Any advice very welcome

[Felinia]

I had a gall bladder problem a year before I was diagnosed with type 2 and I went onto a low fat diet as recommended - for me the consequences of that were all negative and my gall pain kept happening. I think the low fat diet may have led to the diabetes because when I swapped fat out I swapped carbs in.

When I went onto a high fat very low carb diet I had early stage fatty liver disease. Three months later it was gone and I haven't had a twinge from my gall bladder from the day I went keto.

I eat butter, double cream, lard, avocados, cocoa butter, coconut oil, chocolate, very fatty cuts of meat, pate, multiple eggs a day - but I don't go near vegetable fats, processed fat, rapeseed oil etc - just unprocessed fats. I eat a lot of fibre - I started out upping my fibre a bit but now I eat huge amounts of fibre. In fact I think I swapped out carbs and swapped in fibre - my liver and gall bladder has never been so healthy and all the tests I've had since bear that out.

I'm awaiting gall bladder testing, but of course it's on hold at present. I've always had lots of fresh veggies and fruit and eaten plenty of fibre. I also have severe Diverticular Disease, another reason for reducing fat, but appreciate that I am a lot better off than many people, as my conditions can be managed. It will be interesting to see what the tests finally reveal.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

Hello,
I don't weigh or analyse anything I eat but I make everything from basic ingredients so I have a good idea what is going into my meals.

I go through about 4 - 6 kg of various fibre ingredients a month which I use in baking and other cooking and there are two of us in our household. That isn't taking into account the vegetables I eat - mainly lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, celeriac, tomatoes etc and whatever fibre is in those. I also eat a lot of flaxseeds and chai seeds each day which are mostly fibre and I eat konjac alternatives to rice and noodles once or twice a week.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

Hello,
I go through about 4 - 6 kg of various fibre ingredients a month

Occurred to me it is more a case of them going through me 😉😛

 

[rebrascora]

Personally I don't worry about how much saturated fat I eat. I just eat natural fats as much as possible. I am not sure that any NHS dietary advice is applicable once you cut down on carbs as it then changes the balance of everything else within the body, so to me any other advice is no longer that relevant.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

The problem I have with fat is trying to keep the saturated fat amount below the 30g per day that's the recommended maximum. I rarely manage it and currently average just under 32g per day. All it takes is bacon & eggs and I'm half way there. With fibre, on the other hand, I sometimes struggle to get to the RDA.

Between carbs, calories, fats, protein & fibre it often feels like an impossible juggling act to get the balance right. And to think that for most of my life I never bothered with any of it.

Martin

For someone on a keto diet the aim is to burn fat as fuel and not burn carbs and your body needs to change over to this system.
30g of fat a day would result in a big problem for someone on a keto diet

The accepted proportions for a keto diet are around 70-80% of daily calories — should come from fat with 20-25% calories from protein and a mere 5 - 10% from carbs.

On 2,000 calories a day that makes about 144-177 g of fat each day. If you don't keep that level up then you won't be getting enough fuel and there will be problems.


As long as you keep the carb levels down to suit your personal needs - for me 20g a day is plenty then the fats get processed and do not cause any adverse health effects. If you overdo the carbs and eat that level of fat then you would be in trouble because then your body would prioritise burning carbs and would treat the fats as stuff to be stored and that's when the issues start.

 

[rebrascora]

@NotWorriedAtAll
I think Martin was expressing concern at the amount of saturated fat in his diet rather than overall fat as I know he follows a Low Carb, High Fat way of eating but not strictly Keto.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

If you were on a keto diet and kept fats under 30g there would be a problem but if you are not on a keto diet then there won't be any issues. When I said 'you' I meant a generalised 'you' not specifically you Martin - sorry for not being clearer.

On a keto diet if someone had fewer than 30g a day then in order to maintain the keto ratio of fats and carbs the calorific intake would not be anywhere near enough to fuel an adult and basically kept up for a long period would lead to severe malnutrition with all that entails.

The ratio of fats to carbs for a keto diet are so that the body will burn fat preferentially to carbs. If someone ate loads of fat together with too many carbs then all the problems traditionally associated with high saturated fats would ensue.

So your choice Martin to keep fats low is perfectly sensible as you eat a low carb diet and not a keto one.