Negatives of Ketogenic Diet | How to the Best Secrets
Have you ever tried to induce a state called ketosis?
“uh, what?”
Let me explain the...
Negatives of ketogenic diet.
Ketosis can happen whether we work for it or not.
The keto diet is insanely effective...
Is it a good fit for you?
Should you do it?
When we don’t eat enough carbohydrates, our body looks for fat to use as energy.
When fat is our energy source, we have higher concentrations of ketones.
This is what the ketogenic diet is all about.
You avoid carbs, load up on fat, and burn that instead.
Simple.
Right?
Keep reading...
Recently, you may have come across numerous people on social media who swear they lose weight this way.
However, it doesn’t work for everyone.
In fact, a lot of people think this diet can do real damage.
But wait, it gets better...
Today, we’ll take a closer look at the negatives of ketogenic diet.
First things first.
To start...
...let’s take a look at a good example of what these dieters eat, and the benefits they might see from this.
The Keto Diet: A Day In the Life
The typical low-carb diet isn’t as extreme as the keto diet.
On average, keto dieters try to reserve just 5% of their entire intake for carbs.
Protein and fat make up the rest, with most keto dieters dedicating more than 60% for fat.
Here’s what a day in the life of a keto dieter might look like.
Breakfast
- Fat-fortified coffee is all the rage. Coffee with coconut oil, ghee, full-fat heavy cream, and more are commonplace.
- Eggs are usually on the menu. Preferably, fried in butter.
- Plant foods like avocado and mushrooms are also popular.
- Full-fat yogurt. Fruit is mostly verboten on a keto diet, but blackberries and raspberries are generally considered safe.
Lunch
- Salad. Yet unlike your big bowl of veggies, it’s usually a base of greens and tomatoes with plenty of fats on top. Avocado, nuts, oils, bacon, et cetera.
- Meat and cheese. For many, cold cuts and cheese are keto staples.
- Wraps. Instead of bread or tortillas, a leaf of lettuce can be a vehicle for fats and protein. For instance, chicken or tuna salad on romaine.
Dinner
- Animal protein. There are no vegans on a standard keto diet. Usually, dinner will include salmon, chicken, or steak. With butter.
- A few low-starch veggies like broccoli, zucchini, and eggplant should make an appearance here.
- Salad. A bed of spinach gives you phytonutrients and vitamins. Topping it with cheese and avocado helps meet that all-important fat requirement.
Positives of a Ketogenic Diet
After reviewing numerous ketogenic meal plans, I can actually spot a few good things about the diet.
The inclusion of items like bacon and butter will never make it the cleanest diet you can conceive of.
Still, here is where the benefits are.
1. It’s low in sugar.
Carbs take two forms: fiber and sugar.
Even when we add straight sugar to a food, we’re adding to the carb content.
White carbs, like bread and pasta, break down in the body to create sugar.
White table sugar would be a direct hit to the bloodstream.
All told, sugar can increase your risk of cancer, contribute to obesity, and create insulin resistance.
If you’ve been considering a sugar detox, a keto diet is certainly one plan to check out.
2. It’s fat-positive.
It’s no secret that I’m a big cheerleader for fat.
Low-fat diets starve the heart and brain, and wreak havoc on your hormones. (see video on balancing harmones)
Furthermore, the anti-fat movement is steeped in conspiracy.
As documents indicate, the sugar industry paid doctors to suggest that fat, not sugar, is responsible for poor health.
Nothing spoils public perception quite like a few fake studies.
Of course, not all fats are equal, and some should be enjoyed in moderation.
We’ll get to that in a bit.
3. It truly does help some people.
Listen, everyone is different.
To be fair, I would never disregard the testimonials of people with conditions like Type 2 diabetes and PCOS.
These disorders often come with excess weight.
Some patients have not only lost that weight, but have said goodbye to many other symptoms.
All through this one unusual diet!
The power of food never ceases to amaze.
