A Keto diet or ketogenic diet is designed to achieve some health benefits associated with the food items by taking them at the appropriate time with appropriate combination and concentration. Here is a detailed article in which complete guidance is summarized about the keto diet.
Intro To A Keto Diet
The ketogenic diet, shortly known as the keto diet, is high fat and low carbohydrate ( low carb). It is similar to that of the Atkin & low carb diet.
The human diet majorly consists of carbohydrates. Proteins and fats. Disbalance between these diet constituents may lead to obesity, but if this balance is maintained, the same diet will give you the most surprising health benefits.
Therefore keto diet is an advanced strategy or diet plan that aims to provide your body with a proper balance between nutrients. So the body will either not be in a state of starving or face obesity.
Data and research over 20 studies show that this type of diet plan helps reduce weight and maintain a fit & healthy life.
Keto diet’s strategy in losing weight
It involves the reduced intake of carbohydrates-rich food & replaces it with fat. When this occurs, the body increases its efficiency to burn fat & calories for the production of energy. The brain and body utilize this energy for carrying out their specific functions.
Why is the ketogenic diet termed “keto”?
It’s named because that low carbohydrate intake makes the body achieve a ketosis metabolic state. Secondly, a high intake of fat, when burned, then it converts into ketones in the liver that supply energy to the brain. Therefore the Keto diet is the most suitable term for such a diet plan.
Types of the ketogenic diet
There are different types of keto diets with several variations. These are:
- Standard ketogenic diet: This diet contains very low carbs, moderate proteins, and high fats. The percentage of fats, proteins, and carbs appears to be 75%, 20%, and 5%, respectively.
- High protein ketogenic diet: It is the same as the standard ketogenic diet, having a difference that contains more protein content. So ratio becomes 60% of carbs, 35% protein, and 5% fat content.
- Cyclical ketogenic diet: It includes the cycle of high carbs intake after a regular interval of time, for example, five days of low carbs ketogenic diet followed by two days of high carbs diet, and in this way, the cycle continues.
- Targeted ketogenic diet: This diet allows adding some carbs at the workplace or during more physical activity, or around workouts.
The ketogenic diet for losing weight
The ketogenic diet is an effective way to control your weight within a specific limit. The reason is that you are inhibiting the intake of calories by a low-carb diet. The body will generate its own energy by burning fat. A Keto diet is preferred over low-fat diet plans. It doesn’t make your body starve for food or let you overeat. This perfect balance which is maintained by a keto diet, shows many beneficial effects for the body.
Keto diet for diabetes
The Keto diet works very well for diabetic and prediabetic patients as it lowers the intake of carbohydrates like sugar which is one of the causes of diabetes. A Keto diet enables you to lose the excess fat that may lead to type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. Furthermore, the keto diet can increase insulin sensitivity, which is very beneficial for diabetic patients.
More Health benefits from a keto diet
- Alzheimer’s disease: Keto diet is suggested to lower the progression of the disease and reduce the symptoms
- Brain injury: Study on animal reveals that keto diet help in aid and recovery after brain injuries
- Epilepsy: Sources revealed that the keto diet reduces the incidence of seizures in epileptic children
- Parkinson’s disease: Sources revealed that it helps to improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. However, it cannot prevent its occurrence & incident.
- Cancer: It is reported by a study that it slows down the growth of the tumor and is used in several types of cancer.
- Heart disease: Keto diet decreases the risk of heart disease by improving blood pressure, blood sugar, body fat, and cholesterol levels of the body.
- Acne: It improves acne indirectly by lowering insulin and sugar levels.
Keto Snacks
Snacks are that extra small episode of meals that are required at workouts or during any tiring physical or mental activity. The following snacks are recommended to be the most appropriate intake while following keto snacks.
