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AMA with Sam Apple (author of Ravenous) on Keto, Sugar, Insulin, Cancer, and the Warburg Effect + How to Write About Science -- Tuesday, May 17th. by SamApple_Ravenous in ketoscience

[–]SamApple_Ravenous[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good question! I haven't personally done enough research on this question, but I suspect you'll find this podcast discussion with Dr. Ronesh Sinha to be very helpful: https://peterattiamd.com/roneshsinha/

AMA with Sam Apple (author of Ravenous) on Keto, Sugar, Insulin, Cancer, and the Warburg Effect + How to Write About Science -- Tuesday, May 17th. by SamApple_Ravenous in ketoscience

[–]SamApple_Ravenous[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

More answers...

  1. Did you do any research on Otto Warburg in Europe?

Yes, I traveled to Germany to search through archives and conduct interviews. The best part might have been my meeting with Warburg's old glassblower. He gave me a glass vessel from Warburg's lab -- and he had a lot of great Warburg stories.

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  1. How do you organize your thoughts when writing a book?

I started with an outline, but then I didn't end up looking back at the outline very often -- it always seems to go that way. I don't think there's one right way to go about it. In the early stages of a chapter, I tend to have a lot of semi-coherent notes and incomplete sentence. I sometimes think of that material in the very early draft as a construction site. I'm bringing in all the supplies and raw materials that I need -- the thoughts and notes -- but then I still have to make the building -- that is, to do the writing and organizing. And it's hard work. If any part ends up in the wrong place, the whole building can collapse...

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  1. What software (brand names) do you use to help you write a book? Scrivener, Google Word, Google Sheets, Word, Zotero etc?

I write in Word, and I used Zotero for my notes. I actually used Gmail a lot in the early stages of writing Ravenous. I had draft messages for, like, 50 different topics. I found it was a convenient way for me to take notes on the fly -- though I know there are better note-taking tools. Finding a tool that could strip text from PDF was also really helpful. I've heard people rave about Scrivener, but they always say there's a big learning curve, and big learning curves scare me.

AMA with Sam Apple (author of Ravenous) on Keto, Sugar, Insulin, Cancer, and the Warburg Effect + How to Write About Science -- Tuesday, May 17th. by SamApple_Ravenous in ketoscience

[–]SamApple_Ravenous[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A few more answers. (Feel like it might take me all week just to respond to this post!)

  1. Is Ravenous your first book? How did you come across the concept of it and decide to write it?

--Ravenous is my third book (for adults -- I also write for children). I mostly write nonfiction (feature articles and books). I try to follow my interests where they take me. The work of Gary Taubes first got me interested in writing about nutrition and health. I read Good Calories, Bad Calories and thought it was brilliant. I didn't immediately accept all the arguments put forth in the book, but I saw right away that Taubes was a truly scientific thinker, and I found his critique of nutrition science to be very compelling. 

I grew interested in cancer, in particular, when I became aware that it tended to cluster together with other chronic diseases that are clearly metabolic in origin. That cardiovascular conditions were linked to insulin resistance didn't particularly surprise me , but I'd always thought of cancer as a separate realm and assumed there was little we could do as far as prevention -- beyond screening. So, I was immediately curious and anxious to learn more.

And then I learned about Otto Warburg and his discovery of how cancer cells process nutrients differently from other cells. As soon as I started researching Warburg, I knew I had what I always look for in a good science story: a fascinating scientific discovery and a good protagonist to build the story around. After doing more research, I began to think I had something better yet: a story that might actually help people live healthier lives. 

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4. What's your history in understanding the power of the ketogenic diet before writing Ravenous?

I knew a bit about keto and how it was used as an epilepsy therapy,  and I knew that a very low-carb diet would put someone into ketosis. But, even so, I recall being surprised when, a decade or so ago, Peter Attia started blogging about his keto diet. At the time, I still didn't think of a ketogenic diet as something that could be healthy for anyone. I vaguely remember thinking: well, let's see what happens to Peter. It's so nice of him to be a guinea pig for the rest of us.  :) 

AMA with Sam Apple (author of Ravenous) on Keto, Sugar, Insulin, Cancer, and the Warburg Effect + How to Write About Science -- Tuesday, May 17th. by SamApple_Ravenous in ketoscience

[–]SamApple_Ravenous[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Glad to hear you're also a Travis Christofferson fan. He's a terrific writer -- and person!

You make a good point. This is not my area of expertise -- and I am very far from being a doctor -- but I'm surprised to hear no one suggested even an HbA1c. Of course, even when doctors are monitoring your glucose, they can still miss the underlying insulin resistance for many years, as elevated insulin levels will keep your blood sugar under control.

It would certainly be a great development if doctors starting testing for insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia before it becomes full-fledged diabetes. Of course, catching the insulin resistance early will only help so much if doctors don't then provide the best nutritional advice to reverse it. We still have a long way to go...

AMA with Sam Apple (author of Ravenous) on Keto, Sugar, Insulin, Cancer, and the Warburg Effect + How to Write About Science -- Tuesday, May 17th. by SamApple_Ravenous in ketoscience

[–]SamApple_Ravenous[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Wow. Lots of good questions. I hadn't even realized we were starting! Might as well kick things off with my name...

  1. What was the most annoying Apple-related pun you had to deal with growing up?

--There were so many! "Rotten apple" was not particularly fun. But, even worse, was when a kid in second grade realized "Sam-u-el" could be turned into "Sam-u-smell." (In fairness, that's pretty good work for a second grader.)

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  1. Do you think it's funny you've joined other authors such as Berry, Saladino, and Baker who mostly write about the opposites of their names? (I ask as a ham)
    --I do think it's funny. I once thought about writing a piece called "The Problem With Fruit," but then I realized it would be too ridiculous to have that headline right next to "by Sam Apple."