What's in Store: Changes are a-Comin'!

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in new blog posts. (But hopefully the cute picture of the eggs on the previous post makes you smile when you see it.)

There’s a reason I haven’t posted anything new in the last couple of weeks. I’m redoing the site and it’s best if I don’t add anything new until the transition is complete. Sometime in the next week or two, the site will look completely different. Don’t be confused! You’ll be in the right place, even if everything is unfamiliar. It’ll take me a while to settle on colors and fonts that I like, so you might continue to see some changes there until I’m happy with the appearance, but since I don’t want to keep you (or me!) waiting on new posts, I’m going to go for it and sort out the details later. As much as I’d like everything to be pretty and shiny and well-organized right away, if the rest of my life is any indication, making things pretty, shiny, and well-organized is not my forte, so if I’m going to wait for that to happen, you all are going to be waiting a looong time for new posts. And since writing is my forte (or so I’m told)—not to mention I like doing it and sharing with you all the cool things I learn—I might as well just jump into the new setup and take you all with me without waiting for things to look perfect.

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s in store on the site in general, and the blog, specifically. Some of the blog posts will happen sooner rather than later, but they all will happen eventually. (Sadly, it’s looking like another entire year will pass before I crank out another post in the series on the metabolic theory of cancer.)

Coming up:

The site in general:

More & better content

I’ve been wanting to make my site more content-heavy for a long time. Right now, it’s really just my blog. As it is now, my site is not a good resource for people who are brand new to low-carb eating. I constantly send people to dietdoctor.com (especially the food lists), Ketogenic Diet Resource, and Dr. Ted Naiman’s site, Burn Fat Not Sugar. And as much as I like sending traffic there and not reinventing the wheel, it would be nice if I had my own “get started” guide for all this, written the way I would want someone to explain it to me if I were new to this. So among the things I’ll be adding over time are food lists, guides to macros (protein, fat, carbs), a low carb & keto FAQ, myths and truths about ketones and why (and why NOT) to measure them, and more.

Podcast Repository

Links to all the podcasts I’ve done. I did a few podcasts a couple years back, but now that my book is out, I’ve done the electronic equivalent of a book tour, with my podcast interviews now in the double digits. I’ll create a page where they’re cataloged and linked to for easy access.

Ads – Maybe

I don’t know if I’ll have any ads other than the ones I already have for Amazon, Netrition, and Vital Choice. I might add an affiliate or two if I come across products I truly believe in. I’m a little torn, though. I don’t want to turn any of you off or become some kind of shill where there are so many ads it’s difficult to find the content you actually care about. That being said, I know you, my dear readers, understand that I am trying to make a living, and if I can get a couple cents here and there from the sale of something you would have bought anyway, well, that seems non-shady to me. And maybe you’ll find out about a product you weren’t going to buy, but only because you didn’t know it existed, but once you find out about it, you might want to give it a try. I dunno. It’s a fine balance—providing useful content and actually paying my rent, but not monetizing every square inch of blog real estate and having more pop-ups than there is useful stuff that doesn’t bug the sh*t out of you.

Blog posts: 

Soooo many blog post ideas simmering away in my brain!

Yes, this is how it works. I get an idea, and I want to write about it NOW, but I know it has to percolate for a while before it coalesces into something coherent that I can start jotting down. Some posts exist as bulleted lists in my mind for months before they get written. In no particular order, since I don’t know which of these I’ll finish writing first, here are the ones that are in the percolating stage now, making their way slowly into very rough drafts on my trusty seven-year-old laptop:

Thyroid. Thyroid, ThYrOiD, THYROID!

I’ll save the juicy details for the post, but here’s the teaser: I started thyroid medication in December and here’s what’s happened since then: I’ve lost 15 pounds. My chronic constipation is gone. My hair no longer falls out in clumps in the shower or in my hairbrush. My severe, longstanding, and unremitting depression is 87% gone. This medication has been nothing short of life-changing for me, and based on what I already knew about thyroid function, plus the presentation of many clients who’ve come to me, thyroid hypofunction is insanely under-diagnosed and when it is diagnosed, the vast majority of MDs (including endocrinologists) have NO FREAKING CLUE how to treat it properly. There is a vast, vast amount of suffering going on out there for NO REASON other than doctors are not savvy enough in the details for treating thyroid, and most patients are not aware that they need to stand up for themselves, be their own strongest advocate, and tell their doctor that even though they’ve been “on thyroid medication” for however many weeks, months, or years, THEY STILL FEEL LIKE SH*T and they need a higher dose or a different type of medication! This one is gonna be good, folks.

A new look at the etiology and progression of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity

(Well, new to me, anyway, and very probably new to you, too, but some of the papers I’ll be referencing go back at least 15 years, so it’s old news to someone.) I’ve said this before: I learn new things about all this “stuff”—diabetes, obesity, insulin, cancer, Alzheimer’s—all the time, and one of the things I enjoy most about my blog is that I get to share all those cool findings with you. I’ve always approached this blog with the idea that I’ll write about what I want to write about, and about what fascinates me, and not about what’s most popular at any given time, or what garners the most clicks & shares. (There’s a reason there’s almost nothing in the archives on adrenal fatigue and very, very little on gluten and the gut biome.) The fact that there are strangers out there who want to read what I’ve written still kind of blows my mind. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that. Anyway, I’ve learned some very interesting things about how obesity and T2D develop – things that have made me rethink some of what I thought I understood about these. My understanding wasn’t wrong, but it was incomplete. Things are more fleshed out now, including an understanding of how/why higher-carb, low-fat diets can actually work for weight loss and reversing T2D. (I still think low carb is more effective and just plain better, especially for long-term compliance and maintenance, but I at least “get” why low fat could work, if someone prefers to go that route. Shocking, I know!  ;-)  Hint: as much as we might like to think it is, it’s not all about carbs.)

