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Episode Description: 

In this episode, we cover the NUMBER ONE thing that people get wrong on a keto diet and the 5 signs you might be doing it wrong, too.

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Podcast Transcription:

Carole Freeman:

Oh hey, we’re live. Look at that, everybody. Hey, do you want to know the number one mistake people make when they’re trying to follow a keto diet? Stick around because this show we’re going to tell you what that is and the five signs that you too may be doing that’s wrong.

Simon:

And my name’s Simon, and I’ve made lots of mistakes in life, so I should be very qualified to talk about mistakes.

Carole Freeman:

I’m so glad you happen to be here today then. Oh, we already got a heart reaction on that one. So I don’t if that’s because they’re in love with the fact that you make mistakes or just that you’re here, but… Or maybe.

Simon:

Maybe it’s a family or an ex. Like yes, I can verify, he makes mistakes.

Carole Freeman:

Or maybe just the topic, who knows. Let us know what you’re giving the heart for. So hey everyone. Welcome to Keto Chat LIVE. I’m your host Carole Freeman, I am a board certified ketogenic nutrition specialist. And like Simon said, he’s the co-host here.

Simon:

Yeah.

Carole Freeman:

Do you want to read off the medical disclaimer just so we can keep away the legal department?

Simon:

I’m just doing this so we don’t get fined. This show is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. It’s not medical advice nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure any conditions. If you have any medical conditions, illness, disease, or taking any medications, for questions, just talk to your doctor. For questions or concerns related to any medical conditions you have, please contact your medical professional. We are not a religion, but you can tithe to us.

Carole Freeman:

Oh, yeah, especially on the YouTube there, there’s the super chats, so.

Simon:

A Youb-tithe.

Carole Freeman:

Youb-tithe, yeah. Well, we’re definitely answering any questions for people that pop in and a super chat there. So we’ll totally derail whatever we had planned and answer live questions for the right super chat people, so.

Simon:

Well, it’s been a really positive week or two for ketogenic theology, if, I guess you call it.

Carole Freeman:

Really?

Simon:

Well, there was the study that came out that you talked about, about a couple of weeks ago. And then there was just a lot of articles I saw come across the news. Forever, they were saying ketogenetic diet, don’t do it. Your legs going to fall off. You’re going to lose your toenails, man and then you won’t be able to find them because your eyes will go blind. And then now, there just a lot of evidence, lot of new studies and lots of amazing doctors. Tim Ferriss had a… his podcast had Dom D’Agostino and he was going off about it and there’s just a lot of more evidence and it’s becoming more mainstream, so here we are, [crosstalk 00:02:36] with the mainstream.

Carole Freeman:

Well, that’s good. All the social medias are listening to you now, and they’re starting to show you the more positive things. They’re like, all right, he didn’t fall for the ones that said it’s making to make your toenails fall off. So let’s give him some good information, so.

Simon:

Well, yeah, it’s just more and more, seems to the media is catching up to you, Carol. You’re a visionary. You are ahead of the media.

Carole Freeman:

I did. I was the one who saw all of this before. I invented Keto. I’m the pack leader for all this, so, I was.

Simon:

You’ll get a statue, you should get a statue in town and then in a hundred years from now, a new diet will come along and they’ll tear down your statue.

Carole Freeman:

Because I was offensive about something, I’m sure. Hey, those of you listening, watching, we can see your comments. So let us know, like, do you have any… are you frustrated with any symptoms of keto? Side effects? Like constipation, leg cramps, headaches, keto flu, anything like that? So let us know.

Simon:

Are you losing toenails or a leg.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Have you ever lost a toenail?

Simon:

Here to you.

Carole Freeman:

This is interactive, so we love to know that you’re here. Tell us where you’re joining us from and, or what kind of symptoms you may be having that make you struggle on keto.

Simon:

Technically, if you lose your whole leg, you’d probably lose the toenails too. I’m just saying. But again, this is not meant to diagnose or treat anything medical advice or what have you. Okay.

Carole Freeman:

Well you’ve heard of phantom limb syndrome, right? What if there’s phantom toenail syndrome? What if you lose your leg, but you still have to clip your phantom toenails?

Simon:

What if there’s phantom ketogenic diet where you stuff your face with donuts, but you think you’re keto. You feel like I’m keto, even though you’re not.

Carole Freeman:

Well, some of my clients have talked about how they start… They dream about eating high carb stuff, which is actually a hallmark of people in recovery. They have dreams of-

Simon:

Wow.

Carole Freeman:

… people quit smoking or quit drugs, they’ll have dreams of using. And so for some reason, that’s a phantom, eating is in your dreams, so.

Simon:

Interesting. And then do they wake up scared? Oh my God, I broke my diet and they’re like, oh no, I didn’t.

Carole Freeman:

Yes, yes. Yeah. Then they’re afraid that they made an insulin spike in their sleep and they’re never going to be able to lose any weight again. So, it’s going to be all right. It’s actually a good sign.

Simon:

Well, it goes to show you, we can turn anything into an addiction.

Carole Freeman:

Carrie said she’s going to dream about fried potatoes, so.

Simon:

Yeah, right?

Carole Freeman:

Well, how have you been doing Simon? What’s new in your world? Besides making mistakes and.

Simon:

Just ready to get back into comedy. I’ve been writing tons of material, performing wherever I can, got more gigs coming up. I’m hoping Washington State, they’re here, they’re at 50% capacity. And then they’re talking about going back down to 25 and I just really hope they don’t. And yeah, just really excited about getting back into comedy, working on launch a new website, really finally committing to take my social media seriously because I don’t really. I mean, I’ve been in comedy for 15 years and I don’t promote. I think I’m maybe like 12 tweets, 17 Instagram posts, and I’ve made four posts on my face.

