Ketogenic means ketone producing. ketone is produced when fats are digested. So ketogenic diet means ketone producing diet, or in other words, ketogenic diet contains predominantly (healthy) fat, very little carbs and appropriate amounts of proteins. Ketogenic diet is different from Atkins diet, and is NOT a high fat diet. The total calories one needs to consume is limited (to one’s needs).
Benefits of ketogenic diet:
- weight loss
- anti-inflammatory (anti-oxidant)
- lower cancer risk
- muscle strengthening
- inhibiting appetite
- reducing insulin levels (insulin inhibits fat release. So this reduction in insulin release can help in more fat release and weight loss).
Ketogenic Diet:
- Healthy fats calories, about 80-85% of the total calories.
- Protein calories: about 10% of the total calories
- Carb calories: 5-8%.
Healthy Eating Habits:
- Intermittent Fasting: Every day there should a period of 13-18 hour without food intake, water is ok. One may choose either to skip breakfast or skip dinner. Research shows this type of intermittent fasting boosts your mitochondrial (Mito) function. Mito is the rechargeable battery in your cells. Dysfunction of Mito is found to be a major contributor to most, if not all, chronic diseases esp. cancer, and aging, including obesity.
- Skipping breakfast. For example, if one finishes dinner at 7 pm, then do not eat anything until at least 8 am (13 hours fasting) or, even better, 11 am (16 hours).
- Skipping dinner: Don’t eat anything after 4pm. Then eat breakfast at around 8-10 am (that’s 16-18 hours fasting).
- Ketogenic Diet (see above). One other reason why I advocate ketoDiet is the drastic reduction of carbohydrates. Carbs cause lots of problems, esp. today’s carbs are heavily contaminated by all sorts of pesticides, herbicides, more so than other foods. Carbs like wheat are a major to cause to many GI problems such as leaky gut which contribute to our autoimmune diseases and symptoms. Allergy is just one of them. (I have been on the KetoDiet for a while now. I really feel the difference: improved stamina, reduced seasonal allergy symptoms (I used to take Zyrtec daily. But now, even in this pollen season, I have gone a whole week without needing Zyrtec. This is amazing since for the last 25 years, I have never, NEVER, skipped several days, let alone a whole week, without an allergy pill).