A Keto diet can have several health benefits for an individual such as weight loss, lower blood pressure and healthier cholesterol levels.
- The ketogenic, or keto, diet is a very popular diet plan
- Originally designed in the 1920s to assist alleviate the symptoms of childhood epilepsy, it is today regarded as the holy grail of healthy eating by nutritionists, life coaches, and even Hollywood stars
- January 5 is observed as National Keto Day
What is the Aim of Keto Day
National Keto Day aims to educate and raise awareness about the ketogenic diet, as well as to highlight the numerous health benefits that a keto lifestyle provides.Guidelines on Keto Diet
A keto diet is primarily composed of healthy fats such as eggs, avocados, olive oil, and sustainably reared meat. Nuts, seeds, dairy, and low-carbohydrate veggies like asparagus, broccoli, and green peppers are also simple to include. A keto diet includes fat and taste from coconut oil, grass-fed butter, and ghee. Small amounts of berries are occasionally added to the menu.Foods to Avoid on a Ketogenic Diet
Lose Weight with Keto Diet
Weight loss and healthy blood sugar support are two of the major benefits of the keto diet. Research has shown that patients with type 2 diabetes who follow a ketogenic diet have better glycemic control.Keto Diet Helps Treat Epilepsy in Children
The ketogenic diet was first used as a modern health strategy in the 1920s to treat epilepsy in both children and adults. When effective anticonvulsant prescription medicines for seizures became available, keto fell out of favor with the medical establishment. However, other doctors still advocated the 4:1 fat-to-protein intake ratio and a reduction in grain-based meals, sweets, and high-carb fruits as an alternative to the medications.Finally, in 1994, Jim Abrahams, a Hollywood producer whose son’s epilepsy was treated by the keto diet, founded the Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies. This resulted in widespread media coverage, including an interview on ‘Dateline’ and a made-for-TV film starring Meryl Streep and directed by Abrahams himself. Soon after, his foundation published a ground-breaking scientific study on ketogenic, sparking increased national and worldwide interest.
So, how did doctors in the early twentieth century realize that carbohydrate restriction would assist epileptics? The true history of epilepsy dates to ancient Greece, where physicians wrote in the ‘Hippocratic Corpus’ that it was a biological condition that could be healed by extreme fasting, rather than a supernatural affliction as popularly believed.
Neurologists recognized in twentieth-century treatments and studies that a starch and sugar-free diet might mirror the outcomes of the entire fasting version, and that fine-tuning, and testing led to today’s version of keto, fueled in large part by the national obsession with weight loss.
Benefits of Keto Diet for Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease
The keto diet’s brain-health benefits are now recognized to extend to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, sleeplessness, and other conditions.Side Effects of Keto Diet
Those considering going keto should be mindful of potential adverse effects known as ‘keto flu’. However, there are numerous credible websites, and celebrities such as the Kardashians and Halle Berry who swear by it!Source-Medindia