From what I'm seeing on the Internet the ketogenic diet is a raging buzz word. It certainly was not so nine years ago when I first got so sick that almost everything I ate made me feel unspeakably ill. I can only say that the diet I undertook to deal with my symptoms was a desperate avoidance of almost every kind of reactionary food. Basically I became a grass grazer (lots of green leafies, coconut oil (which I discovered gave me energy and kept me from being too much of a skeleton) and just a few other simple foods -- See my horrendously constrained, but wonderfully restoring diet. Yes, call it strict, but it helped me tremendously!)
Later a friend whose son has Doose Syndrome, a very rare form of epilepsy, looked at this blog and wrote back commenting on my keto diet. Never heard of a keto diet before so looked it up, and looked up the treatment for people with Doose. It was a bit hard to understand, eating to feed the brain ketones to burn instead of glucose that most people's brains are fired off of. Found a based-on-real-life movie "First Do No Harm" starring with Meryl Streep on the keto diet. In it Meryl's son had the rare form of epilepsy and the movie was her fight to save her son with the virtually unknown tightly regulated keto diet. A very moving movie and also one that gave me a deeper understanding of the practical application and importance of rigid adherence to a program known to be beneficial for a specific body type-body requirement.So now there are tons of materials on the web for the ketogenic diet. I don't really support the direction the keto diet is going because most people, as far as I can tell, aren't informing themselves of long-term dietary issues that the diet can create. Nor do I feel that most people are really in tuned their bodies to know if the diet is really benefitting them or if they should tweak the diet to make it more beneficial for their own body types and nutritional needs. Anyway, I found this website more informative than others on the specificity of the keto diet and hope that others can get some more specific answers on it if they're choosing to try the diet.
BTW, this isn't a diet that you try for a couple of weeks but is a lifestyle change diet. Just something to keep in mind, especially as the brain is burning ketones and needs an adjustment from burning glucose, so I'm thinking the one week of a keto diet and the next of a glucose-brain-fueling diet wouldn't be particularly beneficial for the body.
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The following article taken from The Ketogenic Diet Resource:
Restore Your Health with a Ketogenic Diet
Ketogenic diets are powerful metabolic tools that help your body switch from burning sugar (carbs) to burning fat. The result of that switch in fuel is an improvement in all sorts of health conditions. In practice, you get to eat real foods in the form of natural fats and protein (meat, fish, poultry) while carbohydrates (sugars and starches) are restricted. On this website, I�ll talk about how the diet works, and share details on proper implementation of the diet.
How Do Ketogenic Diets Work?
The digestion of carbohydrates (sugar and starch) releases sugar (glucose) into the bloodstream. Greater carb intake results in rising blood sugar and insulin, a pancreatic hormone that manages blood sugar. Going keto replaces dietary carb with fat and protein. Over time, your cells switch metabolic pathways, and burn stored and dietary fat as a primary energy source instead of sugar. As more fat is burned, some of it is converted into ketone bodies. As blood glucose and insulin levels fall, and ketone levels rise, your muscles (skeletal and heart), use the fats in the bloodstream as fuel, while your brain uses the ketones. The result is more energy, clearer thinking and better health. Ketones are beneficial in many different ways, and being in this metabolic state of "nutritional ketosis" (where blood sugar is low and ketone levels are moderate) has some powerful effects on your metabolism. There is strong research evidence that these metabolic-affecting diets can be used to treat the following medical conditions:
Cancer: Metabolic Therapy
The current body of research on metabolic cancer treatments using a keto diet continues to grow. Keto or metabolic cancer therapy is somewhat different than the treatment for other illnesses, and is discussed in detail in my book Fight Cancer with a Ketogenic Diet, which is based on the metabolic therapy research of Dr. Thomas Seyfried and Dr. Dominic D'Agostino. The main idea behind the use of a ketogenic diet to treat cancer is to starve cancer cells of the sugar and other fuels they need to survive, and to provide support and protection for normal energy processes in healthy cells. The advantage of this treatment protocol is that it is non-toxic to the body, and in "wait and see" cases, it can provide an major health support advantage to the patient. The book was written for the patient and has all the details and research in an easy-to-use format.
This new third edition of Fight Cancer with a Ketogenic Diet is also available in paperback form on Amazon. Ten percent of the profits of this book go to support Dr. Seyfried and Dr. D'Agostino's research, and I'm grateful to be able to contribute to their important work.
