"KetoAF": not what you think!

Why I coined this silly term

Carnivore is typically only mildly ketogenic

The Carnivore Diet, as I cut my teeth on it 15 years ago or so, had a strict ethos that was unrelated to what kind of food sources are acceptable. It was considered strongly against the principles of the diet to restrict the amount of total food or of protein or fat in particular. Not following the appetite was considered a pitfall, because it reliably led to poor outcomes in members of the group.

However, ketosis is quantitatively related to the amount of protein and fat in the diet; generally speaking (with caveats), high protein will reduce it and high fat will increase it. Given the relative leanness of meat in American markets, and the absence of those mostly macro-neutral fat-carrying fibrous plants on the plate, in practice the Carnivore Diet is often quite a bit higher in protein and lower in fat than "keto", such that ketosis in Carnivore Dieters tends to be mild, often in the 0.5-1.0 mmol range.

Indeed, one of the things that surprised me the most, having studied the therapeutic properties of ketogenic diets extensively before finding Carnivore, was that people were often getting superior health benefits despite lower ketosis!

KetoAF is similar to the PKD but less specific

A few years ago, I wanted to talk about the benefits some people get from eating more ketogenic ratios than the Carnivore Diet normally results in "naturally". A diet like this is practised most famously by Paleomedicina with a therapeutic diet they call the Paleolithic Ketogenic Diet (PKD). However, the PKD itself is a proprietary name, and Paleomedicina has suffered repeatedly from people claiming to instruct on the PKD while not using the same set of rules, much to their frustration. In order to talk about an approach similar to theirs, but with key differences, I felt I had to come up with a different name.

The PKD has added constraints on amount of food, requires eating organs, does not allow dairy, and is very strict about meat being organic and free of all additives.

(The link in that tweet is now orphaned, but the original article, co-written by me and Raphi Sirtoli can be found on the Wayback Machine here: The Ultimate Guide to the Carnivore Diet)

Some people still do better in ketosis

It turns out, contrary to my intial impressions when I first encountered Carnivore, some people really do need to lower protein to get good results, the therapeutic value of plant exclusion alone notwithstanding. And I thought it was really important that people learn about this. So for a few years I made it a practice to tweet about KetoAF successes whenever I could.

My advocacy got to the point that many assumed I was consistently using KetoAF myself. Although I often got good results with a few consecutive days of KetoAF, the sad fact was that I was unable to sustain high fat intake due to the post-infectious IBS I had been suffering. And even though that was significantly healed by late 2021, fat malabsorption would recur if I pushed the fat too high. So I have been stuck at more traditional Carnivore ratios for a long time.

Well, Actually: A place where it's ok to talk seriously

Nonetheless, I still think KetoAF has an important place among low carb / plant-free strategies, and for several years I've run a KetoAF Facebook group. Let me not mince words: Facebook groups stink. The interface is always changing. It is hard to find previous posts. Everything about it is constrained by the way Facebook runs groups. And you have to be on Facebook to participate or even view!

So I finally decided to start my own forum to discuss not just KetoAF or even just keto or Carnivore, but any health related topics. It's called "Well, Actually".

However, one of the things I have found the most difficult about running discussion groups is moderation. Trolls and bots are a big enough issue, but what's even more difficult, in my opinion, is low effort participants: people who want constant spoon feeding, who ask for advice and then complain about the advice, or who post memes and videos with no real thought contribution. So I have decided to try to solve this with a low, but real, cost to partipating. And I've made it part of a tiered subscription to help support my work.

If you want an account, please subscribe and I will manually open an account for you. Please pardon any start up hiccoughs!

**Note: if you are already a Patreon subscriber (or have been in the past), you are eligible for some free months as a thank you! **

Links to material from the Facebook group

I've collected some of the group material and I'm reposting it here over the next couple days. I intend to archive the group.

This website from Josh Blackburn is also a good guide. He no longer maintains it, but it can found on the Wayback Machine: ketoanimalfoods.com (wayback)