Additionally, the keto diet has a history of being beneficial for epileptic children, and other people with seizure-causing disorders.
If a doctor were to recommend a ketogenic diet, you shouldn’t brush it off.
That said, it’s definitely not a diet for one and all.
Negatives of Ketogenic Diet
So, why shouldn’t you go keto today?
Even though there are a number of positives, the negatives are too huge to ignore.
1. Getting started is tough.
Most keto diets start with a fast known as ketogenesis.
During this fast, you essentially dehydrate yourself.
As you can imagine, the side effects are intense.
Headaches, sweats, and other flu-like symptoms are widely reported when starting out.
These don’t necessarily cease as soon as you start eating again.
On the contrary, some dieters report feeling unwell for weeks.
Interestingly, the solution is eating a little more of the forbidden food - carbohydrates.
Fasting isn’t always bad, in and of itself.
I'll explain...
For example, intermittent fasting is even trendier than keto, currently.
But if you have any health conditions, these initial symptoms are one of the major dangers of keto diet.
In particular, those with heart problems and hypoglycemia should avoid doing this without doctor supervision.
2. Sticking to it is even tougher.
Ultimately, many people dread dieting because it’s a lot of work controlling every bite that goes into your mouth.
Low-carb diets are one thing, but switching to a diet that’s mostly fat, no carbs, is an interesting challenge indeed.
Like a lot of other diets, eating on the fly can be tricky with keto.
If you don’t prepare for every situation, you’ll end up subsisting on meat and cheese outside of the home.
Intuitively, we know there’s more to a good diet than these two things.
The video below will help you make a better choice whether or not the keto diet is right for you.
But the lack of variety on the fly is just one problem with how restrictive this diet can be.
Those who currently or have previously suffered from an eating disorder can be lured in by the strict low-carb rule.
After all, low-to-no-carb is a notorious weight loss technique, even if temporarily.
For everyone else, the obsession with avoiding certain foods can bloom into a condition known as orthorexia.
To be fair, this isn’t known to be more prevalent among those on a keto diet.
Furthermore, it’s not a diagnosis that you could find in the DSM.
Still, the obsession with food, and more to the point, what foods are “acceptable” can become very stressful.
The keto diet has a huge fan base featuring blogs, books, podcasts, community interaction, and more.
It’s easy to lose yourself when you focus so intently on a diet.
And honestly, it creates a lot of anxiety, which is never good for your health.
3. There are a lot of animal products.
One of the main dangers of ketogenic diet food is how easy it is to rest on meat.
Plus, meats like cold cuts and bacon are usually processed.
These kinds of meats are carcinogenic, full of sodium, and very bad for you in general.
Additionally, the keto diet is frequently heavy in foods like butter and cheese.
As we now know, fat has gotten an undeservedly bad rap.
Still, healthy fats are found in plant foods more often than animal products.
Take the avocado.
One whole avocado can comprise more than 40% of your totally daily fat intake.
It even includes more than 20% of your daily saturated fat intake.
However, in many people, it doesn’t raise your LDL, or bad cholesterol.
Compare this to the fat we find in beef.
One study shows what happens when vegetarians eat eight ounces of beef.
Their HDL (good cholesterol) didn’t increase, but their overall cholesterol levels and blood pressure did.
Usually, beef is lower in overall fat, but higher in saturated than an avocado.
The bottom line is that meat and cheese lack the specific composition that plant fats do.
This has a huge impact on what our bodies do with it.
Even if fat isn’t evil, animal fat is a food to moderate.
After all, there’s no good, credible health literature out there stating that we don’t eat enough meat and dairy.
Plants, on the other hand? We need to eat more.
4. You can’t believe everything you read.
If you want advice on a keto diet, you don’t have to look very far.
As mentioned, there are countless internet authorities out there dedicating their corners of the web to all things keto.
As it turns out, misinformation is one of the biggest dangers of ketogenic diet plans and ketogenic snacks.
