
The Perks of Fasting, with None of the Work - zwieback
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/keto-in-a-bottle/545129/?single_page=true
======
thomascgalvin
Ketones aren't the goal of the ketogenic diet, they're the side effect of not
eating carbs. Exogenous ketones, like this product, _will_ put you into
ketosis, because you by definition have ketones in your blood and are burning
them for fuel, but I don't see any reason that fact alone would give you the
real benefits of fasting or low-carb.

Fasting is good for you because it encourages autophagy; the body senses there
isn't enough fuel for its needs, so it breaks down old, worn out cells and
uses them as an energy source. This helps the body get rid of damaged cells
and their damaged DNA, which may lower incidences of cancer.

Low carb diets limit the amount of sugar in your blood. Sugar is an
inflammatory agent, and systemic inflammation leads to a whole host of issues,
including heart disease and diabetes. Burning ketones _in addition_ to all the
sugar you're already eating will do nothing to offset the damage of an
inflammatory diet.

This product might be helpful for switching over into ketosis for the first
time. If your body isn't used to low-carb or fasting, you tend to get
headaches, moodiness, and so on (often called the 'low carb flu') while your
body adjusts. Having a ready source of ketones might mitigate that. Or it
might not. As far as I know it hasn't been studied.

But I'm not aware of any mechanism by which adding ketones would offset the
issues of an otherwise shitty diet.

------
kwoff
Sorry, but this seems dubious. (I'm not a doctor, though.) It also seems like
a bad product name for googling. :)

The reason it would taste like nail-polish remover is because acetone, the
main ingredient of nail-polish remover, is a ketone. When people do a keto
diet, their breath can smell like acetone for a while, and sometimes the lips
chap. I really don't see why someone would drink acetone, if that's what is in
the drink. (I didn't look it up.) I'd worry this could put you at risk of
going into ketoacidosis.

Also, how does drinking ketones make your glucose levels plummet? Ketones come
from fat metabolism. My understanding of the keto diet is that you reduce
carbs to reduce glucose levels, so that your body falls back to burning fat
(ketosis).

