Measuring important health markers like insulin, triglycerides, HDL, and more—not just LDL cholesterol—gives a much clearer picture of your health and disease risk. Many doctors don’t routinely test for these, but you can now order comprehensive lab tests yourself to get real data and track your progress.

In a self-experiment, eating a sleeve of Oreo cookies daily alongside a keto diet lowered LDL cholesterol by 71% in just 16 days—more than double the effect of a high-dose statin drug. This was done as a dramatic experiment to show how adding carbs can powerfully impact cholesterol, especially for lean people on keto. The message isn’t that Oreos are healthy, but that context and individual responses really matter.

With new tools and lab tests, everyone can access and understand their own health data. This empowers you to make smarter choices, personalize your health journey, and be less dependent on “one size fits all” advice.

Poor metabolic health doesn’t just lead to diabetes or heart disease—it’s also connected to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and even conditions like autism and Alzheimer’s. Improving your diet and metabolism can have wide-ranging benefits.

It's often hard to get all the nutrients you need from food alone, especially omega-3 fats, so quality supplements can help support heart, brain, and immune health. Always choose well-sourced, minimally processed products for best results.

The best way to improve your health is to stay curious, try different approaches, and track how you feel and what your lab results show. You don’t have to be a scientist—just be willing to experiment thoughtfully and learn from your own data.

A strict carnivore diet (all animal foods) has helped some people with severe gut conditions like Crohn’s or colitis when nothing else worked. This may be less about the meat and more about removing other foods that irritate the gut, showing the power of elimination diets for certain health problems.

Large studies blaming red meat for health problems often overlook other lifestyle factors and are not very reliable. For many people, meat can be a healthy, nutrient-dense food, while processed foods high in sugar and starch are much more strongly linked to poor health.

Emerging research suggests artificial sweeteners like aspartame can cause problems such as anxiety that can even be passed to future generations, as well as affecting gut health and possibly raising the risk for heart disease. Choosing natural sweeteners like stevia or monk fruit, or simply drinking water, may be safer.

People with obesity or diabetes often see improvements in cholesterol and other health markers on a ketogenic or low-carb diet. However, lean individuals doing keto are more likely to experience large increases in LDL cholesterol, so it's important to monitor how your body responds.

Modern medicine often focuses on treating symptoms of diseases (like heart disease or diabetes) instead of addressing the common root causes, such as poor metabolic health and insulin resistance. Improving metabolic health by focusing on diet, exercise, and lifestyle can help prevent or even reverse many chronic conditions at once.

People respond very differently to diets like keto, vegan, or carnivore, depending on their body type, genetics, and health status. Some people see big improvements in health markers, while others may have negative effects, such as cholesterol levels shooting up on keto if they're already lean and healthy. Personal experimentation and tracking your own results is key to finding what works for you.