Chapter 5: More topics (How to have better health to better serve Krsna)
The continuation of the 5th part: Dealing with pain and how diet can help with some types of cancer.
A solution for pain
Many suffer from conditions that cause chronic pain, like low back pain, arthritis, tendinitis, headaches, fibromyalgia, etc. Such pains can be incapacitative and many times there is no effective treatment available, apart from analgesics (that most of the time may not be very effective either).
However, there is a diet that can help enormously with most chronic pain conditions. I myself suffer from low back pain, so that's something I can practically attest to.
First of all, we can reduce pain enormously by following the other advice I gave previously, cutting out refined vegetable oils, refined starches and sugar, eating more vegetables, and doing intermittent fasting. All these help to reduce inflammation and heal the underlying causes. Chances are that by following these principles for a few months, your pain will already reduce 50%. However, it’s possible to reduce it further by following a ketogenic diet.
A ketogenic diet is a diet based mainly on vegetables and healthy fats. It's moderate in protein, but very low in carbohydrates and especially in sugars. There is strictly no sugar, no starches, and no grains, and even the intake of fruit is very limited. Only low-glycemic fruits are allowed, and even then in limited amounts.
In a strict ketogenic diet, one would get 75% of his calories from fat, 20% from protein, and just 5% or less from carbohydrates, discounting soluble fibers (since they are metabolized differently from starches and sugars). On a diet of 2500 calories, for example, this would mean a maximum of just 30 grams of carbohydrates per day. Since most foods contain some amount of carbohydrates (even walnuts have 7 grams of carbohydrates per 100g, apart from the soluble fibers), entire groups of food (like grains, tubers, etc.) have to be avoided. For a vegetarian, a ketogenic diet is mainly based on leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.), as well as tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables low on starches, lots of butter, ghee, coconut oil, and olive oil, some beans and legumes, nuts and berries, some cheese, as well as avocados and coconuts. Only low-glycemic fruits are allowed. One can eat small amounts of berries, cherries, and jicamas, for example, but not apples, oranges, and bananas. In other words: this is a restrictive diet that demands a good deal of planning.
On a typical ketogenic menu, you could eat steamed vegetables with a good amount of fat, nuts, a green salad with a little bit of beans, and berries as a dessert, for example. It's possible to find many ketogenic recipes on the internet. It's possible to make flatbreads out of almond flour, cookies out of shredded coconut, and so on.
The purpose of these restrictions is to force the body to work by burning predominantly fats instead of glucose. When the body starts to burn fat, initially fatty acids are produced and liberated in the bloodstream. These fatty acids are an alternative source of energy for the muscles, but can't be used by the brain, which remains working by burning glucose. After two days, the stock of glycogen in the liver starts to become critically low, and it starts the process of gluconeogenesis, which allows it to produce glucose from the fat. This glucose is destined mainly to be used by the brain. Alongside glucose, this process of gluconeogenesis produces another type of alternative fuel: ketone bodies.
Ketones are very interesting molecules that essentially change the way the brain works, improving cognitive function and focus. People that go through a long fast relate that after a few days, they achieve a much greater capacity of concentration and are able to remain focused for much longer than normal, something that I also experience when fasting. There are three factors that may explain this. First is that ketones are a more efficient type of fuel (the brain can produce about 25% more energy with the same volume of ketones and oxygen compared to glucose), second is that ketones curb the overstimulation of neurons in the brain, resulting in an improvement in focus and concentration. Third is that ketones stabilize the neuron networks inside the brain, allowing it to work in a more efficient way. The practical results can be impressive.
Apart from improving cognitive function, ketones curb the pain signals in the brain, working as a powerful analgesic. It can offer relief similar to strong drugs like Tramadol but without the collateral effects. Ketones also help to alleviate the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, work as a treatment for seizures, and so on. Ketones also help to further reduce inflammation, helping in conditions like arthritis, tendinitis, and so on. It treats insulin resistance, which is the root cause of type 2 diabetes, and it can help to manage mild cases of type 1 diabetes, allowing one to go by without having to inject insulin.
