And diabetes disrupts the body's normal processing of glucose. "Carbohydrate directly impacts glucose levels," she says. This makes sense, according to Kirkpatrick. Some experts believe a keto diet may be useful in controlling blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. A 2016 analysis by the independent Cochrane Collaboration found that it stopped seizures in about half of those on it after 3 months. The keto diet has a good track record for helping children and adults with epilepsy, Roehl says. "We don't yet know the impact of keeping the body in that state over long periods of time," she says. a nutritionist and a senior food and nutrition policy analyst for Consumer Reports. The fact that the body can derive energy from ketones is an evolutionary adaptation that helps people survive during periods of starvation, when glucose isn't available to power the brain, points out Charlotte Vallaeys, M.S. The long-term effects of the keto diet aren't clear. If untreated, ketoacidosis can cause heart attacks, kidney failure, or fluid buildup in the brain. In ketoacidosis, the body produces more ketones than it can use for energy, and they build up in the blood, becoming toxic. More serious: Scientists have documented several cases in which a condition called ketoacidosis occurred as a result of a very-low-carb diet. There's an increased risk of kidney stones, and, like other low-carb diets, the keto plan may cause bad breath, constipation, and headaches. You may also be more prone to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances, because following a keto diet can cause your body to excrete more water than you otherwise would. It takes a few days for the body to switch over to using ketones for energy. For example, in the BJN study, people who followed the diet had increased LDL cholesterol, the kind of cholesterol that leads to a buildup of plaque in your arteries and can raise your risk of cardiovascular disease.įeeling foggy or lethargic is common during the first few weeks of following the plan, a result of significantly reducing glucose (which fuels the brain and muscles). The keto diet also has a number of drawbacks. The analysis also noted that the initial weight loss from low- and very-low-carb diets appears to be primarily due to loss of body water, and that restricting carbohydrates appears to result in greater loss of lean body mass-meaning muscle-as opposed to loss of fat mass. And beyond six months, "that difference was essentially gone," according to Kirkpatrick, who is the lead author of the report, and the two types of diets produced similar results. According to a recent scientific statement about carb-restricted diets from the National Lipids Association published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, very-low-carb diets led to more weight loss than low-fat diets in the short term (about six months), but only when both diet plans also severely restricted calories. Some evidence suggests keto may not be better than other diets for long-term weight loss. Still, the keto diet can be hard to stick to and many people "may not need to go to that extreme to get the benefits," Ludwig says. He notes that more research is needed to determine effects on LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels and whether there are some people, such as pregnant women, who shouldn't follow this eating pattern. For one thing, some carbohydrates- especially fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains-are important parts of a healthy diet and are known to reduce the risk of a number of chronic diseases.Ī "well-formulated" keto diet can be effective for obesity and type 2 diabetes control, and can even be used as a first treatment option for these conditions, says David Ludwig, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School and a professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. And Roehl notes that her patients who follow the diet for epilepsy tend to lose weight as a side effect.īut following this highly restricted form of a low-carb diet may not be worth it for most people. A 2013 analysis published in the British Journal of Nutrition (BJN) that evaluated 13 studies found that people who adhered to it lost more weight than those who followed a low-fat diet, at least in the short term. Research suggests that people who follow a keto diet do drop pounds.
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