For years, Keto diet has been promoted as a one-stop solution for all weight-gain problems but are we also aware of the severe side-effects of this highly risky medical diet?
As a race that is constantly looking for avenues to rock the boat and bring instrumental changes, we humans sometimes end up becoming the saboteurs of our own masterplans. Being part of a world that is obsessed with losing weight and looking younger, it does not take a lot of time for an individual’s routine to become a popular fad, and that fad to take the form of a worldwide phenomenon.
Keto Diet is one such example, this very low-carb, high fat diet which has gained widespread popularity. This diet shares an orderly resemblance with other low-carb diets such as The Atkins and The Paleo.
However, it isn’t the similarities that pose any real-problems instead, it’s the differences that force us to think. While other low-carb diets focus on protein, a true ketogenic diet on the other hand is targeted towards fulfilling 90% of the body’s daily calorie requirement through fat. An intense method of operation that can have irreversible effects on your health.
According to an article published by the American Heart Association, a diet rich in saturated fat can spike up your cholesterol levels way above the danger mark and can trigger threats of heart diseases and stroke. AHM strongly advises against any practice of instituting high saturated fat in a diet plan and recommends limiting saturated fat intake to a mere 5 – 6 % per day.
The keto lifestyle constitutes a long list of critical changes that alter the way our body breaks down food. Keto diet is principally focused on targeting fat as the primary source of energy instead of carbohydrates. Hence, as per the keto master diet plan, one is strictly stopped from adding more than a small number of grains, fruits and vegetables to their diet plan. Keto diet plan is heavily dependent on ketone bodies, an energy fuel produced by our liver from fat which helps us in burning a lot of fat.
Although, there is a lot more to this than meets the eye.
You see, burning more fat, obviously sounds like a reasonable way to shed a lot of weight but preparing your liver to make ketones is fairly complex.
• First of all, you are needed to restrict your everyday carbohydrates intake to a minimal 20 – 50 gm.
• Then you have to wait for a few days until the body finally makes the switch from carbs to fat and reaches the stage of ketosis.
• Restricted protein intake is also advised as too much protein can delay the process of ketosis.
An effective Keto diet plan is primarily based around high-fat sources such as meat, fish, eggs, and butter; and to fulfill keto diet’s high-fat requirement one has to make sure to include as much as 75% of fat in their everyday diet. There is also some discrimination between the kind of fats you can consume during the keto diet. For Instance, saturated fats such as butter, lard, cheese and meat are majorly encouraged whereas, not a lot of food items from the unsaturated fat section are allowed with tofu, avocados and nuts being the usual exceptions.
Protein is also a vital constituent of the keto diet plan, but to prevent any ketosis interference, protein intake is highly regulated and limited. Rich protein sources such as bacon, beef and pork acquire a big portion of the protein department.
Now, for the carbohydrates, well as explained earlier, there is not a lot of space available for carbohydrates in a keto diet meal. As fruits are considerably rich sources of carbs – most fruits are completely exempted from the diet, with berries being an exception and as far as veggies are concerned, the list is restricted to a bunch of leafy greens such as spinach, kale and swiss chard and some other vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli and asparagus are also allowed.
So, we can say it is gaining widespread authenticity in terms of diet plans to lose weight worldwide.