This is a very common question, and it’s a diet that’s getting a lot of new attention now–particularly as some Olympic atheletes and Hollywood celebrities are starting to swear by it. But we’ve had it as one of our protocols for years! That being the case, it’s probably about time to give a formal explanation.
Basically, a ketogenic diet puts your body in ketosis, a metabolic state where most of the body’s energy comes from ketone bodies in the blood. This in contrast to a glycosis state, where blood glucose — sugar — provides most of the energy. That means your body is burning fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. So your body actually burns its own body fat or fat that you’re consuming dietarily for its overall energy production.
Our bodies normally run on glucose or sugar for energy. We can’t make glucose and only have about 24 hours-worth stored in our muscles and liver. Once glucose is no longer available, we begin to burn stored fat. The ketogenic diet, therefore, eliminates glucose and causes the body to burn stored fat.
There are medical studies, conducted by the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center for the University of Iowa, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and more, that show the ketogenic diet is an effective treatment for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and effective for very fast weight loss. I’ve actually found that the ketogenic diet is quite possibly the best diet for very fast weight loss.
Now, I don’t believe that the ketogenic diet should be done for periods of more than three to six months exclusively. After that, you should add good carbohydrates into your diet. But if your goal is to lose weight fast and heal, the ketogenic diet is the perfect diet.
The reason why it works so effectively is that when your body goes into ketosis and starts burning fat for energy, your body is burning up its own body fat — and it also stops feeding on sugar. Those all play a part in the benefits of a ketogenic diet.
3 Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet
- Fights cancer
We know that cancer cells feed off of sugar. A ketogenic diet is essentially a diet made up of around typically 65 percent fat, 5 percent carbohydrates and 30 percent protein — or maybe 70 percent fat, 30 percent protein and 0 percent carbs. The carbs are very very minimal so your body burns fat for energy. That means there is little sugar in your system blocking the body from utilizing fat in favor of burning sugar.
The reason the ketogenic diet is effective as a natural cancer treatment is that the cancer cells are starved as it is sugar that feeds cancer cells and causes them to proliferate. They have no sugar to feed off of, so the cancer cells starve to death.
2. Aids Weight Loss
By limiting carbohydrate and sugar intake, your body starts burning its own body fat for energy, helping you lose weight and lose weight quickly. Think about this: Your body will also then continue to burn fat even while you’re sleeping at night. That means your body is burning fat 24/7.
And it’s not just burning the fat you consume — it’s burning body fat. That’s why it’s the most effective way to burn fat fast.
3. Treats Alzheimer’s Disease
Evidence shows that a ketogenic diet is an Alzheimer’s natural treatment. In fact, a medical doctor in Florida treated her husband, who had dementia and Alzheimer’s, with what she called the coconut ketogenic diet and said it cured his symptoms completely.
We know that part of what happens in dementia and Alzheimer’s is the degeneration of the nerve system in the brain. So to treat Alzheimer’s, you really need to support the brain nerve system.
Well, a diet that has around 70 percent healthy fats we know helps the brain, and we also know that ketosis and your body being able to burn fat for energy or utilize fatty acids is critical for the brain and for the natural treatment of dementia.
What Does a Ketogenic Diet Look Like?
The key to building ketones is a mixture of fasting on a daily basis and a diet with at least 65% of your intake of food in from FAT! This leaves PROTEINS around 30% and the remaining 5% can be an additional 5% of fat or 5% of dark green low carb vegetables (dandelion leaves, kale, spinach, swiss chard etc).
For a complete list of foods and recipes that fit the KetoDiet go to our recipe section here.