As we get older, it seems like the harder it gets to lose or maintain our weight.  This tends to especially be true for women. So, finding a type of diet should that works for one’s lifestyle is especially critical.

There are a lot of popular diets advertised on television and in books.  And the Ketogenic diet is one of the most trendy of the lot.  If you haven’t heard of the Ketogenic diet, it is a type of high fat, low carb diet. But unlike others the emphasis is on high fat and not high protein.

Of course when we think of diets we normally think of low fat.  But, despite common sense, this type of diet may have numerous health benefits associated with it other than just losing weight. 

While typically men do better on this type of diet, women can see benefits with long term use if they make certain changes.  So how does the ketogenic diet work and how can it be made safer for women?  This recent blog post from the Bulletproof blog answers this question:

“How to Do a Ketogenic Diet (& Is It Safe for Women?)

Katie – Wellness Mama 68 Comments Updated: January 23, 2018 This post contains affiliate links

 

The ketogenic diet (or keto diet) has become more popular lately because of its potential to help with weight loss, eliminate cravings, and improve mental clarity. Everyone from Mark Sisson to Dr. Mercola to Dave Asprey is singing its praises, and some people claim it can even cure cancer.

It is one of the topics I always get lots of questions about because there are many different ways of doing it. Yes, it is possible to do it healthfully … and yes, it is possible to turn it into another fad diet while eating a lot of unhealthy foods. (No, you cannot eat only bacon and be healthy!)

In this post, I will cover the science behind the ketogenic diet and the best way to do it.

What Is the Ketogenic Diet?

Broadly speaking, a ketogenic diet is a diet that is sufficiently a) high in fat and b) low in carbohydrates and proteins to force the body to rely on fat instead of carbohydrates for energy. Originally it was used in the 1920s to treat severe cases of epilepsy in children, though now many people use variations of it for other outcomes.

A ketogenic diet puts the body in a state of ketosis, where the primary fuel for the body is a broken down product of fat called ketone bodies. Ketosis can occur through reduction of carbohydrates in the diet or through fasting (or through taking an external ketone-producing product). It is the liver that produces ketone bodies by breaking down fatty acids, either from body fat or the fat that we eat.

This is in contrast to the body’s fuel source when not in ketosis: carbohydrates, which the body breaks down into glucose.

It is important to note that there is a difference between burning dietary fat for fuel and getting the body to utilize stored fat. More on that later.

What Does a Healthy Keto Diet Look Like?

This is an interesting question and there are hundreds of opinions about the best answer.

A typical low carbohydrate diet may simply focus on limiting carbohydrate with liberal amounts of other foods, without a specific emphasis on fats. It is easy to be eating mostly meats and any other non-carbohydrate foods for a low carbohydrate diet, and not get into ketosis.

So what’s different? The ketogenic diet goes a step further and limits protein as well in order to achieve ketosis. According to Dr. Daniel Pompa, a ketogenic diet is comprised of:

• 65 – 80% of calories from fat
• 10 – 15% of calories from proteins (0.5 gram per lb of lean body mass)
• the remaining 5 – 10% calories from carbohydrates.

In short, it is critical to use liberal amount of fat and limit protein and carbohydrate intake in order to achieve ketosis.

Consider a 135-pound woman who has about 25% body fat and 100 lb of lean mass. If she follows a 2,000 calorie diet, she would be eating between 145 – 179 grams of fat, 50 grams of protein, and between 50 – 124 grams of carbohydrates (depending on her activity level). She would need to keep her carbohydrates under 50 grams a day in order to “keto-adapt” (for her body to adapt to using fat as the primary fuel).

Also note that this model is not a “bacon-only” type diet and should include copious amounts of non-starchy vegetables for fiber and micronutrients.

How to Eat Keto

Ideally, a keto diet should be assembled with whole and nutritious foods that do not cause inflammation. This means that the 5-10% of the carbohydrates would be from vegetables, nuts, and seeds rather than another source of starch.

