The Keto Diet: How Beneficial Is It?
Diets are an all-too familiar pillar of American culture. On the front page of every magazine, plastered onto every billboard, and in advertisements popping up in our streaming services, new diets and weight-loss techniques are constantly brought to our attention without our consent. One diet that has been particularly popular, praised by celebrities and social media influencers is the Ketogenic Diet, or Keto for short. The diet itself is not new—it has been used for the past 100 or so years as an effective way to treat children with epilepsy. The ketogenic diet requires users to heavily restrict their carbohydrate intake in favor of high-fat and protein rich foods. Typically, cells get their energy from blood sugars instead, but the restriction of carbohydrate intake for users of the keto diet causes the body to look for other energy sources. As a result, the body is meant to reach a state of ketosis, where the body breaks down ketone bodies, water-based molecules produced by fatty acids in the liver in the absence of glucose, as its energy source.
Ketosis is not an entirely new concept regarding weight loss. The popular low-carb Atkin’s diet, which was invented in the 1970s, relied on a ketogenic phase. However, this phase of the diet only lasts for the first two weeks before carb-containing fruits and vegetables are slowly incorporated back into the users’ lives. For the keto diet to be effective, dieters must obtain around 75% of their caloric intake from fats so that the body can actually achieve ketosis. The challenge for keto dieters is ensuring that they are intaking mostly heart-healthy, unsaturated fats. Some examples include fish, avocados, nuts, and seeds. However, it is easy for users to instead get their daily fat intake from poor-quality fats from processed, salty meats like sausages or cold cuts. Additionally, keto dieters often consume too few fruits and vegetables, which are rich in nutrients that bodies need.
The other big issue with the keto diet is that it is, frankly, incredibly difficult to maintain. It is a highly restrictive diet that often does not easily fit into the life of the average person who has little time to meal prep for almost every meal and research extensively every time they go out to eat. While the diet has shown to be highly effective in short-term weight loss results, the difficult upkeep makes it fairly likely that dieters will end up gaining the weight back, sometimes more weight than what they lost in the first place. Constant losing and gaining of weight, known as “yo-yo dieting” can have dangerous effects on the body in the long run as well as negative mental health effects that can lead to disordered eating and an unhealthy relationship with food. Many people, upon beginning the ketogenic diet, will experience something called the “Keto flu”—an upset stomach, dizziness, fatigue, and/or mood swings that happen as the body gets used to such a low-carb diet. Other possible side effects of the diet include low blood pressure, kidney stones, constipation, nutrient deficiencies, and an increased risk of heart disease.
All this is not to say that the keto diet is ineffective. For those who can maintain such a strict diet, keto can be an effective way to reduce body weight, and it can lower cardiac risk factors in obese subjects. It is also shown, at least in the short term, to improve blood sugar control for Type-2 diabetics. Additionally, due to its success in managing childhood epilepsy, researchers are looking into whether or not a ketogenic diet can be an effective treatment for other neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even autism. The diet is, however, proven to be unsafe for people with pancreas, liver, thyroid, or gallbladder conditions.
The bottom line is that while the keto diet may be successful in reducing body weight, it is just too difficult of a diet for the average person to maintain. And because of the difficulty in sticking with this diet, not much is actually known about its long-term effects. For those looking to lose weight, the best strategy will always be to talk with your doctor or dietitian.
References:
Ketogenic diet: What are the risks?
Ketogenic diet: Is the ultimate low-carb diet good for you?
The Ketogenic Diet Revisited: Back to the Future
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1528-1157.1997.tb01460.x
Beneficial effects of ketogenic diet in obese diabetic subjects
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11010-007-9448-z
A Doctor Explains Why Diets Don’t Work
https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/body/healthy-weight/diets-dont-work
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