Author Archives: Berto
About Berto
Hi! This is my blog!Class of 2000: The Final Boarding Call Before the Chaos
"Timing is everything!"
Decades ago, as I was stumbling into young adulthood, I used to roll my eyes at the above phrase. It was usually dispensed -- unsolicited -- by older women reflecting on their marriages, real estate, child-rearing, or careers. Regardless of circumstance, "timing" was unfailingly a major deciding factor in their lives' outcomes.
"Whatever", I'd mutter to myself. "I'll create my own timing."
And while I did, at least to some extent, … Read the rest →
My Blood Work After 1.5 Years on a Low Vitamin A Diet: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
It's July 2024, I've been on a low vitamin A diet for 19 months now, and this is my second check-in. My previous blood results were December 2023, 12 months in. I'm 42 years old.
There will be some TMI in this thread. At the end, I link to my diet and a spreadsheet with ALL of my life's blood work, with the ages and diet strategies I was on at those times. My first … Read the rest →
Are Blue Zones Based Upon FRAUD? New Research May Suggest…
Imagine this. You were born in 1925 in a rural area in Italy and have no birth certificate. It's now 1965, so you're 40 years old. You know that pensions are given to those who are 60 or older. You're poor, uneducated, and have just about nothing to lose.
Knowing that you don't really exist on paper, you submit pension paperwork stating you were born in 1905. What's the worst that can happen?
Voila, … Read the rest →
My Keto Diet Review from 2019: Thoughts After Three Years, Now Evolved
December 2025 Update from Mike
This article reflects my thinking from 2019, when I was deeper in the keto world. I’ve since changed my perspective in several important ways:
- I no longer follow or recommend long-term strict ketogenic dieting for most people.
- I still agree with parts of this piece (high protein, low seed oils, watching carb + fat combos), but no longer view chronic ketosis as universally optimal.
- The ketogenic diet severely "undermuscled"
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High Protein Diets Do NOT Cause Kidney Issues: Meta-Analysis
"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
-- John F. Kennedy[1]
Sometimes, no matter how much data you throw at a lie, it just won't … Read the rest →
Soybean Oil WRECKS the Gut Microbiome.. But They Won't Tell You That
For years, the most well-researched members of the diet community have warned of the dangers of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as soybean oil, given their high propensity for inflammation, obesity, and disease. A six month, randomized controlled diet study run in China has given new evidence for those warnings, as a diet high in soybean oil significantly damaged the gut microbiome in participants.[1]
The soybean study scandalBut the real story here … Read the rest →