The Keto Diet Explained

The ketogenic diet (or keto for short) has recently become very popular due to its health benefits such as weight loss as well as preventing, and even controlling certain illnesses like diabetes. We'll explain how the keto diet work to provide all these benefits a little later. But first...

What is the keto diet? - The basics

You may be familiar with the Atkins diet which is a high-protein, low-carbohydrate (or carb) diet. Similarly, the ketogenic diet is a low-carb diet. However, instead of increasing the amount of protein in your diet, keto increases the amount of fat. A typical keto diet meal should ideally consists of 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrate.

Ketogenic diet menu items often include meat, seafood, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, and nuts. Contrary to what many people believe, eating a high fat diet can still mean eating healthy. Keto diet recipes are widely available today, but you need to get them from trusted sources.

The keto diet explained - how does it work?

The so called "normal" diet is usually high in carbohydrates which are broken down into glucose (or blood sugar) which is used as energy. As glucose enters your bloodstream, your body releases insulin to store excess glucose as fat. So as you can see, the more carb you eat, the more glucose is generated which in turn triggers more insulin release, and ultimately more fat is stored.

So the principle of the ketogenic diet is that when you eat meals high in fat and low in carbohydrate, there is no insulin spike, which means you don't store more fat in your cells.

The term ketogenic means ketone producing. So instead of being stored in your cells, the fat from your diet is converted to ketones which, like glucose, can be used as energy, but without increasing your blood sugar or storing excess fat. Now you can see how the keto diet can help people lose weight and help those with diabetes.

Studies have shown that eating less carb suppresses appetite and as a result, you eat less calories overall.

Since carbohydrate intake is limited, blood sugar and insulin levels are lowered. This is especially important for people with type 2 diabetes who have high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. The keto diet can help eliminate or at least reduce the need for insulin injections.

Other health benefits of keto diet

There's a type of fat in your blood called triglycerides. When the levels are too high you have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) disease. Ketogenic diet can help reduce the number of triglyceride molecules in the blood since fat is being burned for energy. Hence, it reduces the risk of dangerous diseases.

Another significant risk factor is LDL which is also known as the bad cholesterol as it can build up in your arteries, narrowing them and reducing blood flow to the heart and other important organs. Keto diet reduces LDL levels while increasing the level of good (HDL) cholesterol in your body.

As you can see, there are many health benefits of the keto diet. However, there is also a lot of information to digest and remember. Even after reading all the explanations often times people forget or get confused. They aren't sure what is or isn't allowed on keto. This could be discouraging and cause them to not do it right and eventually give up when they don't see the results.

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