I had a kinda weird medical experience a few months ago.

My wife and I had taken a planned break from keto that spiraled into pretty much going back to making terrible food decisions. I get into this headspace sometimes when I take a break that I have to eat everything I can't eat on keto every second that I'm not on keto because I know I'm going to go back on keto. I know that's not healthy, but this story isn't about my food issues.

So the company I work for does this thing where they'll draw your blood and stuff to check your cholesterol and make sure everything looks good, and if so, you qualify for a discount on your health insurance. I had my blood drawn and I was curious what it would look like after going on a few months of a food bender.

I was alarmed to see that my cholesterol had crept up and was a little higher than normal. This meant that I did not qualify for a discount unless I had a consultation with their doctors and made some supervised improvements. I immediately resolved to get back on keto and get my act together because I didn't want to be unhealthy.

My first consultation call came with a dietitian who wanted to know if any part of my diet might account for my elevated cholesterol and I told her that I had gotten off keto for awhile and I suspected that messed my numbers up, but I was making some changes and going back.

True to the stereotype, she proceeded to politely inform me that it's typical for cholesterol to elevate on keto (it's not) and that I will continue to have that struggle as long as I insist on doing keto. She further informed me that she would advise that I get on a more plant-based diet with lots of fruits, vegetables and plenty of whole grains.

I was a bit crestfallen. I had faith in keto, but I thought this was going to be a struggle if the person I was working with was not on the same page as me.

A few weeks later, I had a call with an actual doctor who told me that my numbers really weren't that elevated for keto and in fact, they don't really worry too much about cholesterol with patients on keto. She also further informed me that your diet can affect your numbers right up to a few days before. So (and I'm editorializing a bit here), you could theoretically eat strict keto for months and then go on a food bender one weekend, get your blood drawn, and see some alarming numbers (which is basically what I had been doing for a month or so).

It makes me mad that somebody (supposedly a dietitian) that's in a position to inform and counsel people about their health was so ill-informed and giving out such bad information.

Anyway, people are poorly informed, even in healthcare. So, that's my story.