In other words, a ketogenic diet mimics a long fast, enabling the benefits offered by the production of ketones without the need for fasting. If you are suffering from fibromyalgia, low back pain, or any other type of chronic pain, or are in search of a method to give you more energy and concentration to navigate demanding periods in life, it's definitely something to try.
The body starts to produce ketones only when the glycogen in the liver is about to be exhausted. That's why they are usually produced only when one fast for two days or more. By drastically reducing the ingestion of carbs, a ketogenic diet keeps the reserves of glycogen in the liver very low, allowing the production of ketones to remain constant, even though one is eating.
For best benefits, the ketogenic diet should be combined with intermittent fasting, with all the meals grouped over a period of 8 hours or less (from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., for example). The good news is that a diet rich in fats and poor in carbohydrates is very effective in suppressing hunger. In many cases, people on a ketogenic diet don't feel hungry at all. Although it's difficult in terms of the limited list of ingredients one can use, the ketogenic diet is actually very easy from a hunger standpoint. You just need to be mindful of eating sufficient fats to meet your caloric needs.
The exact amount of carbohydrates one can ingest is still a point of discussion. Some sources say 5% of the diet (20 to 30 grams per day), while others are more liberal, speaking about up to 50 grams. In any case, the amount of carbs has to be very low, otherwise one can easily stop the production of ketones.
The problem with the ketogenic diet is that it must be done very carefully. One who is careless and makes the wrong choices can end-up much worse than he started. An abrupt change from a diet rich in refined carbohydrates to a ketogenic diet is aggressive to the body and can lead to a series of flu-like symptoms, popularly called "keto flu". It's better to do a gradual transition, first increasing the intake of vegetables, then cutting the refined carbs, then starting with intermittent fasting, leaving the ketogenic diet for last.
Finally, a ketogenic diet must be based on high-quality fats (ghee, butter, olive oil, nuts, coconuts, and coconut oil, avocados, etc.) combined with lots of vegetables. A diet rich in saturated fats and protein, but poor on vegetables is not at all healthy (remember the Atkins diet). Some people do what is called "dirty keto", a corrupted version of the diet, based on poor quality foods, like refined vegetable oils, which can be very dangerous.
Although there are impressive short-term results, a ketogenic diet may not be the best for one's health in the long term. There is much evidence that a diet too high in fats is linked with a reduction in life expectancy, and in a ketogenic diet, the majority of one's calories comes from fat.
Some argue that this is because populations that historically had diets rich in fats, would also eat a lot of meat (like the Innuit) and very little vegetables, therefore the problem is not the fat, but the lack of vegetables. It makes sense, but there are no long-term studies supporting it. What we know for sure is that all the blue zone populations (groups with an exceptionally high life expectancy) would eat a combination of vegetables, low-glycemic carbs (like the beans, pulses, and whole grains of the ikarians, or the boiled sweet potatoes of the okinawans), nuts and herbs, with a moderate amount of healthy fats and sometimes milk. All evidence suggests that, in general, this is the best diet for most people, most of the time.
The ketogenic diet is a relatively new concept and the results of different studies are still contradictory in terms of long-term effects. A safe approach is, therefore, to combine periods of a ketogenic diet with periods combining intermittent fasting and slow-carbs. One can keep a base diet with low-glycemic foods and a moderate amount of fats and switch to a ketogenic diet for certain periods when there is need to deal with acute pain.
Concluding, people who are healthy, especially younger individuals, normally will not notice much of a difference when they eat a healthy diet or do intermittent fasting and when they just do like everyone else, indulging in refined carbohydrates, sugar and refined vegetable oils. That’s exactly the trap: you don’t notice it until you are already in trouble.
