What’s Harming Your Mitochondria?
When you’re younger, your mitochondria are well protected by your body’s natural defences. As you age, that protection fades. The older you get, the faster your mitochondria deteriorate and become dysfunctional.
Mitochondrial dysfunction has the most significant impact in high energy-demanding tissues and organs like your brain, heart, and muscles.
Studies show that brain cells in people over 70, on average, contain 50% more mitochondrial damage than brain cells in middle-aged adults.
So what is it that affects oxidative activity in your cells? What choices increase or decrease the damaging oxidative load in your body?
Right at the top of the list of factors is your DIET.
What you eat can make or break the health of your mitochondria.
Your mitochondria are nourished by certain foods and harmed by others. So you could say that a healthy diet is one that supports mitochondrial function and prevents dysfunction.
Most people who eat a primarily processed food diet are burning carbohydrates as their primary fuel. Burning carbs for fuel shuts down your body’s ability to burn fat. This is a major reason why so many people find it nearly impossible to lose weight and keep it off.
When your body is burning primarily carbs for fuel, it creates excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and secondary free radicals, which damage cellular mitochondrial membranes and DNA.
When you eat a low net carb diet (total carbs minus fiber) with adequate protein and a high amount of quality fats – or a cyclical ketogenic diet – you can reach a state called “nutritional ketosis” in which your body burns fat as its primary fuel, instead of sugar.
In ketosis, your body regains its metabolic flexibility to burn fat for fuel and your liver creates water-soluble fats called ketones that burn far more efficiently than carbs.
This metabolic state reduces the creation of ROSs, helping to protect your mitochondria from damage.
Why a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet May Be Your Mitochondria’s Best Friend.
One of the most effective strategies you can implement for boosting your mitochondria – and your overall health; is to teach your body to burn fat through ketosis.
‘Clean burning’ ketones create far fewer reactive oxygen species and secondary free radicals to damage your cellular and mitochondrial DNA, membranes and proteins.
The action of ketones in the body also mimics the lifespan-extending effects of calorie restriction or fasting, including optimal glucose metabolism. This can be very helpful if you’re working on maintaining healthy blood sugar levels.
But as beneficial as a ketogenic diet is for your mitochondria, it’s not recommended to stay on it for an extended period of time.
Once you’re able to burn fat for fuel, it’s best to switch over to a cyclical ketogenic diet, or feast-famine. At that point, you begin cycling in and out of nutritional ketosis by upping your carb and protein intake once or twice a week.
Surprisingly, by periodically “pulsing” or consuming a higher carb intake – say, 100 or 150 grams of carbs opposed to 20 to 50 grams per day – your ketone levels will dramatically increase, and your blood sugar will drop.
After a day or two of this feasting, you then cycle back into nutritional ketosis (the low-carb, high-fat “fasting” stage) for the remainder of the week.