Pros And Cons Of Ketogenic Diet

.Pros and cons of ketogenic diet:

Ramashara the software engineer once go to diet counseling to reduce his excess weight! and there he was suggested to take ketogenic diet ,as an appropriate dietary ways to treat his problem. He was a little confused as he went to reduce his weight but instead he was suggested to follow ketogenic ….???

What is Ketogenic Diet? and how does it developed?

It is basically one therapeutic diet! It has an objective of severe calorie restriction without any drawbacks of literal starvation. So it is one calorie restriction diet.

It was first designed to treat Epilepsy. It was based on to aim that fasting relieved epileptic symptoms by forcing our body to produce more ATP (ATP is the energy source in our body) from fat instead of glucose! It means this diet can help you to burn your excess fat also. I think that is why now a days even for treating obesity, the ketogenic diet is on the chart to follow!

Previously according to the recommendation this diet was to reduce radically the carbohydrate to less than 20 grms per day, while having a moderate protein intake of 1 g/kg/bw and rest of the calories are coming from fat. Hence the fat became the primary fuel with protein providing just enough amino acid building blocks to maintain lean tissue and produce other compounds in the body.

After 15 years of research the previous concept is changed a bit! And to allow higher carbohydrate intake ,it is increased to 50 gms per day.

Why it is becoming popular? What is its benefit and what are the disadvantages we could observe?

Lets talk first how ketosis work? If you have one high carbohydrate diet ,then your body gets its energy from a regular supply of glucose in your blood! (the end product of very carbohydrate rich food is glucose).Here in this diet we are restricting the carbohydrate ,therefore blood glucose level fall. This condition will initiate the fat burning enzyme called hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) to increase, and these will release the stored triglycerides from fat cells in your body. These triglycerides are then broken down into glycerol and fatty acids. The fatty acids are travel to the liver ,and turns into ketones, this ketones can be used for energy (ATP) in cells.

The most important drawback is you need to adapt the  diet first! It means if you are having a high carbohydrate diet for long periods and certainly jumps into ketogenic diet, it cannot give you the best benefit! At this stage the body won’t burn the ketones (produced from the liver) Instead they will be excreted in the urine and also via respiration. But soon enough this ketones will rise above the ordinary level,and your body will begin to use those in the Krebs Cycle to produce ATP.

Advantages in brief:

• This diet will help to reduce the insulin level
• This diet thus decreases the insulin resistence and which is very useful in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
• It always make you feel full and thus reduce your appetite
• Automatically it reduces your fat storages
• Thereby it is most easier way in losing body fat/weight

Disadvantages in brief:

• It requires an adaptation period of 1 to 2 weeks. Depending on you!
• Some people just don’t like this type of restriction.