Simon:

I just I’m 43, dude. We played outside. We rode bikes. We didn’t tweet each other. I have to. It’s the number one thing that has held my comedy career back is I don’t really do much social because I read books and I play chess and I have friends and I go for walks and I engage in the world, that’s the world, world.

Carole Freeman:

And now that the real world.

Simon:

So, I’m now changing that. It’s all changing. I’m making a social media plan and I’m going to start tweeting.

Carole Freeman:

Well, Carrie apparently likes your new hair color.

Simon:

I think she’s talking to you. Me?

Carole Freeman:

So this is funny. Maybe because it’s not up, maybe it looks like a different color, but this is totally natural. This is all my real hair color. If you look closely enough, there’s a few grays in there, but.

Simon:

Yeah, that’s new. The grays are new. Thank you, Carrie. Really appreciate it.

Carole Freeman:

Thank you for noticing. No, actually the funny thing is, I think she’s from the future. This is weird because tomorrow I am going to totally get my hair redone. So Carrie’s watching from the future. I’m going to go like super white girl, balayage, ombre, summer blonde. So we’ll see what I look like. So she’s from the future. Thanks Carrie.

Simon:

Carrie, are you Carrie, Carrie, are you future Carrie?

Carole Freeman:

I think it’s future Carrie.

Simon:

Oh, it’s future carry bro.

Carole Freeman:

That makes me not nervous about getting my hair done then, because it’s going to be… It should be a big radical change. So apparently, future Carrie.

Simon:

And she’s a prophet. Carrie have prophesied by power of all tickets, okay.

Carole Freeman:

Future Carrie says we should buy lottery tickets too. Okay. All right.

Simon:

Maybe I should. I barely do, but.

Carole Freeman:

What about Bitcoin? I’ve heard that’s going to be big in the future. Should we do that?

Simon:

Let’s just turn this into like a ask Carrie segment, no?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, Carrie from the future. What’s going to be the healthy keto diet book of the future, Carrie.

Simon:

Keto Chat LIVE printed.

Carole Freeman:

Okay.

Simon:

Well, we should write a book, never mind. We are getting off public.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. For the place here. No, we shouldn’t write a book? Okay, yeah. Not, you ask Carrie. Okay. But thank you for being here and supporting Carrie.

Simon:

Thank you.

Carole Freeman:

I don’t have anything too exciting to check in on. It’s warm and sunny here in Phoenix and, I mean, I don’t want to political but that.

Simon:

How’s that new?

Carole Freeman:

Exactly. Everything is open fully. We have no restrictions. I don’t want to get too political here, so.

Simon:

Well, maybe I’ll fund you.

Carole Freeman:

There you go. Okay. Don’t buy Bitcoin and write a book. Okay.

Simon:

Okay. Good. We got this.

Carole Freeman:

All right. Cool. Awesome. My sole inheritance from my mom, nobody in my family has any money, except my mom was smart enough to buy one Bitcoin a few years back and that’s going to the one thing… Unfortunately, she had four children though, so I don’t know how you split up one?

Simon:

What’s it worth now? $30,000 or something?

Carole Freeman:

Last I heard like 50 grand or something, which in my family that’s more money than anyone else has, so.

Simon:

Your mom’s great. That’s not the only inheritance. She’s probably going to leave you a carton of Marlboros and snapped it.

Carole Freeman:

No, no. Home-rolled cigarettes, that’s all I.

Simon:

Home-rolled, yeah, okay.

Carole Freeman:

Had-rolled with love-

Simon:

Yeah. You roll great.

Carole Freeman:

… mom cigarettes. I don’t know what that brand would be. Yeah. So.

Simon:

Didn’t she come out to a comedy show once I think we did?

Carole Freeman:

Oh, yeah, tons of them. Yeah, she did.

Simon:

I remember that.

Carole Freeman:

She’s waiting for a vaccine. I haven’t seen her in almost a year.

Simon:

I can get her a deal. I know your guy.

Carole Freeman:

Okay. Okay.

Simon:

I know your guy. Yeah. Ukrainian. He’s got the hookup.

Carole Freeman:

Oh boy.

Simon:

I’m joking. I’m joking.

Carole Freeman:

It’s going to make her really happy too, right?

Simon:

Really? Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s get salty.

Carole Freeman:

Okay. Yeah. Let’s have some salty talk here. So if you’re just joining us or if you’ve been following along this first 10 episodes of our Keto Chat LIVE are all about the 10 rules to follow, to get started with keto for maximum results. And so today we’re on easy rule number four and that is all about salt. So you need to get adequate salt and it’s probably a lot more than you think. Again, I teased you at the beginning of this show saying that this is the number one thing that I see everyone getting completely wrong, either they’re completely missing it or they’re just doing it wrong. So everyone knows though that you’re supposed to mind your electrolytes like, oh, kiddo, make sure you’re getting your electrolytes. Most people know that they need to be aware of that, but they’re getting it wrong, they’re totally getting it wrong.

Simon:

So what supplements do we need?

Carole Freeman:

So it turns out that sodium is king, and when you get that right, you don’t need all these other supplements. So you don’t have to do potassium and calcium and magnesium. For most people, when they get the sodium dialed in, they don’t need all the other supplements. And so people are taking all these concoctions or supplement powders, pills and all this kind of stuff that have very little sodium in it, and it has more potassium and some other electrolytes in there, but until you get the sodium, right, you’re still going to have all these symptoms that we’re talking about.

Simon:

But isn’t too much salt bad for you?