- Fish
- Fatty meat
- Cheese
- Cheese with olives
- Boil eggs
- Dark chocolate keto
- Milkshake with low carb content
- Full fat yogurt
- Strawberries with cream
Low carbs food for Keto Diet
Here is a list of about 40+ food items with the minimum carb content that are summarized in the table below:
| Category | Food | Carbohydrates |
|---|---|---|
| Poultry | Eggs | 0% |
| Dairy Products | Cheese | 1.3% |
| Heavy cream | 3% | |
| Full yogurt | 5% | |
| Greek yogurt | 4% | |
| Beef | Lamb | 0% |
| Chicken | 0% | |
| Pork | 0% | |
| Jerk | 0% | |
| Turkey | 0.1% | |
| Veal | 0% | |
| Vension | 0% | |
| Bison | 0% | |
| Sea Foods | Salmon | 0% |
| Trout | 0% | |
| Sardiness | 0% | |
| Shellfish | 4-5% | |
| Shrimp | 0.2% | |
| Lobster | 0% | |
| Tuna | 0% | |
| Cod | 0% | |
| Catfish | 0% | |
| Halibut | 0% | |
| Haddock | 0% | |
| Herring | 0% | |
| Nuts and Beans | Almonds | 22% |
| Walnuts | 14% | |
| Peanuts | 16% | |
| Chia seeds | 44% | |
| Hazelnuts | 17% | |
| Cashews | 30% | |
| Macadamia | 0% | |
| Coconuts | 14% | |
| Pistachios | 28% | |
| Flaxseeds | 9% | |
| Sunflower seeds | 20% | |
| Vegetables | Brocoli | 7% |
| Tomatoes | 4% | |
| Onions | 9% | |
| Brussels Sprouts | 7% | |
| Cauliflower | 5% | |
| Kale | 10% | |
| Eggplant | 6% | |
| Cucumber | 4% | |
| Bell papers | 8% | |
| Green beans | 7% | |
| Mushrooms | 3% | |
| Asparagus | 2% | |
| Spinach | 3% | |
| Cabbage | 6% | |
| Celery | 2.7% | |
| Zucchini | 3.1% | |
| Swiss chard | 3.7% | |
| Fruits | Avocado | 8.5% |
| Olives | 6% | |
| Strawberries | 8% | |
| Grape fruit | 11% | |
| Apricot | 11% | |
| Lemon | 9% | |
| Kiwi | 15% | |
| Orange | 12% | |
| Mulberries | 10% | |
| Raspberry | 12% | |
| Fats and oil | Butter | 0% |
| Extra virgin olive oil | 0% | |
| Coconut oil | 0% | |
| Lard | 0% | |
| Tallow | 0% | |
| Avocado oil | 0% | |
| Keto Liquids | Water | 0% |
| Coffee | 0% | |
| Tea | 0% | |
| Carbonated water/club soda | 0% | |
| Sparkling water | 0% | |
| Protein shakes | 2% | |
| Other | Dark chocolate | 28g |
| Spices and condiments | Salt | 0% |
| Pepper | 0.5% | |
| Garlic | 3% | |
| Mustard | 5% |
Foods not to eat
- Food with high carb content should be avoided like
- sugary fruits like cake, ice cream, etc
- Bean & legumes like kidney beans, peas, etc
- Grains & starch like rice, pasta, cereal, etc
- Vegetables like sweet potatoes, Potatoes, carrots, etc
- Alcohol
- Mayonnaise, sauce, or other unhealthy fat
- Processed foods
What does ketologic mean?
Ketologic term is used to describe a diverse range of resources for a ketogenic diet. It is designed to enable people to hit ketosis more efficiently. To keep you in ketosis, they design and manufacture supplements and shakes for replacing a meal. Ketologic is similar to the ketogenic diet with the difference that ketologic are synthetic products & designed for with the calculated amounts of carbs, proteins & fat. While the ketogenic diet usually involves natural food items as a source of ketones.
Some of the examples of ketologic quoted by ketologic reviews 2020 are mentioned below:
- Ketlogoic BHP
- Ketologic Male replacement supplement
- Coffee Creamer
- Grass-fed collagen
- Electrolytes
Approved science keto
Approved science keto is a form on dietary supplements in capsules dosage to refill missing electrolytes due to a low carb diet such as keto. It is designed with four natural exogenous salts to put the body in ketosis. These salts are derived from beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and sodium, calcium, magnesium & phosphorus.
Approved science keto is not for everyone. Nursing mothers or pregnant women and children below 18 years of age should consult their pharmacist or physician before intake any such dietary supplement as approved science keto is not approved by food and drug authority and cannot be used for curing and treating any disease.
Keto food pyramid
Food pyramids are a simple representation of food in a triangular diagrammatic manner. Food pyramids related to a ketogenic diet are termed food keto pyramids. But it is totally different than that of traditional food pyramids that were taught at the beginner schooling level.