There isn’t much research on how a ketogenic diet affects you long-term.
That said, one study examining it as a medical diet found that patients were experiencing higher cholesterol and constipation.
Weigh this against any number of keto blogs you might read.
They may state that high cholesterol is temporary, just a side effect of losing weight.
And actually, that does occur occasionally with extreme weight loss.
However, if you’re eating a ton of beef and butter, it’s silly to say it’s definitely not the dietary cholesterol.
Speaking of that, some keto devotees will tell you that high cholesterol doesn’t matter in the first place.
Hey, there’s a systematic review to back up anything you want to say.
And a lot of them have serious flaws.
The fact is, as far as we know, cholesterol absolutely can clog your arteries.
Especially if your triglycerides are high and your HDL is low.
Will high cholesterol always lead to a heart attack?
No.
Is it a risk factor for a heart attack?
Yes.
You can run around for days trying to make sense of this.
One keto blog will tout a study saying that older folks with high cholesterol live longer.
There’s always a counterpoint - some suggest low-carb diets shorten lifespan.
5. It’s low in fiber.
Personally, the lack of fiber in the average ketogenic diet is what really sinks it for me.
To no surprise, keto-holics find ways to say that this, too, does not matter.
That is, they say we have overblown the importance of fiber.
Their proof?
They’re not constipated, and if their keto friends are, they aren’t admitting it.
But the wisest keto dieters do, at least, take a fiber supplement - click for price.
Still, fiber from food wins out.
Delivering your body fiber in a neat package with vitamins and phytonutrients increases absorption of these things.
Besides, if you want to lose weight, fiber is critical.
Finding a Diet That Really Works
Do you have diet whiplash?
Does constant talk of macros, percentages, detoxes, metabolic syndromes, fasts, and more leave you exhausted?
I don’t blame you.
In fact, if you’re not allergic to anything, and don’t have specific medical needs, drop it for a while.
Stop eliminating and restricting at every single meal.
The rules for healthy eating are actually very simple.
Moreover, they’re based on centuries of research and experience.
- Eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can.
- Limit processed and fried foods.
- Be mindful of added sugar.
- Food you prepare yourself at home is better for you.
- Don’t be afraid of fat. Instead, eat healthy fats, like nuts, seeds, expeller-pressed oils - click for price, and avocados.
- Carbs are okay, too. If it’s minimally processed, you’ll derive energy from it.
- Protein is important, and that’s why we find it naturally in many foods. If you eat a wide variety of foods, you’ll have enough.
- Eat when you are hungry. If you stick to a reasonably healthy diet, you’ll be able to rely on your hunger signals.
Serious diets are often unkind to our bodies.
With most weight-loss diets, including keto, you inevitably plateau.
Most of the time, this makes us quit the diet, and then we end up back at square one.
That’s why a lifelong philosophy for healthy eating is best.
It’s simple changes that are easy to understand, manageable, and not written in stone.
That’s all I got today on the...
Negatives of Ketogenic Diet
The amazing results I see people get from a ketogenic diet will never fail to impress me.
People with Type 2 diabetes can reverse their condition through weight loss.
The keto diet does help some people lose weight.
Others report clearer thinking and more energy.
But is it really sustainable?
Can you watch carbs forever, while making sure you get enough healthy fats to keep you in ketosis?
This is not possible for most people with busy schedules.
Finally, “carb” is such a general term.
With a keto diet, we eliminate lots of nutritious foods.
These include:
- Most fruits, from bananas and apples, to peaches and mangoes
- Beans and legumes
- Potatoes, even sweet potatoes
- Veggies like asparagus, peas, and corn
These are replaced with low-starch, low sugar options like berries and zucchini.
More often, however, you have to work to add fat.
Most fruits and veggies are low fat, so we end up eating more meat and cheese.
What do you think?
Are there any other negatives to keto diet?
Could you go the rest of your life without another carb?
What’s your favorite healthy fat source?
Let me know in the comments!