Carole Freeman:

You would think so. Oh my gosh. The last 50 years, we’ve pretty much been told the opposite of everything that we should be doing nutrition and health wise. So salt is one of those things that we’ve been told is bad for us. We should fear it and we should limit it. The truth is that studies show that not only has that sodium restriction been ineffective at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, it may actually… So restricting salt may actually increase your risk for cardiovascular disease. This is the part that blows people’s mind, right? I just saw Simon’s head spin around. It’s Carrie’s asking if the salt that naturally occurs in celery count, it’s not enough. And I’m going to cover all of how much people need and why more… Even if you’re not even following keto, why more is going to be better. So sodium is an essential mineral. The major thing we’re getting from salt is sodium, and it’s an essential mineral just like calcium. So how many of you are not afraid of calcium, right?

Simon:

I have a fear calcium. It’s been since I was a youth.

Carole Freeman:

That might because it’s used to make some things that, oh, we won’t to talk about, but every woman is like, oh, more calcium. I should take calcium pills. Calcium is really good for me. But sodium, we fear that. But sodium is just the… is equally safe and good for us as calcium is, but unfortunately, it’s had a bad PR marketing manager. Sodium’s been thrown under the bus.

Simon:

But why is your doctor always telling the elderly people do not eat sodium and stuff?

Carole Freeman:

Again, okay. We can’t cover all of it, but I’m going to plug this book, which I make no money off of, The Salt Fix. So this book is Why the Experts Got It All Wrong and How More Might Save Your Life.

Simon:

That looks like cocaine, are you sure that’s salt? I wouldn’t know. I wouldn’t know but I’m just saying that.

Carole Freeman:

What you’ve seen in movies, right?

Simon:

Yeah.

Carole Freeman:

In real life, it does look like a pile of salt, but I can see on my reflection there, that it looks like something else.

Simon:

It’s got to be the reflection of why I thought that, it must be the reflection, must be the only reason.

Carole Freeman:

So Simon, get a copy of this. I know you’re saving your money, but anyone else, I highly recommend this book. This is not a keto book at all. It’s just about the whole story of how we were told it was bad for us and it’s tons and tons of studies that are cited in here. Let’s see, where’s the appendix? There’s this many citations, like that’s how many research articles are cited in this book.

Simon:

Wow.

Carole Freeman:

So if you want the full story, get the book really, really good. But just one example, a 2011 study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that people eating two grams or less, so that’s equivalent about a teaspoon of salt, two grams or less of sodium per day experienced a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular events. So cardiovascular events are heart attack, stroke, those are the major ones.

Simon:

Not fun events, not like a picnic, or a carnival event.

Carole Freeman:

Not the thing you’re going to go on Eventbrite and get a ticket for.

Simon:

Exactly. Don’t need an event planner. It’s not a good event.

Carole Freeman:

Yes, those are bad events, okay.

Simon:

Sure.

Carole Freeman:

So this, our research article found that those eating five grams per day, so that’s the equivalent of almost three teaspoons of salt, which is double the amount of sodium recommended by groups like the American Heart Association. So let me say that all again. So people, basically, they compared people eating less than two grams to people that were eating five grams per day. And the people that were eating, compared to the people eating five grams, the people eating less salt had a significantly higher risk. So basically the low salt intake had really high risk of cardiovascular events, the bad things, not the fun ones.

Simon:

Not fun events.

Carole Freeman:

And, yeah, the people that ate really high sodium intake had a much lower incidence of cardiovascular disease. So yes, and it acknowledges that this is double the amount recommended by groups like the American Heart Association. Now, we don’t even have time to get into the fact of how political the American Heart Association is and how they make their money off of selling their approval stamp on putting on products that aren’t actually really good for your health, so.

Simon:

Why don’t we get an approval stamp we can sell? We should get a Carole approval stamp.

Carole Freeman:

There’s got to be a designer watching this sometime, and like somebody build us a submerge.

Simon:

No, no, no, just the stamp. You just stamp then like you’ve been stamped, and then they pay us.

Carole Freeman:

That reminds me fun, little, totally unrelated story, that what the heck? We’re just having fun, right? So I used to sell cars years ago, and one of the finance managers had this stamp. I’m not going to say… I’ll short, abbreviate, the words that were on it, but one of the finance managers had a stamp. I don’t know if they make these anymore, the kind you put the ink and then you stamp it on the paper.

Simon:

Of course they make goes. You ever been to a nightclub?

Carole Freeman:

Oh yeah, that’s right. Oh yeah, I remember when we used to have those around.

Simon:

You’ve never been to a four year old birthday party, come on Carol.

Carole Freeman:

Do they stamp you?

Simon:

You’ve got to get out more.

Carole Freeman:

You go to a four year old birthday party and they’re like over 18 [crosstalk 00:16:49].

Simon:

I don’t know. They do arts and crafts. I’m assuming. I’ve never been to a four year old birthday party, but.

Carole Freeman:

I was like, what kind of a four year old birthday party you go into that has a bar, that’s checking IDs. Those parents are like. I’ve been to some little kid parties that you need to have.

Simon:

Medical disclaimer, we do not promote the use of giving beer to four year olds on Keto Chat.

Carole Freeman:

This stamp pad F, U, U, F, and F, only in the word was spelled out each time. And because sometimes it’s frustrating when you’re trying to, not only like, hey, buying a car is a pain in the butt, but on the other side as well, try to help people buy a car, it also can get really frustrating, so that’s.

Simon:

And so you stamp the customers that wouldn’t buy?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. We wanted to, we would joke about it that you should write on the… yeah. I mean, I think I just want that in general in life because there sometimes it’s people like, I feel like… I mean, I love most people, but sometimes you run into somebody that you’re like, here’s your stamp.

