Benefits of a Keto Diet
By Madhusudhan Tammisetti
A keto diet is a diet plan that contains a lot of healthy fats, sufficient amounts of protein, and uses very few carbohydrates. Instead of getting calories from carbs, the keto diet gets more calories by burning fat. Some of the keto diet plans include the Standard Ketogenic Diet and the Targeted Ketogenic Diet.
If you follow the keto diet, it depletes the body's sugar reserves and breaks down the fat for energy. This results in producing molecules called ketones, and the body uses these ketones as fuel.
Here are some of the benefits of the keto diet.
Supports Weight Loss
Since keto is a high-fat, low-carb diet plan, the carb intake is less than 5-10 percent of the total daily calorie intake. The body enters ketosis, a state in which the body uses fat instead of carbs as the primary fuel source. The low-carb intake is countered by increasing fat content to about 70-90 percent of calories. It equals 155-200 grams of a 2000-calorie diet.
Protein amounts to approximately 20 percent of the calories, which corresponds to about 60 grams of a 2000-calorie diet.
The keto diet fills up a person and may help in reducing hunger-stimulating hormones. This, in turn, reduces appetite in a person and promotes weight loss.
May Reduce Risk of Cancer
Research shows a potential positive effect of a ketogenic diet in preventing or treating certain cancers. Alongside the regular cancer treatment of certain cancers, the keto diet may be a complementary treatment that could help cancer patients. When you take a keto diet, the oxidative stress is more in cancer cells than in normal cells, and the cancer cells may die.
Since the ketogenic diet lowers blood sugar, it reduces the risk of insulin-related complications. Insulin controls blood sugar and may have links to certain cancers.
A ketogenic diet may have some benefits in preventing or treating certain cancers. Researchers have to conduct more studies to unearth and fully comprehend the possible benefits of the diet.
May Improve Heart Health
When you're following a ketogenic diet, you should choose healthful foods. Eating healthy fats instead of eating less healthy fats reduces cholesterol intake that may help improve heart health. You can eat avocados instead of pork rinds to reduce cholesterol-related health issues.
People following a ketogenic diet may see a significant drop in total cholesterol levels, triglycerides, bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and an increase in good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL).
Since high cholesterol levels increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, a keto diet may lower the risk of heart complications.
Before diving into the keto diet, kindly keep in mind that long-term studies on the benefits of the ketogenic diet are lacking. Keto diet uses very few carbs, and some carbohydrates have health benefits. Kindly consult your dietician or doctor before following a keto diet regimen.
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