Our body works by breaking down sugar and deriving energy from glucose. That is the norm, but the global average sugar consumption has risen to almost 55 pounds per year. That probably explains the horde of sugar-related diseases trending globally.
Keto is a dieting plan that focuses on high fats – low carbs intake, and the aim is to gain calories from fats, not carbs. Your body, deprived of carbohydrates and in turn, glucose, switches to the stored fats to manufacture molecules of ketones for fuel. The process is called ketosis, and it can take a while for the body to get started. Once it does, the excess fats get burned, and you start to lose weight. Therefore, keto is one of the most sought-after dieting methods for reducing appetite levels and thus, obesity.
Apart from weight loss, keto has reportedly cured a number of other ailments, like:
Seizures and Epilepsy: Before keto became widely used among the bodybuilding community, it was first introduced in the 1920s as a treatment for childhood epilepsy. The ratio of fat, proteins, and carbs consumed during a ketogenic diet alters the way your body metabolism has always worked and, in the process, has helped reduce seizures in countless people when nothing else has worked. It has the most effect on children who have focal seizures.
Type 2 Diabetes: With keto, blood sugar levels can be reduced and slimmed down. Research shows that people who followed keto for a year needed very less medication and even lowered their A1C.
Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s: According to 2019 research, keto has helped protect brain function by providing neuroprotective benefits and strengthening nerve cells. For this reason, keto has helped people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s manage their day-to-day activities and slowed down the damage to a certain extent.
Obesity: Obviously, weight loss is keto’s main objective, so handling obesity is a boon. In keto, you consume healthy fats like avocado and olive oil, and it helps achieve a striking drop in cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels of the heart. As a result, health endangerment by cardiovascular diseases is also lowered.
Certain types of cancer: Keto has proved beneficial in helping treat cancers even. Along with chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the keto diet can be a nice complement. Ketosis prevents proliferation of cancer cells and puts oxidative stress on cancer cells causing them to die. Research has still been limited, so more study is essential to understand the full scope of benefits of the keto diet.
PCOS symptoms: Although not many clinical studies have been done on the connection between the ketogenic diet and PCOS, research has shown that keto has helped reduce several of its symptoms including ratios of LH and FSH hormonal imbalances and levels of fasting insulin. It is very important to eat healthy nutritional foods when on the keto diet because when you do so, your body learns to take care of itself and reduces the risk from various diseases. Positive effects of the diet can be felt all throughout the body, as day by day, more health benefits of keto are being discovered.