When a chronic pain condition is already in place, you are already suffering with fibromyalgia, back pain, migraines, etc. and you improve your condition by following a healthy diet, be it intermittent fasting, ketogenic diet, or other, you will notice that your body will quickly bounce back to the painful condition if you start to step too much off the track by again eating refined vegetable oils, refined carbs, and sugar. As soon as you go back to your old habits, the painful condition will come back, sometimes surprisingly quickly. This is actually a good thing, because it works like a feedback mechanism. You can observe your body and keep a diary, taking notes of what you are eating and how you feel. This way, you can easily correlate what you eat with the amount of pain you feel in the following days, learning thus to avoid what makes your condition worse. In my case, for example, I feel a sharp difference when I eat refined vegetable oils and high glycemic foods (white rice, for example). Gradually I learned to avoid it.
Cancer and diet?
Cancer was a relatively rare disease until the 1950s. There were a few cases here and there, but they were few and predominantly in the older population. Very few people would die from cancer and not much would be spoken about it.
Starting from the 1960s, however, the number of cancer cases started to rise dramatically to the point it was declared an epidemic. Nowadays, cancer is quickly becoming the leading cause of death in many countries and the situation is just becoming worse year after year.
The traditional explanation is that cancer is a genetic disease. A carcinogen causes the cell to mutate and if the result of this mutation leads to uncontrollable growth it may result in a tumor. This put the blame on external contaminants like electromagnetic radiation, pesticides, chemical products in different products we use, and so on. It makes sense, since the rise in the number of cancer cases is strongly correlated with the general advancement in consumerism that introduced all these factors. People in the 1950's were not using cellphones, their food was mostly pesticide-free and they were not using much plastics, therefore this must be the cause, right?
There is, however, another theory: that cancer is a metabolic disease, caused by damage to the mitochondria in the cells. The mitochondria are responsible for the production of energy inside the cells. All cancer cells have damaged mitochondria, therefore there is strong evidence that a cancer cell can actually be the product of damaged mitochondria. This theory is gaining force with the publication of numerous studies, and also books, like “Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer” by Thomas Seyfried.
According to this theory, the main culprit of the increase in the cases of cancer is actually our diet. It happens that alongside the use of pesticides, GMOs, cellphones, etc. there was a drastic increase in the consumption of refined vegetable oils, sugar, and refined carbohydrates and they may actually be the main culprits.
This could explain the rise in cancer cases in all ages that we have seen in the past decades. Nowadays there are cases of cancer even amongst the younger generation, people still in their 20s or early 30s. If we go to elders in their 60s and 70s then the problem assumes scary proportions. Even in our devotee communities, where no one smokes or drinks there is a staggering number of cases.
One possible explanation is that although our members are vegetarians, still they eat a lot of refined carbohydrates, sugar, and refined vegetable oils just like everyone else. It happens that within the cancer as a metabolic disease theory, these are exactly the main causes of cancer. High-glycemic foods and especially refined vegetable oils create an inflammatory environment inside the body, damaging the mitochondria inside the cells and creating an environment propitious to the appearance of cancer cells. In the end, the rise in cancer cases may actually be caused by our diets.
Every cancer starts as a normal, healthy cell in some part of the body. At some point however, something changes and the cell becomes a cancer cell and starts to replicate without control, eventually creating a tumor. According to the metabolic disease theory, the damage starts in the mitochondria, that once damaged, starts to produce Reactive oxygen species (ROS) that in turn lead to the other mutations in the cell. We can imagine that a damaged mitochondrion is like a damaged gasoline engine that produces a lot of smoke. In the case of the mitochondria, the "smoke" is the ROS, which poisons the rest of the cell, leading to the mutations that causes the cell to become a cancerous cell.
Thus, according to this theory, the best approach to prevent cancer is to avoid chronic inflammation and free radical damage to the mitochondria. By adopting a healthy diet, with plenty of antioxidants (fruits and vegetables), following a regimen of intermittent fasting and activating the process of autophagy, one can radically reduce the possibility of having cancer. Other factors like electromagnetic radiation, pesticides and other contaminants also have an impact but diet would actually be the main factor.
