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Fruits that are Safe for a Keto Diet – Thomas DeLauer
On a ketogenic diet, people still tend to think that fruit is going to operate a little bit differently within the body, meaning that they’re okay to have some fruit because it’s not a typical carbohydrate. The reason I wanted to do this video was to, A, help clear up some confusion surrounding fructose and glucose metabolism, but also to help give you an idea of some of the fruits that you can consume on a ketogenic diet even if it’s just in moderation.
You see, generally speaking, people tend to look at fruit a little bit different. Sometimes they put it in an entirely different box as far as carbohydrates are concerned. They think, because it’s fruit or because it’s natural, that it’s not a real carbohydrate and that it won’t affect them on a ketogenic level. However, it’s actually quite the opposite. Fruit can affect ketosis significantly more because it hits closer to home as far as the liver is concerned.
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All right, so when it comes down to ketosis, one of the cardinal things that we have to remember is that ketones are produced in the liver. Anything that is affecting the liver is going to have a dramatic impact on our ketone production, and fructose is metabolized predominantly within the liver. I’m going to explain all that in just a second.
We have a couple of different carbohydrates that we usually consume. We have good old-fashioned glucose, and then we have fructose, which comes from fruit. You see, glucose is used by virtually every single cell in the body. Whether you’re in ketosis or not, every cell has the capability of utilizing glucose. Now, on the other hand, fructose can only be metabolized in the liver. Fructose cannot be used by every cell in the body. Fructose can really only actively be processed and metabolized within the liver, so right then and there, it hits closer to home as far as ketosis is concerned.
Whenever we consume regular carbohydrates that are not coming from fruit, the liver only has to take about 20% of the brunt of the load, but when we’re consuming fruit, the liver has to take 100% of the brunt of the load. When it comes down to restoring what’s called liver glycogen, the carbohydrates that are stored in the liver, it’s a lot easier to store carbohydrates in the liver from fruit than it is from other carbohydrates. Now, when it comes down to producing ketones, we need the liver to be completely depleted of glycogen, or as close to it as possible, in order to produce the maximum amount of ketones. Now, keep in mind here, since glucose can be used by every cell in the body, when we consume glucose we have an ability to burn it up really fast, but since the body can’t use fructose, whenever we consume fructose, it has a tendency to get turned into free fatty acids and triglycerides and, ultimately, fat significantly easier.
Whenever we consume carbs, our body takes glucose, again, the simple sugars that come from regular carbohydrates, and it strings them together, and it strings them together into something known as glycogen, and then it stores them in a couple different places. It takes them and it stores them on the shelves within our muscles, within our skeletal muscle system, and then, some of it, it takes and it stores within our liver, but there’s two distinct jobs. You see, the skeletal muscle tissue does something different with it’s glycogen than the liver does. The job of the glycogen or the carbohydrates that are stored in the liver is simply to maintain blood sugar. We’re trying to keep our blood glucose levels elevated enough so that we constantly have enough energy.
Now, when it comes down to the muscle glycogen, those carbohydrates that are stored are used only whenever we’re exerting energy for activity. For example, if you were to break into a sprint and you needed energy, you’d pull it from the muscle tissue, but if you just needed regular blood glucose levels to be elevated for traditional life, you’d pull it from the liver. What ends up happening is, once we burn through all the liver glycogen, all the carbs that are stored in the liver, our body has the ability to produce ketones.
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