A ketogenic diet makes your body start burning the fat from the body instead of burning carbohydrates.
And for this, you will need to intake about 60-70% beneficial fats in your daily diet, like raw nuts like macadamia nuts and pecans, avocado, organic pastured eggs, grass-pastured butter and coconut oil. In this diet, there is little carb intake and thus results in burning the fats. And also there is a little amount of sugar for your body to use, so it turns toward te fats.
Ketones are produced in this body state, which is made from the fats that the liver produces.
The main goal in a proper ketogenic diet is to push your body into the metabolic state. This is achieved with starvation of carbohydrate, instead of starvation with calories. The body will adjust to the food that you intake, so if you reduce the carbs intake and intake more fats, it will start to burn the ketones and use them as the main source of energy.
Here are the benefits of a ketogenic diet
Promotes weight loss
Reducing the carbs intake is considered to be the most efficient way to lose extra weight. During a ketogenic diet, the body gets the most fats intake, a moderate amount of protein, and low amount of carbohydrates, and in this way, the body turns towards the ketone production from fat and makes it its primary energy source.
Fights Cancer
Sugar is the fuel of cancer cells. The tumors use it as their food and it actually aids in the growth of cancer. And on the ketogenic diet, there is no sugar and thus it is highly effective in treating and hindering cancer. The normal cells then turn toward the fat and use it as energy, but the cancer cells cannot do this.
Redox Biology published one study which stated that ketogenic diet is very beneficial in case of prostate, gastric and colon cancer. Dr. Eugene Fine from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine states that these ketone bodies can eliminate cancer because they have the ability to inhibit the energy processes inside the cancer cells. He also published a paper in which he explained that patients with advanced cancer can undergo an insulin-free diet, and it is completely safe and achievable. Stable disease or partial remission is related with the degree of ketosis, but with no weight loss or a not calorie deficit.
Protects the brain
Many neurological disorders can be treated and prevented with a diet that is rich in fat and low in carbs. Ketogenic diets also proved to be very beneficial in reducing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The effects of the ketogenic diet on Parkinson’s disease were analyzed in a study in which the patients were on a 4 to 1 ketogenic diet. The results showed amelioration in 43% of the symptoms after just 30 days.
Many studies also show the efficiency of this diet in case of autism. Autism is very similar to epilepsy, and seizures caused by over excitement of brain cells are also experienced in autism. And many autistic children had improvement in their condition after 6 months on the ketogenic diet.
Source: livingtraditionally.com, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, articles.mercola.com