The Pros And Cons Of The Keto Diet

Is giving up favorite foods worth the hype of keto diet? Fad diets come in and out of the spotlight constantly. There always seems to be a new miracle pill, better meal plans, and extra restriction of what a person should eat to lose weight. Usually the weight lost during a brief diet is quickly added back on. With great reward usually comes with a greater or equal risk attached to it. A lifestyle change is an option and the keto diet says that’s what it is. Being in a field that advocates for a healthy life choices, I decided to take a deeper drive into ketosis. In British Dietetic Association, an article titled, “Food Fact Sheet—Fad Diets,” it explains that a fad diet is a design to restrict foods or an odd assortment of foods together,

On “Dr. Axe Food is Medicine,” a website that claims the keto diet “is based upon a solid understanding of physiology and nutrition science.” The ketogenic diets are mainly a high fat, sufficient protein, and low carbohydrate intake diet. This is because foods with a high carb rate produces glucose and insulin, the body runs on the glucose (“What Is the Ketogenic Diet?”). When the body runs on this source of energy, fat is not being burned, as a result it starts to store. Getting to the point where the body begins to burn and runs off of fat, ketosis, is by having a low carb intake diet. In the article, “What Is the Ketogenic Diet? A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide,” it states that this state the body goes into when it’s using fat as energy to run is a process that our bodies go into when “food intake is low.” It testifies that through the keto diet is not to starve a person of calories, just carbohydrates to reach the metabolic state or

Low-carb diets, such as the keto diet or ones that either cut all carbs or limit them to extremely little, haven seen rapid weight loss and provide other positive health benefits. According to the Mayo Clinic, that instant body weight decrease is only seen in the beginning after a year or two the weight begins to add back on. It goes on to list some of the side effects of drastically cutting carbs from a regular diet. When the body reaches that desired state of ketosis, when the body begins to burn stored fat as energy, side effects can occur. A few “include nausea, headache, mental and physical fatigue, and bad breath.” Many studies of low-car diets are less than a year, therefore we have no idea the true long term risks or benefits. Mayo Clinic states that minimal carbohydrate intake diets that preach high protein and high fat may pose an increased chance of cancers and heart related illnesses. Having such a carbohydrate restriction in the long run can “result in vitamin or mineral deficiencies, bone loss and gastrointestinal disturbances and may increase risks of various chronic