Early appologies for the long essay, but I have a strong opinion on this topic if you can't tell :)

> There's a ton of $ to prevent people from going keto. Why?

I've never really seen this, but you're probably on the right track. In the US, the whole basis of our food system is centered around grains, especially corn. There are a lot of vested interests that want us to keep consuming as much of their product as possible.

> How come you quit keto? Were there effects you didnt like or was it just the inconvenience that you basically cant eat anywhere?

No, none of these things really. In my case, the effects were great. Exactly as advertised. Weight loss, high energy level that lasts all day, no hunger cravings, no mental fog et-cetera. I never had any ill-effects. Everyone is different though, I'm sure not everyone has the same results. I think I 'quit', maybe after a solid 6-9 months or so, just because I reached all the goals I had intended to achieve when I started.

They were 1) get myself off of a long time sugar addiction 2) improve my energy level, and reduce the feeling like I needed to take a nap halfway through the day 3) some mild weight loss (I wasn't obese or anything, but carried around a solid 15-20 lbs. I did not need). Healing my life long acid reflux was an unintended but welcome side effect :)

You right, it can be inconvenient to eat out when you are practicing strict keto, but the idea you "can't eat anywhere" is a little aggressive. Back then I was traveling a lot, and I learned to pack myself meal kits to get me through the day. If you encounter a lot of gas stations, practicing keto can be very problematic :) Almost everything in there is corn syrup and empty carbs. My gas station go-tos are things like pistachios or mixed nuts, meat & cheese, hard boiled eggs, pickles, or pork rinds if I want something similar to potato chips. As far as drinks, I stick to coffee of water.

You end up reading a lot of nutrition labels, and learn to identify the few snacks that fit into the model. I honestly don't know what the current recommendations are. When I did it strict, I used to shoot for 50 grams carbs and 25 grams added sugar. I definitely didn't achieve that every day, it is pretty difficult honestly. Some days probably consuming more like 75-100 grams carbs.

Fast food is basically just out the window, forget about it haha. Really though, a lot of places have decent salads, and some places you can get your burger or whatever in a lettuce wrap. As far as sit down restaurants, most places have at least a few offerings that are mostly meat and veggies, so once you get into a 'keto rhythm', your eyes automatically scan the menu and lock onto the dishes that satisfy your requirements.

But honestly, you have to be able to let yourself 'cheat' sometimes. You're not going out to eat to be healthy, it's to be social and have fun. So sometimes you gotta just enjoy yourself. A couple cheat meals a week isn't going to derail the whole diet, and if you are too hard on yourself it can become exhausting.

I say I 'quit' keto, but like I said, I still uphold and benefit from the concepts I learned. I'm just not obsessed with staying in ketosis all the time. I eat bread and pasta sometimes, I mean come on, they are delecious! I don't count carbs anymore, but in genereal I try to get the bulk of my carbs from vegetables.

As things like this article and other science come out, there may actually be downsides to trying to doing keto long term. But if your metabolism has spent it's whole life in carb burning mode, I think there is real value to forcing it to switch gears, and for some it can be a difficult process.

But once you get there, staying in the middle, and trying to maintain a 'flexible' metabolism that switches gears easily is really the best place to be in my opinion. A lot of beneficial side effects are triggered in our bodies when we switch from carb burning to fat burning, and at this point that is my goal. We are still leaning more and more about the mechanisms behind it, but I think this style of diet might be the future.