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A ketogenic or keto diet is a meal plan that consists of foods with healthy fats, adequate protein, and few carbohydrates. The diet aims to acquire more calories from fats than from carbs. This diet works by alleviating the body’s sugar reserves, meaning the body will begin breaking down fat to provide energy. The breakdown of fats produces molecules known as ketones that the body uses for fuel.
Examples of healthy foods that are part of the keto diet include:
- Animal proteins like seafood, meat, poultry, and eggs
- Dairy and dairy alternatives such as cheese, plain yogurt, cottage cheese, cream plant-based milk
- Vegetables including peppers, green leafy vegetables, high fat veggies, and other non-starchy vegetables
- Other plant-based foods like berries, seeds, nuts, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate
- Fats and oils, including olive oil, ghee, and butter
- Beverages like unsweetened coffee and tea, and water
The keto diet increases its popularity because of its many benefits. This post will look at the friendly benefits of the keto diet and its risks. Read on to learn more.
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Promotes Weight Loss
The ketogenic diet works by burning fat for energy, and fat burning helps promote weight loss. It also promotes weight loss by reducing appetite. Keto diets contain foods that make you feel full and may alleviate hunger-stimulating hormones. However, strict adherence to this diet is key to long-term success. You may want to reach out to Proper Good if you need help identifying the right foods to incorporate into your keto diet.
Reduce Certain Cancers
The ketogenic diet is believed to help prevent or even cure certain cancers. It’s most suitable to be used alongside radiation therapy and chemotherapy as it causes more oxidative stress in cancer cells than in normal cells, killing the cancer cells. Furthermore, since a ketogenic diet lowers blood sugar, it can also help reduce insulin complications.
Insulin is a hormone that controls blood sugar and is a risk factor for some cancers. However, making a ketogenic diet from scratch can be challenging. Luckily you can visit eatpropergood.com to get the diet at a reasonable price.
Improve Acne
Acne has numerous causes; some are linked to diet and blood sugar. Diets with high processed and refined carbs affect the balance of gut bacteria and result in the rise and fall of blood sugar, which significantly impacts your skin health. However, eating a ketogenic diet reduces carb intake, which can alleviate acne symptoms in many people.
Improve Heart Health
Following a ketogenic diet means incorporating foods with healthy fats. This means eating healthy fats like avocado instead of less healthy fats like pork rinds helps lower cholesterol, improving your heart health. A ketogenic diet helps increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol and reduces levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol.
High cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease. Therefore, incorporating a keto diet helps reduce the risk of heart complications by reducing cholesterol.
Potentially Protect Brain Function
The ketones produced when the body burns fat serve as body fuel and provide neuroprotective benefits, which protect and strengthen the nerve cells and brain. For this reason, a keto diet can be used to protect or manage conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
Improve PCOS Symptoms
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal disorder that can cause ovulatory dysfunction, excess male hormones, and polycystic ovaries. A diet with high carbohydrates causes adverse effects on individuals with PCOS, such as weight gain and skin problems. Following a ketogenic diet can help improve PCOS symptoms through weight loss, hormone balance, and balance levels of fasting insulin.
Risks And Complications Of A Keto Diet
Despite the keto diet benefits, following the diet for a long time can have some drawbacks to your health. It can cause health problems like kidney stones, excess protein in the blood, fat build-up in the liver, and mineral and vitamin deficiencies.
The keto diet can also have side effects commonly known as keto flu. The keto flu symptoms are constipation, fatigue, dizziness, headaches, vomiting, nausea, and low stamina. Luckily, these symptoms don’t last long and are mainly common during keto-adaptation and are caused by the changes in your blood sugar levels.
For this reason, some people may want to avoid this diet, including people with diabetes, pancreatitis or kidney disease, eating disorders, or women during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Conclusion
While a ketogenic diet provides plenty of benefits, it can also trigger some side effects for some people, meaning it’s not suitable for everyone. Therefore, it’s important to consult your nutritionist or doctor, especially for people aiming to cure or manage a health condition. Have your doctor check if you have hypoglycemia, diabetes, heart disease, or any other condition to ensure the keto diet is safe for your body.
