Is The Keto Diet Safe?

The keto diet is actually the extreme sister of a low- carb diet . A low-carb diet, as the name suggests, drastically reduces the total amount of carbohydrates in daily consumption. However, a regular low-carb diet causes an average of 100 grams of carbohydrates a day. This is actually a nice amount, because this gives you the opportunity to eat enough fruit and even small portions of cereals.

A ketogenic diet, however, consists of almost no carbohydrates - a maximum of 30 grams per day. In addition, you can only take these carbohydrates from vegetables. Cereals and the like are not allowed. In addition to a small amount of carbohydrates, you also eat a small amount of protein. This portion usually consists of 1/2 to 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. However, the vast majority of your diet consists of fat - especially saturated fat from butter and coconut oil . The consumption of many fats is just stimulated - the higher the percentage of fat in your diet, the better. Also, energy consumption is often limited, that is, you need to eat less calories to ensure that you burn faster fat.

The pros and cons of the ketogenic diet

Now that I have tried it myself, I will also speak from experience here. Although a keto diet has many advantages, it also has many disadvantages.

Advantages :

• Quick weight loss
• Tasty dishes with a higher fat content
• Suppressed hunger feeling

Disadvantages :

• The ketogenic diet puts pressure on the liver and kidneys
• Kidney and gallstones are a common side effect
• Little variation possible in dishes
• No long term solution for weight loss
• Fatigue is a common side effect during the first two weeks of the diet
• Cholesterol and triglycerides will most likely increase
• Lack of vitamins and minerals
• Also eliminates healthy carbohydrates
• Lack of fiber causes constipation

The so-called 'ketogenic flu' is a phenomenon that has recently been overlooked. This involves literally the feeling of fatigue and even a flu during the first weeks and sometimes months of the diet. Fans say that this is a transition period in which your body switches to the use of fats instead of carbohydrates. In principle this is true, however, this is not a normal process. Indeed, your body is forced to make this transition and oppose it strongly.

Is the keto diet safe?

A diet that consists of so many saturated fats and animal products, and so few products rich in vitamins, minerals and fibers can not actually be healthy. Despite the clever marketing of the guru 's of this diet, there are few studies that underline the positive effects of the ketogenic diet in the long term.

It is true that there are several studies that show benefits of a carbohydrate lifestyle , but this is not the same as a ketogenic diet. It should also be said that most studies show positive effects because they compare the diet to a group that eats junk food in particular. Because of this, you will see a decrease of body fat and cholesterol, because the other diet is even worse for your body. But this is no proof that the diet is also healthy for you. In fact, it is NOT safe to recommend a ketogenic diet because its effects are simply not known in the long run.

Finally...

If you study the research properly, science is not at all as confusing as this often seems. A healthy diet can simply be determined by using your common sense - and science also supports this. We have known for a long time that saturated fats are unhealthy and that butter and whipped cream do not belong in a healthy diet. We also know that fruit and vegetables should not be missed.

However, the popularity of the ketogenic diet can largely be explained by the need of people to confirm bad habits . If someone tells us that we can eat butter and bacon without limitation, we tend to believe this because we want to believe it. Personally, however, I feel much healthier and more energy-intensive on a low-fat and fiber-rich diet and therefore can not recommend the ketogenic diet to anyone.

Unless you suffer from epilepsy, I can only press you for something special to choose!