Esplain!

When I used to play in orchestras, I worked with a Catalan conductor (don't ever say Spain! It's Catalonia!). He would stop and say "Esplain!", meaning he was going to explain to us something about what was coming up in the music.

So, when I say I follow a zero carb, restricted-calorie ketogenic diet..."Esplain!"

What is zero carb?
Zero carb means basically just meat and fat. Some people include eggs and dairy, but some people don't. Some people even avoid organ meats because they have small amounts of carbs inherent in them, but I think organ meats are important because they are so nutrient dense. But anyway, zero carb means no fruit, no vegetables (gasp!), no grains, no bread, no pasta, no crackers, no sweets, no sugar. (Some people use zero calorie sweeteners, but again, some don't.) Some people include coffee and spices, again some just drink water and use salt. But the gist of it is, just meat and fat. It may sound unusual today, but it was quite natural to our Ice Age ancestors, and even to some indigenous cultures. For more information, read the section about Low-carbohydrate diets in the entry on Vilhjalmur Stefansson here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson

What is restricted calorie?
Restricted calorie diets have been shown to increase longevity, decrease aging, and decrease incidence of disease in many studies. There are groups of people who follow a restricted calorie diet in the hopes that they will live longer and be more healthy. This path is referred to as CRON (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition). This means eating fewer calories than the norm for your age, sex, and height. The more caloric restriction, the slower aging, in mouse studies. For more information, I would recommend this article:
http://www.lifeextension.com/Protocols/Lifestyle-Longevity/Caloric-Restriction/Page-03
To find out how much caloric restriction one is doing, there are calculators to help such as this one:
http://scientificpsychic.com/health/cron1.html

What is a ketogenic diet?
A ketogenic diet is one where the calories are mostly from fat. Normally, in ratios between 70/30 to 80/20 fat/protein. They often include a small amount of carbs, but usually less than 30g per day (which is really small compared to the average). The ketogenic diet has been used extensively for treatment of epilepsy, and now has been found to possibly be helpful in treating many other diseases, including cancer, MS, ALS, Alzheimer's, diabetes, obesity, PCOS, etc.

Why combine all of these?
So combining these three concepts may seem very restrictive, but it really comes down to what our ancestors evolved eating. In the Ice Age, which lasted for most of the formative years of our species, our ancestors would have eaten a zero-carb, restricted calorie ketogenic diet. That's all there was to eat! Then when the earth warmed in the Upper Paleolithic, the glaciers receded, the giant fauna such as woolly mammoth disappeared, and homo sapiens was able to start farming and eating other things. But that was really just very recently in our species' history. It seems that for some of us, we do best sticking to the basics that our ancestors ate.

Grassfed beef filet