Ketogenic Diet – Good and Bad

What’s a Ketogenic Diet?, What would you eat on a keto diet?, What does the keto diet do? Is keto diet healthy? What can you not eat on keto diet? Are bananas keto? What are the top 10 keto Foods?

Ketogenic diet is being labelled as the most controversial, “restrictive”, “dangerous”, “difficult to sustain” diet out there. And while I  honestly can’t say that it’s all completely not true, I’m ready to vouch that keto way of eating, once you understand and do it properly is the one that brings the most health benefits. 

So, what is keto?

Let’s dive a bit into  biochemistry. Our body needs fuel on a daily basis just to keep us alive: breathing, heart beat, digestion, body temperature regulation, movement, detoxification…every process in our body needs fuel. And this fuel is GLUCOSE, a sugar that we get from carbohydrates we consume. But also our body can make glucose by itself by the means of gluconeogenesis(difficult word, just means, that we can make our own sugar) in case, when we don’t eat for a longer periods of time. 

But that’s not all..our bodies are so perfect and complex,that we have one more alternative  system to supply us with energy,which uses FAT as a fuel. How cool is this? 

So sugar is our primary fuel source and we always will be using it to get energy for our body. To start using alternative fuel- fat, we need to exhaust all sugar from the blood,then from the liver and skeletal muscles(where it’s stored as glycogen) and then only body will start using fat. During millions of years of animals evolution our bodies adjusted to store fat as an energy for the “hungry days” in case we don’t get food ,so we can tap in our fat storage. Present days  we don’t have food scarcity as in our ancient times,but our body still has memory of that time,so it holds on every bit of fat and uses it only in case of emergency. 

WHO SHOULD TRY KETO 

KETOGENIC way of eating was first described in 1920s and not at all for weight loss purpose.Doctors noticed, that people, suffering from epilepsy(convulsions) that were  unmanageable with medicines, when they went for long fasting periods,  almost stopped having convulsions during this fasting.  

So even at present time some cases of refractory epilepsy is treated with help of ketogenic diet, specially in children. 

People with obesity, high cholesterol,type 2 diabetes, PCOS,degenerative nervous system diseases like Alzheimer’s  

WHAT TO DO BEFORE STARTING KETO 

Before starting keto you need to create a “keto friendly” environment in your house. Because i remember nothing would freak out my family more,than me saying that I’m not gonna eat rice,dal,any bakery items including brown bread,fruits,potatoes!!! They were like:”What is left to eat then?” 

So,yeah, explain to your family members, colleagus and friends that you going to be on a very specific eating protocol and you need their full support and understanding. Secondly,clear out your refrigerator and pantry: it’s hard to fight a temptation to have an ice-cream or cookie when you are hungry,brain fogged and tired. Get rid of all “yammies” ,just give away to poor or neighbours🤪. 

And, if course, decide to commit completely: no cheating,no going backwards. You are doing it for yourself, because you love yourself. Going on any diet should never be a PUNISHMENT for your earlier bad food choices and eating habits,or for that wish to “quickly loose weight and go back to normal”. You should do it consciously with positive attitude and love for yourself. Commitment makes a HUUGE difference in whatever you do. 

HOW TO START KETO 

So now, when you mentally prepared and decide to try ketogenic diet i would advise to go slowly. It will help you to adjust mentally and physically instead of getting overwhelmed because of new way of eating. First step-start drinking more water and remove all processed carbohydrates(white and brown sugar, jaggery, chocolates, candies, all baked goods made from refined flour like biscuits, buns, pastries, donuts, cereals, also remove all kind of juices and sugary drinks) from your eating routine. Try this for few days. If you feel good, then it’s time for a second step-  start removing complex carbohydrates (all kind of bread, pulses, grains),also starchy vegetables like potato, beetroot and fruits(yes, that part sucks, but you still can have berries). Continue drinking plenty of water and add more fat to your meals. Stick to this eating for few more days. Next final step is when you go “all in”. 

WHAT TO EXPECT ON FIRST DAYS 

After you start following strict keto diet,it takes approximately 3-4 days to go to ketosis-the state,when you’ll be using fat as fuel for your body. During this initial days you might have a number of symptoms,known as “keto  flu”. You can have weakness, easy fatigue,muscle soreness, irritability, brain fog, headache, difficulty in sleeping, nausea, constipation, you can feel giddy, light-headed and very tired. And you wil be peeing, like a lot. Your body holds a lot of water: for every 1 gm of carbohydrates we hold 3-4 gm of water. Once you stop eating carbs your body will dump all those water, so DRINK A LOT! This symptoms may last upto a week and to avoid them you need to drink plenty of liquids,add  electrolytes(salt) to your regime, eat enough fat, have enough rest and sleep and avoid too much physical activities.  

Once you are in ketosis you will feel better, your energy levels will increase,your mental clarity will improve,you might develop “keto breath”( smell comes from acetone you  breath out), your appetite and hunger will reduce. You still might have constipation and insomnia, which your body needs to adjust to. 

WHAT TO EAT AND DRINK ON KETO 

Top 10 Foods for the Ketogenic Diet

• Olives and Olive Oil.
• Meat, Poultry, and Seafood.
• High Fat Dairy (Cheese, Butter, and Cream)
• Dark Chocolate.
• Berries.
• Garlic, Onion, and Other Allium Vegetables.
• Coconut Oil.
• Nuts and Seeds. Nuts and seeds are a healthy addition to any diet.

Please comment for more details and if you want to have meal plans and diet recipes

PubMed links :-

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29910305/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26768850

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25402637