What are the Health Benefits and Risks of Ketogenic Diet?

The ketogenic diet has become a popular option for people looking to lose weight, and many people who are yet to try it are wondering how it works.

Keto diet is a low-carb diet that focuses on supplying the body with more fats, which are converted to energy in place of carbs. To be successful with the diet, you have to consume moderate quantities of protein. Although it comes with a variety of benefits to the user, the keto diet could also have some risks if you fail to observe all the recommended guidelines.

How does the Keto Diet Work?

Glucose is obtained from carbohydrate foods after absorption into the body. These could be legumes, sweeteners, grains, starchy vegetables, and some fruits. The focus of the low-carb diet is to limit the amount of glucose present in the blood, so when this glucose is no longer available from the consumption of carbs, the body starts burning stored fats as an alternative source of fuel.

The keto diet takes this process a notch higher by getting rid of glucose sources to induce the body to switch to a fat-burning process. It focuses on foods that encourage fat-burning, and that is why the diet offers plenty of fats.

What Are The Health Benefits Of A Ketogenic Diet?

There are different reasons people opt to consume a ketogenic diet. Most of these are backed by the need to improve health conditions. One of those reasons is the resolve to lose extra weight. It has also been shown to be helpful in managing other health conditions such as diabetes.

Some of the benefits you would enjoy from a keto diet are explained below:

#1 Fast Weight Loss

Calorie counting is a crazy idea when you want to lose weight. It makes the work easier to shift your focus to foods anchored on reducing your calorie intake and also supporting the fat-burning process. Following a low-carb diet, many people lose weight faster even after trying many other ideas.

The National Institute of Health conducted a study that revealed that a low-carb diet was more effective as a weight loss tool among overweight adults. The diet eliminates carbohydrates, which discourages the storage of fat as the body turns to fat stores for energy.

#2 Helps Fighting Cancer

Research has shown that consuming sugar and refined carbohydrates in plenty can cause free radical damage in cells. Cancer cells thrive best where there’s a constant supply of glucose, which means taking carbs in plenty could help them spread faster.

A keto diet cuts back on carbohydrates, and this could act as a natural solution to discourage the spread of cancer cells. More studies have shown that taking carbs increases the risk of prostate cancer.

#3 Improves Digestion

Taking less sugar can improve your digestive function. This is because sugars tend to nourish potentially dangerous bacteria that could thrive within the gut. High-carb diets tend to support the growth of harmful microbes such as IBS and candida virus as well. In extreme cases, you could get symptoms of the leaky gut syndrome.

On the other hand, by consuming healthy vegetables, good proteins, and healthy fats, you not only induce the fat-burning process, but such foods also nourish the digestive tract to clear bacterial growth.

#4 Better Cognitive Function

Usually, you will note an inverse relationship between fats and carbs in the diet. Healthy fats are needed to allow the brain to function optimally and control mood and functions like hormonal regulation.

With a low-carb diet, you can promote the consumption of more healthy fats, which support the brain to make it more efficient. It could also be used for curing your headaches as it promotes the health of the brain and influences things like mood and stress response.

#5 Reduced Risk of Heart Disease

According to a study published in The American Journal of Epidemiology in 2012, results showed that concentrating on a low-carb diet helped in reducing risk factors for some metabolic and heart diseases. The results further showed that those on a low-carb diet lost weight and were able to achieve a lower level of triglycerides. They also noted a reduction in total cholesterol. Most of these findings point to a reduction of the risk factors that encourage heart disease and metabolic problems. This shows taking a keto diet would help to protect you from related conditions.

#6 Lower Risk of Type-2 Diabetes

Research has shown that a high-carb diet increases insulin secretion and postprandial plasma glucose, and this raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and dyslipidemia. More studies have confirmed that patients can embrace a natural diabetes treatment solution by sticking to a low-carb diet.

Keto diet is a good prevention tool for type-2 diabetes and could also be useful in lowering the risk of complications caused by diabetes. It also helps in the regulation of body weight and also ensures positive effects on glucose levels to ensure the body does not create a perfect environment for diabetes.

#7 Reducing Acne and Breakouts

Even though most people on ketogenic diets do not use it for the sole purpose of fighting acne, the keto diet has been shown to be beneficial in reducing the severity of acne as well as the frequency of outbreaks. Studies suggest that this effect is caused by the effects that taking a keto diet has on the user’s hormonal health.

When you are on a keto diet, your hormonal health is improved. This means that sebum production in the skin is reduced as the levels of androgen and insulin production in this region are lower. This effect tends to normalize or bring the process of skin cell production and replacement closer to normal. As a result, the severity of acne is improved, and breakouts are reduced with the decrease in clumping and blockage of skin pores by excess sebum, dead cells, and skin debris.

Keto diets are also believed to reduce the production of somatomedin C, also known as IGF-1 or insulin-like growth factor 1. Similar to insulin, somatomedin C increases the production of sebum in the skin and has been shown to have a huge role in the development of acne.

Additionally, ketogenic and low-carb diets have been shown to reduce inflammation. This anti-inflammatory effect also fights the acne bacteria P. Acnes and inhibits its reproduction in the skin.

In summary, ketogenic diets can be helpful in reducing acne by:

• Reducing insulin and androgen production
• Reducing the levels of IGF-1
• Reducing inflammation

Potential Risks of Ketogenic Diet

You probably have only heard about the benefits of the keto diet and few people are telling you about any potential risk factors.

The first concern is that the diet might not be easy to stick to for many people, and this leads to some users going back to their usual dietary options.

When on a keto diet, you might also experience a few symptoms or side effects that occur as a result of the body’s response to the new diet. Some of these may include flu-like symptoms, such as headaches and fatigue. These side effects are what is commonly referred to as the keto flu and are mostly temporary, and tend to go away once the body adjusts to the new diet.

If not careful, you might also experience certain mineral deficiencies.

There’s also a risk you might consume trans fats, which are not good for your health.

In summary, the potential keto diet risks include:

• It’s not easy to stick to
• Side effects such as headaches and fatigue (keto-flu)
• Risk of mineral deficiency
• Risk of consuming trans-fats

A low-carb diet comes packed with many benefits that could help to transform your health. This is a diet that usually focuses on enhancing the fat-burning process, so for people who would like to lose weight, it has been recommended as a good solution. However, make sure to understand how to implement it before you get in to avoid the potential risks mentioned above.