Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects

ketogenic is a term for a low-carb diet (like the Atkins diet). The idea is for you to get more calories from protein and fat and less from carbohydrates. You cut back most on the carbs that are easy to digest, like sugar, soda, pastries, and white bread. (Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects)

The diet works by depleting the body’s sugar stores. As a result, it will begin to break down fat for energy. This leads to the formation of molecules known as ketones, which the body uses as fuel. When the body burns fat, it might result in weight reduction. (Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects).

There are various varieties of keto diets, including the Standard Ketogenic Diet and the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet.

Who Uses ketogenic diet?

People use a ketogenic diet most often to lose weight, but it can help manage certain medical conditions, like epilepsy, too. It also may help people with heart disease, certain brain diseases, and even acne, but there needs to be more research in those areas. Talk with your doctor first to find out if it’s safe for you to try a ketogenic diet, especially if you have type 1 diabetes. (Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects).

Helps with weight reduction

The ketogenic diet may aid in weight reduction in a variety of ways, including increased metabolism and decreased hunger.

Ketogenic diets include meals that fill you up and may minimize hunger-stimulating hormones. Following a keto diet for these reasons may lower hunger and promote weight reduction.

In a 2013 meta-analysis, Over the course of a year, persons who followed ketogenic diets lost 2 pounds (lbs) more than those who followed low-fat diets, according to 13 independent randomized controlled trials.

Similarly, another evaluation of 11 trials found that participants who followed a ketogenic diet lost 5 pounds more than those who followed low-fat diets after six months.

Epilepsy

Ketogenic diets have helped control seizures caused by this condition since the 1920s. But again, it’s important to work with your doctor to figure out what’s right for you or your child.

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It helps with acne.

Carbohydrates have been linked to this skin condition, so cutting down on them may help. And the drop in insulin that a ketogenic diet can trigger may also help stop acne breakouts. (Insulin can cause your body to make other hormones that bring on outbreaks.) Still, more research is needed to determine exactly how much effect, if any, the diet actually has on acne.

Cancer

Insulin is a hormone that lets your body use or store sugar as fuel. Ketogenic diets make you burn through this fuel quickly, so you don’t need to store it. This means your body needs – and makes  less insulin. Those lower levels may help protect you against some kinds of cancer or even slow the growth of cancer cells. More research is needed on this, though. (Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects)

Has the potential to enhance heart health

When following the ketogenic diet, it is critical to eat nutritious meals. Some data suggest that consuming healthy fats like avocados instead of unhealthy fats like pig rinds might assist improve heart health by lowering cholesterol.

According to a 2017 review of animal and human research on the keto diet, some persons observed a considerable decline in total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or bad cholesterol, and triglycerides, as well as a rise in high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good” cholesterol.

High cholesterol levels can raise the risk of cardiovascular disease. Because a keto diet lowers cholesterol, it may lower a person’s risk of cardiac issues.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

This is when a woman’s ovaries get larger than they should be and small fluid-filled sacs form around the eggs. High levels of insulin can cause it. Ketogenic diets, which lower both the amount of insulin you make and the amount you need, may help treat it, along with other lifestyle changes, like exercise and weight loss. (Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects)

It may help to protect brain function.

Some research, such as this 2019 review trusted Source, suggests that the ketones produced by the keto diet have neuroprotective properties, which means they help strengthen and protect the brain and nerve cells.

As a result, a keto diet may aid in the prevention or management of illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease.

However, additional study into the effects of a keto diet on the brain is required.

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Diabetes

Low-carb diets seem to help keep your blood sugar lower and more predictable than other diets. But when your body burns fat for energy, it makes compounds called ketones. If you have diabetes, particularly type 1, too many ketones in your blood can make you sick. So it’s very important to work with your doctor on any changes in your diet.

Other Nervous System Disorders

These affect your brain and spine, as well as the nerves that link them together. Epilepsy is one, but others may be helped by a ketogenic diet as well, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and sleep disorders. Scientists aren’t sure why, but it may be that the ketones your body makes when it breaks down fat for energy help protect your brain cells from damage.

Exercise

A ketogenic diet may help endurance athletes — runners and cyclists, for example — when they train. Over time, it helps your muscle-to-fat ratio and raises the amount of oxygen your body is able to use when it’s working hard. But while it might help in training, it may not work as well as other diets for peak performance. (Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects)

Side Effects

The more common ones aren’t usually serious: You might have constipation, mild low blood sugar, or indigestion. Much less often, low-carb diets can lead to kidney stones or high levels of acid in your body (acidosis). Other side effects can include the “keto flu,” which may include headache, weakness, and irritability; bad breath; and fatigue. (Health Benefits of Ketogenic Diet and Side Effects)

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