Source: WebMD
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. The diet is gaining much traction in the last five years as a weight loss practice for some, and health practice for others.
The diet is basically low-carb/high-fat with moderate protein. The type of fat is important in this deal, and being in “ketosis” is actually the goal. Only a blood test or urine test or breath test will indicate ketosis. This diet requires that many foods be cooked by the participant, as the foods needed to create the “fat burning result”, are rarely available in the proper ratio in the “real world”.
Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fueling brain function. However, if there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood, a state known as ketosis, leads to a reduction in the frequency of epileptic seizures. The reduction of epileptic seizures is how this diet was found 40 years ago.
Here is what L.W. has to say about this diet. She & I have worked together, and I have been lucky enough to witness her progress as she found and practiced this diet:
“I have been eating ketogenically for six months now. I have lost 20 pounds, many inches, my indigestion reflux is gone, and my anxiety is down. Prior to that, my eating habits were good, (low fat/low carb/clean food), along with moderate exercise. But I couldn’t move the needle—so frustrating and discouraging when I was trying so hard!
The Ketogenic diet takes time to adjust and adapt to, but after that it is not that difficult and you can still eat delicious food.”
Suggestions from LW in the link below:
Denise’s
2 Cents:
It is human nature to hope there may be The One Answer to weight loss or for achieving a health balance. The ketogenic diet may in fact help some people greatly, after so many other ways have failed them. And yet it is not to be messed with.
It changes your body chemistry as much as any pill or prescription can. (And that, in fact, points to the often-overlooked reality—food, in all its combinations, can be as powerful as medicine.) Acknowledging these realities should at least serve as a Red Flag before you attempt a ketogenic diet.
Some of you have struggled for years as a “sugar burner,” and have many challenges with regard to weight loss or other health issues. If you are willing to work with an informed doctor/internist and possibly a nutritionist, as well as having a complete blood work-up, you can likely make changes. Please do your research and create that kind of team to inform and guide you.
For the rest of us, we should begin to notice what foods help us feel energized (carbs/fats/proteins), and what foods do not. Every person is different.
Denise Gaylord
Personal Trainer & Challenge Coach
Provincetown USA