Ketogenic diet - What is it?
A ketogenic diet - or keto for short - is a very low-carbohydrate diet that increases healthy fats. It can be effective for certain diseases, which has been confirmed in many studies.1,2
What are carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are sugar molecules and make up the largest component in the Western diet. They also serve as energy suppliers.
Although all carbohydrates consist of sugar molecules, this does not mean that all carbohydrate-rich foods taste sweet. Bread, potatoes, rice or pasta, for example, contain many carbohydrates, as do grains. Even fruit, which is considered so healthy, contains plenty of carbohydrates.
Do you have any idea how much carbohydrates are consumed by a German on average every day? A whopping 460 grams! That's almost a pound of sugar molecules. And do you have any idea how many grams of glucose are floating in your blood to give you a blood sugar level of about 100 mg/dl? Please take a look at this picture:
As you can see, your body needs just 5 g of glucose in about 5 liters of blood to have a stable blood sugar. You can imagine how exhausting it is for your body to eat almost a pound of sugar molecules every day, right?
And with keto?
In the keto diet, usually no more than 5% of the daily calorie intake comes from carbohydrates, so instead of 470 only about 40 g of sugar molecules. This means much less stress for the body and also accounts for the health benefits of this diet. But where does the body get the energy it needs?
Energy from fat
If your body is hardly supplied with carbohydrates for energy production, it looks around for other energy sources. And poof, it discovers fat as the perfect fuel. This can put your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. Now your liver converts fat into small energy molecules called ketones, which your brain and other organs can use for energy. That's awesome!
On this diet, you lower your insulin levels, thereby managing to access your own body fat stores for energy.3 Meanwhile, many studies show significant weight loss on keto without counting calories.4,5 Sound tempting? Great, because that's just the beginning of what keto can do. If you'd like, I'll tell you a lot more about this interesting diet, which also tastes really delicious, in the next few articles.
Sources:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32640608/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26768850/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31217353/
- https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/12/3051
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428290/
GUEST CONTRIBUTION BY MARGRET ACHE, Founder of LCHF Germany and the LCHF Germany Academy
Health and relaxation educator, nutrition coach Low Carb - LCHF - Keto Lifestyle, vitamin D consultant
https://akademie.lchf-deutschland.de/
https://low-carb-lchf-kongress.de/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lchf_deutschland/