Health benefits and risks of keto diet
To say that the keto diet has become one of the most popular diets of recent years is a complete understatement. Case in point: There are more than one million searches on Google every month for the keto diet. It’s unique because the fad diet has captured the interest of people who want to lose weight — and there’s no shortage of reported success stories to be found.
But researchers have taken a greater interest in it as a medical diet, too. In 2015, there were 159 studies listed in the database PubMed (which is run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health). In 2018, that number doubled, with 322 published studies.
The Keto Diet, Defined: A Brief Primer
So what is the keto diet?
The diet calls for consuming high amounts of fat, a moderate amount of protein, and a very limited amount of carbs. It’s usually broken down to 75, 20, and 5 percent of your daily calories, respectively, says Pamela Nisevich Bede, RD, a dietitian with Abbott’s EAS Sports Nutrition in Columbus, Ohio. Compare that with the typical American diet — which is usually 50 to 65 percent carbs — and it’s safe to say this is a completely different way of eating, Nisevich Bede says.
After you follow the diet for a few days, your body enters ketosis, which means it has started to use fat for energy. Newbies on the diet find it helpful to track whether they’re in ketosis with a urine ketone strip or a blood-prick meter, but Nisevich Bede says you’ll eventually learn what ketosis feels like and will know whether you’re in it.
A Glance at What Eating on the Keto Diet Looks Like
The keto diet is all about increasing calories from fat and going very low carb. That means following a restrictive, keto-friendly food list.
Keto breakfast recipes
Keto-Friendly Foods
Here are some of the foods you may eat on keto:
• Oils (like olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil)
• Avocado
• Heavy cream
• Butter
• Cream cheese
• Cheese
• Coconut (unsweetened)
• Nuts (almonds, macadamia) and seeds (chia seeds, flaxseed, sunflower seeds)
• Leafy green vegetables (romaine, spinach, kale, collards)
• Nonstarchy vegetables, including zucchini, asparagus, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, and bell peppers
• Meats (chicken, beef, pork, lamb)
• Eggs
• Fish (particularly fatty fish like salmon and sardines)
What You Can’t Eat (or Drink) on the Keto Diet
Foods and drinks that you’ll avoid on the keto diet include many whole fruits (though some fruits are keto-friendly), dried fruits, whole grains, cold cuts, chicken nuggets, milk, ice cream, alcohol, and desserts.
What a Day of Eating Looks Like on a Keto Meal Plan
Breakfast Two fried eggs, tomato slices, coffee with heavy cream
Snack Full-fat cottage cheese topped with pine nuts
Lunch Spinach salad with a grass-fed burger on top, cheese and avocado
Snack Roasted, salted almonds
Dinner Grilled salmon with a side of broccoli topped with butter
The Proven Health Benefit of Keto: Treating Epilepsy in Children
The keto diet has a massive fan base that has grown at least in part due to the popular Netflix documentary The Magic Pill, which touts a trove of promising keto health benefits. But the fact of the matter is that most of the studies on the keto diet are premature. Meaning: They’re in small populations of humans, or they’re in rats. (And you are very different from a rat.)
The only clear and proven health benefit of the keto diet is reducing epileptic seizures in children. In fact, doctors have been using keto therapeutically for this purpose since the 1920s.
More on Using Keto for Epilepsy
Keto is often suggested for children who suffer from certain disorders (like Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Rett syndrome) and don’t respond to seizure medication, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. (1) They note that keto can decrease the number of seizures these children have by half, with 10 to 15 percent becoming seizure-free. In other cases, it may also help patients reduce the dose of their medication.
The keto diet may also be beneficial for adults with epilepsy, though the Epilepsy Foundation notes that it’s less frequently recommended for this group because it is so restrictive and difficult to stick with. (1) One study, published in May 2016 in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior, found the diet reduced the frequency of seizures for many study participants, 7 percent of whom were seizure-free at the four-year mark. (2) And though it wasn’t the goal for this study, nearly 20 percent of the participants lost weight while following the diet.
Keto diet
How the Keto Diet May Help With Weight Loss
But the No. 1 reason people adopt the keto diet nowadays? Weight loss.
Initially, the weight loss comes from loss of water because you cut down on carbs in your diet and your body uses up the carbohydrates stored in the liver, which hold onto water. The diet results in further weight loss because it encourages you to load up on whole, high-fat foods, Nisevich Bede says.
By cutting carbs, you’ll also cut sugar and simple, refined carbohydrates, which means a steadier supply of energy. (No more sugar highs and crashes!) Once their bodies are used to the diet, “The first thing people report is, ‘Oh my gosh, I have this steady energy and I don’t have the need to snack at 3 p.m. because my energy is waning,’” Nisevich Bede says. Research published in January 2015 in the journal Obesity Review showed that the keto diet may lead to fewer hunger pangs and a lower desire to eat.
More on Keto Diet Foods
You lose weight temporarily because “if you’re not hungry every five minutes and can work on your willpower,” you won’t eat as much, Nisevich Bede says. But while some research is promising — one study published in October 2013 in the British Journal of Nutrition found that the keto diet led to greater weight loss than a low-fat diet, for example (4) — there is a lack of long-term research (greater than two years) that suggests a highly restrictive diet like keto is superior for weight loss than others, and it’s certainly not right for everyone.
