Keto Diet - Food for Thought

The Keto Diet (ketogenic diet) is considered by many to be a sure-fire way to increase weight loss by cutting/eliminating carbohydrates from the diet while focusing primarily on healthy fats and protein. 

 

A no-carbohydrate or low-carbohydrate diet (no/low-carb diet) excludes for the most part, the dietary consumption of carbohydrates, and suggests fat as the main source of energy along with sufficient protein. A no/low-carbohydrate diet of this type causes the body to go into a state of ketosis, converting dietary fat and body fat into ketone bodies which are used to fuel parts of the body that do not oxidise fat for energy, especially the brain. 

 

However, some bodily organs and parts of the brain still require glucose, which is tightly regulated by the liver and adequately supplied by converting glycerol from the breakdown of triglycerides. A no/low-carb diet tends to use mainly animal sourced foods (although it is possible to adapt a primarily plant based diet, or fully plant based diet, for vegetarians and vegans alike).  

 

The ketogenic diet became popular as a therapy for epilepsy in the 1920s and '30s. It was developed to provide an alternative to non-mainstream fasting, which had demonstrated success as an epilepsy therapy. However, the diet was eventually largely abandoned due to the introduction of new anticonvulsant therapies. 

 

In the 1970s, elements of the ketogenic diet (keto diet) were brought to the attention of the masses as The Atkins Diet, also known as the Atkins Nutritional Approach. It was, promoted by Robert Atkins, inspired by a research paper he read in The Journal of the American Medical Association. The paper entitled "Weight Reduction" was published by Alfred W. Pennington in 1958. In recent years, the diet has gone under a number of updates and modifications and is currently known as The New Atkins for a New You. 

 

It has been noted that a common objection to Ketogenic diets is that people feel like they won't be able to exercise without carbohydrates. This may be true at first as one's body is switching from being a sugar burner to a fat burner, but this only usually lasts for about  weeks. People often get the concepts of the Keto Diet mixed up with a condition called ketoacidosis which only really happens with people who have type 1 diabetes. However, Keto Diets work for the most part by lowering insulin levels to a normal level, and this in turn increases fat burning, and suppresses the appetite. 

 

Below is a list of the most common low-carb foods recommended for the ketogenic diet.