You’ve probably heard about the Ketogenic Diet or “Keto.” Perhaps you’re familiar with how Keto helps burn fat, but I bet you don’t know ALL of the different daily and medical benefits. There is likely a very good reason you should consider doing Keto, so now it’s time to learn why Keto is healthy and how it just might be a life-changing diet for you.
Daily Benefits of Keto
Reduce Inflammation
Inflammation is the body’s response to injury. It works to heal wounds, but it can also play a role in some chronic diseases. If the inflammatory process goes on for too long or if the inflammatory response occurs in places where it is not needed, it can become problematic. Chronic inflammation has been linked to certain diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and autoimmune disorders, but the Ketogenic Diet will help keep inflammation under control.
More Consistent Energy
Since your blood sugar will not be rising and falling dramatically, you will not have big “highs” or big “lows” in energy. You know that crash that takes place after you eat lunch? Well, that won’t happen as much, if at all, because your body won’t be running on those carbohydrates you just ate, and it will continue to run on your stored fat, which is a more sustainable and consistent fuel source.
Weight Loss
Once you turn ON the fat burning process in your body, it’s going to feel like your excess fat just evaporated off of you! In the first month, you will definitely lose 5-10 pounds, but the results could be even more drastic than that possibly reaching 15 or 20 pounds! And my belief is that the most important reason to do the Ketogenic Diet is to get HEALTHY, but the weight loss is a key indicator that your body is running more efficiently and healthily…so say goodbye to those “love handles” and feel good doing it!
Body Composition
At a certain point, weight loss may start to slow, but that doesn’t mean your body has stopped burning fat. Ketones have a preservative effect on muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat. So, your weight may stabilize, but you should measure your waist periodically, because you will likely find that it has kept shrinking, providing you a nice, lean physique. And if you couple this “muscle preservation” from the ketones with weight-lifting…you’re going to be “sauced” very soon!
Improved Mood and Mental Clarity
High blood sugar and insulin resistance causes brain fog, forgetfulness, irritability, drowsiness, and anxiety.
Every time you eat, you spike insulin and carbohydrates elevate blood sugars. So, to curb these detrimental effects, the Ketogenic Diet and Intermittent Fasting can reduce blood sugars, make your body more insulin sensitive so you don’t produce as much, and your brain and body will start to use Ketones for fuel which are cleaner and will sustain you longer. You will gain more energy, feel happier and be more focused throughout the day.
Autophagy
Your cells go through a process of cleaning up cellular “garbage” (damaged cellular parts, fungus, viruses, misshaped proteins) and recycling them into new building blocks or new raw material that can be used to create fresh, new, healthy cells (cell remodeling). This is called Autophagy, and it is stimulated by the Ketogenic Diet, Intermittent Fasting, and Prolonged Fasting (24-40 hours of fasting can stimulate Autophagy by 300%!!!). This cleansing and regeneration of cells has anti-aging effects on your body, as it helps grow new brain cells, produce healthy heart tissue, and strengthen your immune system.
Anti-Aging Effects
Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is the ultimate anti-aging hormone, as it preserves your skin, regenerates cells, preserves protein and muscle, and is the main hormone that helps you burn fat. The Ketogenic Diet and Intermittent Fasting increases your amount of HGH and allows you to live longer and look more youthful.
Self-Confidence
You will gain self-confidence from the weight loss, lean physique, improved mood, mental clarity and general happiness. With the weight loss that comes, people will often give you compliments on your improved physique and youthful look, and this obviously will make you feel good about yourself. Further, Keto improves mood and stabilizes your “highs” and “lows” (regulates hormone swings) giving you a calmer internal disposition. Very simply, you will feel healthy and great. So, this clean and happy energy will come out in the form of confidence. You will approach life’s encounters with a new, refreshed outlook and with a boost of courage and confidence.
Reduction in Appetite
After some time, your body will eventually become accustomed to running on fats and become “keto-adapted” or “fat-adapted.” This means your cells will start using your fat for energy, rather than sugar/carbs/glucose.
Fat as a fuel source is much cleaner and will sustain you longer.
Protein and carbohydrates both contain 4 calories per gram, while fat provides 9 calories per gram. You will be able to go meal-to-meal much easier without feeling hungry. Once fat adaptation takes place, you will likely find that you feel the need to eat less often, which pairs perfectly with the “Intermittent Fasting” method that is so important in this whole picture (abstaining from food consumption for a period of time daily or weekly).
Medical Benefits of Keto
Epilepsy Therapy
The Ketogenic Diet originated as a form of therapy to reduce the frequency, or even completely eliminate seizures in those who battle epilepsy. Many success stories exist, bringing about the ability to lead safe, happy and fulfilling lives.
Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
Virta Health is an online medical clinic prescribing the Ketogenic Diet to reverse Type 2 Diabetes. Through initial studies, they have found that patients have been able to significantly reduce, if not eliminate altogether, their use of diabetes medication and insulin. Further, the unavoidable and welcomed weight loss that comes with Keto will also contribute to the possible remission of diabetes for many.
Lower Risk for Heart Disease
For many decades now, it’s been established that a low fat, high carb diet would improve metabolic and cardiovascular conditions. The results have been grim, resulting in record numbers in obesity, heart disease, and dementia. Clearly, the “standard American diet” is not working.
Weight loss from the Ketogenic Diet will help improve cardiovascular risk factors such as reducing high blood pressure, regulating cholesterol (lower “bad” LDL cholesterol and higher “good” HDL cholesterol), and lowering blood sugar that causes artery damage through chronic inflammation.
Virta Health conducted studies where patients reduced blood pressure or hypertension to the point that they were completely taken off blood pressure medicine.
Cancer Therapy
Cancer cells have a huge appetite for sugar/carbs/glucose and gain their energy from this food group. By employing the Ketogenic Diet, along with intermittent and prolonged fasting, we can initiate autophagy (cell clean-up/recycling) and apoptosis (cell death) upon these weakened cancer cells after they are unable to gain energy. Further, studies have shown that cancer patients doing chemotherapy respond much better to the treatment, because the cancer cells will die, but your healthy cells on a Ketogenic diet will protect itself from the chemotherapy and survive.
Alzheimer’s Treatment
Those with Alzheimer’s Disease have significant reduction in the ability to use glucose for fuel in their brain. It is similar to an “Insulin Resistance” condition where the glucose cannot get in to the cells to be utilized. Therefore, if you supply the brain with Ketones as an alternate type of fuel, the brain can function drastically better, significantly improving these patients’ conditions.
Moreover, Keto can serve to help prevent Alzheimer’s, considering that there a number of well-documented pre-Alzheimer’s risk factors, including Type 2 Diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. These are all conditions that can be prevented or cured by Keto.
Alleviate Migraines
Migraines are linked to neuroinflammation, which is essentially slight brain swelling. For many, migraines are very disruptive to everyday life. A diet producing ketones to be used as a fuel source in the brain will have an anti-inflammatory effect, causing great relief from this constant pain. I can speak from personal experience that my migraines are extinct at this point, which was an unexpected, yet very welcomed side-effect of Keto.
Cancer Therapy for Dogs
The KetoPet Sanctuary is a nonprofit organization coaching the Ketogenic Diet to dog owners with the goal of reducing or eliminating cancer in dogs. They have helped many dogs live longer lives or even survive cancer through this method, greatly outlasting their original prognoses. They believe that the Ketogenic Diet is the optimal diet for all adult dogs.
There are so many reasons you should learn how to do Keto and Intermittent Fasting, and start to incorporate new, healthy habits!
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