Simon:

Yeah. I’m sorry. We’re out of that kind of bagel.

Carole Freeman:

Oh yeah.

Simon:

Oh wait, we can’t have bagels on Keto, I forgot, but I just.

Carole Freeman:

It’s the stamp for the Karens in the world, so, yeah. So we’ll back to salt.

Simon:

Go back to salt.

Carole Freeman:

Enough about… Oh, here, Nancy’s got a comment here about us. Stamps are very popular in card-making a scrap-booking community, okay.

Simon:

There you go, right?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. I know my mom was into that for a while. I was too… I don’t think they have any foul words on the stamps for those though, but that might [crosstalk 00:18:25] in the middle.

Simon:

You were doing card-making and scrap-booking?

Carole Freeman:

I used to, yes. I used to be a domestic garden variety housewife [crosstalk 00:18:33].

Simon:

But the master goddess.

Carole Freeman:

Well, I wouldn’t say that, but.

Simon:

Okay. I take it back, sure.

Carole Freeman:

Scrap-booking, card-making that kind of stuff.

Simon:

Nice.

Carole Freeman:

All right, back to salt. Okay, so let’s.

Simon:

Back to salt, back to salt. Back to salt. Okay, here we go. On the topic, here we go.

Carole Freeman:

Nancy, can you make us a card about salt, actually make a little packet that has this emergency salt. That would be a fun one.

Simon:

Yeah. We’ll walk around with a salt packet. You’re going to get arrested, but like I swear it’s salt.

Carole Freeman:

Make a little card hammer with it and it’d be like break in case of emergencies. [crosstalk 00:19:07] card, that would be so cute.

Simon:

Okay. So, but why do we need more salt on keto then if we’re doing that?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Great question, right? And also just that study, I just mentioned as well, that was in the American Medical Association Journal, that was just looking at people not on low carb or keto, that was looking at just people on a typical diet. So the reason that we need even more. So best health outcomes at five grams a day and that what they looked at there. So keto people need even more than that is because when insulin is low and there’s a bunch of hormonal changes that happen that basically the short answer is that our kidneys release a lot more sodium in our urine, then we do like eating a high carb diet. And so we need to replace that, and daily, so there’s no banking up. You can’t just drink a gallon of salt today and then not have to have any for the week. So it has to be replaced daily.

Simon:

What if you don’t get enough?

Carole Freeman:

Oh my gosh, you’re going to have some horrible side effects that I’m going to talk about in great detail here. So you’re going to have terrible side effects. Most of what people experienced as the keto flu are symptoms of not enough salt, and also even if you get through the horrible side effects, if you just put up with them, you’re going to be robbing your bones of minerals. Okay. So nobody wants to get osteoporosis, more common in women than men, unfortunately, but so our body’s backup storage place for minerals is in our bones and we’re constantly breaking down our bone all day long and building it back. But if we’re losing more salt, then we are taking in, guess what that means? You’re depleting your bone minerals.

Carole Freeman:

That’s what leads to osteopenia then osteoporosis. And so even if you suffer through the leg cramps and the headaches and the constipation, if you can put up with that, you’re depleting your bones because that’s where your body’s going to go to try to maintain the level of sodium in your blood. So electrolytes are basically minerals that need to exist in your blood all the time or you die. And so sodium is one of those that’s in our blood. And if it’s not maintained within a really narrow range in our blood all the time, we die. So your body has all these backup mechanisms to make sure you don’t immediately die. So if you’re not consuming enough salt in through your mouth, your body’s going go to its backup reserves, which is your bones. So not good things basically, if you don’t [crosstalk 00:21:39].

Simon:

What if you do a [crosstalk 00:21:39]. Yeah, don’t die, don’t die.

Carole Freeman:

No, they’re everywhere. We’ll do it.

Simon:

Yeah. Try not to. What if you’re doing intermittent fasting. Let’s see you’re doing a fast all day and you’re going to eat at night or you’re doing a 24 hour fast, you do salt also or is that going to throw you out of the fast?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. So typically people do best. If they’re doing their fasting period, water and salt. Typically, most people offering out there, it can be a very controversial issue about what’s true fasting or not. We’ll put that on a future topic, but like salt and water typically are the things that most people do really well with. I’m going to write that in my notes about intermittent fasting for a future topic.

Simon:

Okay, good. Good, good, good.

Carole Freeman:

Back in my day, we just called it skipping breakfast, but now it’s a trendy marketing term.

Simon:

Okay. I still don’t understand why more extra salt on keto. If we need salt, what are we getting? We’re getting salt from carbohydrates? What is we eat bread all day? There’s no salt in that, is there?

Carole Freeman:

So comparing the two, right? So on keto, our kidneys are releasing a lot of salt. If you tasted your pee, it would be very salty. But when you’re,

Simon:

How did you hear about that? No, I’m joking. That’s [crosstalk 00:22:52]. No, why? Why?

Carole Freeman:

So when you’re eating high carbohydrate, your insulin is higher and a lot of other hormones and that causes your kidneys to retain salt. You hold on, you keep more in your body. And so if you tasted keto pee versus regular carbohydrate pee, the keto pee would be very salty, so.

Simon:

Testes say that.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, so we need it… Well, and also, but, even if you’re not on keto, it turns out, I mean, looking at that one study I cited and a whole bunch of other ones like this whole book that we need more than we thought we did anyways, right? So even people eating high carb probably will do a lot better with a lot more sodium intake than they’ve been having. On keto, comparatively, just it’s basically boils down to the fact that that insulin is lower keto because it’s not processing carbohydrates and we’re losing more sodium in our urine than we are on a high carbohydrate diet.

