Introduction

I would like to start off this post the same way I started off my last one by providing any potential conflicts of interest. First I do take and am signed up as a promoter for the company Pruvit, the company that sells the Keto OS supplement. Secondly, I am not a medical doctor of any sorts.

I did a quick search for the ketogenic diet on steemit and came across @andrarchy post explaining the ketogenic diet a few weeks ago. It was a great post and you should definitely check it out. I just wanted to add to it and give my take and give more more resources in the process. I first came across the ketogenic diet when watching a TEDx talk by Dave Asprey where he talked about his bullet proof coffee and ‘hacking’ yourself. I found it interesting but didn’t think much of it at the time.
Later, I was reading a book by Mark Sisson called the Primal Blue Print and in the book he mentioned Ketosis and the Ketogenic diet. I absolutely loved the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about wellness in general. From there I started looking into, researching and reading more about nutrition and the ketogenic diet specifically.

Why I Started the Ketogenic Diet

It is truly amazing the potential benefits claimed by this diet. It definitely sounds too good to be true at times honestly.
• Freedom from hypoglycemia, food fixations and sugar cravings.
• Lack of hunger:
• Lower blood pressure:
• Drop in Cholesterol:
• Increase in HDL Cholesterol
• A drop in triglycerides:
• Drop in fasting blood sugar and fasting insulin levels
• Your levels of C Reactive Protein (CRP) and HbA1c proteins will decrease. These are both markers of inflammation and heart disease risk.
• More energy
• Decrease in stiffness and joint pain
• Clearer thinking
• Improvement in your sleep patterns
• Weight loss

What stuck out the most to me were the overall health benefits for daily life. I am a relatively healthy individual but do endure some aches and pains once in a while for old injuries. Also the increase in energy level and mental capacity is what sold me to try it out.

More Health Benefits

I kept researching the ketogenic diet and other benefits of it while attempting the change over to a more Ketogenic way of eating. Another big one that stuck out was the help with blood sugar control and insulin response by eating in this fashion. Partly because of the low carb nature but also because of using ketones for fuel and getting a break from constantly using glucose. The more I looked into the diet the more it started to pop up everywhere. One thing that I came across, while researching nutrition, that scared me the most was the amount of sugar in everything. Peter Attia has a nice blog and a TED talk about insulin resistance and how over consumption of sugar may play a large part in that. This could in turn lead to the obesity and diabetes. Just a month or so ago Harvard came out with a study around the history of sugar and the relation to heart disease and before that new sugar guidelines are coming out soon from the Department of Health. All of these reason alone should have you considering a Ketogenic Diet. With the way the diet is setup you can have next to no carbs, which definitely means NO SUGAR! The carbs you can have should be reserved for vegetables, especially the green leafy kind. These vegetables will also feed your microbiome, but that is another post.

Actual Therapeutic Benefits?

Most of the stuff listed above could be listed more under lifestyle benefits. Now the levels of cholesterol, triglycerides is related to health and definitely so is Diabetes. At this time, I am going to remind everyone of my potential conflicts, where I am not a medical doctor and these claims have not be reviewed by any governing body. However you can do your own research as well. Just looking on clinicaltrials.gov, the site that lists clinical trials that are currently grant funded by the government across institutions and university throughout the United States, you can type in the word ketogenic. As of the writing of this, there are 101 studies using this as a therapy of some sort. These studies are being conducted on Autoimmune Disease, Metabolic Syndrome(e.g. insulin resistance), Epilepsy, and even Carcinoma(Yes Cancer!). There are even more listed also, go check it out for yourself. One researcher specifically who is researching the possibilities with it as a therapy for cancer is Dominic P. D'Agostino. Guess, what there is even a Ted Talk he gave on the subject! I guess at this point I should also say I am no way affiliated with TED.com either. I just love watching their talks and seeing what is out there.

Other Researchers

There are plenty of other people to look into as well. A few that I have looked into that I really like are Jeff Volek and Daniel Pompa . Dr. Volek applies his research of the Ketogenic diet to athletic performance. Where does it fit in with elite athletes? Do they need carbs in order to perform at the top level? You may have heard of Carb-loading. He actually argues that you don’t need that many carbs and ketons are a more efficient source of fuel for your body. Dr. Pompa looks into more holistic and natural approaches to health and healing. He uses ketosis as a tool in his healing processes and not as an everyday way of living.

My Advice

So this is the part where my second potential conflict of interest comes in. I’ll keep it short or just skip to the next paragraph. The Ketogenic Diet can be restrictive and hard to follow at times. Dr. D'Agostino was instrumental in the creating of exogenous ketone supplements that will put your body into ketosis and skip the restriction. The company Pruvit sells a product that uses these ketone salts. I do promote the stuff and you can only buy it through promoters like me. It is called Keto OS and I have used it now for a couple of months and love it. If you look at andrarchy’s post you can see promoters posting it on amazon as well. It can be a little pricey for people also. If you would like to look into it more or ask any questions you can go to this link and contact me that way. As a person who enjoys the occasional sweet snack, this product allows me to ‘cheat’ and still have the benefits of ketosis. Will you see all the above mentioned results? I can’t say for sure but I lean on the side you should see similar benefits just as if you were following the diet strictly.

The real enemy here is sugar. The best thing you can do for your health, from a nutritional standpoint is to eat as little sugar as possible and get rid of as much processed food as you can. Start small. The easiest place to eliminate sugar is through what you drink. There is so much sugar and empty calories in soft drinks in general. This includes soda, some teas, lemonade, sports drinks, and even fruit juices. Start replacing these drinks with water and you will be amazed at the benefit just that little step will do. There are so many recipes out there to help out as well. You can look for Ketogenic ones specifically but also look for things like Low Carb and Modified Atkins. If you start removing carbs from your diet, most of the time you replace them with much better things like vegetables. This is an inherent benefit to low carb diets. The ketosis is just an added benefit, if you take it to that level. The last thing to look out for if you decide to try the Ketogenic Diet, is what is called the ‘Keto Flu’. This is your body adjusting to the new fuel source it is not used to using. Once you become fully ‘Keto Adapted’ you won’t regret it! You’ll have less pain and inflammation and a lot more energy and mental clarity.

I hope you enjoyed reading and good luck!

Other Resources
Johns Hopkins ketogenic diet center
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/centers_clinics/epilepsy/pediatric_epilepsy/ketogenic_diet.html