Fat Loss Is the Most Boring Thing Keto Does | Dr. David Harper

Jesse Chappus (0:00)

Coming up on today's show.

David Harper (0:02)

95% of people that come to Keto, it's because of weight management. So if it's weight you're worried about, this is the healthier way to lose weight. It's all the two words, planning and commitment. You gotta plan, so make sure you have foods there that are good for you, that are gonna be satisfying, that aren't gonna be junk food or sugar, potatoes, starchy things, bread, pasta, rice, all that. That's all sugar, sugar in a different form that we call starch. But when it's broken down and digested, it goes into your blood as sugar. And then you gotta commit, you'll feel better.

Like 100% of the people I've counseled over the years, they just say, I just feel better. And that's probably the effects of ketones in the brain. So if you're eating a high carb diet, this is the 101 You're giving the cancer cells all the fuel it needs, but you're also adding all the fertilizer it needs to grow as quickly as possible. The growth promoter plus the fuel. So you're creating optimal conditions for cancer growth. Now, if we reverse that, so the glucose comes down, the insulin levels come down to a natural level. And then on top of that, we have this immune system that's designed and vigilant to find it. It tips the balance in favor of the immune system, finding and killing the cancer cells. If there was a drug they could make that would activate anti-cancer activity in cells, it would be beta-hydroxybutyrate. But you don't need to take it, you can just make it yourself.

Jesse Chappus (1:12)

Dave, since last time we spoke, it's been a few years, what have you changed your mind on in regards to nutrition and metabolic health?

David Harper (1:21)

Well, that's a good question to open things with. Nice to see you too, Jesse.

Jesse Chappus (1:27)

It's been a few years, good to see you.

David Harper (1:29)

Yeah, it is good to see you and you're looking great. So whatever you do and keep it up.

What's changed, I guess, in the whole broader field is Ozempic and the GLP-1 agonist drug thing. That's really changed things from my perspective because it's almost like people don't have to pay attention to nutrition anymore at all. If they have a weight problem, which is what most people associate with the negative consequence of poor nutrition is overweight, then there's a solution for it. It's GLP-1 agonist Ozempic or any of the others.

So that's changed things. It's a little bit, I have to say it's a little bit frustrating because people used to be really interested in conversations about nutrition. But now, it's almost like and I have to frame this in the sense that I think in the United States and America, and I know a lot of your listeners, your viewers are in the United States. I think they just want to do whatever they want to do. They want to eat whatever they want to eat, and they want to have a pill that makes it better. And so even though it's an injection, although they have a pill form now, these GLP-1 agonists seem to be just what they're looking for. So it's been a bit defeating to try and get people to think about nutrition, because of course those things work. You will lose weight. They have side effects. We can talk about that later. But they also don't replace a bad diet. So if you're just eating less, but you're eating less of a bad diet, you're still gonna have health consequences. They just might not be associated so much with the obesity aspect.

Jesse Chappus (3:10)

Say a good friend or family member came to you, knowing that you're an expert in nutrition and metabolic health, and they've been struggling to lose weight for years, they're obese, and they asked you about GLP-1s, and should they take them? What would you say?

David Harper (3:27)

First thing I would say, of course, is they should talk to their physician. Because I do have the title doctor, but that's an academic title. I'm not a physician. So I can't really comment on whether a drug therapy is appropriate for a particular individual. But if someone in my family was doing it, I would ask them to think it through.

Put it this way, if you have severe obesity or morbid obesity, you need to lose some weight, you need to lose some of that body fat.

Really, almost any solution is going to be beneficial. So then it's a cost-benefit analysis. Then if you look at the GLP-1s, I would say, well, look at the regimen right now. As we said, they do have some oral formulations coming along. Basically, you have to inject yourself with the drug or get your physician to do that every week or two. The cost is roughly $1,000 a month, and you have to do it forever because the ulceration, as soon as you stop, you just put the weight back on. So if you're willing to accept the side effects, which we can talk about of those sorts of drugs, and you can afford to pay for it, and you're willing to put aside the fact that you still might be consuming a bad diet because that's probably what got you into that state in the first place, and weigh all those things. And I would say there's an alternative. And you know that I study the health benefits of well-formulated ketogenic diets, which are very low carbohydrate diets. And I would argue that's a much healthier way to approach a weight issue. And it has extra benefits that go on and on and on.