KETOGENIC DIET.
Keto Diet Benefits
Recently, the keto diet has become extremely popular for its health benefits such as weight loss and preventing disease. The keto diet can be hugely beneficial, but how does it work to provide these benefits?
What is the Keto Diet?
You
may have heard of the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet. The keto diet
keeps carbohydrate levels low, but instead of ramping up the amount of protein
in your diet, the keto diet increases the amount of fat. A typical keto diet
aims for meals with 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrate. Eating a
high-fat diet can still mean eating healthy. Keto diet menu items often include
seafood, meat, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, and nuts. With the increased
popularity of the keto diet, keto recipes are widely available.
How Does the Keto Diet Work?
It
might seem counterintuitive that adding more fat to your diet can lead to
weight loss. Normally, your diet is high in carbohydrates, which are broken
down into glucose, or blood sugar, for use as energy. As glucose enters your
bloodstream, your body releases insulin to store excess glucose as fat. The
more carbohydrates, the more glucose. The more glucose, the more insulin, and
the more insulin, the more fat.
The
keto diet takes advantage of the fact that when your meals are high-fat and
low-carbohydrate, there is no insulin spike, and you don't add to your fat
reserves. Instead, fat from diet and stored fat are broken down to ketones
("keto" is short for "ketogenic" producing ketones). Like
glucose, ketones can be used for energy, keeping your body running without
increasing blood sugar or putting on excess fat. The benefits of the keto diet
can be huge.
Weight Loss
Overall,
the keto diet is an excellent way to burn fat and lose weight. Eating fewer
carbohydrates suppresses appetite, and studies have shown that keto diet
participants eat fewer calories overall because of this. Burning fat for energy
can lead to rapid weight loss.
Reduced Blood Sugar and Insulin
Since
carbohydrate intake is limited, blood sugar and insulin levels are lowered.
This is particularly important for people with type 2 diabetes, which causes a
buildup of glucose in the bloodstream. The keto diet can be used to reduce or
eliminate the need for diabetic insulin injections.
Reduced Triglycerides
Fat
subunit molecules called triglycerides normally circulate in your bloodstream.
High levels of triglycerides are a significant risk factor in the development
of heart disease. In the keto diet, because fat is being burned for energy, the
number of triglyceride molecules in the bloodstream decreases, reducing the
risk of heart disease.
Improved Cholesterol
"Bad"
(LDL) cholesterol is another risk factor for heart disease. Too much bad
cholesterol in your bloodstream builds up in your arteries, narrowing them and
causing atherosclerosis, a type of heart disease. The keto diet reduces bad
cholesterol levels while increasing the level of "good" (HDL)
cholesterol in your body.
Summary
The
keto diet provides many health benefits. This diet can not only help you
quickly lose weight, but can also improve your overall health and help prevent
disease.
