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Lisa Mislevy is a registered dietician, and an adjunct professor of integrative medicine at George Washington University. Anna Sherman is a culinary school-trained baker. Together, they own Keto Katz — a sugar-free, low-carbohydrate, and gluten-free bakery with locations in Clinton Township and Rochester Hills.

Keto Katz’s constantly evolving menu features ketogenic diet-friendly versions of traditionally carby treats: pizza, lasagna, cheesy potatoes; and sugar-free desserts like pies, cheesecakes, cinnamon rolls, and more. Instead of wheat-based flour, Mislevy and Sherman use almond and coconut flours, and replace sugar with alternative sweeteners like sugar alcohol (erythritol), allulose, and stevia.

While the bakery is only a couple years old, its owners go way back — about 30 years, when the two first became friends as 7th-graders.

“We’re both Italian,” says Mislevy. “And we had very strict parents, so we were kind of only allowed to hang out with each other.”

Together, they attended Chippewa Valley High School, and after graduation, Mislevy went off to Central Michigan University to study biology, while Sherman attended culinary school at Macomb Community College. Afterwards, they each got married and soon became mothers. They kept up their friendship and loved to cook together; regularly hosting one another’s families for dinner.

However, as time went on, both women noticed a change. “With each pregnancy, we just gained more and more weight,” says Mislevy. By the time each had given birth to her second child, both women had reached obesity. Mislevy had also been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the thyroid, which can lead to weight gain.

She signed up for Weight Watchers, and Sherman quickly followed suit. The two supported each other along the journey and over several years, they both shed significant amounts of weight through diet and exercise. To date, Mislevy has lost 75 pounds, while Sherman has lost 150.

“Losing weight is complicated and involves emotional, behavioral, and nutritional work,” Mislevy says. “That was definitely the beginning of my understanding of how impactful nutrition is.”

She returned to school in 2015 and obtained a master’s in nutrition and dietetics from Eastern Michigan University. She began working in Beaumont Hospital’s Integrative Medicine department, until she was furloughed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Around then, Sherman was also furloughed from her job.

With extra time on their hands, the two continued one of their favorite pastimes — preparing food together. That inspired bigger ideas — what if they wrote a cookbook together, or started a business venture? To build an audience, they began doing livestreams on social media that showcased their recipes, which quickly proved popular.

They settled on a name, Keto Katz, and expanded to baking out of their homes under cottage law. Finally, in 2022, they opened their first brick and mortar in Clinton Township on Garfield Road. Their niche concept — a keto bakery — quickly attracted a niche audience, which allowed them to open a second location last October in Rochester Hills.

“People have come in, in tears, saying, ‘My kid is an epileptic who manages seizures with the ketogenic diet, and now they can have a cupcake,’” Mislevy says. “Or, ‘My kid has celiac disease [which produces an autoimmune response to gluten], and now they can bring cookies to school to share with their friends.’”

The ketogenic diet, or keto, causes a person’s body to enter a state of ketosis by consuming a low amount of carbohydrates and higher amount of fats. Ketosis occurs when the body burns fat to create energy instead of glucose, the latter of which we obtain by consuming carbohydrates. Doctors to control seizures for some people with epilepsy and it has been to help manage diabetes.

Studies have also shown the keto diet to provide additional benefits to some people in the short-term, including weight-loss and improved blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol, .

However, so far, studies have painted a limited picture — most were short-term, relied on small groups, and didn’t include a control group. Additionally, the results weren’t significantly different from other traditional weight loss methods. The school recommends those interested in dieting consult their physician, as the keto diet may be beneficial to some people who haven’t had luck with other weight loss methods.

“Going into ketosis is helpful, but I’m not a cookie cutter dietician where I think ‘I love keto, so everyone needs to be keto,’” says Mislevy. “I do think certainly no one needs large amounts of sugar like the American diet typically provides. There’s sugar in lunch meat; there’s sugar in sauces. It’s in places where it shouldn’t even be.”

The Western diet, which often includes hefty portions with lots of sodium and added sugars, is considered a major contributor to the uptick in obesity — from about 30% of the U.S. population in 1999 to over 40% in 2017. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses associated with obesity, are among the leading causes of death nationwide.

“I think people get really caught up in, ‘Oh, my parents are overweight,’ or, ‘Diabetes runs in my family,’” Mislevy says.�� “But our message is that you have control. You decide what you want your health to be, and you can control it by what you put in your mouth.”

Keto Katz has locations at in Clinton Township and in Rochester Hills. For more information, visit .

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