Metabolic and Cognitive Health

Here’s How Bruno’s Diet Led Him to Loss of Visceral Fat and Gain of Lean Muscles.

An unintentional lack of carbs in his diet made him leaner, healthier, and more productive, leading him to research the topic.

When multiple windows open to serendipitous encounters, miracles can happen to a suffering child.

Looking at my single bowl at a metabolic and cognitive health conference dinner in Sydney, Bruno asked where the carbs were in my small yet dense platter with a beautiful smile on his face.

I informed him I did not consume carbs. He realized that I was on a zero-carb diet and wanted to start a meaningful conversation.

I glanced at his plate. Except for a few spinach leaves, I did not notice carbs. I teased him, saying, “yours looks similar, sir.” We started conversing pleasantly with his articulate and passionate remarks.

His story was close to mine yet sounded more serendipitous and unusual.

Still keeping his thick hair with the defined physic of a 30-year-old man, 68-year-old Dr. Bruno, was born in a small village in Italy.

He was only seven years when his family migrated to Australia as laborers. His sister and brother were older than him. The core and extended family have been obsessed with food since his childhood.

90% of their food consisted of carbohydrates like pizza, macaroni, pastries, pies, cakes, and vegetarian lasagna.

He couldn’t remember a day in his childhood tasting fresh meat. He said perhaps he chewed a few slices of bacon in his pizza. His parents couldn’t afford meat in his original country.

When his family migrated to Queensland in Australia, they couldn’t believe how cheap the quality beef was. Interestingly, his older brother and sister did not like meat, but Bruno loved it.

However, they did not want him to eat meat as they believed it was terrible for him and tried to scare him.

They also convinced their parents that meat was harmful to their health, as learned from their vegan teacher in school. Ironically, his parents had severe diabetes.

So they decided not to eat anymore as they feared eating red meat, thinking it would cause cancer.

Sadly, they said goodbye to delicious Aussie barbeques. Unhappily, he had to grow up with scarcity for something he loved in the middle of paradoxical abundance.

Fortunately, after he was 14, he cherished meat by not telling his siblings and parents when he attended birthday parties by himself.

Unfortunately, his sister found out that he ate meat at his friend’s barbecue one day. She got hysterical, complaining to her parents. The entire family told him not to eat meat again. If he did, they would punish him.

This restriction disappointed Bruno. He started craving meat. Until he was 17, he obeyed the house rules. Due to a very high carbs diet, he gained substantial fat.

He felt lethargic and did not want to go to school, and he did not want to play sports like his friends. He just wanted to stay home and sleep all day if his parents hadn’t forced him to find a job. He completed high school with difficulty.

Unknowingly, Dr. Bruno thrived on low-carb diets, losing visceral fat and gaining lean muscles in his later teenage years.

After months of job hunting, he found a position in a factory. Ironically this tedious job opened a window to a new life for him. The factory was offering lunch to their personnel.

The workers’ lunch menu included three types of meat (poultry, fish, and red meat) each day. He tried different types of meat with a few vegetables on different days. He was sick of pastries, especially vegetarian pies and pizzas at night.

His siblings and parents did not know what he ate in the factory. So he kept it a secret. However, the good news this one meal was so satisfying that he did not need to eat dinner at home. Besides, he was too tired after work, so he did not care to eat. Thus, he unintentionally started time-restricted eating, which he did not know at the time.

Something unexpected happened after three months. Bruno lost ten kilos and started feeling more and more energetic. He didn’t know it was visceral fat as his muscles started showing up. His colleagues in the factory kept teasing him, saying he would be a skinny boy if he kept working in this factory.

One of his colleagues was playing Australian soccer. He invited Bruno to join the club he played. This idea opened another window to her serendipitous life. The coach loved his dedication and gave him private tutoring, believing he had the capacity for the game. Besides, the coach got impressed by his teamwork.

When he was 18, the factory promoted him to a supervisor role as he sounded more mature than his colleagues. The new role opened another window for him.

Instead of working in the factory production line, he was like an office worker supervising his colleagues, allowing him to walk on the factory floors and stay in the office for several hours to complete paperwork. As a result, he got so efficient that he created some free time for himself. This free time opened another window to his exciting life.

He decided to enroll in an open learning program in sports nutrition as advised by his soccer coach. He loved every subject, spending several hours learning more about the effects of food on athletes. One day at weekends, he had to have a two-hour face-to-face session with his lecturers.

One of his lecturers was a practicing nutritionist and certified dietician. She loved Bruno’s work ethic and his passion for sports. His lecturer helped him prepare a customized diet based on his lifestyle during this period. His macronutrients were around 30% protein, 60% healthy fat, and 10% carbs from vegetables comprising his daily caloric intake.

Beginning of an Exciting Transformation

This diet opened another window for Dr. Bruno. He lost substantial fat and gained lean muscle increasing his performance in the sports club. After completing his diploma in nutrition, his coach advised him to enroll in the sports academy.

This idea was brilliant for him. But he had to work in the factory to earn his living. The caring coach helped him to get a scholarship from a charity organization. So he enrolled in the sports academy, quitting the factory job.

