Keto diet came with such a wave that you’d think it never existed till the mid 2000’s. Keto diet has mostly been associated with weight loss and management that most people who aren’t on the watch for their weight think it’s of no benefit to them to consider a keto diet.
But a keto diet is much more than the poster child for weight loss programs. It provides way more benefits and nutrients to the body, and no, it does not have to be tasteless or boring.
In today’s article, we’ll be sharing with you what a keto diet is and its benefits asides weight loss and management.
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What is the keto diet?
The keto diet is simply a nutrition plan that streamlines food options to foods that provide tons of healthy fats, sufficient amounts of proteins, and as little carbohydrates as possible. These classes of food are usually represented in meals as 75% fat, 20% protein, and a meagre 5% carbohydrates. For comparison, we consume around 65% carbs in the average diet.
The aim of the keto diet is to gain more calories from the fat than the carbs, causing your body to enter into a state called ketosis. Ketosis is simply your body using fat for energy rather than carbs. And as I’m sure you can guess, this is why it is the diet of choice for people looking to lose weight.
Keto foods are all very healthy, with options such as butter, avocado, cheese, coconuts, oils like olive and avocado, nuts of various kinds, nutrition dense veggies such as kale and spinach, meats, eggs and fishes.
Now that we know what the keto diet is, why should you consider it? Especially if you’re not trying to lose weight? Well, here are 10 benefits:
1. It helps to lower insulin levels
One health benefit of choosing and living on a keto diet is that it is helpful in reducing blood sugar and insulin level. Carbohydrates when ingested into the body are eventually turned into sugar which in high amounts can cause or increase the risk of diabetes.
Keto diet operates with a minimal amount of carbohydrates or none at all, which automatically reduces blood sugar and insulin levels drastically. Lowering blood sugar and insulin levels can help treat and in some cases reverse type 2 diabetes making the keto diet a great option for diabetic patients.
2. It helps to reduce inflammation
A lot of the foods outside of the keto diet cause inflammation and can sometimes lead to oxidative stress. Inflammation and oxidative stress are the leading causes of free radicals in the body which are compounds that cause extensive damage to cells and weaken the immune system.
Certain foods sometimes cause this inflammation, especially carbs, and going on a keto diet protects you from adding these kinds of food to your meals.
3. It helps reduce seizures
Seizures in people who have epilepsy can be potentially reduced or contained to a certain extent by sticking to a keto diet. Since a keto diet forces the body to depend on ketosis and ketosis makes use of ketone bodies formed by fat rather than carbs to fuel the body, seizures are greatly reduced.
In a research conducted, it was discovered that children on a keto diet experienced greater than 50% reduction in their number of seizures while 16% became completely seizure free. That is how powerful the keto diet can be.
4. It improves acne
Having a diet that is high in processed and refined carbohydrates can harm the balance of gut bacteria and cause blood sugar to fluctuate both of which can affect skin health and cause an increase in acne. Decreasing carbohydrate-intake, which is basically the entire purpose of the keto diet, could help reduce acne and its symptoms in some people.
5. Improves sleep quality
Many people who have successfully switched to a keto diet have reported an increase in their quality of sleep. The entire process of ketosis helps the body fall asleep more easily, more deeply, and helps you wake up feeling refreshed.
Not having to deal with excess fat in the body anymore will do wonders for your rest and sleep life. So ,if you’re struggling to sleep well or just generally want to improve your sleep, the keto diet is definitely an option to consider.
6. It improves brain function
Reports by many researchers among people who have tried the keto diet have shown improved mental performance and brain function.
The brain operates using glucose and sugar, but switching to ketosis and having the brain function on ketones rather than blood sugar have helped the brain perform more effectively.
Keto diet helps improve cognitive function especially in epilepsy patients as ketones provide neuroprotective benefits that strengthen and protect the brain and its nerve cells.
Although tests are still ongoing to see how keto diet may help patients of Alzheimer and Parkinson’s, there is hope that it may improve their cell functions.
7. It improves heart health
The keto diet is focused on giving the body healthy fats and nutrients which results in improved heart health.
Eating healthy fats such as avocados, improves heart health because it reduces the level of low-density lipoprotein which is bad cholesterol, and increases the level of triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein which is good cholesterol that’s great for the heart and body.
Bad cholesterol can cause increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, so eating healthy fats instead, reduces the risk of heart complications and diseases.
8. It curbs appetite
Another major benefit of the keto diet is that it helps with curbing a wild and vicarious appetite. A wild appetite is one of the major side effects of dieting. But the truth is that it’s all the carbs that you’ve been eating that are causing all that hunger.
Low carb eating, which is what the keto diet offers, leads to an automatic reduction in appetite and calorie intake. Research conducted found that people on a low carb keto diet did not get as hungry as people who had lower fat and higher carbohydrate diet intake.
So you don’t take in as much sugar, and you’re still left feeling fuller for longer.
9. It leads to higher energy levels
A benefit of sticking to a keto diet is the improved energy levels and boost that it provides. Studies have shown that people on a keto diet have higher energy levels which corresponds with higher brain function.
But in the sake of transparency, for the first few days of going on a keto diet, your body experiences what is called a keto flu. You might feel a bit sluggish on the first few days of going on the diet, but if you stick to it, eventually, your body starts to enter the state of ketosis which is when you start to get all the benefits of the keto diet.
10. It is an effective weight loss plan
There’s just no way we can talk about the benefits of the keto diet without talking about weight loss. Less frequent hunger pangs and a lower appetite will reduce the amount of food and calories consumed. This will eventually help you lose more weight than some other dietary plans or high carb diets.
Also, the keto diet helps weight loss because it helps rid the body of excess water which lowers insulin levels, so you lose a bunch of weight in the first few days and weeks.
