The Keto Diet: 3 Things to Consider
The keto diet has a peak in popularity once every few years, especially among the stars. Now, it may very well be one such period. We talked to nutritionists about the benefits, features and dangers of this type of food.
Keto diet implies a low carbohydrate diet with the fat exceeding and middle protein content in the diet. The main question is where to get energy if there are not enough carbohydrates in the diet. When excluding them from the diet we get an adaptive response. The body is forced to break down fats with the formation of ketone bodies. This process is called ketosis.
“Doctors have found that with ketosis, the frequency and intensity of epileptic seizures are significantly reduced – in some cases, even by 50%. Also one of the side effects was a significant loss of weight. Keto diet therapy is used to treat children which have drug-resistant epilepsy form.
Researching has been going on since the 30’s of the last century. When appropriate drugs began to be used to treat epilepsy, enthusiasm for the keto diet subsided. At the moment, ketogenic diets are in many ways the last resort if anti-epileptic drugs turned out to be powerless.
Whats the big craze about keto diet?
It sounds intriguing: I will eat fatty foods and lose weight.
No starvation, no carbohydrates, and no need to count calories. To get a quick fat burning effect during diet, without starvation, breakdowns and brutal appetite?
Many have a desire to try such a food, out of curiosity and interest. Stars who have been promoting the keto diet over the years used its milder version with a more extended list of products: for example, with a sufficient amount of vegetables, savory fruits.
When you eat a normal amount, gradually, it is no longer considered a keto diet and ketosis is not called up. Once the diet consists of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, which should be followed for a long time, it creates a healthy lifestyle and assists in achieving an ideal physical shape.
What do they hide from you?
A ketogenic diet excludes a number of food groups and the nutrients they provide. Like many restrictive diets, it requires mandatory monitoring by a nutritionist and prescribing essential vitamins and minerals. The mistake of ketodiet fans is that during ketosis the body burns mostly fat from food, not accumulated over the years.
It must be noted that the only way to force the body to decompose reserves is a calorie deficit. On traditional ketogenic diets, 70–75% of the
daily calories value should be obtained from fats and about 5% from carbohydrates only. This means that you can consume up to 20 – 30g of carbohydrates a day. For example, an average-sized apple contains about 25g. You just may have to forget about a few apples, bananas, bread, pasta, sweets and so on.
To live in such a hard regime is quite difficult normally, a large list of products automatically go under the restricted list.
Cons vs pros
A few days on the keto diet can really lose weight. The number of side effects like constipation, nausea, vomiting, kidney stones and changes in blood lipids make this diet just as dangerous to health. A sharp restriction of carbohydrates (glucose) in the diet leads to a state of hypoglycemia and to a periodic change of mood.
A significant decrease in fiber intake in the body (vegetables and fruits), necessary for normal micro-flora, causes disruption of the normal make up of the gastrointestinal tract.
Due to the specific selection of products, there is no need to sharply limit the caloric intake for weight loss. Therefore, if you like fatty foods (meat, fish, avocados, nuts), then on this diet you will feel better than with a balanced but low-calorie diet.
