The ketogenic diet has become a hot topic in today’s dieting world, but is it safe? The ketogenic is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. It is said to have many benefits for weight loss and health performance. On a ketogenic diet, your entire body switches its fuel supply to run almost entirely on fat. Insulin levels become very low and fat burning dramatically increases, forcing the body into a state of ketosis.
There are some benefits to a ketogenic diet, such that one may end up eating healthier fats, and stray away from sugar and processed foods. On the other hand, there are also some drawbacks. This strict diet can be difficult to follow and many people end up eating fats that are not the healthiest. The diet may help lose weight right away because most of the weight that is lost is water weight, but it may not be ideal for long-term use because not many people will be able to sustain this kind of lifestyle for very long. Once your body enters ketosis, you begin to lose muscle, become extremely fatigued, and eventually enter the starvation mode. It actually becomes more difficult to lose weight once you have entered the starvation mode because your body is trying to hold on to fat that is left in order to survive. In addition, the keto diet can be harmful on your kidneys, liver, and heart.
Overall, yes, there are some benefits to following a ketogenic diet, but a healthier and more sustainable option would be changing your overall lifestyle to eat a healthy, balanced intake instead of completely cutting out food groups that contain important vitamins and minerals that the body needs.
Angel Rasmussen, SDSU Dietetic Student
