Keto or low-carb diets have always been a popular topic of debate amongst many people. The controversy majorly surrounds the ability of ketogenic meals to benefit or adversely affect the human body. The pros vs. cons of the keto diet is a never-ending discussion that majorly depends on which definition of keto diet individuals want to consider.
What Is A Keto Diet?
A keto diet can be described as an eating plan that focuses on providing an individual with a significant amount of good fats, adequate protein, and a limited amount of carbohydrates. In doing so, a keto diet encourages the human body to get more calories from fat than carbs.
How does this happen? When the human body is depleted of sugar reserves due to reduced intake of carbs, the body begins to break down fats for energy. In the process, ketones (chemicals formed in the liver during starvation or limited carb intake) are released, which become fuel for the body, leading to weight loss.
Regardless of what people think about ketogenic diets, several scientific studies carried out over time have proven that keto diets are healthy and beneficial for humans when administered carefully and consistently.
Here are ten proven benefits of committing to a low-carb and ketogenic diet:
1. Improve Focus
Most keto professionals recommend pairing the keto diet with keto supplements that help dieters counter the shortcomings of a keto diet. Keto supplements help an individual accelerate their weight loss journey, uplift mood, suppress appetite, improve Focus, and so much more.
2. Easy Weight Loss
The keto diet is strongly associated with weight loss. Many people adopt the ketogenic diet with the sole purpose of losing weight. Anecdotal evidence has only proved that keto makes weight loss fast and easy. The process is simple. The keto diet limits calorie intake by eliminating several food groups rich in calories. The diet is more dependent on good fats and proteins, which take longer to break down in the human body. Therefore, people feel less hungry and eventually lose weight.
3. Maintains Hormonal Balance
Committing to an adequately executed keto diet helps individuals balance their body’s hormones. Women going through significant hormonal changes can significantly benefit from a keto diet. How? Well, 75% of the keto diet comprises healthy fat sources like avocados, butter, nuts and seeds, olives and olive oil, coconut oil, and other high-fat foods. These good fats support hormone production and balance.
4. Lowers Insulin Levels
The keto diet also restricts carbohydrate intake to 20 to 25 grams per day, which helps balance insulin levels in the human body. Food rich in carbs can raise an individual’s blood sugar levels. Your body brings in insulin to lower these blood sugar levels by delivering glucose to the cells. However, high insulin levels can prevent fat loss as the human body cannot access fat stores for energy. This problem can be solved by lowering insulin levels with a keto diet.
5. Prevents Many Diseases
A keto diet plays a crucial role in treating and preventing several medical diseases such as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, bipolar disorder, obesity, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and certain types of cancer. While it is not recommended as an ideal or only solution, long-term medical research has suggested that nutritional ketosis may help individuals prevent the possibility of these diseases in the human body.
6. Reduces Appetite Naturally
Most individuals looking to lose weight tend to rely on artificial measures of decreasing their appetite, for instance, administering harmful drugs. Using appetite-reducing medicines can make people feel sick and miserable, pushing them to eventually give up on their diet. On the other hand, the keto diet prepares people to live on several low-carb, high protein, and fat meals that automatically reduce an individual’s appetite.
7. Lowers Blood Pressure
According to Medscape, approximately 26% of the world’s population (972 million people) suffer from high blood pressure. Reports state that the figure will increase to 29% by 2025 in developing nations. Elevated blood pressure or hypertension is increasingly affecting people’s health worldwide. It can also pave the way to several other diseases like heart attack and kidney failure. The keto diet is low in carbohydrates. Reduced intake of carbs is an effective way of lowering blood pressure.
8. Treats Brain Disorders
Treating mental health patients is not easy. Doctors have to rely on unique treatment plans to help people with mental health conditions. A human body committed to the keto diet produces glucose from protein or burning ketones. This ketogenic diet mechanism helps doctors treat epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.
9. Increases Good Cholesterol
Several studies have suggested that the keto diet positively affects cholesterol levels in the human body. That’s because a person observing a keto diet consumes a reduced amount of carbohydrates. Consuming a low amount of carbs limits the production of triglycerides in the liver. This limited production of triglycerides helps the human body raise HDL cholesterol levels, known as high-density lipoprotein (often called the “good” cholesterol). Good cholesterol removes other forms of cholesterol from the human body’s bloodstream, lowering the risk of heart disease.
10. Skin Issue
There are several different types of acne, majorly caused by various discrepancies in diet and blood sugar content in the human body. Typically, individuals who prefer eating processed and refined carbs are prone to acne. It’s because processed carbohydrates tend to alter the natural balance of gut bacteria. This alteration causes the blood sugar to rise and fall significantly, affecting skin health adversely in the process. A ketogenic diet is focused on decreasing carb intake, which helps resolve acne issues in some people.
Conclusion
Over time, low carb and keto diets have become increasingly popular. Several nutrition experts and professionals recommend individuals commit to a ketogenic diet for various reasons. One among those are it acts as a focus patch to help boost memory. The benefits mentioned above are a few examples of why keto diets are recommended by professionals worldwide to boost health. If you are looking to invest in a keto diet, too, remember to start your journey with the promise of being consistent. Happy dieting.