On a keto-type diet, the plate should consist of mostly non-starchy vegetables, a reasonable portion of meat (about 3 ounces), and a liberal amount of good fats. The fats can be nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocados, avocado oil, pastured lard or bacon, grass-fed butter, MCT oil, or a condiment like a healthy mayo made from these.

Once a person is keto-adapted, the appetite is often regulated. Rather than feeling deprived, it is natural to feel less hungry overall and naturally inclined to go without eating for 12 hours overnight. This form of extended fasting may provide some added health benefits as well.

 

Why Do the Ketogenic Diet?

Not only have ketogenic diets been successfully used as a treatment for epilepsy for nearly a century, but it also has many potential health benefits even healthy people can use.

As Mark Sisson puts it, doing a keto reset restores our “factory settings,” which is our flexibility to alternate between different types of fuels and stored fats for energy, depending on what’s available. This flexibility has allowed humans to thrive for millions of years because hunter-gatherers didn’t always have access to constant abundance and variety of foods that we have today.

As it turns out, this flexibility is actually important for health. The biochemical pathways that ketogenic diets turn on have anti-aging effects and can even eradicate many modern diseases.

In fact, research shows ketogenic diets provide health benefits by:

• stabilizing blood sugar and lowering insulin
• reducing oxidative stress
• improving the number of mitochondria and making them function better
• providing our cells with ketone bodies, which is a cleaner-burning fuel than glucose
• activating a cellular clean-up process called autophagy, where the cells break down old and broken parts into reusable nutrients
• activating anti-aging and anti-inflammatory biochemical pathways.

5 Major Health Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet

When done correctly, the ketogenic diet may help:

1. Improve Metabolic Health from Lowered Blood Sugar

When we switch from burning glucose to burning ketones for energy, the blood sugar and insulin fluctuate much less than when we rely on carbohydrates for energy. The liver can constantly supply just enough glucose in the blood to keep the brain going.

Stabilizing blood sugar has many health benefits, including:

• reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes
• helping with conditions due to high blood sugar like polycystic ovarian syndrome
• reducing the stress on the body (because there is no need for the stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline to step in to maintain blood sugar). This makes balancing hormones easier.
• reducing and maybe even clearing up acne (because acne is a sign of too much insulin)

A Note on Blood Sugar

If you monitor your fasting blood glucose in the morning when you are in ketosis (more on how and why to do that in a bit), be aware you may experience elevated morning blood sugar due to a surge of cortisol and adrenaline. This is known as “the dawn phenomenon” and should decline to healthy levels during the day and improve over time.

According to Chris Kresser, post-meal blood sugar is the best time to detect blood sugar problems. In addition, one should never rely on one single test to diagnose a health issue.

2. Reduce Appetite and Cravings

It’s true … ketone bodies can suppress appetite by acting on the hypothalamus in the brain. In addition, the stabilized blood sugar can help reduce hunger and food cravings. Lastly, high-fat meals can stimulate a hormone that increase satiety in the gut.

As a result, many people on ketogenic diets find that they are much less hungry and no longer craving the high-carbohydrate foods they used to love. They can even skip meals or fast for days and won’t really be bothered by the hunger. (Imagine!)

3. Improve Brain Function and Protect Neurons

In many ways, the ketogenic diet is very good for the brain. Users report that it helps improve cognitive function, slows down the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, and may even protect from such diseases.

Here are some of the ways ketosis benefits the brain:

Ketosis Provides a Steady Supply of Clean-Burning Fuel to the Brain

Because the brain is the most energy-demanding organ in the body, it is extremely sensitive to the fluctuation of available fuels. People who regularly go through blood sugar rollercoasters often experience brain-based symptoms of low blood sugar, such as anxiety and fatigue when blood sugar dips low.

Being in ketosis can help prevent this from happening. For many women, stabilizing blood sugar has a mood-stabilizing effect.

