PNJ
The burgeoning field of food and nutrition as scientific subjects has produced a burst of science-based diets aimed at enhancing human health. It has also reinforced the status of those who have long argued that our most effective health care is found on our dinner plates, not in a doctor’s office.
This has stood much perceived food wisdom on its head, and produced a growing body of evidence pointing to carbohydrates – long considered to be the basis for a healthy diet – as the culprit in weight gain and corresponding ill-health effects. This has sparked a trend of low-carb diets.
On the leading edge of this effort is Jeff Volek, a registered dietitian and full professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut. On Thursday he will talk about his research at an evening lecture at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. His talk: “The Many Facets of Keto-adaptation: Health, Performance and Beyond.”
Keto-adaptation is a unique metabolic state that has been shown to have widespread and profound therapeutic and performance-enhancing effects ranging from reversing type 2 diabetes to shrinking tumors to allowing ultra-endurance runners to set course records.
This state is achieved, through diet, by accelerating the body’s ability to access and burn body fat by restricting dietary carbohydrates, while increasing fat intake, for a period of several weeks. Fatty acids and ketones become the primary fuel at rest and during submaximal exercise, a more efficient and healthier way of fueling the body.
This shifts the body out of a damaging condition, obesity, in which calories continue to be stored as fat, leading to weight gain and other unhealthy effects.
Volek has both a master’s and a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and nutrition. He leads a research team that explores the physiologic impact of various dietary and exercise regimens and nutritional supplements. According to his biography on Amazon.com, he has conducted “some of the seminal scientific work” on supplements such as creatine, carnitine, caffeine and whey protein.
One of the problems people have with following a carbohydrate-restricted (ketotic) diet is how to do it. Volek has co-authored several books explaining how it works, for both general health and athletic performance. They include “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable,” and “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance,” both co-written with Dr. Stephen Phinney, a medical doctor and Ph.D
The burgeoning field of food and nutrition as scientific subjects has produced a burst of science-based diets aimed at enhancing human health. It has also reinforced the status of those who have long argued that our most effective health care is found on our dinner plates, not in a doctor’s office.
This has stood much perceived food wisdom on its head, and produced a growing body of evidence pointing to carbohydrates – long considered to be the basis for a healthy diet – as the culprit in weight gain and corresponding ill-health effects. This has sparked a trend of low-carb diets.
On the leading edge of this effort is Jeff Volek, a registered dietitian and full professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut. On Thursday he will talk about his research at an evening lecture at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. His talk: “The Many Facets of Keto-adaptation: Health, Performance and Beyond.”
Keto-adaptation is a unique metabolic state that has been shown to have widespread and profound therapeutic and performance-enhancing effects ranging from reversing type 2 diabetes to shrinking tumors to allowing ultra-endurance runners to set course records.
This state is achieved, through diet, by accelerating the body’s ability to access and burn body fat by restricting dietary carbohydrates, while increasing fat intake, for a period of several weeks. Fatty acids and ketones become the primary fuel at rest and during submaximal exercise, a more efficient and healthier way of fueling the body.
This shifts the body out of a damaging condition, obesity, in which calories continue to be stored as fat, leading to weight gain and other unhealthy effects.
Volek has both a master’s and a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and nutrition. He leads a research team that explores the physiologic impact of various dietary and exercise regimens and nutritional supplements. According to his biography on Amazon.com, he has conducted “some of the seminal scientific work” on supplements such as creatine, carnitine, caffeine and whey protein.
One of the problems people have with following a carbohydrate-restricted (ketotic) diet is how to do it. Volek has co-authored several books explaining how it works, for both general health and athletic performance. They include “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable,” and “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance,” both co-written with Dr. Stephen Phinney, a medical doctor and Ph.D