People like Attia live in a parallel universe where there are healthy populations on Earth that eat no carbs and East Asia doesn't exist. My Japanese is good enough now to explain to my wife's active octogenarian grandparents why rice is going to give them heart disease and diabetes.

In all seriousness, the world of online nutrition is a nasty and insane place. There's a lot of dogma and cognitive dissonance in something that borders on religion among the followers of gurus like Attia. If you're simply looking for an objective explanation of science rather than an ideology, look elsewhere.

To my knowledge Attia has never claimed a low-carb diet is right for everyone, rather quite the opposite.

> the world of online nutrition is a nasty and insane place

Attia would agree with you, and not just regarding online nutrition, but nutrition as a whole. He started NuSi [1] not to promote his low-carb lifestyle, but to promote independent nutritional research, since there's clearly something wrong with what we're doing now and the motivations of government- and industry-sponsored research are questionable at best.

[1] http://nusi.org/

There's a lot of scientific evidence supporting a ketogenic lifestyle, distinguishing this movement from fad diets and Attia from a Guru status. If you're interested I would recommend the following book: http://amzn.com/0983490708

Better would be peer-reviewed journal articles. A lot of books have a tendency to promote the views of the author over providing a balance of information.

Here is a short list of both author's peer-reviewed research papers on the topic. http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com/research/

Interesting. Their two-week adaptation time is consistent with what I noticed in myself. I don't do the diet this strictly. I simply commented to a trainer that I have never been able to successfully work out hard- meaning weight lifting an anaerobic interval training- and lose weight simultaneously.

He suggested I try working out while fasting. Just don't eat 3-4 hours before working out, and have a high quality protein 'meal' (I drink a shake) after the workout.

So far it's been working for me. And I've been working out since I was a young teenager- some three dozen years now.

I have no background in science, and was totally sucked in by one of Gary Taubes' books precisely because of that. A lot of these authors are incredibly biased and happy to filter science to you in a way that's profitable for them. Volek and his Superstarch is someone I have little respect for. If you haven't come across it, and you're willing to listen to a different viewpoint, I really recommend http://carbsanity.blogspot.com Have a search for Attia, Taubes, Volek etc and you may find some surprises.

See also Prof Timothy Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports science, also a marathoner and ultra-marathoner. He struggled with his weight and pre-diabetic status until himself switching to a ketogenic diet.

http://www.runnersworld.co.za/nutrition/novel-dietary-ideas/

He doesn't say a ketogenic diet is right for everyone, rather that some people are very sensitive to carbs ("carbohydrate-resistant") and would be best served avoiding them.