Is keto diet worth the hype? A sneak peek into the world-famous ketogenic diet!
With people idealizing perfect figures and body shape, craving one for themselves comes naturally. Many famous diets especially low-carb diets like Atkins and Paleo diet have been around the world but keto seems to stay a bit longer. It’s a huge market with a global value of approximately 9.7 billion US dollars estimated in 2018 and which was expected to rise to more than 15.6 billion US dollars by 2027 according to statistics. Let’s have a brief look into the ketogenic diet!
The Ketogenic diet is a kind of strict, harsh low carb diet not because of the meal plan but because of our routine diet (that includes 40 to 60% carbohydrates) to which we are accustomed to since birth. That’s why it’s harder to sustain it for a longer period. Overwhelmingly, the diet has been criticized for its short-term effectiveness. Nonetheless, it is being opted by people in a large number.
Researches have shown the keto diet to be effective in general as compared to other low-carb diets but what is more important to science is its vast benefits in treatments of diseases like epilepsy, type 2 diabetes, PCOS, and cancer. But particularly not for kidney and heart patients because of the high fat intake.
Why it’s so popular?
Anything that is in trend will catch people’s attention and they would be doing it without actually looking for its pros and cons. To quote Nate Berkus:
“Trends exist to make people feel bad about what they don’t have.”
One of the many reasons for its being in the spotlight is its quick visible results. It may help you lose weight from two to ten pounds in a week. That’s huge! But does that mean it’s effective too? That is still debatable. The other possible reason can be the dopamine release associated with fast accomplishment helping you overcome that initial resistance thus inducing motivation in people. But in the long run, it might not be a good friend.
How does the keto work?
Keto diet is basically a high fat, moderate protein, and extremely low carb diet. People undergoing the program are restricted to have foods with high-fat content that may surprise a large audience. But the reason as to why it works is a simple process. Ketosis.
Glucose (a carbohydrate) is our body fuel. Whenever we are working or starving, our body cells break down glucose and takeout energy. Fats are a secondary source of energy. So, when you are on a low carb diet, our body is being induced to take that energy from fats with the liver releasing another energy source, the ketone bodies, in our blood and cells using those ketone bodies as a source of energy, thus helping in cutting that stagnant fat. This state of your body is called ketosis.
Ketosis VS ketoacidosis
Ketosis is linked with ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition that may develop in some diabetics. In ketoacidosis, the body, due to the lack of insulin, starts breaking down fats at a speedy rate, resulting in the liver releasing ketones in the blood and making the blood acidic. But definitely, ketosis is just a milder case in comparison to ketoacidosis.
What and What not to eat on a keto diet?
People undergoing the keto diet are allowed to have only 20–50 grams of carbs per day (your single slice of bread is 30 g of carbs). As nearly 90% of the diet is fats, so common foods are nuts, avocado, fatty fish, red meat, whole eggs, cheese, coconut oil, butter, full-fat Greek yogurt, chia seeds, almonds, and other predominantly saturated fats containing food. Also, the market offers a lot of products like keto biscuits, crackers, protein powder, bars, and so many others. No doubt, these may be a bit expensive too.
Foods with high carbohydrate content like banana, sweet potato, buckwheat, beetroot, dates, oranges, legumes, corn, potato, and beans are either avoided or limited to a very small amount. Though they are highly nutritious, more than allowed quantities during the diet can interfere with ketosis and may even stop the process.
A survey conducted in Canada in January 2020 showed that 37% of the Canadian respondents left the diet due to its strict meal plan, 34% gave up due to the expenses, and 12% left due to no visible results.
Narratives of medical professionals
Lisa Cimperman, RDN, a clinical dietician, thinks that the diet can make you lose muscle and make the weight loss process even harder.
Francine Blinten, R.D, a certified clinical nutritionist advises to undergo the diet only under the supervision of a medical professional and only for a short period of time.
Marcelo Campos, MD, a primary care doctor at Harvard Vanguard considers the diet as a speedy way to cut fat and also effective in treating certain medical conditions. But it is way harder to stick to it for a longer period. And the high-fat content can eventually prove to be unhealthy.
Some others recommend the diet to be undertaken by more obese people as they usually have a hard time cutting the initial fat.
Keto flu
Some people may experience symptoms like
· bad breath
· nausea
· diarrhea
· vomiting
· dizziness
in the initial days of the diet that’s probably because of the dramatic shift in your everyday meal. The body is trying to adapt to the new diet routine. It may take you 3 to 4 days to adjust and possibly longer for others. Lowering of appetite can also be observed because of the increased fat intake making you feel fulfilled and that’s just another reason for its popularity.
Keto: yay or nay?
Well, to conclude we can say that it’s, no doubt, a fast method of cutting fat and quick results are largely what people want. It is effective in treating a lot of medical conditions. But it comes with a lot of demerits too. The high fat intake may make you susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. Kidney patients can make their condition even worse. Plus, you may get the lost weight back in a very short time just after leaving the diet. Also, it’s hard to stick with it for a longer period. It can deprive you of some of the very nutritious carbohydrates that help improve health. One must analyze every aspect of his body type, health, and diet needs and then make a decision. Consulting a doctor is always recommended because after-all, it’s not always everything that you see on the internet!