Simon:

So what if somebody comes… Okay, I’m asking the tough questions today.

Carole Freeman:

Oh, good, good.

Simon:

Today we ask the tough questions on the Keto Chat LIVE.

Carole Freeman:

Finally.

Simon:

Okay. What if somebody comes along and says, because you need to add more salt, that’s proof that keto is not what you should be eating naturally. It’s not natural. If it was natural, my body would know and adapt and blah, blah, blah, right? What would you say to that person?

Carole Freeman:

Let’s see. So actually, most research now is pointing to the fact that we just need a lot more salt than we thought anyways, and so the symptoms are showing up when we’re comparing… When we were eating a high carb diet and low salt. Okay. So that study talked about how most people eating two grams or less. So up until recently, that’s what the government recommendations were, keep your salt at less than two grams a day. So basically, high carb before, we were under eating salt anyways, and we didn’t have the symptoms because there were masked, because high insulin was causing our body to hold on as much salt as possible, right? So basically it was just masking the fact that we needed more salt anyways. And so on keto, it’s going to make those symptoms more pronounced that we wouldn’t see otherwise.

Carole Freeman:

So that’s my best answer for that one, is that basically you’re going to have symptoms, hey, how about those cardiovascular events that we were talking about? You’re going to have those cardiovascular events from two lowest sodium on a high carb diet, so, is that natural?

Simon:

What do you wear to a cardiovascular event?

Carole Freeman:

Is that natural?

Simon:

Okay.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah.

Simon:

What’s the… Never mind.

Carole Freeman:

Here’s also a fun little story as well. So there was a time in the past where my mom joined me on keto and she’d had leg cramps every night of her life since she was like 13 or 14 years old. Woke her up in the middle of the night, Charley horse leg cramps, long before she did keto, right? 13 years old, long time ago. And her husband as well, they’ve been married for over 30 years and same thing, every night of his life, just waking up with excruciating Charlie horse cramps in his legs.

Carole Freeman:

So I taught her my keto protocol, which is about how to get enough salt. First time in her life. She no longer has leg cramps. Her husband as well, who wasn’t doing keto with her. He got on the salt train as well, because he’s like, well, if it took away your leg cramps, let’s see if it did for me as well. Also for him, 60 some years old, first time in his life that he’s not waking up every night with leg cramps. Okay. Speaking of that, my mom’s actually… She’s calling me right now, so she’s [crosstalk 00:26:39].

Simon:

Mother can intuitively hear you.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, ears were burning that was talking about her, so.

Simon:

Well, now that they both don’t have leg cramps, do they still do have anything that they bond over? I mean, you want to have things that you can bond over in the relationship.

Carole Freeman:

I know. It’s been a rough couple of years in their marriage now that they just like, what do we have in common any more?

Simon:

They’re like, let’s just bring back the leg cramps so we can at least have something in common.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. So that’s just to show that even people aren’t on keto, they have symptoms of inadequate, salt intake. They just show up more pronounced for people on keto, right. I wouldn’t say waking up every night with massive Charley horse leg cramps means that that’s normal and then keto is somehow more unnatural.

Simon:

So how much is enough? How much would you say that someone should do?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Well, let me start with the key symptoms that people are going to experience. These are the signs or symptoms that you’re not getting it up on keto. And then once you identify those, then that ties into how to know how much salt to get, because it varies greatly from person to person. And the thing you have to know first is the symptoms, and that way you know if you need more. I see Nancy’s got… she says her salt is 520 milligrams per quarter teaspoon. How many teaspoons should I have? So this is where you get a combined US measurements and the metric system. So milligrams is the metric system. So 520 milligrams to get to two grams is 2000 milligrams. And that means that you need about four.

Carole Freeman:

So four times quarter teaspoon, that means one whole teaspoon is up to two… That’s only two grams though, Nancy, right? And so that research article I quoted said that you need like five grams had the best, better health outcomes than only two. So that means you need 10 quarter teaspoons. If you divide 10 by four, that’s two and a half teaspoons, Nancy would get you to five grams of salt… sodium, sorry, sodium specifically. So, it’s math. Hey, I, luckily I like math. So if you need help with math, let me know.

Simon:

You’re smart.

Carole Freeman:

Thanks.

Simon:

Where to to go on the whole metric, non-metric there, that was [crosstalk 00:29:06].

Carole Freeman:

The only way I know the metric system is because of this whole salt equation. So it’s a different kind of powder, that is the reason I know how to [crosstalk 00:29:15].

Simon:

I know about grams, but that’s just because of my twenties.

Carole Freeman:

Well, it’s the same, probably the visual. I bet it weighs the same. I don’t know. I’m going to guess salt weighs more. I don’t know. It was one weigh more than the other?

Simon:

Are there any drug dealers out there that can weigh in, no?

Carole Freeman:

Hello? How much does it [crosstalk 00:29:32]. Actually, a gram is a weight measurement. So volume, yeah. How much is it anyways? Next.

Simon:

We’re nailing this, we’re killing it on this all.

Carole Freeman:

We got so far. Oh, I love it when we get all the reactions in one show. So, so far we got a thumbs up, we got a heart. We’ve got a wow face. We haven’t got a haha face though. So apparently we’re not very funny.

Simon:

We’re not. We’re horrible. We’re the worst. We’ll work on it.

Carole Freeman:

I’m okay if we don’t get the angry face though. So, well, maybe you can get angry at the information that we’ve been told that was wrong. I would be angry about that. So that’s my goal before we end the show is to be able to get all five of the, yeah.

Simon:

We have your mom calling. That’s a big one. We’ve got all. We’re getting all our bases covered. Okay, good.

