Recently, the keto diet has become extremely popular for its health benefits, such as weight loss and disease prevention. The keto diet can be tremendously beneficial, but how does it work in order to provide these benefits?
What is the Keto Diet?
You may have heard of the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet. The keto diet maintains low carb levels, but instead of raising the amount of protein in your diet, the keto diet increases the amount of fat. A typical keto diet aims to design meals with 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrates. Following a high-fat diet can mean eating healthy. Keto diet menu items typically include seafood, meat, dairy, eggs, vegetables and nuts. As the popularity of the keto diet has grown, keto recipes have become widely available.
How Does the Keto Diet Work?
It may seem counterintuitive that adding more fat to your diet can cause you to lose weight. Typically, your diet is high in carbohydrates, which are converted into glucose or blood sugar for use as energy. As glucose enters your bloodstream, your body secretes insulin to store excess glucose as fat. The more carbohydrates, the more glucose. The more glucose, the more insulin and the more insulin, the more fat.
The keto diet takes advantage of the fact that when your meals are high in fat and low in carbohydrates, there are no insulin spikes, and you don't increase your fat stores. Instead, dietary fat and stored fat is converted into ketones ("keto" is short for "ketogenic" producing ketones). Like glucose, ketones can be used for energy production, keeping the body running without raising blood sugar or increasing excess fat. The benefits of the keto diet can be gigantic.
Weight Loss
Overall, the keto diet is a great way to burn fat and lose weight. Eating fewer carbohydrates inhibits appetite, and studies have found that keto diet participants consume fewer calories overall for this reason. Burning fat for energy can lead to rapid weight loss.
Reduced Blood Sugar and Insulin Levels
Because carbohydrate intake is restricted, blood sugar and insulin levels decrease. This is especially important for people with type 2 diabetes, which causes glucose buildup in the bloodstream. The keto diet can be followed to reduce or eradicate the need for diabetic insulin injections.
Triglyceride Reduction
Subunit fat molecules known as triglycerides normally circulate in your bloodstream. High triglyceride levels are a major risk factor in the development of heart disease. On the keto diet, since fat is burned for energy, the number of triglyceride molecules in the bloodstream decreases, which reduces the risk of heart disease.
Cholesterol Improvement
Bad" cholesterol (LDL) is another risk factor for developing heart abnormalities. Too much bad cholesterol in your bloodstream will build up in your arteries, narrowing them and causing arteriosclerosis, a type of heart disease. The keto diet lowers the levels of bad cholesterol, while raising the level of "good" (HDL) cholesterol in your body.
Summary
The keto diet has many health benefits. Not only can this diet help you lose weight quickly, but it can also help improve your overall health and prevent disease.
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