Diabetes in All Forms
Type 2 Diabetes: The current mainstream diabetes treatment advice is to eat 45-65% of calories from carbohydrate. Since carbohydrate is the prime driver of higher blood sugar, this advice is detrimental to diabetic health because it results in blood sugar spikes and crashes, which in turn causes a greater need for medication and insulin. Those high blood sugars also result in the complications of diabetes. In contrast, a ketogenic diet reduces and in many cases, eliminates the need for diabetic medications and lowers the number of insulin units needed to manage blood sugar. For people with Type 2 diabetes, ketogenic diets remove the trigger (carbohydrate intake) and reverse the underlying insulin resistance which causes the disease. As a result, long term complications are reversed or avoided. Learn more in our Conquer Type 2 Diabetes e-Book or click on the book cover at left.
Type 1 Diabetes: Lowering carb intake and increasing fat intake ?is also beneficial for people with Type 1, Type 1.5 diabetes and LADA. The diet can help lower the number and severity of hypoglycemic episodes, reduce HbA1c scores and minimize future complications. Learn more in The Ketogenic Diet for Type 1 Diabetes e-Book or click on the book cover at right. These benefits are also possible for children with Type 1 and their parents should know that they have options.
Both books are also available in paperback format on Amazon.com. See the links at the bottom of this page.
Other Health Issues Ketogenic Diets Can Improve
In addition, there is a great deal of science based evidence which shows the following conditions can also be reversed or greatly improved on a keto diet:
- Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome and Pre Diabetes: these conditions are directly related to the effects of chronically high blood sugar and insulin resulting in insulin resistance (IR). In addition, related conditions such as fatty liver disease and PCOS are also caused by IR. Low carb, high fat diets have been used in studies to treat and reverse all of these IR conditions.
- Heart disease: Cardiac risk factors improve when blood sugar and insulin levels are lowered via dietary changes. HDL cholesterol goes up on a low carb, high fat diet and triglycerides fall dramatically. I also discuss what causes heart disease, and it isn't cholesterol or saturated fat consumption.
- Autism: New research is showing that keto diets are helpful in the treatment of autism.
- Neurological disorders: these include ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson's Disease: research is showing that ketone bodies exert a protective affect on the nervous system and slow the progression of nerve related diseases.
- Mitochondrial support: Keto diets provide mitochondrial support and can improve metabolic energy disorders such as pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency (PDHC), glucose transporter type 1 (GLUT1) deficiency, glycogen storage diseases such as McArdle disease, and a range of mitochondrial myopathies.
- Aging:The ketogenic diet reduces inflammation by quelling free radical activity and down regulating some inflammatory markers. The end result is a slower progression of the human aging process.
- Acid Reflux/GERD (heartburn): people who suffer from acid reflux or chronic heartburn will find great relief after adopting a keto diet, especially if all grain and fermentable carb sources (FODMAPS) are eliminated from the diet. In fact, I believe that some of the beneficial effects of a ketogenic diet are rooted in the elimination of toxins in foods that the keto diet limits.
Diet Plans, Benefits and More Information
A typical ketogenic meal includes a 3-5 ounces of protein, usually cooked in natural fats (for example, butter, lard, duck fat, cream, olive oil, beef tallow, or coconut oil) with the addition of non-starchy or green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, summer squash, or kale.
On a �normal� American diet, carbohydrate intake is high (about 40-60% of calories) while fat intake, and especially saturated fat, is limited. In contrast, carbohydrate intake on a keto diet is only about 2-4% of calories. When carb intake is low, meals are delicious and satiating. Hunger goes away, and more importantly, this dietary change has some powerful and beneficial metabolic effects on the human body, in part because it lowers blood sugar and insulin levels.
The bottom line here is that the ketogenic diet is a powerful metabolic tool for treating a wide range of illnesses. It is not a fad diet, and if it is implemented correctly, it corrects metabolic function at the cellular level. This website discusses in detail the mechanisms of a ketogenic diet, including side effects, benefits and other information.
If you are ready to get started, check out the keto diet plan page, or the low carb food list. You can read about the benefits of the diet, or see some recipes and meal plans. Or just peruse the navigation bar on the left and click on what interests you.
Podcast Resources
You can also listen to a few podcasts I've done:
- Krisstina Wise of Wealthy Wellthy Life and I discussed Adopting a Ketogenic Diet to Fight Cancer.
- Jimmy Moore interviewed me about translating the science on metabolic therapy here.
- I also did a fun interview with Raphael Sirtoli at Break nutrition on the medical uses of a ketogenic diet.
- I also talked to Brian over at Ketovangelist on using a keto diet to treat various health conditions.
