Source: medicaldaily.com
It’s December and Christmas is right around the corner. For many, and most especially kids, this means lots of food and eating in between spending time with the family and joining the holiday rush to get some gifts. However, for others, this means planning their current diet around the holiday and how their lifestyle can help them safely navigate the Christmas season.
The Keto Diet
The diet in question is called the Keto diet, which is one of, if not the most famous diet strategy that people are jumping aboard onto these days. As an ultra-high fat, low-carb diet, it will have you eating steak, vegetables, eggs, bacons and avocados while making sure you avoid pizza, birthday cake, fruits, bread and pasta.
And for what reason? To achieve ketosis of course, which is more or less the holy grail of fat-burning states that people following the diet hope to reach. A natural metabolic state, ketosis involves the body producing ketone bodies out of fat, and then proceeding to use them for energy instead of the usual carbohydrates. As a result, people can easily lose weight while in ketosis. In addition, it has also other possible health benefits, such as lowering the risk of heart disease, acne, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, although all of these are still being studied.
Extreme Diet Phenomenon
According to Vox senior health reporter Julia Belluz, ketogenesis is just one of the processes that we’ve evolved to be able to handle. This is because our bodies has the ability to adapt to whatever we’re putting in them and use them as an energy source if possible.
“And when we’re in ketogenesis, the liver starts to break fat down both from the food we’re eating and from the fat that’s stored in our body into this usable energy source called ketone bodies, or ketones for short. And basically ketones can stand in as glucose for fuel when we’re not eating carbs,” she said in a recent podcast.
Aside from losing weight, Belluz explained that its potential to stop diseases is more exciting.
“Keto does have this real potential as a treatment for a few diseases. And that’s the really serious and fascinating scientific exploration that’s happening right now. ”