weight. It was ridiculed as a fad diet, and people were warned that dietary ketosis could not be sustained. However, more study has since shown that being in even a mild state of ketosis is beneficial not only from a weight loss perspective, but for overall health as well.

The PHD Diet is a Ketogenic Spectrum

There is a perfect place on the Proper Human Diet Spectrum (PHD) where you can realize your best health, and it can be different for anyone. For instance, not all people will need to be on a Carnivore or Lion diet (close to zero carb with no vegetables). Some can reach their health goals with a bit more vegetables on Low-carb or Keto. Although I do very well on Carnivore, because I need to keep my carb consumption as close to zero as possible, someone else might do perfectly well on Low Carb (or Paleo) without any issues. Where on the spectrum do you do best? You won’t know until you try. You can use a “cold turkey” approach to jump in or an incremental change approach—different strokes for different folks, depending on where you are in your journey. Personality and motivation level are also factors. Keep in mind that choosing which way to go will also depend on how long you’ve been consuming a bad diet with lots of sugar, carbs and addictive foods. If you’ve been high carb or mostly plant based for many years, there will likely be several weeks in the transition where your body “detoxes” or purges oxalates and other toxic plant compounds it had stored previously.

Once you find out which foods help you and which ones hurt you, then your relationship with food changes and becomes less problematic. Eventually you can switch back and forth between places on the spectrum as you choose or as your symptoms dictate without undue consequences and cravings. For instance, I chose to consume coffee (which is a plant and isn’t on the carnivore diet) and put up with the symptoms I get from it. For others, like my husband, their symptoms are severe enough with coffee that they choose to eliminate it except as a very occasional treat. Wherever you are on the spectrum, as your metabolism becomes more fat-adapted and less glucose-adapted, you’ll become more metabolically flexible. In that state you can consume some items as occasional treats that won’t cause the harm they once did when you ate them every day. However, I’ve found (as a die-hard sugar addict) that even an occasional sugary treat wakes up cravings for me, and it takes a week or two to get it under control—so staying mostly carnivore just makes life easier for me.

Another thing I would like to mention about the Low-Carb through Ketovore places on the spectrum; be prepared to track your gross carbohydrate intake carefully. Sometimes a journal helps or a wearable app (or even a Continuous Glucose Monitor if you want to see what spikes glucose and insulin immediately). Without careful tracking, it’s easy to let “carb creep” set in unless you’re being accountable to yourself and measuring daily. Notice I mentioned “gross” carbohydrates and not “net.” Food manufacturers that jumped on the keto bandwagon use net carbs essentially as a marketing ploy to get you to consume ultra-processed “fake” keto products with added fiber, seed oils and other harmful ingredients. These are designed to induce a “bliss point” which is just the right amount of sugar, salt and tastiness to get consumers addicted to the product, so they’ll come back for more.

A PHD Diet starts with real, one-ingredient, whole food, with 100 grams or less carbohydrate. Here’s what it never contains:

Ultra Processed Food
Packaged products with Keto on label
Bliss Point food products
Grains or seed oils
Added sugars (sugar comes in many forms)

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