Known to have similarities with the Atkins diet, the keto diet is a diet in which there is less intake of carbohydrates, but a high intake of fats. The keto diet involves reducing and replacing the carbohydrates in your body with fat. This minimization of carbohydrates from your body results in a change in the state of your metabolism, leading you to enter into the state of ketosis.
When your body is in a state of ketosis, it starts working on burning fat for releasing energy. It is a diet which naturally converts fat into ketones in your liver which then gets supplied to your brain.
Food to avoid and include in your diet
A keto diet requires you to inculcate the following foods into your diet:
- Tuna, trout, salmon and other fatty fish varieties
- Meats including sausage, turkey, chicken, bacon, chicken, ham, steak and red meat
- Omega 3, whole eggs
- Grass-fed butter and cream
- Unprocessed cheese like goat’s cheese, mozzarella, blue cheese or cheddar cheese
- Avocados or freshly prepared guacamole
- Certain oils which are healthy such as coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil and, avocado oil
- Vegetables low on carbohydrates such as onions, peppers, and tomatoes
- Seeds and nuts like almonds, flax seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts.
You must avoid the following foods when you are following the keto diet:
- Wheat-based products and foods with starch content like rice, cereal, and pasta
- Processed, low-fat diet foods
- Condiments and sauces high on sugar content and fat that are unhealthy
- Beverages containing alcohol are high on carb-content and as such, can remove you from your ketosis stage
- Foods that are sugar-free, but contain sugar-alcohols. These can affect the ketone levels in certain cases.
- Certain root vegetables as well as tubers like parsnips, carrots, radishes, and potatoes
- Legumes and beans like kidney beans, peas, and lentils
Types of Keto diets
- The standard ketogenic diet is low on carbohydrates, high on fats and involves moderate consumption of proteins. Typically, it involves 75 percent of fat, a 20 percent portion of proteins, and just 5 percent of carbs.
- The cyclical ketogenic diet is another type of keto diet you can opt for. It involves cycles of eating carbs-intensive food every 2 days followed by 5 days of eating foods that are low on carbs.
- The targeted ketogenic diet involves adding carbohydrates to your keto diet coupled with workouts.
- There is also the high protein keto diet which is quite similar to the typical keto diet. It involves 35 percent of proteins, 60 percent of fat and 5 percent of carbohydrates as a part of your diet.
Benefits of a Keto diet
Keto diet is known to be helpful in weight loss. It involves inculcating dietary changes which alter your metabolism. This helps in improving your insulin sensitivity to a great extent. It is also known to reduce the incidence of risk factors associated with heart diseases like high cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and blood pressure. It also helps reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.
