The ketogenic diet known as the keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet through which you can get many health benefits.
According to many studies about this diet, we get to know that this diet helps in losing weight and improving health. It provides many other health benefits against cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and diabetes.
What is a Ketogenic or Keto Diet?
The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet, and you will find many similarities in it with the Atkins and low-carb diets. In this diet, the intake of carbohydrates is drastically less, and the fat intake is more.
Ketosis is a state in which the body goes by a reduction in carbs. The body starts becoming incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy while being in this diet. In the liver, this diet turns fat into ketones which supply energy to the brain.
This diet helps in reducing blood sugar and insulin levels. It has many health benefits such as heart diseases, cancer, brain injuries, acne Alzheimer’s disease, Epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.
This diet shifts the metabolism of the body from carbs to fat and ketones. You need to avoid many foods in this diet that might be your favorite and have to be around some specific foods.
Variations of Ketogenic Diets
The following are several versions of the ketogenic diet:
- The Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD): This version of this diet is a moderate-protein, high-fat diet, and very low-carb. SKD includes 20% protein, only 5% carbs, and 75% fat.
- The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD): CKD is a version of the keto diet that involves periods of higher carb, such as having to follow five ketogenic days and then two high-carb days.
- The Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD): In the TKD diet, you can add carbs around workouts.
- High-Protein Ketogenic Diet: In a high-protein keto diet, you can include more protein, and the ratio for different things in this diet is 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs.
Most studies have been done on only standard and high-protein ketogenic diets. Bodybuilders and athletes mostly use cyclical or targeted ketogenic diets. In this article, most of the information is about SKD.
Can Ketogenic Diets Help You Lose Weight?
A ketogenic diet is really helpful in reducing weight, and lowers risk factors for disease, as this is far superior to the other low-fat diet. You can lose weight with the help of this diet without tracking your food intake or counting calories.
According to one study, if you are on a ketogenic diet, you can lose 2.2 times more weight than people that are on a calorie-restricted low-fat diet.
It helps in improving triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels. Another study shows that this diet helps people lose three times more weight than others.
Increased protein intake, lower blood sugar levels, improved insulin sensitivity, and increased ketones are some of the reasons why this diet is better than other diets. That is why this diet can help you lose much more weight.
Does Keto Diets Help to Control Diabetes and Prediabetes?
The reason for diabetes is when there are changes in high blood sugar, impaired insulin function, and metabolism. The insulin sensitivity gets reduced by 75% by this diet.
According to another study, this diet helped people with type 2 diabetes to stop using all diabetes medications.
The study showed the group with higher carbs lost 15.2 pounds while the ketogenic group lost 24.4 pounds. This diet provides important benefits when you consider weight and type-2 diabetes.
The 62% group in higher carbs was able to start reducing diabetes medication, while 95.2% of this diet group were able to do this.
The ketogenic diet boosts insulin sensitivity, reduces fat, and provides significant health benefits if you have type-2 diabetes. You can get many benefits from the use of this diet.
Other Health Benefits Of Keto
The ketogenic diet is good for treating neurological diseases that include epilepsy. According to studies, this diet provides benefits for different health conditions:
- Heart Disease: It is good for treating heart disease and other risk factors such as body fat, blood sugar, blood pressure, and HDL cholesterol levels.
- Treating Cancer: The diet is currently used to treat several types of cancer and slow tumor growth.
- Alzheimer’s Disease: This diet is good for reducing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. It also slows down the progression of this disease.
- Epilepsy: Epileptic children can benefit from it as it reduces seizures in epileptic children.
- Parkinson’s Disease: According to the study, the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease get reduced through this diet.
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: It helps in reducing insulin levels which can play an important role in polycystic ovary syndrome.
- Brain Injuries: According to one animal study, it helps in reducing concussions and helps in recovery after brain injury.
- Solving Acne Problems: Acne problems get solved by having lower insulin levels and eating less sugar or processed foods.
Avoid Below Food
The following is the list of foods that you should avoid or reduce using on a ketogenic diet:
- Sugary Food: You should avoid eating foods that are sugary such as smoothies, cake, fruit juice, ice cream, soda, candy, etc.
- Grains or Starches: Don’t take grains or scratches that include rice, pasta, wheat-based products, cereal, etc.
- Fruit: You should avoid all fruit, except small portions of berries like strawberries.
- Beans or Legumes: Foods such as lentils, peas, chickpeas, kidney beans, etc. should also be avoided.
- Root Vegetables and Tubers: You should avoid root vegetables that include carrots, potatoes, parsnips, sweet potatoes, etc.
- Low-Fat or Diet Products: Avoid eating foods that are highly processed and often high in carbs.
- Some Condiments Or Sauces: You should avoid condiments or sauces as they contain sugar and unhealthy fat.
- Unhealthy Fats: You should limit the intake of processed mayonnaise, and vegetable oils, as they have unhealthy fat.
- Alcohol: You should avoid alcoholic beverages due to their carb content.
- Sugar-Free Diet Foods: Sugar-free diet foods are often high in sugar and alcohol. These can affect ketone levels in some cases. These foods also tend to be highly processed.
Good Food to Eat
The following are the foods around which you should base the majority of your meals:
- Meat: You can have ham, sausage, bacon, chicken, steak, turkey, and red meat.
- Fatty Fish: In this diet, you can have fatty fish such as tuna, mackerel, salmon, and trout.
- Eggs: You can look for omega-3 or pastured whole eggs.
- Butter and Cream: With butter and cream, you should look for grass-fed food when possible.
- Cheese: You can go for unprocessed cheese that includes mozzarella, cream, blue, cheddar, and goat.
- Nuts and Seeds: In nuts and seeds, you can have flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, etc.
- Healthy Oils: You should eat healthy oils that include coconut oil, primarily extra virgin olive oil, and avocado oil.
- Avocados: You can have freshly made guacamole or whole avocados.
- Low-Carb Veggies: Low-carb veggies that include most green veggies, peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc.
- Condiments: If you want, you can use salt, various healthy herbs, spices, and pepper.
Final Words
With this keto diet, overweight people and diabetics can improve their metabolic health. This diet is less suitable for elite athletes or for those who want to gain muscle or weight. Consistency is the key to success.
That is why you will see the benefits of this diet if you are consistent with this diet.