"Ketones - The Primary Fuel Of The Brain And The Key Of Human Evolution" ; Connection With Babies

Doludolu

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Hey there, fellas. Wanted to share an interesting viewpoint on ketones, their associations with health & necessity. Read it out. By the way there's some questions in the end for discussion ;)

" The body of a baby is 5% as of adult, yet the brain is already 20% of an adult ;
Thus, although human adult uses 20% of its daily calorie intake for brain and that in the animal kingdom is one of the highest ratios (we have the biggest brain : body ratio) ; Infants bodie's use even more - 60-70% of the total energy is used by the brain and primarily by ketones ;
Babies are born in ketosis ;
Colostrum - the first supply of mother's milk is much higher in protein & fat ;
Lactose (sugar in milk) takes about 3 days after birth only to kick in (to be produced in mother's milk) ;
The baby human is in ketosis, and using mostly protein and fat for energy during the most critical development time ;
Baby human is the fattest species in the world, about 50% body fat, as a comparison with animal kingdom seals are about 10%, most mammals are 2-3%. It needs fat reserves to make ketones, brain fed, to grow and develop the infant's body & brain. "

The whole point of this quite intelligent doctor's claim was to point out that without ketones human species wouldn't have properly developed through evolution and ketones are a necessary fuel, especially for babies brains & bodies, but also critical for the adults.

I want to bring on discussion and hear constructive thoughts with real background (not emotional response)

What are your thoughts on this ? What fuel is more important: ketones or glucose ? Or is it metabolic flexibility that is the key to health - your top 3-5 best ways to achieve it ?
 

Blossom

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I would love to read your source for this post just because I find the topic fascinating. I personally feel that metabolic flexibility is probably optimal but some people have lost this flexibility. There’s a YouTube I saw recently along the same lines as your points above.
 

LLight

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During my last dry fast, I had 0.6 mmol/L ketones in my blood at about 24h fasting (0.8 at 40h). The last meal before this fast was not particularly low carb.

I think that (dry) One Meal A Day can bring you to at least mild ketosis every day even if a substantial part of your diet is carbs.
 

Mito

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Babies are born in ketosis ;
What are your thoughts on this ? What fuel is more important: ketones or glucose ? Or is it metabolic flexibility that is the key to health - your top 3-5 best ways to achieve it ?
They are both import because the brain needs a backup fuel source in case not enough glucose is available or if the brain is unable to use glucose properly (such as aging or dementia).

Newborn baby brains are not fully developed and don’t fully express glucose transporters (GLUT1 - blood-brain barrier and glia and GLUT3 - neuronal) yet. As their brains develop increasing energy demand, they express the glucose transporters.

Peat likes keytones as a fuel source but doesn’t like it when the body makes its own. Making ketones requires primarily burning fat so you miss out on the opportunity to generate additional CO2 which Peat believes to be very important for optimal health.
 
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It is probable that sugar should only energize rapid muscle movements, and lipid and it's metabolites are the primary driver. A ketogenic diet and a low carb diet both improved lifespan and healthspan in a genetically neutral rodent model. That sugar can be the main source of energy production perhaps stems from the visual narrative of malnourished caged monkey eating banana boxes. Sugar can be even conceptualized as a metabolite of protein and triglycerides. But still not sure, i saw healthy Individuals with atleast moderate/mixed carb:fat intakes, i also saw healthy low fat peeps, atleast in the short term. For metabolic/mitochondrial damaged people, keto seems lower ROS, lower lactic acid and lower serotonin to me.
 
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boris

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I think in nature it's often impossible to say one thing is more important than the other. It all works in balance.

Development before birth seems to be more crucial to intelligence. Peat points to the diabetic mothers that had more intelligent children because they get an increased supply of glucose for brain growth. Just like the chicken eggs who got the glucose injections before hatching.
 
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Doludolu

Doludolu

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I think in nature it's often impossible to say one thing is more important than the other. It all works in balance.