Carole Freeman:

Top symptoms you need more salt. Okay. The first two are a hundred percent. If you have these symptoms, this means you are not getting enough salt. And this actually happens, this is keto or not keto, because this is what we were just talking about, right? So constipation. If you’re not having a daily bowel movement, specifically on keto, but also in your regular life, give this a try. You need more salt. Number one, problem, leg cramps. Okay. I already told you the story about my mom, my stepdad. If you’re having leg cramps on keto or in your life in general, but again, we’re not giving medical advice to anybody, we’re not treating or curing anything.

Simon:

We would never.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, so those top two. Leg cramps, constipation, just meaning you’re not having a daily bowel movement, more salt. And I’ll talk to men about how to get more, how much should you get? Okay, so that’s the top two. Number three, headache. Now, headaches can be caused by a lot of different things, but if you don’t have enough salt, you may experience headaches. So I always guide my clients to, if they’re having a headache go for a quarter to a half a teaspoon of salt in a glass of water, take it like a shot. And if the headache was caused by lack of salt, then that… Your headache will go away within like five or 10 minutes. So that’s how you know if that’s what that’s related to. Number four is number four. I don’t know how many fingers I have, four. If you’re feeling lightheaded or dizzy, that actually is a sign that your blood pressure’s low, inadequate salt. So try a salt shot and see that should get better for you.

Carole Freeman:

Number five is fatigue, in general. Now fatigue can be… This is one of those that can be caused by a lot of things, right? But the more of these, I’ve got six different symptoms for you. The more of these you have, the more indicators you have that, yes, I need more salt. So basically when people are getting enough salt, they don’t feel tired, but if they’re not getting enough salt, they’ve got these other symptoms, they’re going to feel really tired. Also in their workout. So if they’re doing any kind of exercise, they’re going to feel really tired and puny and not able to perform very well. When they get that salt dialed in right then, their exercise capacity is through the roof, they do really well.

Carole Freeman:

And then number six actually is pretty cool, interesting is craving. So sugar, carb cravings, you will have them if you’re not getting enough salt or sodium. Now Dr. DiNicolantonio goes through the whole mechanism in here about how inadequate salt can also be related to insulin resistance and the cravings and things like that. So not enough time today to go into all of that.

Simon:

Dr. DiNicolantonio?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, Dr. James DiNicolantonio, look at that name.

Simon:

Dr. DiNicol sounds like a rapper.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah.

Simon:

Dr. DiNicol.

Carole Freeman:

So six symptoms. I know me trying to coach you over the phone in the past, you had some of these going on, so.

Simon:

I did. I did. I remember for what you told me, which was really interesting is if you take the salt and it tastes really good, like it tastes delicious, that’s your body’s way of telling you that you need salt.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, when you get far enough after you’ve been many months into keto, the salt will taste really good to you. I find in the beginning though, because the taste was not quite used to it, that it may not taste that great right away, and that’s [crosstalk 00:33:47].

Simon:

But then you told me that if I was really deficient, it’s going to taste good, is that true?

Carole Freeman:

It will. But you were far enough into it at that point that it should taste good, yeah.

Simon:

So yeah, just being a typical guy and not listening, is that it? That’s a possibility.

Carole Freeman:

There’s a lot to know. There’s a reason why I start my clients out on a nine week program that has nine weeks of a course material that they go through. There’s so much to know about how to do this right, so.

Simon:

Okay, cool.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. So don’t feel like you’re… I mean, if you’re going to mail bash, I mean, I guess you can do that. It’s not punching down when you’re punching yourself, right?

Simon:

Yeah. And I’ve already stamped myself in the episode, so, maybe we’ll finish with me just punching myself.

Carole Freeman:

I was [crosstalk 00:34:31] the modern day temporary tattoos is stamp on your face, right?

Simon:

Yeah. Right. So you talked about the symptoms, but so how much is enough? Five teaspoons or whatever, five grams you said? or what? how do you know?

Carole Freeman:

Well, the way that I have my clients start is that whatever’s in your food, we don’t count that. I mean, it’s just like, eat whatever tastes good in your food, but in order to get enough salt on keto, you’re going to have to consume it beyond what would taste good on your food. And so I have my clients, the starting place. Some people, this is enough, but most people need a lot more than this, but this is where we start, one teaspoon per day. So for Nancy, that’s this four quarter teaspoons is going to get you right around two grams or 2000 milligrams is one teaspoon additional. And so, most people can tolerate half a teaspoon at one time. So that means you’re going to split that up into two doses, half a teaspoon early in the day, half a teaspoon later in the day.

Carole Freeman:

Lots of different ways that you can consume that. I’ll share some of the ones that my clients have really found that they really like. I mean, it can’t just be in a little tiny shot glass, take it back with a little bit of water and wash it down with some more water.

Simon:

What about a lime? You do a lime? No?

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Yeah. You can put a little salt in a little glass.

Simon:

Oh, look at you. You already have your [crosstalk 00:35:54].

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, I took some before we started because I was feel… I was like, oh, I feel a little dizzy. I’d been out in the sun for a while. So, pour sparkling water into it. Now it fizzes a lot, just chemical reaction. Bill Nye the Science Guy edition. So just leave it a lot of room so it can fizz, but the carbonation and the citric acid that are in a lot of carbonated beverages go well with the salt. So that’s another way some people like put it into some broth, heated up that way. Another one, yes, regular water with a squeeze of lime or lemon. Also, another one that we discovered this morning on my client coaching call is you can do with pickle juice. So just a little bit of a pickle juice, put a half a teaspoon of salt in that and wash that down.

Simon:

I like pickle juice. I think it tastes good. I like pickles.

Carole Freeman:

They like you.

