The keto diet is all the rage. By drastically reducing the consumption of carbohydrates and eating copious amounts of fat and protein, celebrities and the person down the street are successfully losing weight in a short amount of time. But do the experts this keto is healthy?
If you’re only familiar with the word keto and not how it actually works, lets break it down.
What is a keto diet?
Keto is short for ‘ketogenic’. A keto diet is an extremely low carb, high fat, high protein diet that focuses on weight-loss through fat-burning. A keto diet forces the body to use ketones, (dietary and body fat) instead of glucose (digested carbohydrates) as the principal source of energy.
How does a keto diet work?
Getting the body into ketosis is the goal of the diet. For the metabolism to switch to the ketosis mode, carb consumption is reduced to about 20-50 grams or less of carbs per day. At this level, in about 3 -4 days, the body moves into a state of ketosis and starts to burn both fat stores for energy. Depending on what your fat stores look like, you can lose a significant amount of weight.
What foods are eliminated on the keto diet?
Bread, flour and pasta, quinoa, rice, couscous, oatmeal, cereals, pastries, sweets, sweet juices, and soda are not permitted. High starch vegetables such as potatoes, corn, and peas are also off-limits. Also eliminated are chickpeas, lentils, and black beans are off-limits, too. Many fruits are prohibited as well.
It’s hard to understand that experts think keto is healthy if fruits and vegetables are being eliminated from any diet.
What do the experts think?
Is reducing the consumption of an entire macronutrient category to nothing really healthy? Is it sustainable in the long run? Do the experts think that keto is healthy? A recent flurry of articles about the keto diet suggests that while it is an effective diet on which to lose weight, it may be bad for your health overall. We’ve scoured several articles on the subject and summarize their findings below.
US News & World Report
Every year, US News & World Report assembles a panel of nationally recognized experts to conduct a comprehensive review of the popular diets and ranks the best and worst out there. Of the 35 diet plans out there, the keto dieting method ranked 34 out of 35.
- Ease of Following: 1.4 out of 5
- Eating only fatty food, fat and meat gets boring
- Difficult to stick to in the long term
- Heart Healthy: 2 out of 5
- Over-consumption of fat-rich fatty foods and restriction of fruits and high fiber grains is counter-intuitive to heart health
- Long term weight loss: 2.2 out of 5
- “Long term” typically means more than two years. Insufficient evidence exists which indicates that this diet is effective for long term weight loss.
- Nutrition: 1.4 out of 5
- The keto diet is extremely incomplete in terms of meeting overall nutritional requirements as recommended by experts
- Experts report significant concerns about a diet that promotes high saturated fat content
- Safety: 2 out of 5
- Again, a high-fat diet is the overwhelming concern
- Keto is not recommended for those with severe diabetes, kidney disease, and heart disease
Nature Metabolism
An article appearing in Futurity and Science Daily, reports on the results of a study conducted by Vishwa Deep Dixit, professor of comparative medicine and of immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine. This study looks at the impacts of ketogenesis on t-cells, tissue-protective cells that lower diabetes risk and inflammation.
When the body burns ketones, t-cells in the body expand. This process improves metabolism, reduces inflammation, and reduces the risk of diabetes – initially. The study, conducted in mice by Dixit and colleagues, shows that while mice continued to eat the high-fat, low-carb diet beyond one week, they consumed more fat than they can burn, and developed diabetes and obesity.
Long-term studies are needed to validate the claims of the keto diet’s health benefits, Dixit admitted.
JAMA Internal Medicine
As reported in the New York Times and Business Insider, a trio of doctors wrote an opinion essay in the JAMA Internal Medicine urging caution with the diet, suggesting that “…enthusiasm for the diet as a treatment for obesity and diabetes “outpaces” the evidence…”.
The authors opine that “The greatest risk, however, of the ketogenic diet may be the one most overlooked: the opportunity cost of not eating high-fiber, unrefined carbohydrates….Whole grains, fruits, and legumes are some of the most health-promoting foods on the planet. They are not responsible for the epidemics of Type 2 diabetes or obesity, and their avoidance may do harm.”
Obesity Biology and Integrated Physiology
This study, funded by the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI) and supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH). This study, conducted by a team of researchers, found that following a keto diet was associated with increased total cholesterol and insulin resistance.
Researchers monitored changes in lipids and inflammation during four weeks on a baseline diet (50 percent carbohydrate, 35 percent fat, and 15 percent protein) and four weeks on an isocaloric ketogenic diet (5 percent carbohydrate, 80 percent fat, 15 percent protein). Total cholesterol, LDL or “bad” cholesterol, ketones, and markers of inflammation increased significantly while on the ketogenic diet.
Conclusion
It is clear that medical professors, doctors, nutritionists, and researchers all have differing opinions about the overall benefits of following a keto diet. All agree that losing weight is always a good thing. In some cases, it can reduce or eliminate diabetes and reduce inflammation, both of which target carb consumption as the target.
However, there is one thing upon which these professionals all agree – Longer-term controlled studies are necessary to determine if living a keto lifestyle is healthy in the long run.