Wellness Coaching – Shifting Your Fuel from Sugar to Ketones
When you eliminate sugar and starchy carbohydrates from the diet, the brain begins to shift its source of energy for fuel from glucose to ketones. Ketones are the energy units found in fat. Not only does the brain prefer ketones over sugar for fuel, it operates much more effectively and efficiently on them. As a result, you won’t need to consume as many calories as you did as a carbivore. This allows you to maintain your ideal body weight without having to go on starvation diets.
It takes about four to six weeks to reprogram the body to become accustomed to performing on ketones, rather than glucose. When it does, you’ll find that it is well worth the time and effort. Say goodbye to high sugar-intake problems such as irritability, hypoglycemia, candida, irritable bowel, chronic fatigue, sinusitis, acne, obesity, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and severe mood swings.
When your body’s source of fuel is from ketones, and your diet is based on fibrous vegetables and animal protein, you won’t need to worry about all the side effects of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) such as corn and soy. And you won’t need to worry about celiac disease as a result of too much gluten from foods such as bread, pizza, and pasta.
The source of saturated fat in the diet should include animal fat such as in butter, organic lard, ghee, fatty meats, and heavy cream. Your source of unsaturated fats should include olive oil (omega-9), sesame oil (omega-6) and fish oil (omega 3). Your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio should be 1:1, rather than what modern diets are supplying which is about a 20:1 ratio. Great sources of omega-3 foods are from cold-water fish such as sardines, arctic krill, and salmon.
Research shows that this increased intake in omega-3 fatty acids is beneficial to cognitive functioning, the lowering of cholesterol, and the reduction of arterial plaque. The diet of the Intuits (the indigenous peoples of the Greenland arctic) were found to contain between 14,000 to 20,000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids a day and no heart disease. Zero. And this daily intake of unsaturated fat was in addition to a significant amount of saturated animal fat. Needless to say, their body’s were efficiently living on ketones.
To help train your body to run on ketones instead of sugar, it is important that omega-3 fatty acids should make up at least 1 to 1.5 percent of the total daily caloric intake, with omega-6 making up about the same. Higher amounts of omega-3 may be needed temporarily (several months) in order to reduce a deficiency state.
Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; two holistic wellness companies devoted to infrared heat therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching practice incorporates infrared sauna detoxification, upper cervical care, and practicing an alkaline-forming, nutrient-dense, anti-oxidant rich, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.