Simon:

Thank you. That means a lot.

Carole Freeman:

This is affirmations and validation, so.

Simon:

Pickles like me because I like myself.

Carole Freeman:

You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone, pickles like you.

Simon:

Yes.

Carole Freeman:

Oh. Okay. So one teaspoon is a starting place. Oh, Nancy’s got a good question here. So this is a common one. What about putting salt in pills or what about also I get clients that are like, can’t I just buy salt pills and take those?

Simon:

Oh, totally, right?

Carole Freeman:

Actually what I found over… So I’m going on six years. Next month is my six year anniversary of this, but what I found is that it works best if you taste it. So several things about the pill problem. So one is I found that you actually have to taste it for it kind of register in your body that this needs to start working. Also, it takes a lot of little pills. If you’re going to make them yourself, that’s a lot of work. It’s just easier to take a half a teaspoon of salt and take it. How much time do you want to spend scraping your salt in those little pills at home and making salt capsules, just to save you from having to drink it. It takes a lot more time. And if you buy the salt pills or salt tablets, you end up having to take about 10 or 20 of those every day and it gets really expensive and it’s a lot of pills to take.

Carole Freeman:

And again, just take a half a teaspoon of salt a couple of times a day. So many reasons why it’s more problematic trying to do it in pills. And so one teaspoon is a starter place. Again, two half teaspoons. If you have any of those six symptoms that I just mentioned, you’re going to increase by half a teaspoon each day that you have those symptoms until the symptoms go away. And that’s what your dose is. Now, everyone has a different amount. I’ve worked with people that one teaspoon is enough, and I’ve worked at people that need six teaspoons a day to get their optimal amount. Lots of different things affect how much you need. One of those is if you’re a chronic drinker of lots and lots of water, you’re going to need a lot more. Typically, the people that I work with that are used to drinking a ton of water, they need about four teaspoons of added salt per day to get no symptoms.

Carole Freeman:

And that’s just because you’re flushing out even more salts from drinking that much water. If you exercise, you need lots more. If you live in a climate that’s really hot and you sweat, you need even more than that. So lots of different reasons and then just individual variation, people need different amounts too, so.

Simon:

Can you go overboard?

Carole Freeman:

You can. And the cool thing is your body’s really, really, really good at getting rid of it. It has an exit door for it. So one of the signs of you… So for example, if you tried to take a whole teaspoon in one shot, you’re going to feel kind of nauseous and you may throw it up if you took enough of it. So that’s one way. But if it bypasses your stomach then it will cause diarrhea within like usually five or 15 minutes, you’ll have diarrhea.

Simon:

Wow.

Carole Freeman:

So that’s why I recommend half a teaspoon at one time. Most people can tolerate that much without any side effects. And if that’s too much for you, if that sends you in the bathroom or makes you feel nauseous, here’s two other strategies. So eat it with food or take it with food, right? So eat a meal, in the middle of the meal, do your salt shot. There, we found that’ll help. It slows down the absorption of it, doesn’t cause as many issues or go with only a quarter of a teaspoon at a time and just spread it out more. We’ve got a comment from Crafty come lately. She corrects herself, it’s Carolyn Simon. This is Evelyn big fan of Simon and keto. I’ve to get back into it, never felt better than when I was on it. Look, you got your fans showing up here. Excellent.

Simon:

Heck yeah [crosstalk 00:40:50].

Carole Freeman:

And then she did say it was… Nancy is one of our other people commenting here. You probably heard me say Nancy. So hello, Evelyn. Welcome. Let’s see. So yeah. So The Salt Fix book. So if you’re somebody who’s working out and he has very specific recommendations in here. I’ll even tell the page number for those of you that want to order the book. It’s on page 136. He’s got very specific recommendations, depending on how hot the climate is that you’re working out in, you need from either half up to two teaspoons, prior to workout and every hour thereafter during your workout. And that’s on top of your normal salt amount. And that salt amount that I just mentioned for workouts, guess what? That’s not for keto people. That’s just everyone that works out, so.

Simon:

Like Gatorade, that has salt in it, right? Electrolytes.

Carole Freeman:

It only has about 200 milligrams of salt. So the way that Gatorade works is that it’s got sugar in it, which causes an insulin spike, which causes your body to retain salt, just like.

Simon:

Sorry what?

Carole Freeman:

What?

Simon:

Oh, I used to work out with this guy. He was like a real big bodybuilder and like really smart with that stuff and he used to drink this drink while he was working out because he claimed that it helped give you endurance and everything. It was from Biotest. It was from a bodybuilding and it tasted really salty. I’m just remembering this now, he’d give me to taste, it was really salty type of drink.

Carole Freeman:

Never mind that he was like making it himself as he sweat, like [crosstalk 00:42:28] drink my juice.

Simon:

Yeah. I just drank his juice and it was salty, but other than that… No, it’s a legit. I can find out what is… It’s called a Surge. It was called Surge from Biotest.

Carole Freeman:

It’s probably [crosstalk 00:42:41].

Simon:

Now, if you look at keto, I don’t mean with keto because of the carbohydrates, but it was a really like thing that he used to be into to help keep endurance during hardcore weightlifting, and it was really salty tasting. I remember that.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. There you go, yeah.

Simon:

There you go.

Carole Freeman:

I wanted to add something too, because a lot of times people say like, oh, I can’t eat salty food because I just get swell up and I retain water. But that is when they’re eating a high carb salty food, right? So like those fried foods that you get at the restaurant, they’re very salty and they’re very high carbs. So what happens, the reason you retain salt when you eat those salty foods is you’re getting a huge insulin spike, which causes your body to retain fluids. So it’s not the salt per se that’s doing it, it’s the combination of very high carb, fast food, fried food that has a lot of sodium as well. So that combination is what’s causing the fluid retention for people it’s not the high sodium, so.