Keto food pyramids represent the content of the keto diet, i.e., fat, protein, and carbs. The base shows fat content followed by protein content at the upper level and then carb content at the topmost level.
A fatty diet occupies the widest space in the Keto food pyramid, and less space is occupied by carbs with protein in the middle. This indicates the limited intake of carbs with an increased fatty diet.
Side effects associated with Keto Diet
A change in the diet plan might show some disturbance in your body at the initial level. These side-effects are not so serious and can easily be overcome with the passage of time.
The most common side-effect is keto flu, associated with low energy, increased hunger, and decreased working efficiency either physically or mentally. It can easily be minimized by following low-carb diets for the first 2–to 3 weeks. This makes your body used to burning fats slowly & gradually.
Keto after 50:
Is the keto diet safe after 50?
Fifty years of age demand too much consideration in terms of diets, health, and body fitness.
People usually hesitate in following any new trend or diet plan due to the older age when almost body efficiency and metabolism become a little bit slow. Body metabolism reduces more than 30% until the age of 50.
A ketogenic diet has not shown any harmful effects in older people. However, after 50 years of age, keto should be coupled with more protein to help old people maintain their muscle mass.
Keto diet prevents and minimizes the risk of many common diseases in elderly people that are linked with a high intake of carbs, such as:
- Joint pain
- Inflammation
- Insulin resistance
Keto also induces Autophagy in adults, which is a body cleaning mechanism that engulfs and destroys abnormal cells. Autophagy is a body’s natural process that is reduced with age. Keto diet thereby decreases the risk of cancer & many neurodegenerative diseases in people after 50 years of age by increasing Autophagy.
Conflicting Points
Here are various conflicting points that may puzzle the mind of the reader regarding the keto diet. I’ll help you clarify your confusion with facts, logic, and science.
Is mayonnaise good for keto?
Mayonnaise has been approved to have little or no carbs. Carbs in mayonnaise are negligible. Mayonnaise is a fat-rich food, but it depends on whether this fat is healthy or not.
Mayonnaise derived from canola and olive oil is considered as healthier mayonnaise; therefore, that is mostly preferred.
Is onion keto-friendly?
This is somewhat difficult to explain. As onions contain high carb and therefore should not be used as keto. But the point is that onions are part of our food as a major flavoring agent.
You can use a small quantity of onion to give flavor to keto-based dished 1/2 cup of onion per serving has 2.68 net carbs, which are complete. Moreover, it is also important to remember that there are different varieties of onions too:
- Sweet onions
- Yellow onions
- White onions
- Spring onions
Spring onions o green onions are more friendly with higher fiber content; therefore, onions can be used as keto with appropriate concentration and diet adjustments.
Is tofu keto-friendly?
Tofu is not recommended for keto. Tofu has a high content of protein and fats % and fewer carbs.
Therefore, it can be used as keto for a low-carb vegetarian diet. It is safe to take tofu as keto, but it has some hormonal effects. Therefore, women with estrogen-sensitive breast tumors are recommended to lower their tofu intake.
Yogurt as keto
Yogurt is also mostly questioned to take it as keto or not. There is no doubt that yogurt is fat-rich food, a good source of protein, and a good choice for keto, but still, several other types of yogurt differ from each other based on fat and carbs content.
- Greek yogurt: As compared to regular yogurt, Greek yogurt is strained three times, so the (liquid remaining in milk) is removed along with bacteria and lactose (carbs). Greek yogurt is more concentrated. While taking Greek yogurt as keto should be kept natural and plain without adding any sweetening agent.
- Oikos yogurt: It has no fat with a fewer carbs content. It contains an appreciable amount of protein. One yogurt cup includes 15 gm of protein. Their flavors are without sugar and sweetened with stevia.
Cheese carbs keto
Cheese has almost seemed surprised to be added as keto, but it is the fact that that doesn’t have any appreciable carbs content. In previous ages, cheese is banned for a diet plan, but it sets as bast for low carb keto with fat full food items.
Before you leave!
The Keto diet is well structured to balance nutrient and weight control strategies. It is safe for all age groups and genders and can quickly be followed by an ordinary man.
However, individuals with a chronic disease like cancer should consult with their physician and pharmacists for appropriate guidance.