By: Shruthi Jaishankar
What is a Keto Diet?
A ketogenic diet is a type of eating style that pushes to burn more fats instead of carbohydrates. What this means is, your body drives itself into a state where it only consumes fat. This diet is mostly targeted by people who strive for weight loss. It was primarily intended to treat epilepsy in children!
Creating a Keto Diet:
Planning is essential to following the keto diet successfully. There are specifications to every food type and the calorie intake. Here is an example of the choices:
As you can see, there is even a specification of the vegetables you must consume. In regards to beverages, only water is acceptable. If you choose to drink tea or coffee, only a splash of milk is acceptable. Anything with alcohol or sugar will break the diet. So, in summary, it is crucial to finish the diet while maintaining the will to continue. But what makes this eating lifestyle so controversial?
Risks of a Keto Diet
Every diet has its own share of side effects, even the infamous keto diet. While it sports many health benefits, there are downsides including diabetes, heart/bone ailments, and kidney disease. It’s important to know that if you are an individual with a medical history, this eating style is something to be cautious of.
Keto flu: The “keto flu” is known as a symptom of the popular diet trend. Because of the low carb intake, you start to feel headaches, nausea, fatigue, and indigestion. One way to prevent this is by monitoring your intake and consuming sodium, electrolytes, and potassium.
Kidney stress: High fat animal foods lead to an increased risk of developing kidney stones. Weakened kidneys can’t rid the acidic buildup in your blood, which leads to a state of acidosis.
Digestive issues: With less carbs in your body, meeting your fiber needs is difficult. Fiber feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut, and without that, you’re prone to inflammation, constipation, and other symptoms. You can stick to your keto diet and still maintain high fiber by eating chia seeds, coconuts, flax seeds, broccoli, and more.
Low blood sugar: Keto decreases levels of hemoglobin, a measure of average blood sugar levels. This affects people with type 2 diabetes who are on insulin medication.
Bone health: As your body adapts to ketosis, the bone mineral density decreases. Researchers are still working on this study and finding new ways to strengthen the bones.
Chronic diseases: It’s still not completely understood, but cases of people with cancer or heart disease have been linked to keto. An observational study showcased that 130000 people with low carb diets were diagnosed with major illnesses
If you are an individual that is considering following the keto diet, be sure that it has more benefits or risks based on your personal medical history. While this is still a diet trend being researched, educate yourself on how to get the best results that will satisfy your wellbeing. For a healthy lifestyle, it starts with what you eat and how you feel about it!