Everyone who is interested in losing weight has heard about the keto diet or the ketogenic diet. Its main advantage is that you do not need to starve to lose weight.
But for whom is such a nutrition system suitable, and for whom is it categorically contraindicated? Let’s figure it out with an expert.
You can eat meat, cheese, eggs, and cottage cheese, that is, fatty and satisfying foods. The ratio is something like this: 70% fat, 20% protein, and only 10% carbohydrates. On such a diet, a person enters a special state – ketosis and really begins to lose weight intensively. But this is not to say that the keto diet is a panacea for excess weight. Not everyone can use it without harm to health.
What do you eat with a keto diet?
When on a keto diet, you can not eat fruits, some vegetables and root vegetables, or foods rich in sugars and starches. When all this is eliminated, the body enters a state of ketosis. A large number of ketone bodies are formed, and acidification of the body occurs.
At the beginning of the keto diet, there is a period known as the keto flu (or ketone flu). A person experiences symptoms of intoxication: lethargy, weakness, irritability, and bad breath appear. Then, according to the adherents of the keto diet, this passes and the body adapts. If the keto flu lasts for more than two weeks, urgent consultation with a doctor is required.
Why do unpleasant symptoms appear? The body switches to another type of energy. This “flame” burns fats that are deposited in the fat depot. Metabolism products, fat breakdown, and ketones are high-energy compounds, they give energy to the brain and the whole body. Ketones come to replace carbohydrates, from which we traditionally get energy.
What are the contraindications for the keto diet?
On the one hand, food on a keto diet is delicious and satisfying. It can be varied with oily fish, meat, eggs, nuts, cream, and butter. But on the other hand, living without carbohydrates is still not as fun as it might seem. For example, fruits and vegetables are valuable sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
In some cases, the keto diet is completely contraindicated:
- Violation of fat metabolism;
- Taking certain medications;
- Diseases of the liver and kidneys, pancreas;
- Exacerbation of any gastroenterological disease.
You need to be especially careful if you have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or hepatosis, which develops against the background of obesity. Why should you be careful? The digestion of fats directly depends on the state of the liver (and we remember that the keto diet is 70% fatty foods).
Let’s not forget about the pancreas. It produces a large number of enzymes: lipase, which breaks down fats, and protease, which breaks down protein. With an exacerbation of diseases, the keto diet is categorically contraindicated, and in this case, the diet can only be spared.
Chronic pancreatitis, especially aggravated by endocrine insufficiency, with an insufficient function of enzyme production is also an absolute contraindication. In this case, we have no right to load the body with fat and protein.
Today, medicine has stepped far forward, and we do not exclude fats in pancreatic enzymatic insufficiency. We leave them in physiological dosages. Because without fats, not all useful and necessary substances, for example, fat-soluble vitamins, are absorbed. But we carry out substitution therapy and give enzymes to a person. On a keto diet, a person does not receive enzymes, but consumes a huge amount of fat and protein. Enzymes may not be enough to break them down. And the keto diet will provoke exacerbation after exacerbation, which will lead to complications of gastroenterological diseases.
You need to understand that the level of ketones in the blood regulates the liver. If this organ is unhealthy, then ketones can become too much. And then ketosis – a physiological state, turns into pathology – ketoacidosis. And this is already very serious. This condition occurs with decompensation of diabetes mellitus, for example, and in rare cases can lead to death.
In addition, other side effects of the keto diet are possible: dysmenorrhea, that is, the absence of menstruation, fatty liver disease, kidney stones, constipation, and so on.
Keto diet – only after consulting a doctor
It is categorically impossible to go on a ketogenic diet on your own, only of your own free will, because you may not be aware of the existing problems.
Initially, the keto diet was not designed to solve weight problems. Its main function is to relieve children and adolescents from convulsions in epilepsy. If you are using the keto diet for weight loss and this is the main goal, then you need to understand that any diet is not very suitable for this purpose.
Diet is a purely therapeutic event limited in time. Weight loss requires a change in eating behavior and lifestyle: a person must change his attitude toward food and understand what problems he is eating. Restricting yourself in the diet, forbidding yourself to eat any foods, you can achieve the exact opposite effect. Sooner or later, a person breaks down and gains even more weight. And until the psychological and organic causes that led to weight gain are eliminated, a person will not be able to maintain a normal weight.
It is possible to change your lifestyle. The process of getting to know yourself is very interesting. And when you agree with yourself and start living correctly, in harmony, you will see how literally all aspects of life will change for the better. From my experience, I can say that patients find a new love and new and better-paid jobs. The quality of life is greatly improved. Forces appear. It sounds like magic, but in fact, any magic is scientifically explainable.
The main thing to remember: your weight is only your own business. No one has the right to shame, humiliate and scold for weight and external data. Praise yourself for everything and do it as often as possible. Every day you should praise yourself at least 7 times and write it in a diary. This is where the inner and outer transformation begins. Everything will work out!
If the keto diet is not for you, then consider other nutrition systems. For example, flexitarianism, which was included in the list of the most healthy diets in 2021, or the classic Mediterranean diet, which has long established itself as one of the most advanced nutrition systems.
Editorial Team