What if we’ve been wrong ... about everything?  

For those of you not on Twitter and Facebook, there’s a growing community of people experimenting with (and thriving on) “zero-carb” diets. This little factoid alone should make us question much of what we think we know about human nutrition. Yes, even those of us in the low-carb and keto crowd. Sure, we’ve come to understand that we don’t need any—let alone a lot of—whole grains or fruit. And the Paleo folks know that as much as we low-carbers love our butter, cheese, and heavy cream, mankind can live just fine without dairy. And I think all of us get that chia seeds, goji berries, and spirulina are not “superfoods” that provide a ride on the express train to immortality and everlasting health. But what about the other stuff some of us still hold dear? Don’t we need fiber? Don’t we need leafy greens? Don’t we need fermented foods? What about the gut biome?! Won’t you die from scurvy if you don’t get copious amounts of vitamin C every single day … and even after you die, you should be buried with some orange juice in case there’s none in the afterlife, right? Right? This one’s gonna be fun.

How to Reduce Dietary Fat on a Ketogenic or Low-Carb Diet (and Why You Might Want to)

Nutshell version: as much as we wish it were true, it is not, in fact, true that as long as you keep carbs low you can eat as much fat as you want. I’ve lost count of how many inquiries I’ve had from people who are struggling to lose fat on a low-carb or ketogenic diet “despite” eating 80% fat, or “despite” drinking coffee or tea loaded with butter and coconut oil. Those of you who’ve been around these parts for a while know I’m not allowed to keep mayonnaise in my house. Why? Because I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t eat unlimited fat and expect to lose body fat. Some fat, yes. Gorging on it in order to arrive at some magical ketogenic ratio upwards of 75+% fat? Nope. Nope, nope, nopity-nope.

Dining Out on a Low-Carb or Ketogenic Diet

I’m not sure why folks find this difficult or confusing. For someone like me, who is overwhelmed by infinite choices and suffers from a pathological inability to make even small, semi-meaningless decisions (like what to order at a restaurant), low-carb actually makes ordering easier, because at some restaurants, 65% of the menu is automatically off limits. The less I have to choose from, the easier it is for me make a choice. (If you are wired the same way, this book will be of great interest—and comfort—to you. You’re not the only one!) My friend “Woo” just wrote about this. My post will be similar (substitute non-starchy vegetables for grains and starchy side dishes), but with a bit more detail on specific choices at various ethnic restaurants and how to avoid inadvertently consuming a ton of sugar from sauces and marinades.

Book Review: The Case Against Sugar, by Gary Taubes

You know if Gary Taubes writes a book, I’m gonna read it! After all, his tour-de-force, Good Calories, Bad Calories, was the first place I’d ever read about a connection between glucose, insulin, and Alzheimer’s, and you all know where that little tidbit led.  ;D  This latest book was…well, it was equal parts fascinating, educational, and infuriating. Why infuriating? Well, Taubes goes back a few centuries—centuries—to show us that doctors in the 1600s and 1700s had already recognized that sugar was up to no good in terms of people’s health and their body weight. Taubes points out that many of the “modern” or “Western” diseases, or “diseases of civilization” actually started to pop up in the 17^th and 18^th centuries – long before there were soybean and corn oils, long before GMOs, grain-fed meats, pesticides, EMF, no cars, no TVs, cell phones or computers, or anything else that is typically used as the scapegoat for obesity and type-2 diabetes. But what there was, was sugar—large amounts of it for the first time in human history. (Not counting fruit and small amounts of honey.) Doctors from way back then had already recognized that people who were becoming very overweight, had gout, joint pain, and diabetes were all eating a lot of sugar. All of those conditions were once the sole purview of royalty—because they were the only ones who could afford sugar. And it was recommended that rail-thin women who wanted a fuller figure should drink sugar water, because it was known that sugar helped put weight on. HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO. (This post will be half book review and half rant, obviously.)

Cool Find Friday

A sporadic series in which I’ll be highlighting new and not-so-new food products I’ve found that are making my low-carb life tastier and more enjoyable. (Kind of goes along with the post on reducing dietary fat on a low-carb diet. Shocker: there are some low-fat salad dressings that are not loaded with sugar. Score!) The vast majority of these items are things I’ve come across at the supermarket—meaning, no annoying affiliate links in your face every time. There are a few things I’ll tell you about that I get from Netrition, but for the most part, I’ll be sharing stuff you can get at your regular ol’ grocery store.

Support me!

I’ll tell you about ways to support my writing and my existence in general. (Blogging is fun, but it don’t pay mama’s bills, yo! I did mention above that my laptop is 7 years old…) Obviously, one of the best ways is to buy my book (even better if you buy, say, 10 copies), but there are plenty of other ways for those of you who have no interest whatsoever in Alzheimer’s disease to send a few cents my way, some of which require you to do nothing you aren’t already doing, except maybe doing it in a slightly different way. (Such as using my affiliate link when you shop on Amazon.) There's also a "support my blog" button in the sidebar on the right where you can choose to send some fundage directly to me, no purchases necessary.

See you soon in the new digs!

Disclaimer: Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition and is not to be used as a substitute for the care and guidance of a physician. Links in this post and all others may direct you to amazon.com, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through my affiliate links.