#292 Can Keto Work and Is It Actually Unhealthy? | Dr Nick Norwitz
The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast
Dr Rupy Aujla
4.8 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2025
⏱️ 123 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if everything you thought you knew about cholesterol, fat, and metabolic health was up for debate? As someone interested in nutrition research, I’m always up for exploring differing points of view especially when they come from a rigorous scientific background and can speak to the evidence base.
So in this episode, I sit down with Dr Nick Norwitz PhD, to challenge some of my long held positions in nutrition science and break down keto.
He’s a researcher and expert in ketogenic diets, lipid metabolism, and metabolic health as well as a current medical student at Harvard Medical school.
We discuss:
🔥 Nick’s personal journey with IBD and the ketogenic diet
🥑 Whether saturated fat actually causes heart disease?
📉 Cholesterol confusion – and whether we should all aim for a lower LDL-C or ApoB by any means necessary?
💡 Keto as a metabolic state vs. a diet – what it means for fat loss
📊 The problems with nutrition research
Plus, we explore how to measure metabolic health, keto adaptation, and whether a high-fat, high-animal-protein diet can be optimal for longevity.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Does saturated fat cause heart disease? |
| 0:03.1 | Since we're doing rapid fire here, I'm going to say no. No, it does not. |
| 0:06.8 | High levels, saturated fat can change, you know, cholesterol levels, |
| 0:11.7 | but the data showing that whole food is rich in saturated fat cause heart disease is rather weak. |
| 0:18.4 | So I would not be afraid of saturated fat as a blanket statement. |
| 0:22.2 | If one is looking to reduce their risk of heart disease, should they try and maintain a low |
| 0:27.9 | LDLC or APAB cholesterol marker? It's one variable among many that need to be taken into context. |
| 0:35.5 | It's a variable to consider. Can you live a long healthy life |
| 0:39.0 | on a high fat, high animal protein diet? I think so, yes. Will eating Oreo cookies lower my cholesterol? |
| 0:47.0 | I have to know more about your metabolic profile. For some people, it might work. I wouldn't say |
| 0:52.3 | the majority, but I think that's one of the really |
| 0:54.5 | interesting things about metabolic health, is in each way, we're each outliers in some way, I should |
| 0:59.2 | say. And figuring out what that is allows you to get pretty profound, let's say, metabolic |
| 1:03.9 | results like lowering your cholesterol with Oreo cookies, which is possible for some people. |
| 1:07.8 | Actually, an aside, I know this is supposed to be quick, but that was an experiment |
| 1:11.2 | you're alluding to that I did. I've had actually a doctor at Harvard text me the other day replicating |
| 1:16.8 | it. People are doing it. If they understand the physiology, it can be replicated. So, as an aside. |
| 1:22.0 | This is super interesting. People are going to think that I've lost the plot. |
| 1:26.3 | People are really simple now on the Googling off. |
| 1:28.3 | Go to PubMed. |
| 1:29.1 | Type in Oreo versus statin. |
| 1:31.2 | See the paper. |
... |
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