After a year, he saw a part-time nutritionist job advertisement for the school on the notice board. As he had a diploma in nutrition and had already completed a few subjects, he qualified for the job. His application was accepted, and he started working part-time for a few hours, mainly focusing on his studies. The money he got from the scholarship, coupled with the new income from his job, made him independent.

So he decided to leave home. Interestingly, on the same announcement board, he saw an advertisement from a Ph.D. student looking for a flatmate. They immediately clicked and decided to share a lovely apartment as soon as they met.

His parents were not very happy that he to leave home. However, as he was an adult, he managed to get their blessings. Despite the stringent regime they imposed on him, he still loved his parents and wanted them to be happy.

So, he promised to visit them frequently and offered to do house chores at the weekends. They liked the idea. As his income significantly increased, he also provided some money to his parents, surviving with a government pension. Unconditionally giving to his parents made him happy.

Interestingly, his flatmate was studying metabolic diseases. They kept talking about it. More fascinatingly, this Ph.D. student was on time-restricted eating and a ketogenic diet. He was researching the benefits of these practices on type II diabetes. His friend opened another window into Bruno’s life. His passion for knowledge was satisfied by a university, a job, and a knowledgeable flatmate.

Bruno completed the sports academy with honors. He desired to specialize in metabolic conditions. His flatmate encouraged him to enroll in a master’s program, including exercise and nutrition for metabolic disorders. This was a remarkable opportunity for him. His outstanding thesis proposal secured another scholarship allowing him to focus on his studies. He completed his master’s degree with high distinction.

Dr. Bruno’s academic knowledge of sports and practical experience in nutrition were exemplary. His flatmate helped him apply for a Ph.D. program at his graduate school. He supported him in developing a proposal on the effects of ketogenic diets for elite athletes.

He was elated when he secured his third scholarship giving him more financial freedom to study intensely. He completed his thesis in three years full-time. His parents couldn’t hold their tiers when he was announced as a professional doctor upon his graduation. Their trust in him significantly increased. Unfortunately, his brother had to work as a laborer. His sister served as a housewife marrying a factory worker at a young age despite her parents’ disapproval.

Dr. Bruno’s research on the ketogenic diet and time-restricted eating transformed his life and allowed him to reverse the diabetes of his parents by fixing insulin resistance and leptin resistance. He helped hundreds of people by informing them about the role of good nutrition and exercise. In addition, he wrote numerous papers on insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. As a result, the university gave him a postdoctoral position making him a full professor after three years.

He asked: “How About Your Story?”

After telling his story, he asked me what my story was about. I told him mine was not as exciting and serendipitous as his. Even though my parents never put restrictions on my diet, I told him I ruined my health in my younger years by believing false information about healthy fats and meat and depriving myself. After listening to my sad story ending with the good news of my health transformation, we exchanged business cards and became close friends.

Dr. Bruno assisted me in finding information that was difficult to locate from public sources. He shared his theoretical and clinical studies with me generously. I reciprocated. He became a mentor to me for many years. Just dinner on a small plate with no carbs opened a new window for me. He encouraged and inspired me to continue on my path. We both are on a zero-carb diet and thrive contrary to people’s beliefs in our circles, disappointing them to some extent.

I mentioned my family members, close friends, colleagues, and even some informed collaborators in science communities who got concerned that I would ruin my health with a zero-carb diet years ago. He smiled, showing his empathy and compassion.

I respected the opinion of caring people. However, during meditative sessions, my “higher self” notified me that I was on the right path for the first time in my life. I did not need pity. He confirmed that the universe opened several windows beyond imagination. Despite our different backgrounds, we had a lot in common. We both listened to our intuition, acting with rigor and diligence by learning from experiments and the growing body of knowledge. We still tweak our diets experimentally to gain optimal results.

I told him that metabolic and cognitive health had become a pivotal point in my life. I suffered from debilitating conditions affecting my metabolism and cognition, causing physical and mental disturbances. The culprit in my case was the consumption of excessive sugar, especially refined carbs, that created havoc on my health. Even so-called healthy foods containing too much sugar contributed to my undesirable situation in my younger years.

Epilogue

Dr. Bruno did not suffer from health conditions like me. However, he had to address his childhood traumas with my referral to my psychotherapist friend Janine who made Dr. Bruno’s life more joyful and productive. Mostly staying in deep ketosis, we both reap the benefits of ketogenic diets with time-restricted eating keeping our bodies young and brains sharp.

With empathy and compassion, we both respect to eating regime of people refraining from judging. Nevertheless, we both have become assertive in not allowing others to impose their diets on us. Like him, some of my family members, friends, and colleagues eat differently. I do my best to cater to their needs.

With this friendly approach, they also support my diet. For many years food never becomes an issue in my circle as I set clear boundaries communicating my requirements and understanding their needs. Both Dr. Bruno and I see food as a health matter, not politics, beliefs, or ethics.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

Here is my personal experience, which might give perspectives to readers over 50 years old.

Here’s How I Keep Lean Muscles While Lowering Visceral Fat After the 50s in 7 Steps

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