Simon:

Okay.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah.

Simon:

All right. Well, anything else or are we done?

Carole Freeman:

Any questions from our viewers there? You’re going to have to write back and let us know what your new found ideal salt amount is. So it takes a lot of experimentation and troubleshooting and refinement.

Simon:

Well, let’s do that and I’ll get back to you. I’m going to start pounding, so.

Carole Freeman:

Okay. I found for the climate I live in, again, I live in Phoenix, Arizona about four teaspoons a day is kind of my ideal amount. But even as long as I’ve been doing this, I’ll forget as well. Right. And I’ll be like, oh, I feel a little dizzy right now. Oh, hey, I haven’t done any salt today. So I see go get that, so.

Simon:

So it’s a good pick me up. And me who’s been intermittent fasting, it’s good to know I can do it during the day to keep me going. Okay. Love it. All right. Keto Carole. Make it happen.

Carole Freeman:

We’re going to keep, it got to be be this one week at a time. Simon, you’ll get going, and then we get you on the right track there and then [crosstalk 00:44:44].

Simon:

I feel safe in your hands.

Carole Freeman:

And Evelyn too, so.

Simon:

Safe in your arms, thank you.

Carole Freeman:

The keto creamery, is that what you’re calling me? Carol keto cradler?

Simon:

Yes Dude. We could sell keto cradles, where you just get held and nurtured and you… nevermind.

Carole Freeman:

Well everyone’s got a good question about what type of salt. So great question. So what I’ve found is, so any kind of salt is fine. However, I found that my clients, the Pink Himalayan salt, I personally like Redmond’s Real Salt that comes out of Utah. one of those types of salts typically tastes better and so people aren’t averse to drinking or consuming it. So whatever kind you have, whatever kind you like is fine. There isn’t a difference as far as the mechanisms we’re talking about what’s going to fix your symptoms better? All of those don’t matter. It’s more about just taste and what you like.

Simon:

Is there any time they want to avoid?

Carole Freeman:

So most table salt actually has a little bit of sugar in it, which is crazy, but it’s a small amount, it’s not going to matter. They say it’s to stabilize the iodine in there, but it’s like sea salt has naturally occurring iodine, it doesn’t need to have sugar in it as well. So I haven’t been able to figure out the real reason why, but it’s also, everything has sugar in it these days. So table salt, like if you’re at a restaurant and you don’t have any salt with you and all you’ve got is that shaker of salt, that’s regular table salt, that it does contain dextrose, that’s going to be better than nothing at all. I remember early on in my keto days going to a restaurant with my son and I’m like kind of getting a little headache and feeling dizzy.

Carole Freeman:

And it’s like, I recognize when I need it. And so I’m sitting there with my water glass at the restaurant and just shaking the salt shaker in there. And the waitress is looking at me like, what the heck is wrong with you? So any kind of salt you’ve got is better than none, but as far as like personal taste a lot of people find they like the Pink Himalayan better, so. And Nancy’s saying thanks for the reminders. Hey, you’re welcome. Glad you’re here, Nancy. Thanks for participating in the poll too.

Carole Freeman:

This was one of the times that Nancy said that she’d be able to attend. So I’m so glad that it worked out for her. So, all right one last call for questions from our viewers, questions, comments. Tell me now if you’re going to go take a salt shot, as soon as you’re done here. If you’ve already had one during the show here, so, all right. Guess what we’re going to talk about next week?

Simon:

What?

Carole Freeman:

Tracking, why weighing and measuring and tracking your food is essential for your success?

Simon:

That’s the hard part dude. Anyone can pour salt in a glass.

Carole Freeman:

Well, oh look, Crafty has got our theme song for this show. Shot, shot, shot, shot, shot.

Simon:

I love it.

Carole Freeman:

Crafty Evelyn. Yeah. So next week, hopefully, I can… all the reasons why I’m going to say tracking is so essential will help boost your motivation to actually give it a try or help.

Simon:

Yeah, I need somebody to boost my motivation. Well, you have tracks for me while you cradle me?

Carole Freeman:

Oh my gosh. That’s a very expensive form of keto coaching that I don’t know that I’m going to.

Simon:

The tracking cradle.

Carole Freeman:

The tracking cradle. And you want me to spoonfeed you as well? Preach you your food and then spit it in your little birdy baby mouth, so.

Simon:

No, I don’t want that. That seems a little [crosstalk 00:48:16].

Carole Freeman:

Okay, I don’t want to say, but, and oh, we lost a viewer with that comment, so.

Simon:

Yeah, I bet, okay.

Carole Freeman:

If I humiliate you enough, then you’ll be like, okay, fine. I’ll track. All right? Is that how it works?

Simon:

I know, you’re track-shaming me. Okay. Well, all right. So I guess if people enjoyed the episode, subscribe to the YouTube channel and you’ll be the first to be notified of new episodes.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. So rule number four today was salt, salt, salt, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot.

Simon:

Shot, shot, shot, so, okay.

Carole Freeman:

[crosstalk 00:48:50] depict symptoms that mean you need more salt. Also, most people, even if you’re not following keto, you probably need more salt too, so.

Simon:

All right, well, this was good. I needed the reminder too. Thank you.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Thank you everyone for watching. We’ll see you next week. Watch the past episodes if you haven’t yet. So, we’ll continue on our series for the top… not the top 10, the 10 rules, the 10 keto commandments to follow to get started on keto the easy way for maximum results. So come back, we’ll see you soon.

Simon:

Bye.

Notes: