For decades, Americans have been told that too much bacon, butter, and eggs are bad for their health.
reason? Rich in fat and cholesterol, it’s been demonized for its apparent links to heart disease and weight gain.
But a Georgia doctor who ate this breakfast trio for 30 days straight claims it actually made him healthier.
Dr. Sten Ekberg observed that not only did his weight and body fat decrease, but his levels of insulin, glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, and indicators of liver damage decreased.
Dr. Sten Ekberg ate bacon, butter, and eggs for 30 days straight and claims they made him healthier.
Breakfast trio has been demonized for being high in fat and cholesterol
Ekberg is a functional nutritionist, a medical professional who creates personalized nutritional plans for patients. He also conducts diet-related experiments on himself.
In March 2023, he ate nothing but junk food for 10 days in a row to see how it affected his health.
At the end of that experiment, he decided to try a ketogenic diet to see if he could reverse the damage.
He ate what he called a “clean” keto diet for 30 days, which included lots of bacon, butter, and eggs, as well as leafy greens and vegetables, and meats like steak, fish, and chicken.
After 10 days of eating nothing but junk food, Ekberg’s blood tests came back alarming.
Not only did he gain 10 pounds in just over a week, but his levels of insulin, glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, and indicators of liver damage increased by 19 percent to 125 percent.
This was the first time that some of these health markers, including insulin and VLDL, which indicates the risk of plaque buildup in the arteries, had exceeded normal levels.
He wondered if a keto diet (a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that allows the body to use fat for energy instead of sugar) could reverse this damage.
His typical 30-day meal includes a salad topped with protein, seeds, bacon bits, olive oil, and vinegar dressing.
He also ate lots of omelettes with sausage, bacon, avocado, onions, and tomatoes, and steaks with steamed broccoli and cauliflower and an egg-and-butter béarnaise sauce.
Dr. Ekberg is a functional nutritionist who conducts diet-related experiments on himself.
He also practiced intermittent fasting, an eating plan that alternates periods of eating and fasting.
Over the course of 30 days, he ate one or two meals a day and typically fasted for 16 to 24 hours at a time.
The idea behind this type of diet is that it helps the body achieve ketosis, a metabolic state that occurs when the body burns fat for energy.
By the third day on the keto diet, Ekberg’s blood tests showed he had reached ketosis, and he remained in this metabolic state for the remaining 30 days.
At the end of the 30 days, he weighed himself and had his blood tested again to see how his body had changed.
First, he noticed that his weight was back to what he considered to be a normal and healthy range for his body.
After 10 days of eating junk food, he weighed 203 pounds.
But after 30 days on the keto diet, he weighed only 189 pounds, a loss of 14 pounds in one month.
And his blood tests, which had previously shown dangerously high levels of all the health indicators he measured, now showed that everything was back to healthy levels.
His insulin, glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, and indicators of liver damage are all significantly lowered by 30 days of a clean keto diet with intermittent fasting and 10 days of junk food. It was suggested that the damage caused was repaired.
Despite the fact that bacon, butter, and eggs are considered high-fat and high-cholesterol foods, Ms. Ekberg’s cholesterol level decreased slightly from 222 to 220, and her triglycerides decreased from 101 to 60, and these Both have returned to healthy ranges. health indicators.
Additionally, his insulin levels decreased from 5.7 to 3.4 and his insulin resistance as indicated by HOMA IR level decreased from 1.3 to 0.8.
He was particularly surprised to see that LDH levels, which had risen to dangerously high levels (roughly twice their original level) during the 10-day junk food experiment, dropped dramatically.
After 30 days on a ketogenic diet, his LDH was back in the healthy range at just 170.
The World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute recommend that people avoid eating bacon and other meats frequently due to their links to cancer.
| Measurement (healthy range) | After eating junk food for 10 days | After 30 days of keto diet |
|---|---|---|
| Weight (185-190) | 203 | 189 |
| Cholesterol (180-280) | 222 | 220 |
| Insulin (2-5) | 5.7 | 3.4 |
| Triglycerides (50-90) | 101 | 60 |
| VLDL (5-15) | 17 | 10 |
| Homa IR (0.5-1.5) | 1.3 | 0.8 |
| AST (12-25) | 31 | twenty three |
| Alternative (13-22) | twenty five | 16 |
| LDH(140-180) | 335 | 170 |
but Ekberg said in his book: YouTube video: “What I want you to understand from this is how adaptable your body is.”
“You can do serious damage in 10 days, but your body is very resilient. If you do the right things, it will recover.”
But that’s not to say that the keto diet isn’t without risks or that it will work for everyone.
According to UChicagoMedicine, the keto diet can cause low blood pressure, kidney stones, constipation, nutritional deficiencies, and an increased risk of heart disease due to high cholesterol and saturated fat intake.
And studies have shown that if your insulin levels are low, or your body is resistant to insulin and already struggles to balance your glucose intake, you probably won’t lose weight on a keto diet.
But if concerns about cholesterol or saturated fat are holding you back from this diet, Ekberg says you need to consider the facts. Although the keto diet is a high-fat diet, he says that doesn’t mean you should eat more fat.
The key is to stick to intermittent fasting, reduce carbohydrates to less than 5 percent, and balance fat intake with moderate protein intake and plenty of leafy greens and vegetables, he said. .
This keeps insulin levels low and allows your body to metabolize the fat and cholesterol you ingest.
