Is the Keto Diet Right for You?
Are you interested in losing weight? Are you tired of a diet that promotes low fat or not and craves your high fat diet? You might consider taking a keto diet, the new kid on the block. Recognized by many celebrities including Halle Berry, LeBron James and Kim Kardashian, among others, keto diets have been a topic of debate among dieticians and doctors. Do you wonder if the keto diet is safe and right for you?
What is a ketogenic diet anyway?
You should be aware that the body uses sugar in the form of functional glycogen. The very limited keto diet on sugar forces your body to use fat as fuel instead of sugar, as it does not get enough sugar. When the body does not get enough sugar for fuel, the heart is forced to turn the fat that is into ketones that the body uses as fuel - hence the term ketogenic.
This diet is a high-fat diet with simple amounts of protein. Depending on your carbohydrate intake, your body attains ketosis in less than a week and stays there. As fat is used instead of sugar for fuel in the body, weight loss is dramatic without the proper restriction of calories.
The keto diet is such that you should strive to get 60-75% of your daily calories from fat, 15-30% of protein and only 5-10% of carbohydrates. This usually means that you can only eat 20-50 grams of carbohydrates a day.
What can you eat with this diet?
Diet is a high fat diet that is quite similar to Atkins's. However, there is a greater emphasis on fat, usually 'good' fat. On a keto diet you can
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Peanut oil
Butter
Ghee
Grass fed
Chicken
Fish
Another meat
Full fat cheese
Eggs
Cream
Leafy vegetables
Vegetables are not starchy
Beans
Seeds
You can also find a variety of snacks intended for keto followers. As you can see from this list, fruits are limited. You can have low sugar fruits in limited quantities (mostly berries), but will have to leave your favorite fruits as these are all sweet and / or starch.
The food does not contain any kind of cereals, starchy vegetables like potatoes (and all sweet potatoes), no sugar or candy, no bread and cake, no beans and red beans, no pasta, pizza and burgers and very little alcohol. This also means no coffee with milk or tea with milk - in fact, no milk and ice cream and milk-based desserts.
Most have solutions like you can get for free pasta carbs and pizza, you can have cauliflower rice and now there are restaurants catering to keto cricket.
What are the benefits of a keto diet?
If you wonder if this diet is safe, its supporters and those who have achieved their weight loss goals certainly agree that it is safe. Some of the benefits of a keto diet that you can expect:
Lose weight
Reduce or not sugars
Eating control
The effects control the seizure
Normal blood pressure in high blood pressure patients
Reduces migraine attacks
Type 2 diabetes patients on this diet may be able to reduce their medication
Some benefits to those with cancer
Apart from the first four, there is not enough evidence to support its effectiveness or vice versa for other diseases as much research is needed in the long run.
Are there side effects of this diet?
When you first start your keto diet, you may experience what is known as keto flu. These symptoms may not be common to everyone and usually start a few days after a diet, when your body is in ketosis. Some of the side effects are:
Nausea
Swelling and abdominal pain
Headache
Vomit
Diarrhea and / or constipation
Muscle cramp
Turn and weak concentration
Insomnia
Carbohydrates and sugar cravings
It may take a week for your diet to take off as your body becomes accustomed to the new diet regime. You may also have other problems when you start a keto diet - you may find that you have increased urination, so it's important to keep yourself hydrated. You may also experience keto inhalation when your body reaches optimal ketosis and you can use a toothbrush or toothbrush more often.
Usually side effects are temporary and when your body adapts to a new diet, it should disappear.
How safe is the keto diet?
Like other diets that restrict foods in certain categories, keto diets are not without risk. Since you should not eat many fruits and vegetables, nuts and lentils and other foods, you may experience a lack of many essential nutrients. Because of the high fat diet and, if you eat 'bad' fat, you can have high cholesterol levels which increases your risk of heart disease.
In the long run the keto diet can also cause many nutritional deficiencies as you cannot eat whole grains, many fruits and vegetables and lose fiber as well as vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and important antioxidants. You can develop gastric cancer, decrease bone density (no milk and other sources of calcium) and kidney and liver problems (diet puts extra stress on both organs).
Is keto diet safe for you?
If you are willing to forget about your normal diet staple and are really interested in losing weight, you may be tempted to try a keto diet. The biggest issue with this diet is poor patient adherence to carbohydrate restriction, so you need to make sure that you can live your diet. If you find it too difficult to follow, you can use a modified version of the keto diet that offers more carbohydrates.
However, a keto diet is definitely effective in helping you lose weight. According to a recent study many obese patients followed a successful weight loss. Any problems they face are temporary. If you have no significant health problems except for obesity and are not successful in losing weight following a conventional diet, keto diet may be an option. You must be really determined to lose weight and be prepared to go on a restricted diet. Even if you have any medical problems, you can take your doctor's advice and nutrition guide and continue this diet.
Another longitudinal study showed that undergoing keto diet is beneficial in weight loss and also leads to lowering of cholesterol levels with decreases in bad cholesterol and good cholesterol increase.
Is keto diet safe for you? Most doctors and nutritionists agree that a keto diet is good for weight loss in the short term. In the long run, more studies are needed. Keep in mind that obesity is not the right choice as it has its own health risks.
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