Hey guys, today I’m going to cover the incredible popular Keto Diet. But, before we get into the Ketogenic diet, let’s break down some very simple nutrition basics.
There’re three major macro nutrient groups that we’re gonna be paying attention to : Proteins, Fats & Carbs.
These are nutrients that you find in the foods you eat every single day. If you look at Ketogenic Diet, the no. of these nutrients will be like, 75% of Fats, 20% of Proteins and only 5% of Carbs.
If you switch from your standard diet to a keto diet, what happens inside of your body?
Your body deals with this very low carb consumption in two ways. Firstly, it enters a state called Ketosis. Secondly, Gluconeogenesis.
So, we are going to talk only about the Ketosis here, which shifts your body’s energy source to a primarily fats. Which basically means that it breaks down fats into something known as Ketones, hence Ketosis and then uses those for energy. Simply put, your body begins to burn fat as its primary energy source, and moves away from glucose, which is a carbohydrate.
The process of going into Ketosis does take a few days, and during those days, people experience some adverse side effects such as, brain fog, irritability, nausea, GI discomfort, which is simply called as “Keto Flu”.
Keto Diet for Weight Loss :
The Keto Diet is good for weight loss and this happens through two important mechanisms. First, since you’re using fats as your primary energy source, you’re burning a lot of stored fat. Second, because fat is very satiating, makes you feel full, when you eat a high fat content meal, you actually don’t want to eat as much.
Therefore, you limit the amount of calories you take in throughout the day.
A lot of people are surprised that when they start the Keto Diet, that they lose weight very quickly. But that’s a little misleading because the majority of the weight loss initially comes from water loss, not fat loss.
For those of you seeking long-term weight loss, the Ketogenic diet is not super sustainable.
Beneficial for Type 11 Diabetes :
A Keto Diet really shines is in Type 11 Diabetes. Because when you have Type 11 Diabetes, you have insulin sensitivity issues. You have high sugar content in the blood, and research has shown over and over again that the Ketogenic diet for Type 11 Diabetes works.
Childhood Epilepsy :
We have to talk about Childhood Epilepsy because that’s where the Keto Diet actually got its roots.
Ketogenic diet can be actually prescribe to children who have refractory epileptic seizures. And what have been found is that once they get into a state of Ketosis, they have a decreased frequency of these seizures. It’s actually proven, that it works in these cases.
The Ketogenic diet has shown some promise in the field of Oncology, aka Cancer. It’s not ready to be a prime time cancer treatment just yet, and the research doesn’t fully support it to be a preventive measure for developing cancer. But what we do know is that some promises there, and more research needs to be done.
Some Potential Harms :
- Nutritional deficiencies from limited diet
- Increase in “BAD” (LDL) Cholesterol
- Kidney Issues
- Bone Issues
- Even increase of some certain cancers when you’re overeating foods like processed or red meat.
Therefore, higher quality research on the diet is still needed to determine its long-term safety and efficacy.
Soon, I will be back with an another blog post on what to eat or not to eat on a Keto Diet.
Hope this helps.
Till than, you can check out our another post on How to lower cholesterol by yourself?
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Happy Health 🙂