In the 2019 U.S. News & World Report Best Diets rankings, keto lands at number 38 of 41 diets profiled. (5) That’s because while it may lead to a short-term weight loss, experts flag how difficult it is to follow, the lack of nutrition, and potential health risks from cutting major food groups and eating more saturated fat.
But researchers have taken a greater interest in it as a medical diet, too. In 2015, there were 159 studies listed in the database PubMed (which is run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health). In 2018, that number doubled, with 322 published studies.
The Keto Diet, Defined: A Brief Primer
So what is the keto diet?
The diet calls for consuming high amounts of fat, a moderate amount of protein, and a very limited amount of carbs. It’s usually broken down to 75, 20, and 5 percent of your daily calories, respectively, says Pamela Nisevich Bede, RD, a dietitian with Abbott’s EAS Sports Nutrition in Columbus, Ohio. Compare that with the typical American diet — which is usually 50 to 65 percent carbs — and it’s safe to say this is a completely different way of eating, Nisevich Bede says.
After you follow the diet for a few days, your body enters ketosis, which means it has started to use fat for energy. Newbies on the diet find it helpful to track whether they’re in ketosis with a urine ketone strip or a blood-prick meter, but Nisevich Bede says you’ll eventually learn what ketosis feels like and will know whether you’re in it.
A Glance at What Eating on the Keto Diet Looks Like
The keto diet is all about increasing calories from fat and going very low carb. That means following a restrictive, keto-friendly food list.
Keto breakfast recipes
Keto-Friendly Foods
Here are some of the foods you may eat on keto:
• Oils (like olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil)
• Avocado
• Heavy cream
• Butter
• Cream cheese
• Cheese
• Coconut (unsweetened)
• Nuts (almonds, macadamia) and seeds (chia seeds, flaxseed, sunflower seeds)
• Leafy green vegetables (romaine, spinach, kale, collards)
• Nonstarchy vegetables, including zucchini, asparagus, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, and bell peppers
• Meats (chicken, beef, pork, lamb)
• Eggs
• Fish (particularly fatty fish like salmon and sardines)
What You Can’t Eat (or Drink) on the Keto Diet
Foods and drinks that you’ll avoid on the keto diet include many whole fruits (though some fruits are keto-friendly), dried fruits, whole grains, cold cuts, chicken nuggets, milk, ice cream, alcohol, and desserts.
What a Day of Eating Looks Like on a Keto Meal Plan
Breakfast Two fried eggs, tomato slices, coffee with heavy cream
Snack Full-fat cottage cheese topped with pine nuts
Lunch Spinach salad with a grass-fed burger on top, cheese and avocado
Snack Roasted, salted almonds
Dinner Grilled salmon with a side of broccoli topped with butter
The Proven Health Benefit of Keto: Treating Epilepsy in Children
The keto diet has a massive fan base that has grown at least in part due to the popular Netflix documentary The Magic Pill, which touts a trove of promising keto health benefits. But the fact of the matter is that most of the studies on the keto diet are premature. Meaning: They’re in small populations of humans, or they’re in rats. (And you are very different from a rat.)
The only clear and proven health benefit of the keto diet is reducing epileptic seizures in children. In fact, doctors have been using keto therapeutically for this purpose since the 1920s.
More on Using Keto for Epilepsy
Keto is often suggested for children who suffer from certain disorders (like Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Rett syndrome) and don’t respond to seizure medication, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. (1) They note that keto can decrease the number of seizures these children have by half, with 10 to 15 percent becoming seizure-free. In other cases, it may also help patients reduce the dose of their medication.
The keto diet may also be beneficial for adults with epilepsy, though the Epilepsy Foundation notes that it’s less frequently recommended for this group because it is so restrictive and difficult to stick with. (1) One study, published in May 2016 in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior, found the diet reduced the frequency of seizures for many study participants, 7 percent of whom were seizure-free at the four-year mark. (2) And though it wasn’t the goal for this study, nearly 20 percent of the participants lost weight while following the diet.
Keto diet
How the Keto Diet May Help With Weight Loss
But the No. 1 reason people adopt the keto diet nowadays? Weight loss.
Initially, the weight loss comes from loss of water because you cut down on carbs in your diet and your body uses up the carbohydrates stored in the liver, which hold onto water. The diet results in further weight loss because it encourages you to load up on whole, high-fat foods, Nisevich Bede says.
By cutting carbs, you’ll also cut sugar and simple, refined carbohydrates, which means a steadier supply of energy. (No more sugar highs and crashes!) Once their bodies are used to the diet, “The first thing people report is, ‘Oh my gosh, I have this steady energy and I don’t have the need to snack at 3 p.m. because my energy is waning,’” Nisevich Bede says. Research published in January 2015 in the journal Obesity Review showed that the keto diet may lead to fewer hunger pangs and a lower desire to eat.
More on Keto Diet Foods
You lose weight temporarily because “if you’re not hungry every five minutes and can work on your willpower,” you won’t eat as much, Nisevich Bede says. But while some research is promising — one study published in October 2013 in the British Journal of Nutrition found that the keto diet led to greater weight loss than a low-fat diet, for example (4) — there is a lack of long-term research (greater than two years) that suggests a highly restrictive diet like keto is superior for weight loss than others, and it’s certainly not right for everyone.
In the 2019 U.S. News & World Report Best Diets rankings, keto lands at number 38 of 41 diets profiled. (5) That’s because while it may lead to a short-term weight loss, experts flag how difficult it is to follow, the lack of nutrition, and potential health risks from cutting major food groups and eating more saturated fat.
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