Whenever you hear about any diet plan, an idea of remaining to starve and leaving all your favorite dishes may pop up in your mind. Well, a diet plan does not always work like that. When it comes to a keto diet plan, you will be delighted with how it works without making you hungry for hours and hours.
The Keto diet remains under debate to its benefits and associated risks. In this blog, we keep our discussion specific to highlight its benefit and risks under the light of studies and researches.
Introduction to The Keto Diet
A ketogenic diet or keto diet is a balanced diet plan based on useful fat, an adequate amount of protein, and a very low amount of carbohydrates. It is low carb but a high-fat diet with a moderate quantity of protein and serves as a good combination to provide nutrients to your body to the individuals having excessive body weight or body mass. The Keto diet includes a whole diet plan based on healthy food items include dietary products, fruits, vegetables, and snacks.
A Glimpse to History of the Keto Diet
This fact may surprise you that the concept of the Keto diet was started for the treatment of epilepsy in young ones and children. Unlike other diet plans, the keto diet does not mean weight loss but is a medicine to treat epilepsy in children.
Hollywood producer, Jim Abrahams, in 1994 established the charlie foundation for ketogenic therapies to propagate diet therapies ( as his son’s severe epilepsy was successfully controlled through keto diet).
Later on, the keto diet undergoes several research for its medical benefits and potential adverse effects. Now it is successfully used as a weight loss diet plan to get rid of stubborn body fat without pulling back your hands from fat-based food dishes.
Why Go for the Keto Diet?
The Keto diet aims to give you such a diet plan that provides more calories from fat than carbs. It helps to burn the additional fat of the body for providing energy, resulting in loss of excess body weight.
How Does the Keto Diet Work?
The keto diet acts by decreasing the sugar reserves of the body itself. So it will lead to breaking down fat for energy. This leads to the production of molecules called ketones that the body uses for fuel. When the body melts fats, it can also lead to weight loss Keto diet compels the body to burn fats for providing calories instead of using carbohydrates from the diet for sake of energy
Benefits of the Keto Diet
- Helps in Weight Loss
Research proves that the keto diet helps to lose weight in many ways that include reducing appetite and boosting metabolism. The Keto diet comprises such food items that fill up the stomach of a person and also reduce the hunger-stimulating hormones. So keto diet has verified the potential for helping with fat burn and weight loss
- Helps To Treat Acne
Keto diet helps to manage acne which is linked with an imbalanced diet and impaired blood glucose levels. Research also supported that high carbs diet may change gut bacteria and impair blood glucose levels that affect skin health. However, a decrease in carb intake can reduce acne symptoms in some individuals.
- Decrease Risk of Some Types of Cancer
Limited study suggests that the keto diet has few benefits in cancer treatment but it requires more study to confirm the role of the keto diet in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
- It can Improve Heart Health
A ketogenic diet includes healthy fruits like avocados that help to improve heart health by reducing cholesterol. A review of studies of animals and humans shows significant drops in levels of cholesterol, low-density cholesterol (LDL), or bad cholesterol.
- It can Improve Mental Health
The Keto diet leads to the generation of Ketone bodies or keto bodies that gives neuroprotective benefits. It means that the keto diet strengthens and protects the brain cells. But this area needs more research to come with more scientific benefits for mental health.
- Potential to Reduce Seizures
The Keto diet produces ketone bodies that help to manage seizures especially in children and younger ones. Research also supports the positive effects of the keto diet for minimizing the symptoms of epilepsy by several different mechanisms.
- Helps To Manage PCOS Symptoms
PCOS is the most common hormonal disorder in females. Researchers on the basis of the pilot study concluded that the keto diet helps to improve many symptoms of PCOS including
- Weight gain
- Hormone imbalance
- Impaired levels of fasting insulin
Risks Associated with the Keto Diet
Even though the keto diet offers various health benefits along with weight loss, continuing the keto diet for the long term can cause health problems or increase the risk for a certain disease. It includes
- Excessive protein the blood
- Fat buildup in the liver
- Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
- Kidney stones,
A Keto diet may also bring some adverse effects known as “ keto flu” . It is common to experience the symptoms of keto flu at the beginning of the keto diet as the body is trying to adjust itself to the new diet plan. The symptoms of keto flu include:
- Low blood sugar
- Constipation
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- No more stamina for exercise
Avoid keto diet if….
We do not recommend a keto diet for the individuals who are experiencing any of the mentioned below medical condition
People with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa
- Diabetic patients, especially those who are insulin-dependent
- People with kidney disease
- People with pancreatic
- Women during their pregnancies and breastfeeding
Final Note
The Keto diet is the smart strategy to get rid of excessive body fat. Although the primary goal of the keto diet is to help you with weight loss it provides many other health benefits. Keto diets may bring some adverse effects to individuals who are already facing any medical problem, so such individuals may get a consultation with their doctor before initiating the keto diet.