Development before birth seems to be more crucial to intelligence. Peat points to the diabetic mothers that had more intelligent children because they get an increased supply of glucose for brain growth. Just like the chicken eggs who got the glucose injections before hatching.
Very interesting. So like a negative effect for the mother actually produces a healthier child. And that thing is so vivid in nature , where in order for natural selection to happen female animals / mothers die or their bodies get severely damaged just for the babies to be in as optimal health as possible.
 
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Maternal Diabetes and Cognitive Performance in the Offspring: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PLoS One. 2015; 10(11): e0142583.
Published online 2015 Nov 13. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142583
PMCID: PMC4643884
PMID: 26566144
Maternal Diabetes and Cognitive Performance in the Offspring: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Maria Camprubi Robles, 1 Cristina Campoy, 2 Llenalia Garcia Fernandez, 3 Jose M. Lopez-Pedrosa, 4 Ricardo Rueda, 4 and Maria J. Martin 4 ,*
David Meyre, Editor
Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Associated Data

Supplementary Materials

Data Availability Statement

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Abstract
Objective

Diabetes during gestation is one of the most common pregnancy complications associated with adverse health effects for the mother and the child. Maternal diabetes has been proposed to negatively affect the cognitive abilities of the child, but experimental research assessing its impact is conflicting. The main aim of our study was to compare the cognitive function in children of diabetic and healthy pregnant women.
Methods

A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted through a literature search using different electronic databases from the index date to January 31, 2015. We included studies that assessed the cognitive abilities in children (up to 14 years) of diabetic and non-diabetic mothers using standardized and validated neuropsychological tests.
Results

Of 7,698 references reviewed, 12 studies involving 6,140 infants met our inclusion criteria and contributed to meta-analysis. A random effect model was used to compute the standardized mean differences and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Infants (1–2 years) of diabetic mothers had significantly lower scores of mental and psychomotor development compared to control infants. The effect size for mental development was -0.41 (95% CI -0.59, -0.24; p<0.0001) and for psychomotor development was -0.31 (95% CI -0.55, -0.07; p = 0.0125) with non-significant heterogeneity. Diabetes during pregnancy could be associated with decreased intelligence quotient scores in school-age children, although studies showed significant heterogeneity.
Conclusion

The association between maternal diabetes and deleterious effects on mental/psychomotor development and overall intellectual function in the offspring must be taken with caution. Results are based on observational cohorts and a direct causal influence of intrauterine hyperglycemia remains uncertain. Therefore, more trials that include larger populations are warranted to elucidate whether gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has a negative impact on offspring central nervous system (CNS).
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Introduction

Maternal diabetes is a result of either pre-existing diabetes in a pregnant women (Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T1/T2DM) also known as Pre-gestational Diabetes Mellitus (PGDM)), or the development of insulin resistance and subsequent high blood glucose with onset or first diagnose during pregnancy, defined as Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) [1]. Hyperglycemia is one of the most common health complications in pregnant women. In fact, the number of women with pregnancy diabetes is expected to rise as a result of increased sedentary habits and hypercaloric diets which accounts for the global burden of obesity and diabetes [2]. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) 17% (21 Million) of live births in 2013 had some form of hyperglycemia in pregnancy [1]. Diabetes prevalence in U.S. childbearing age women is 9% and it is estimated that 2–5% of all pregnancies are affected with GDM [3]. A similar prevalence is found in Europe where GDM accounts for 2–6% of all pregnancies [3]. Although due to lack of uniform criteria for diagnosis it is impossible to assess actual numbers, recent statistics estimate that the majority of diabetic pregnancies correspond to GDM (~87%) while pre-existing T1DM and T2DM account for 7% and 5%, respectively [4,5].

The impact of diabetes on maternal and infant health has been extensively investigated as an example of developmental origins of disease (early programming). According to the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes (HAPO) study, the associations between altered pregnancy glycemia and adverse health outcomes in offspring are present even below diagnostic levels of diabetes [6] which raises critical health concerns about the achievement of an appropriate glucose management in pregnancy. Potential pathways linking maternal diabetes and offspring health outcomes such as adiposity, cardiometabolic health and cognitive performance have been widely reported in numerous studies (see Fraser et al. [7] for a complete review).

