Health and the Ketogenic Diet

The Ketogenic Diet is a popular diet utilized by many for weight loss and disease management. This is a popular diet that has been known to treat several co-occurring disorders such as epilepsy, diabetes, liver disease, autoimmune disorders, migraines, cardiovascular disease, seizures, degenerative disease, and cancer (Crosby, Davis, Joshi, Jardine, Paul, Neola, & Barnard, 2021). Although the keto diet is approved by many health professionals, it has the potential to cause severe health risks which include cardiovascular disease (Davis, 2024). Before starting any diet, a medical professional should be considered in order to meet desired health results. The ketogenic diet is designed to include foods within the diet that are high in fat and lower in carbohydrates.?

Eating a ketogenic diet allows the body to get into ketosis, while allowing the body to utilize fat as the main energy source. With this diet, carbohydrate intake is at 10 percent, while the remaining source of nutrition comes from 70-90 percent comes from protein (Davis, 2024). Some of the benefits of the ketogenic diet include ridding the body of unwanted water weight which leads to weight loss (Davis 2024). Adversely, this diet can allow individuals to lose an insurmountable amount of fluids, causing dehydration, hepatitis, high cholesterol levels in the bloodstream, inflammation of the pancreas, high triglycerides in the blood, increased uric acid in the bloodstream, low magnesium levels, and low sodium levels in the bloodstream (W?odarek, 2019 as cited in Taylor, Sullivan, Mahnken, Burns, Swerdlow, 2017). Additionally, the keto diet has potential to lower LDL cholesterol and improve HDL cholesterol levels (Davis, 2024).?

According to Davis (2024), the ketogenic diet can cause insufficient nutrition as a result of decreased fiber intake. A study of 300 individuals of an online format found that the ketogenic diet was linked to migraines, tiredness, incoherent thoughts, abdominal discomfort, and heart palpitations (Bostock, Kirkby, Taylor, & Hawrelak, 2020). It is paramount for those who are seeking weight loss and management to consider both the positive and negative effects of a diet as such.

References

Bostock, E. C. S., Kirkby, K. C., Taylor, B. V., & Hawrelak, J. A. (2020). Consumer Reports of "Keto Flu" Associated With the Ketogenic Diet. Frontiers in nutrition, 7, 20. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2020.00020

Crosby, L., Davis, B., Joshi, S., Jardine, M., Paul, J., Neola, M., & Barnard, N. D. (2021). Ketogenic Diets and Chronic Disease: Weighing the Benefits Against the Risks. Frontiers in nutrition, 8, 702802. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.702802

Davis, J. (2024). Is the keto diet healthy? Retrieved on October 21, 2024 from https://www.houstonmethodist.org/blog/articles/2024/sep/is-keto-healthy/

Taylor, M. K., Sullivan, D. K., Mahnken, J. D., Burns, J. M., & Swerdlow, R. H. (2017). Feasibility and efficacy data from a ketogenic diet intervention in Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.), 4, 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trci.2017.11.002

W?odarek D. (2019). Role of Ketogenic Diets in Neurodegenerative Diseases (Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease). Nutrients, 11(1), 169. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11010169