Source: sarasotamagazine.com<\/p>\n
Ketogenesis, the body process behind one of the biggest current diet trends, promises major, easy weight loss if you can just cut out one food group\u2014carbohydrates.<\/p>\n
The ketogenic diet (nicknamed \u201cketo\u201d) is named for a state in which the body, starved of energy-efficient carbs, turns to other things for fuel\u2014hopefully burning stores of fat. The low-carb lifestyle has been around for a while, but whereas diets like Atkins emphasized protein consumption, keto ups the amount of fats dieters eat.<\/p>\n
The diet has now become so popular that food companies are creating products\u2014even full meals\u2014to allow dieters to maintain the low-carb, high-fat eating plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the short-term, \u201cpeople are loving it,\u201d says\u00a0Sarasota dietitian Rebecca Henson, who has worked with a lot of \u201cketo dropouts,\u201d as she calls them. \u201cThey can have all the butter and the sour cream, all the oils\u2014but they cannot eat carbohydrates.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Henson points out that there\u2019s a dearth of studies on the long-term effects of the keto diet, and what we do know about it is, scientifically speaking, not great.<\/p>\n
For one thing, there\u2019s no way of knowing if a body in ketosis will focus on burning stored fat as opposed to other possible backup fuels, including muscle. Losing muscle means your weight will go down, but so will your metabolism. If you\u2019re only doing keto on a temporary basis, you\u2019ll be less equipped to burn energy when you go back to a normal diet.<\/p>\n
And scientists have been unable to demonstrate the long-term effects of maintaining ketosis because, in part, study subjects haven\u2019t been able to stay on the diet for more than a year. \u201cCarbs make people happy,\u201d Henson admits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a life without pizza is just one discouraging consequence. In addition to lethargy, ketosis can produce unpleasant body odor and bad breath\u2014symptoms also seen in people with eating disorders like anorexia. In ketosis, \u201cYour body is essentially eating itself,\u201d says Henson. \u201cIt\u2019s like when you go into a starvation state and your body is not using normal fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henson, who did her master\u2019s thesis on the Atkins diet, points out that carb cravings aren\u2019t innately unhealthy. \u201cWhen we did a feeding study, everybody hated [the Atkins diet],\u201d she says of her post-graduate research. \u201cThese were obese subjects, but in the end what they really missed was fruit. They just wanted to eat some healthy carbohydrates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than dieting, Henson preaches wholesale but manageable lifestyle changes that balance healthy eating with overall happiness. While there\u2019s no validity in short-term diets that promise to detoxify or otherwise \u201creset\u201d the body, she says, two weeks of healthy eating can make people feel so good that they\u2019re less tempted by unhealthy choices.<\/p>\n
If you want to do keto, Henson suggests a temporary turn at the diet, maybe for three weeks, emphasizing vegetables in addition to the fats. But that\u2019s a big \u201cif.\u201d Asked straight-up if she would ever recommend the keto diet, Henson\u2019s answer comes quickly and without reservation: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[481,139,1903,835,301,476],"class_list":["post-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weight-loss-gain","tag-food","tag-keto-diet","tag-ketogenesis","tag-ketogenic-diet","tag-low-carb","tag-weight-loss"],"yoast_head":"\n