The fetal environment in maternal diabetes is mainly characterized by hyperglycemia, chronic hypoxia and iron deficiency, complemented with recurrent acute changes in glucose status and acidemia [8,9]. Moreover, pregnancy altered glycemia may affect fetal neurodevelopment, have a big impact on offspring cognition, and also increase the risk of suffering from mental disorders, such as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) [10,11].

However, general knowledge from epidemiology cohort studies points to very different directions, and thus impaired [11,12], unaffected [13,14] and even improved [15] cognitive function have been reported in diabetes-exposed children. To shed light on this topic, several recent reviews have been published [7,16], but there is no systematic review or meta-analysis so far that has evaluated the relationship between maternal diabetes and the cognitive ability in their offspring. Therefore, we hypothesize that a diabetic pregnancy may generate an adverse intrauterine environment which drives neurodevelopment impairment of the fetus, thus inducing critical limitations on its future cognitive abilities either in infancy or in childhood. In view of the complexity of this important area of health care, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify possible neurocognitive harms on children of diabetic mothers in comparison to those of healthy non-diabetic women.


I read Peat's comment on gestational diabetes too, but I'm not sure about it; also more reports of various defects in the offspring.
 

Holliday88

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Kyle Mamounis had a nice reply to that study in this interview. Starts around the 2:25:00 mark.

 

ursidae

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Subsisting on fat is so easy, logical and convenient. I tried to make it work- all the taurine, bile, lipase supplements in the world and still can't digest more than a small amount. Instant skin inflammation. Some people are just not built to be fat based. It also tastes bad
 
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baccheion

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Subsisting on fat is so easy, logical and convenient. I tried to make it work- all the taurine, bile, lipase supplements in the world and still can't digest more than a small amount. Instant skin inflammation. Some people are just not built to be fat based. It also tastes bad
Ever looked into genetic testing. There is an adaptation period when switching. Further, (truly pastured organic raw) egg yolks are the pure keto food. Even down to keto macros. Look at a diet (cron-o-meter) with just egg yolks and coconut water. I suppose Peat world won't be a fan of the PUFAs..
 

RealNeat

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Subsisting on fat is so easy, logical and convenient. I tried to make it work- all the taurine, bile, lipase supplements in the world and still can't digest more than a small amount. Instant skin inflammation. Some people are just not built to be fat based. It also tastes bad

I tried high fat (keto) and it's pretty miserable. I don't enjoy what I eat and I feel like I'm constantly in a stressed state.
 

ursidae

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Ever looked into genetic testing. There is an adaptation period when switching. Further, (truly pastured organic raw) egg yolks are the pure keto food. Even down to keto macros. Look at a diet (cron-o-meter) with just egg yolks and coconut water. I suppose Peat world won't be a fan of the PUFAs..
No genetic testing but checked pancreatic enzymes today- amylase is high, lipase low. I know about the keto rash but getting 100 very inflamed clogged pores on the first day isn’t acceptable. Perhaps I don’t have the gallbladder for this. They also say it’s no good for high cortisol individuals
Yolks and bone marrow are tasty fats. But even they can get disgusting in keto quantities. I wonder if it’s an unnatural amount of fat when I hear the keto people talk about nausea from eating sticks of butter
 

jet9

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No genetic testing but checked pancreatic enzymes today- amylase is high, lipase low. I know about the keto rash but getting 100 very inflamed clogged pores on the first day isn’t acceptable. Perhaps I don’t have the gallbladder for this. They also say it’s no good for high cortisol individuals
Yolks and bone marrow are tasty fats. But even they can get disgusting in keto quantities. I wonder if it’s an unnatural amount of fat when I hear the keto people talk about nausea from eating sticks of butter
What’s your body fat like?
I too don’t tolerate keto well and I am skinny fit. I got impression that majority of people who do great on keto are above average weight.
I am doing good on IF though.
 

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