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Comment by jmurinello | Hacker News Reader

I consider sugar to be no different from cocaine (not that I ever tried), but we crave for it the same way people who consume that drug or any other, crave for. Sugar is everywhere, and it's our main source of energy, being that our body feels terrible when its levels are low, but as soon as you eat it feels wonderful. The same goes with cocaine.

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If you ever do try cocaine I suspect you'll quickly revise your opinion.

It's a bit similar but I don't think it's good to make second-hand comparisons. Cravings are not a simple binary. Like, if you consume cocaine for pleasure then you can have a craving to keep doing more until you run out or its time to go home or whatever. But below a certain threshold the craving isn't that strong, so you could have a little bit and then get on with your day, much as you might have a cup of coffee in the morning but you don't necessarily want it round the clock.

I agree, although when it comes to sugar we way past that threshold, since most of us crave for food many times a day when glucose levels drops.

Ah sorry, I was thinking of craving in terms of 'you want it whether or not you actually need it' as happens in abuse and addiction.

One could instead use fats for fuel by cycling in and out of ketosis. After the body adapts, sugar and carb cravings subside.

I would like to see more researches on ketosis diet. Seen by medicine as something that occurs when in starvation, I see it as the natural state of the human body. I eat once a day and I don't feel like I'm starving. And when I eat I don't feast.

I also find my mood is very steady and mellow instead of the constant rush and burn on a high carb diet.

The lack of research is concerning. I'm refraining from staying on the diet for too long and am opting to cycle in and out of it by re-introducing carbs periodically.

Ketosis can be very hard on the kidneys, so I find it hard to believe that it should be the natural state of the human body.

Can you elaborate that?

Eating an elevated amount of proteins on the often recommended ketonic diets (high protein, low carb) makes your kidneys work harder to process this elevated level of protein, expelling more sodium, calcium and potassium, which also increases the risk of kidney stones.

If you're in really good health before you start a ketonic diet, it's probably not too much of an issue. But if you have an underlying kidney condition already, it could exacerbate that condition and possibly lead to kidney damage or failure. If you are diabetic, in the worst case it could lead to ketoacidosis and coma, and potentially be life threatening.

Add to this that apparently most of the dramatic weight loss seen on a ketonic diet is simply water weight, in some cases people also start losing muscle. That's not what you want, obviously. A ketonic diet is a really poor choice for someone who wants to put on muscle.

There are better and significantly less dangerous ways to lose weight.

High protein intake shouldn't be a recommended keto diet, because the body will use gluconeogenesis to process protein into glucose, so you'll never be on ketoses, and therefor suffer from all side effects mentioned by you. It should be a diet high on fats.

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