Almost everyone is talking about keto diet as a weight loss technique. Ketogenic diet plan involves taking low carbs and high-fat foods. It aims at eliminating carbs from the meals and as a result, your body fats are burned to energy. Before beginning on this diet plan, look at the following pros and cons of the diet.
Pros:
1. Increased fat intake: The diet plan requires you to increase intake of fatty foods into the body especially healthy fat foods like avocado, nuts, or fatty fish.
2. Weight loss: When you reduce carb intake, the body starts to burn the fat and use it for energy instead. This ensures the body reduces more fat quickly contributing to weight loss.
3. Prevent cancer: The latest study shows that Low carb diets contribute to cancer prevention by starving the cancerous cells.
4. Cure chronic migraines: Keto has been used over the decades to people with epilepsy caused by sterile meningeal neurogenic inflammation. Following the keto diet plan will help reduce chronic migraines by converting glutamate to glutamine which reduces nerve pain in the brain.
5. Reduce insulin levels: Ketogenic diet plan helps reduce insulin sensitivity by safely moving glucose from the bloodstream to the muscles and body tissues. Reduced insulin levels lead to reduced inflammation in the body.
6. Great way to detox from sugar: The diet plan requires 25-35 grams of carbs per day thus to attain the required carbs, you need to cut down on the intake of sugary foods and this has an overall benefit to the body.
7. Manage diabetes: Type 2 Diabetes people are recommended keto diet plan by the doctor to maintain blood glucose level by having a high-fat and low-carb diet.
8. Treat traumatic brain injury: Keto plan is used to improve the condition of patients with traumatic brain injury.
9. Increase fertility in women: Keto diet prevents diabetes and contributes to weight loss which are the major causes of fertility. It also helps solve PCOS and obesity issues which in turn boost reproductive hormones increasing fertility.
10. Maintain ideal weight: It not only helps in losing weight but also maintaining a balanced and healthy eating.
Cons:
1. Difficult to follow: It is difficult to balance the quantities of 10% carbs and 15% protein in every meal you take. Taking the right portions needs to be planned ahead and followed and sometimes it proves difficult to follow the plan.
2. Risk of heart disease: Keto diet plan involves food rich in saturated fats and meat and this increases cholesterol level giving rise to heart complications.
3. Fewer carbs result in less energy: Limiting carbs intake is not good for athletics since they need high carb diet to keep the body in shape and have enough energy to endure the practices.
4. No enough sugar: Your body needs sugar to give you energy and for the brain to function well. Low carb diet reduces the amount of glucose required to enter the bloodstream making you feel low on energy and unable to focus.
5. Not suitable for long-term weight loss: Although the diet plan contributes to weight loss, many people don’t lose much weight as their supposed to due to difficulties in following the plan.
6. Low fiber diet: Although the diet plan can be rich in healthy fats, it is often low on fiber and low on healthy nutrients from the plants.
7. Ketoacidosis: Maintaining a Keto diet plan for a long time results in high levels of blood acids. This may lead an individual to be hospitalized due to too much blood acid.
8. Fatigue: Restricting carbs intake makes your body go through a shock phase of fatigue before getting used to the diet.
9. Kidney stones: Keto diet expose individuals to severe abdominal pains, kidney stones and sometimes nausea.
10. Anemia: Keto diet may restrict certain nutrients in the body and if you’re from a family with anemia, following keto diet will result in iron deficiency anemia.
