by Jacob Comp, Student Reporter
With all these different diets to choose from, why would people choose the Keto diet? The answer for some is simple.
Jennifer Polk is an avid user of the keto diet.
“The keto diet definitely works for me and my body type. I’ve seen and felt amazing results,” Polk said.
The diet has led to many people dropping pounds, seeing improvement with their blood pressure as well as reducing hunger overall, but as with anything, there are drawbacks.
The keto diet is based on the idea that if someone’s diet consists of mainly fat, then the body will begin to use the fat stores to get energy instead of from the carbohydrates we eat daily. However, the keto diet is not just a low-carb diet. It is almost a no-carb diet.
The keto diet entails that around 70% of your daily caloric intake should come from fats and less than 10% should come from carbs.
The biggest question with any diet is: Does it work?
A New York Times article refers to a new literary review of low-carb diets by the National Lipid Association, which states that an extreme low-carb diet can help you lose more weight than a typical high-carb, low-fat diet.
ADVANTAGES LESSEN
However, the same review states that by 12 months, the advantage of the low-carb diet is essentially gone. After the 12-month period, the weight loss equalizes between the two diets.
Ian Dukehart is the Northwestern Oklahoma State University strength and conditioning coach. He has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science with a master’s in sports performance. He doesn’t believe the keto diet has a use for losing weight.
“A balanced diet is going to help you lose weight,” Dukehart said. “Ketones is essentially what is created, so if you are creating ketones, then your body is missing something. We don’t want our body to miss something. If it works for you to lose weight, then that’s great, but you can’t maintain that diet for your whole life. Whereas, if you have a balanced diet and you’re able to lose weight that way, then you can maintain that forever.”
The keto diet itself is not a new thing. The keto diet is nearly a century old. It has been used to treat children with epilepsy and has been used as a way to help people with diabetes.
The diet can be a replacement to the typical treatment for those with diabetes. Carbohydrates are the biggest driver of blood sugar, so by transitioning to the keto diet, blood sugar levels will lower.
In a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine of 263 adults with type-2 diabetes, half of the group was given medication that helps with the control of blood sugar levels. The other half of the group received weight management counseling while undergoing a low-carb diet.
After a 48-week period, both groups experienced a lower level of blood sugar, but the weight management group slimmed down more, required less medication and had fewer problematic low blood sugar episodes.
In a study, nearly two-thirds of patients suffered half the amount of seizures as they previously experienced.
An article from Harvard Health referred to a registered dietitian, Kathy McManus, the director of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“The keto diet is primarily used to help reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures in children,” McManus said. “While it also has been tried for weight loss, only short-term results have been studied, and the results have been mixed. We don’t know if it works in the long term, nor whether it’s safe.”
The first issue that many run into with the keto diet is determining what to eat. With such a restriction on carbs, it is difficult to find food that fits the diet and tastes good.
“I eat all kinds of stuff, nothing too different than before, except I stay away from flour, sugars and high carbohydrate foods. There’s a ton of low-carb recipes online, which is where I get a lot of my ideas. I make keto protein shakes quite often as well,” Polk said.
Foods like cheese, butter, eggs, nuts, salmon, bacon, olive oil and non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, greens and spinach are staples of the keto diet.
HEALTH CONCERNS
While there is a shortage of food choices for the keto diet, there is no shortage of health risks while doing the diet.
“If you’re not eating a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and grains, you may be at risk for deficiencies in micronutrients, including selenium, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamins B and C,” McManus said.
Another major issue with the keto diet is the big amount of fats that the body then takes in. This diet could put more stress on the liver.
Dr. Neil J. Stone, a preventive cardiologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Illinois, is referred to in an article by the New York Times. He has seen the bad cholesterol levels of some of his patients on the keto diet increase drastically.
“Any diet that raises major risk factors for coronary heart disease puts patients at risk over the long term,” Stone said.
Along with these increased risks on your body from the keto diet, there are some side effects that come along with the diet.
The first that may come are stomach issues and gastrointestinal distress. The shock to the body that comes along with the high fat intake causes many people who begin keto to have some type of distress to their stomachs.
Another side effect of the keto diet is called the keto flu. The keto flu is something that comes with the lack of carbohydrates in your diet. McManus says that the brain needs sugar to cooperate effectively. These sugars come from healthy carbohydrates, so these low-carb diets such as the keto diet will often lead to confusion and irritability. The keto flu can often include symptoms of dizziness, poor sleep and fatigue.
With all of these different symptoms that come along with the keto diet, the thought would be that this diet is drastically better than other diets. However, this is not necessarily true. A New York Times article refers to a study conducted that followed 609 overweight adults.
The group was separated, with part of the group using a low-fat diet and the other group using a low-carb diet. In the end, the results were nearly even. Both groups lost an average of 12 to 13 pounds per person. In the end, there has been success in all different diets, and what has worked for some hasn’t worked for others.
While the keto diet did not originate as a way to lose weight, some people have seen weight loss occur while on the keto diet.
“It may not be the best thing for everyone. Do I recommend it? Definitely,” Polk said.