Life's Best Medicine Podcast · Dr. Brian Lenzkes

Episode 267: Dr. Ken Berry

·1 hr 11 min·4 clips

Berry says every heart-attack patient he checked had abnormal fasting insulin, even when LDL was normal.

1. Life's Best Medicine Podcast episode 267 centers on Dr. Ken Berry and the proper human diet. 2. Dr. Brian Lenskis hosts Dr. Ken Berry, a physician and author whose work on keto, carnivore, and metabolic health drives the discussion. 3. The episode asks whether removing ultra-processed food, sugar, and starch can restore metabolic health more effectively than standard advice. 4. Berry says he works on a farm, does interviews, writes books, and writes blog posts while trying to help people understand diet-driven disease. 5. He argues that about 90% of health problems are caused by diet and that stopping “ultra-processed junk” can improve chronic conditions. 6. Berry says he first approached keto as a weight-loss tool, then noticed changes in shoulder arthritis and other health problems. 7. The conversation links that shift to basic physiology, including inflammation, high blood sugar, and high insulin. 8. Berry says humans are born with a “default setting” for good health and then become unhealthy through years of poor feeding and harmful habits. 9. Lenskis agrees that stress can push metabolism down and that the body is often trying to protect itself. 10. The hosts discuss fruit, honey, and the idea that ancestral diets were mostly animal foods with seasonal plant foods. 11. Berry describes a patient who stepped on the scale at 278 pounds and later used low-carb eating and Health Code meal replacements to lose weight and improve energy. 12. He says fasting insulin can detect pre-diabetes 10 years before type 2 diabetes and before A1C rises. 13. Berry says a healthy fasting insulin is under 10 and possibly closer to 5, while a value around 30 indicates hyperinsulinemia. 14. He argues every primary care doctor should order fasting insulin for overweight patients, patients with high blood pressure, and patients with belly fat. 15. Lenskis adds that a Colombian study found fasting insulin was associated with about a 700% increased risk of heart attack. 16. Berry says he wants emergency departments to check fasting insulin alongside lipid panels in acute myocardial infarction cases. 17. Berry says LDL and total cholesterol are poor guides by themselves, and he prefers triglycerides and HDL as more useful lipid markers. 18. He says some newer particle tests remain experimental and that fasting for three days can double LDL, which complicates interpretation. 19. The tone is conversational, technical, and blunt, with Berry and Lenskis speaking as clinicians comparing notes from practice. 20. People interested in low-carb medicine, metabolic labs, and diabetes prevention will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting light entertainment or diet skepticism may skip it.

As heard by us

A blunt, patient-story-heavy case for lifestyle change over small fixes.

Dr. Ken Berry's visit lands as a blunt argument for why metabolic care often gets stuck in tiny fixes. The central point is straightforward: when someone moves from donuts and worsening numbers to keto or carnivore, the shift can be dramatic, not gradual.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a blunt, clinic-style pitch for keto or carnivore over "1% medicine," press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Life's Best Medicine Podcast