Apart from potentially protecting us from cancer a healthy diet can be used to some extent to treat or at least reduce the speed of the growth of cancer tumors. All the cells in our bodies produce energy by a process of aerobic respiration, using oxygen to produce energy. This is a very efficient process that grants a great deal of flexibility to the cell, which can operate by burning glucose, fatty acids or ketones as fuel. Cancer cells, on the other hand, have damaged mitochondria, and thus lose the capacity for producing energy by this method. Instead, they rely on a process of fermentation to generate energy. This is a very inefficient process (it generates 16 times less energy using the same amount of fuel), and makes the cells less metabolically flexible. A cancer cell can produce energy only by using glucose or glutamine (an amino acid), they can’t use fat as other cells, and because they use such an inefficient process, they need a great amount of fuel to survive.
By following a regimen of intermittent fasting, or a ketogenic diet, the glucose levels in the blood are drastically reduced, diminishing the available nutrition for the cancer cells and thus creating a hostile environment to them. Normal cells of the body can operate normally by using fatty acids or ketones, but cancer cells can work only with glucose and glutamine, therefore they are seriously hit by the change. It may not be sufficient to cure an already established cancer (especially an aggressive one) but it can at least reduce its growth, giving one a better chance to seek treatment.
Studies point out that we actually develop pre-cancer tumors several times during our life span. The difference between these silent tumors that the ones that become life-threatening is that in the first case the tumors are destroyed by the immune system in their initial stages, while in the later the cancer is able to grow to the point that the immune system is not capable of dealing with it. By strengthening the immune system and creating a hostile environment for the tumors, we dramatically reduce the risk of developing a life-threatening tumor.
Apart from healthy eating, fasting can also help in many cases by activating the process of autophagy that leads the immune system to attack the cancer cells in a more active way. According to research by Tommas Zeighfried, a water fast of 7 days once a year is capable of clearing the body of pre-cancer cells. According to him, multiple 4 day fasts done during the same period can also be just as effective.
Not only can fasting help to prevent cancer, but it can also be used as part of the treatment for a tumor that is already established. According to studies published by Dr. Valter Longo from the Southern California University, fasting can be used to improve the effects of chemotherapy. According to his study, a fast of one, two or three days (the best option would be determined according to different criteria) before each session of chemotherapy is capable of making the cancer cells more vulnerable to the treatment, and at the same time making the normal cells more resistant to it. It happens that a fast has an opposite effect on both: the lower levels of glucose make the cancer cells start to starve and as a result they open up, starting to capture more blood and thus becoming more vulnerable to the chemotherapy. The healthy cells on the other hand stop using glucose from the blood and thus close themselves, reducing the collateral damage of the chemotherapy.
There are also cases of people that manage to control the growth of cancer tumors by doing longer fasts, to the extent of many of them being able to continue living normal lives for decades despite having cancer. There is also the possibility of trying a ketogenic diet (that is essentially a fast-mimicking diet), which may offer similar results. If you see yourself in this situation, it's definitely something to try. However, longer fasts should always be done under medical supervision.
Take away: eight principles for good health
If you would take just a few points out of all the information shared in this book, what should they be? What are the essential points? This is a short takeaway to keep in mind. You can try to implement these points in your practical routine, observe the results and go back to the respective sections in the book in case of need. I hope the effort spent in writing this book can be of help.
Avoid refined vegetable oils, wheat flour, and sugar.
Eat more vegetables and fruits, make them the basis of your diet.
Avoid high-glycemic foods (less starches and sugar and more soluble fibers and resistant starches)
Eat more high-nutrition foods (millets, nuts, etc.) in place of grains like rice and wheat.
Use butter, coconut oil, and other healthy fats generously, but avoid fried food.
Eat inside a time window instead of having many small meals during the day (intermittent fasting).
Do a water-fast regularly (autophagy).
Supplement with minerals, vitamin D, B12, and other nutrients that your body may be deficient in. Do some tests if necessary.