Keto
Diet Benefits
Recently,
the keto diet has become extremely popular for its health benefits such as
weight loss and preventing disease. The keto diet can be hugely beneficial, but
how does it work to provide these benefits?
What
is the Keto Diet?
You
may have heard of the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet. The keto diet
keeps carbohydrate levels low, but instead of ramping up the amount of protein
in your diet, the keto diet increases the amount of fat. A typical keto diet
aims for meals with 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrate. Eating a
high-fat diet can still mean eating healthy. Keto diet menu items often include
seafood, meat, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, and nuts. With the increased
popularity of the keto diet, keto recipes are widely available.
How
Does the Keto Diet Work?
It
might seem counterintuitive that adding more fat to your diet can lead to
weight loss. Normally, your diet is high in carbohydrates, which are broken
down into glucose, or blood sugar, for use as energy. As glucose enters your
bloodstream, your body releases insulin to store excess glucose as fat. The
more carbohydrates, the more glucose. The more glucose, the more insulin, and
the more insulin, the more fat.
The
keto diet takes advantage of the fact that when your meals are high-fat and
low-carbohydrate, there is no insulin spike, and you don't add to your fat
reserves. Instead, fat from diet and stored fat are broken down to ketones
("keto" is short for "ketogenic" producing ketones). Like
glucose, ketones can be used for energy, keeping your body running without
increasing blood sugar or putting on excess fat. The benefits of the keto diet
can be huge.
Weight
Loss
Overall,
the keto diet is an excellent way to burn fat and lose weight. Eating fewer carbohydrates suppresses appetite, and studies have shown that keto diet
participants eat fewer calories overall because of this. Burning fat for energy
can lead to rapid weight loss.
Since
carbohydrate intake is limited, blood sugar and insulin levels are lowered.
This is particularly important for people with type 2 diabetes, which causes a
buildup of glucose in the bloodstream. The keto diet can be used to reduce or
eliminate the need for diabetic insulin injections.
Reduced
Triglycerides
Fat
subunit molecules called triglycerides normally circulate in your bloodstream.
High levels of triglycerides are a significant risk factor in the development
of heart disease. In the keto diet, because fat is being burned for energy, the
number of triglyceride molecules in the bloodstream decreases, reducing the
risk of heart disease.
Improved
Cholesterol
"Bad"
(LDL) cholesterol is another risk factor for heart disease. Too much bad
cholesterol in your bloodstream builds up in your arteries, narrowing them and
causing atherosclerosis, a type of heart disease. The keto diet reduces bad
cholesterol levels while increasing the level of "good" (HDL)
cholesterol in your body.
Summary
The
keto diet provides many health benefits. This diet can not only help you
quickly lose weight, but can also improve your overall health and help prevent
disease.
Keto
is everywhere; it's the new buzzword, the new favorite among those looking to
shed pounds, and the new hate victim of the
food-pyramid-spouting-eat-your-whole grains mainstream medical industry. The
keto diet, while it is not the magic cure-all for every single disease on the
planet, does a pretty dang good job at being the potential causer of healing many horrible conditions. So let's cut
through the science, separate fact from fiction, and look at the benefits of
the keto diet.
Benefit #1: Weight Loss
Okay,
so this one isn't so astounding, but it is one of the most common reasons
people embark on the keto diet. So why is weight loss usually so easy on the
ketogenic diet instead of other regular diets? For all of the following
reasons:
• The keto diet is composed of approximately
75% fat, 20 % protein, and 5% or less carbohydrates. The high fat content and
lack of sugar means diminished cravings, lack of blood sugar swings and binges,
and increased satiation. Increased satiation=eating less. Many people also have
food sensitivities to grains, even gluten-free ones, so eliminating them may
lead to an increased ability to absorb minerals like magnesium and potassium,
which in turn means your body is more nourished and you have fewer cravings
• Ketones. When your blood sugar is running
low, your body turns to its glycogen stores for energy. Typically glycogen
stores house about 2000 calories of "backup" energy for when you run
out of glucose. Like the intelligent machine it is, your body depletes the glycogen
stores and then turns to your own body fat for fuel.
IMPORTANT: The
ketogenic diet is not a free-for-all
eat however much cheese or super low-carb fat bomb treats you want diet. If you
are eating way more calories than you need, you will not lose weight. So focus
on keeping your diet around fatty cuts of grass-fed meat, butter, eggs,
avocados, lots of green veggies and cruciferous, and be modest with the keto
desserts, dairy, and sweets.
A
poorly functioning brain, as you may have already experienced, leads to
lessened work productivity, which in turn means an unhappy boss, lack of job
satisfaction, sugar cravings for energy, and depression. It's a horrible domino
effect. The original ketogenic diet was formulated by Dr. Russell Wilder in the
early 20th century to treat epilepsy. The success rate was phenomenal and it is
still used today to treat epilepsy and other brain disorders. Research also
indicates that ketones are more efficient brain fuel than glucose. (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5102124/)
Benefit #3: Potential Cancer Benefits
One
study showed implementing the ketogenic diet led to a dramatically increased
survival time and slower tumor growth. (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5450454/)
Conclusion
google.com, pub-8577904012707424, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
