Ketogenesis
The ketogenic diet is more a therapeutic metabolic intervention then a ‘diet'.
It's one of the oldest, most established, and most extensively studied therapeutic diets in modern medicine.
Dietary carbohydrate reduction has been used for seizure disorders for centuries, with the "ketogenic diet" becoming developed in the 1920s to be used neurologically as the primary medical treatment before medications were available.
A ketogenic diet is different from simply “eating less carbohydrates”.
When carbohydrate availability becomes sufficiently low — usually 20-30 grams/day — the body undergoes a coordinated metabolic shift from predominantly glucose-based metabolism toward greater fatty-acid oxidation and ketone metabolism. When this happens, the liver converts fatty acids into the ketone bodies — β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), acetoacetate, and acetone — which are used as efficent fuel by the brain, heart, skeletal muscle and every other tissues without the negative end products that glucose metabolism creates.
In that way, nutritional ketosis changes the fuel system of the body.
This shift also changes several hormonal and cellular pathways reducing glucose and insulin exposure, increases use of stored fat, and activates mitochondrial function. In the process is a reactivation of the diet as it can reduce oxidative stress, inflammation, and body weight.
As metabolic disorders — i.e. the bases for most chronic health problems — affect nearly 90% of the population, many are seeing incredible improvements in overall health when reducing total sugars (carbohydrates, glucose, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, lactose, maltose), increasing healthy fats, and maintaining consistent levels of protein in the diet.
[Of note: there is a subset of the population in which ketogenic diet would not be recommended, i.e. for those with inborn errors of fatty acid metabolism, CPT1A deficiency, CPT2, MCAD, VLCAD, LCHAD, CACT deficiency and other fatty-acid disorders.]
There is also an ever-growing number of physician’s speaking in the public space about the benefits their patients are experiencing with this way of eating. These include (but are certainly not limited to):
Gary Taubes
Dr. Chris Palmer
Dr. Matthew Bernstein
Dr. Bret Scher
Beth Zupec-Kania, RDN
Dr. Annette Bosworth
Dr. David Perlmutter
Dr. David Unwin
Dr. Paul Mason
Dr. Ken Berry
Here are a couple websites where you can find additional research and recipes:
Below are also some selected videos that do a great job sharing more information about Keto.
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