Benefits of the Keto Diet

[Below is the transcript of my video about the ketogenic diet, along with supplemental information on the topic.]

The ketogenic diet has stirred controversy, but we know the health benefits it can provide. Originally designed for patients with epilepsy by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, a ketogenic diet can help with weight loss, fighting cancer and even the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Basically, a ketogenic diet puts your body in ketosis, a metabolic state where most of the body’s energy comes from ketone bodies in the blood. This in contrast to a glycosis state, where blood glucose — sugar — provides most of the energy. That means your body is burning fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. So your body actually burns its own body fat or fat that you’re consuming dietarily for its overall energy production.

Our bodies normally run on glucose or sugar for energy. We can’t make glucose and only have about 24 hours stored in our muscles and liver. Once glucose is no longer available, we begin to burn stored fat. The ketogenic diet, therefore, eliminates glucose and causes the body to burn stored fat.

There are medical studies — conducted by the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center for the University of Iowa, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and more — that show the ketogenic diet is an effective treatment for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and effective for very fast weight loss. I’ve actually found that the ketogenic diet is quite possibly the best diet for very fat weight loss.

Now, I don’t believe that the ketogenic diet typically should be done for periods more than three to six months. After that, you should add good carbohydrates into your diet. But if your goal is to lose weight fast, the ketogenic diet is the perfect diet.

The reason why it works so effectively is that when your body goes into ketosis and starts buring fat for energy, your body is burning up its own body fat — and it also stops feeding on sugar. Those all play a part in the benefits of a ketogenic diet.

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3 Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet

1. Fights Cancer

We know that cancer cells feed off of sugar. A ketogenic diet is essentially a diet made up of around typically 80 percent fat, 10 percent carbohydrates and 10 percent protein — or maybe 70 percent fat, 20 percent protein and 10 percent carbs. The carbs are very very minimal so your body burns fat for energy. That means there is little sugar in your system blocking the body from utilizing fat in favor of burning sugar.

The reason the ketogenic diet is effective as a natural cancer treatment is that the cancer cells are starved since sugar feeds cancer cells and causes them to proliferate. They have no sugar to feed off of, so the cacner cells starve to death.

2. Aids Weight Loss

By limiting carbohydrate and sugar intake, your body starts burning its own body fat for energy, helping you lose weight and lose weight quickly. Think about this: Your body will also then continue to burn fat even while you’re sleeping at night. That means your body is burning fat 24/7.

And it’s not just burning the fat you consume — it’s burning body fat. That’s why it’s the most effective way to burn fat fast.

3. Treats Alzheimer’s Disease

Evidence shows that a ketogenic diet is an Alzheimer’s natural treatment. In fact, a medical doctor in Florida treated her husband, who had dementia and Alzheimer’s, with what she called the coconut ketogenic diet and said it cured his symptoms completely.

We know that part of what happens in dementia and Alzheimer’s is the degeneraitn of the nerve system in the brian. So to treat Alzheimer’s, you really need to support the brain nerve system.

Well, a diet that has around 70 percent healthy fats we know helps the brain, and we also know that ketosis and your body being able to burn fat for energy or utilize fatty acids is critical for the brain and for the natural treatment of dementia.

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What Does a Ketogenic Diet Look Like?

You want to add three types of healthy fats in your diet if you go on a ketogenic diet:

• Healthy saturated fats — coconut oil, high-fat dairy like grass-fed butter and ghee
• Omega-3 fatty acids — found in foods omega-3 foods like salmon, chia seeds andflaxseeds
• Healthy omega-9 fatty acids — found in olive oil, avocados, almonds, and sprouted nuts and seeds

If you can follow a ketogenic diet, I recommend it, but again, you should only follow it for a three- to six-month period of time because your body does need carbohydrates long-term to function at its very best.