> The drink comes in a bottle about the size of a 5-Hour Energy shot. It's clear and has no smell. The taste, however, burns like rubbing alcohol. It caused our eyes to tear. We gagged, loudly.
> Still, after a few minutes, our stomachs ached. A flavor like nail polish remover lingered on our lips long after drinking and was only extinguished with ice water.
Like: when you say "ketone" you mean what kind of ketone/ketone ester...? My first thought when they complained about it tasting like nail polish remover was that if it involves acetone, it is nail polish remover.
Second, I wonder what this would be doing to metabolism of other carbs... I've read that using these ketone esters without decreasing carb intake might actually make things worse from a certain perspective, metabolically speaking...
When taken with carbs, as was done in the athlete studies, performance output increases because the body has access to both types of energy. The ketones are used first, protecting the glucose for later use.
My understanding is that many elite-level athletes can still achieve ketosis while consuming a significant amount of carbs (around what most people would probably consider normal intake) because they're training so much and burning so much glycogen.
What happens when it's an average person who doesn't have the same energy expenditure and metabolic efficiency as an elite athlete?
Here is my personal "this will make you an uber human and you'll code like Linus Torvalds" trick: whipped cream. Skip lunch, and instead drink 2.5 dl (adjust according to body mass) of 40% fat whipped cream. You'll kind of feel disgusting and almost nauseous for 10 minutes afterwards but then you'll have amazing energy for eight hours or more. Awesome for times when you need to deep study some complicated topics.
Yes, this is a big part of why people like ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting. Avoiding carbs, and initiating a state of ketosis, means your brain is fueled on ketones -- many people subjectively like the feeling.
You can already buy KetoKaNa and similar products on amazon, so I don't see how this is any different, nor innovative.
The article hints to studies, but so far I have not heard of anyone combining ketone esters with carb rich diets. Typically they are only used to get you through the slump in ketone production when you first start the keto diet.
It seems this would have been a natural evolutionary path if ketones were meant to co-exist with carbs. Why is it that your body shuts off ketone production with carbs present? Why not keep them both available. Circumventing this without studying the effects first may not be wise.
If the graph on their website is to be believed, then it (ketone esters) should be a lot more potent than ketone salts. I have tried KetoCana and I didn't notice any cognitive difference, or much of a difference in ketones as measured by my Ketonix (although that measures breath acetone, not blood BHB, and probably not super accurately).
Sort of! You can enter ketosis through IF and keto diet (we run WeFast, a big facebook fasting group, and I fast 36 hours every week).
What's special about HVMN Ketone is that you can get into ketosis with just a drink. And it lets you maintain carb levels at the same time, unlike keto diet & IF, which is a big plus for the sports performance gains.
Can you provide the research or documentation proving that this drink will immediately get you into ketosis? How long does it last? Are you actually just faking out ketone strips for some period of time?
Can I eat carbs every day but drink this and stay in ketosis? That seems really unlikely.
The graph on their website (if to be believed) shows a comparison between their ketone ester and a ketone salt.
Also, if I remember correctly, ketone esters were originally developed for use in rebreather SCUBA diving. The concentration of oxygen makes seizures much more likely. Since ketogenic diets are useful for preventing seizures, the military wanted a "ketogenic diet in a pill".
A ketogenic diet stimulates your body to produce ketones, which seems preferable to drinking something which tastes like "rubbing alcohol" with a "nail polish" aftertaste.
I've done Keto several times, and while the results were always fantastic the hardest thing is that 3-4 day period where you need to watch what you eat to enter ketosis, one false move can reset your progress and really discourage you; however for me once I'm in ketosis I'm pretty disciplined at keeping it up.
If this drink can get me into ketosis quickly and allow me to maintain it by following the regular diet then I'm sold. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out.
Good to hear about your experiences with keto. I do cyclic keto, going into ketogenic diet for periods and then coming back to "normal" (still relatively low carb). Cyclic keto has shown benefits, and it doesn't have the trade-offs of going full keto.
For people who struggle with symptoms of keto flu (ie, those ~3 days ramping up to the keto diet, and blood glucose is low but the body is not yet producing ketones in high levels) the drink could help alleviate this as people transition.
I've been going in the opposite direction. Last year I've bought an aeropress coffe device to improve my coffee at work. Last week I've started to use a manual grinder so I can use high quality whole beans. My morning and after lunch coffees are my personal rituals.
A chewable coffee looks completely detestable. :-)
I've tried the Go cubes. I wouldn't really think of them as a replacement for a nice cup of coffee. They're more "I need this caffeinated burst and I don't want to deal with going to a coffee shop or grinding/brewing/etc". More like a way to get effects of coffee or an energy drink without coffee.
It's sort of like how Soylent Coffiest is a coffee alternative with other things that reduce the downsides of coffee, but it's "meta coffee", not exactly coffee.
By the way, another alternative to preparing your own coffee by hand that's good is Sudden Coffee. It's an instant coffee that's like a freeze dried pour over.
Our GO CUBES chewable coffee is super popular ^_^ I personally still love a fine coffee/espresso, but what's nice about GO CUBES is they let you keep coffee in your pocket - take it anywhere, no stress no spills, etc. I end up popping a couple GO CUBES throughout the day, they are great to have around. And it's got precise 50mg caffeine + 100mg l-theanine + b vitamins, for better performance profile than normal coffee.
However today's news is much more exciting -- HVMN Ketone! It's a game changer for the sports performance world, and has v interesting implications beyond bc it affects metabolism in a fundamental way.
As someone who practices IF semi-strictly, is there any benefit to taking this while maintaining a low level of carb intake? Or is it's ideal use case for someone who wants to get carb intake levels higher?
> Still, after a few minutes, our stomachs ached. A flavor like nail polish remover lingered on our lips long after drinking and was only extinguished with ice water.
Sounds great.