What is the Keto diet, and is it worth trying?

Keto, a ketogenic diet is a new diet trend in the US. Its low carb and high fat and adequate-protein diet and that mean you don’t need to only eat salad when you are on diet!! Is it safe and worth to try? let’s check the details below.

Health-conscious Eating and Diets

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates.

A good example here is the Keto diet. Studies suggest that the ketogenic diet is a low carb, high fat diet can help you lose weight and improve your health! The keto diet involves significantly reducing and switching your carbohydrate consumption with fat. The reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis.

Ketosis is good. It is a natural metabolic state. When your body doesn’t have enough carbohydrates, it produces ketones out of fat, which is burnt to fuel your body. So, in short, your body switches from burning glucose, or sugar, as its primary source of fuel to burning fat as its main fuel = weight loss!

Is the Keto Diet Good or Bad?

The Keto Diet is trendy!

Fact: Everyone has a certain amount (normally low) of ketones in their blood, once the body enters a state of ketosis, the amount of ketones in the blood increases.

How do the ketones get into your blood?

Fat is broken down in the liver into ketones. This happens regardless of whether you are on a diet or not. Ketones are a useful energy source for organs such as the brain. Some people, when in a state of ketosis, have reported that that they feel sharper mentally.

As well as helping you burn fat and lose weight ketosis reduces the feeling of being hungry. It also enables you to maintain muscle.

There are other health benefits to the keto diet. Some doctors believe it can help children with epilepsy by reducing the amount of seizures they have.

Other research suggests it can reduce heart disease and help people with type 2-diabetes and metabolic syndrome. In-fact being in ketosis can help normalize blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes.

However

The ketosis diet is not recommended for people with type 1 diabetes. This is because it lowers blood sugar levels, so for people with type 1 diabetes, this reduction in blood sugar levels without proper insulin adjustments can cause Diabetic ketoacidosis, which can be very dangerous!

So if you have type 1 diabetes and want to lose weight, speak to your GP about diets that are suitable for you!

Ways to try for beginners

healthline.com suggested “A Detailed Beginner’s Guide to Keto” .It’s basically similar to the Atkins and low carb diets. There are several versions of the keto diet. The standard (SKD) version is the most researched and most recommended.

• Standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This is a very low carb, moderate protein and high-fat diet. It typically contains 70% fat, 20% protein, and only 10% carbs.
• Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD): This diet involves periods of higher-carb refeeds, such as 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 high carb days.
• Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): This diet allows you to add carbs around workouts.
• High protein ketogenic diet: This is similar to a standard ketogenic diet, but includes more protein. The ratio is often 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs.

Conclusion

Food and diet trends such as the keto diet are here to stay and have been through the five stages to reach the dizzy heights of being classed as a trend and not a fad! And are probably going to be around for quite some time!