According to Psychology Today, several studies suggest that ketogenic diets can help stabilize mental illnesses, sometimes even more powerfully than medications. Ketogenic diets reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression in rats and mice, while many small clinical studies demonstrate that ketogenic diet can help stabilize schizophrenia.

In my own experience, I find that I am highly productive, calm and focused when in a state of ketosis (as measured by blood ketone and breath acetone levels).

Ketosis Supports Mitochondria Health and Reduces Inflammation

Before the discovery of neuroplasticity, scientists believed that a damaged brain cannot regenerate. However, by improving mitochondria health, reducing inflammation, and stimulating cellular cleanup, ketogenic diets can help a damaged brain repair itself. Thus, the ketogenic diet is almost a miracle for many brain diseases that were thought of as incurable.

Studies are emerging that ketogenic diets (in conjunction with other treatments) can either reverse progressive brain disorders or help repair the damage. These include traumatic brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The Wahl’s Protocol also utilizes this benefit of the ketogenic diet to help repair neurological damage from multiple sclerosis.

4. Slow Down Aging

Want to slow down the clock? The keto diet might be the one to try.

Ketosis Turns on the Anti-Aging Genes

Ketosis, similarly to fasting or caloric restriction, turns on a group of genes called Sirtuins. When scientists activate Sirtuins in animals, they found that these animals live longer. In addition, Sirtuins can help keep you lean and energetic during the day and sleeping well at night. More research is needed to know if this effect is the same in humans, but evidence seems strong that spending some time in ketosis is beneficial.

Ketosis Reduces Oxidative Damage

Oxidation is what causes steel to rust and apples to turn brown when they are exposed to air. Inside our bodies, oxidation helps our immune cells kill off germs and makes us tired at the end of the day. However, excess oxidation can cause aging and DNA damage.

By reducing blood sugar, ketosis significantly reduces the oxidative stress in the body. Glucose is an oxidizing sugar because an exposed oxygen of glucose can attack other molecules and damage them. These damaged proteins are called advanced glycation end products (AGEs).

People with high blood sugar will have a lot of AGEs and therefore age faster.

In addition, studies show ketosis turns on antioxidant genes and increases levels of cellular antioxidants like glutathione.

Ketosis Stimulates Autophagy (Cellular Cleanup)

Ketosis and fasting also activates an anti-aging cellular cleanup process called autophagy (auto = self, phagy = eat). Autophagy is when a cell eats its own defective parts in order to recycle nutrients and keep the different parts functioning like new. In addition, autophagy can protect against neurodegenerative diseases, viral and bacteria infections, and cancers.

5. Protect Against Cancer

Everyone has emerging cancer cells, but the cells can only develop into full-blown cancers if the body fails to kill off them off. DNA damage, inflammation, poor cellular cleanup, high blood sugar, and inability of the immune system to kill emerging cancer cells together lead to cancers. Proponents claim that ketogenic diets may help prevent cancers by addressing all of these aspects.

Ketogenic diets reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, stimulate cellular cleanup, reduce blood sugar, and stimulate the cancer-killing immune responses. In addition, ketogenic diets capitalize on the fact that cancer cells cannot feed on ketones.

Healthy cells have the choice to rely on glucose or other fuels and whether to use the mitochondria. In contrast, according to the 1931 Nobel Laureate Otto Warburg, cancer cells lack the ability to use ketones for energy. They can only generate energy by burning glucose and glutamine for energy.

Since the state of ketosis forces cells to rely on ketones and to use the mitochondria for energy, ketosis feeds healthy cells while starving cancer cells. This especially seems to be true against some of the most deadly and incurable cancers. Researchers like Dr. Dom D’Agostino are also researching the role of ketosis and fasting in improving the outcomes and reducing the side effects of existing cancer treatments.”

Now with every diet, there are certain mistakes you can make that can keep it from working.  Too much dairy in this case is one.  Also, there is one big change women need to make to have this diet work for you.  To find out the rest of the details, check out the latest post from the Wellness blog at the following link:  wellnessmama.com

Photo By spieri_sf