The Benefits & Disadvantages of a Keto Diet

The Benefits & Disadvantages of a Keto Diet

Right now, Keto is a very popular word within the world of health and wellbeing, The Ketogenic Diet is a high fat, low carb diet that is certainly trending across all forms of social media. Influential celebrities have expressed positive experiences with it, however, with the good must bring the bad, right?! Before taking up any form of fad diet, or in Keto’s case a full lifestyle change then understanding the pros and cons is imperative.

The Benefits

Detoxing your body and choosing to do the ketogenic diet can provide significant benefits, there is no disregarding that. The more common reason why many people choose the ketogenic diet is for fat loss, but there are a few more benefits to take advantage of.  

Fat Loss

The keto diet prides itself on improving the ability of the body to oxidize fatty acids in the liver. To me and you that is causing the fatty within the liver to break down to be used or dissolve. This fat oxidation produces ketones, which squashes your appetite.
This diet is typically made up by a 4:1 ratio of dietary fat to protein and carbohydrate. Therefore keto diets encourage bigger fat loss in humans because there is less dietary carbohydrate in the body to be used as fuel, so the body is forced to use up fat as its primary energy source.

Managing Diabetes

The element of a high fat, low carb diet can help diabetics maintain a good blood glucose level range. Targeting the specific cause of the disease is crucial for elevating insulin levels.
Cutting out carbohydrates leads to removing the need for all of that insulin. Both blood sugars and insulin go way down. The best way to lower blood sugar and insulin levels is to reduce carbohydrate consumption, as the keto diet enforces on your body. This is also a very effective way to treat and possibly even reverse type II diabetes.

Reduce Blood Pressure

Having elevated blood pressure (hypertension) is an important risk factor for many diseases. This includes heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and many others. Low-carb diets such as keto are an effective way to reduce blood pressure, which should lead to a reduced risk of these diseases and help you live longer

Manage Migraines

The keto diet has been used for decades as a therapeutic tool for children with epilepsy, and many of those episodes are caused by sterile meningeal neurogenic inflammation, which triggers nerve pain in the brain. A study indicates that overweight individuals have higher incidences of migraines, but the rate decreases significantly while on the keto diet.

Fat Molecules

Fat molecules or Triglycerides are elevated following carbohydrate consumption, especially the simple sugar fructose. When people cut carbs, they tend to have a very dramatic reduction in blood triglycerides. In comparison to low fat diets which tend to be a ‘go-to’ when looking to lose weight, triglycerides can actually increase many cases.
Cutting carbs through a lifestyle choice of keto then circling fat molecules in the form of triglycerides will significantly reduce.

The Disadvantages

Ketosis

Ketosis is a normal metabolic process, something your body does to keep working. When it doesn’t have enough carbohydrates from food for your cells to burn for energy, it burns fat instead. Ketosis can become dangerous when ketones build up. High levels lead to dehydration and change the chemical balance of your blood.

Sluggishness

The ability to focus is essential not only for hitting the gym but also for work and your personal life. If you’ve ever tried a very low-carb diet, you’re probably familiar with the feeling of sluggishness. The reason behind this is simple; your brain derives energy from blood glucose, which in its most simple sense is a sugar. Carbohydrates are needed for glucose to enter the bloodstream, without these carbohydrates through the keto diet brain function can decline.

Fatigue

The ketogenic diet is not something that should be done long-term. Your body goes through a shock phase of fatigue because the keto diet eliminates or drastically reduces carbohydrates, which the body breaks down into sugars and uses as energy. Your body gets used to the shock after some days, but the initial stages can be very hard and dangerous because your body is adjusting to the carb restrictions, which results in a general state of fatigue.

Not long term Adopting keto as a long term lifestyle choice can have disadvantages to your health and wellbeing. The risks and side effects above are not exhaustive as there can be many others in specific individuals, such anemia and kidney stones. Keto is traditionally provided as a treatment for a medical condition rather than a way of life for people interested in fat loss.  Understanding the benefits and disadvantages of the keto diet will be imperative before adopting anything that could impact your health.  Our bodies will always give us signs when it has reached its maximum capacity of change, and it is very important to adhere to these signs for our own personal health and wellbeing. Speaking to health professionals and dieticians will aid you on your quest for adopting a keto diet as part of your everyday life without putting your health at risk.

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