These days, it seems that everyone is talking about ketogenic diet (in short, ketogenic diet)-a diet plan with very low carbohydrate, moderate protein and high fat, which turns your body into a fat burning machine. Hollywood stars and professional athletes openly publicize the benefits of this diet, from losing weight, lowering blood sugar, anti-inflammatory, reducing cancer risk, increasing energy to delaying aging. So ketogenesis is something you should consider? Let's explain what this diet is about, its advantages and disadvantages, and the problems that need attention.

Under normal circumstances, the body takes glucose as the main energy source. When you adopt a ketogenic diet, you eat very little carbohydrate, only a moderate amount of protein (excessive protein can be converted into carbohydrate), and your body will switch fuel supply and run mainly on fat. The liver produces ketones (a fatty acid) from fat. These ketones become the fuel source of the body, especially the brain, which consumes a lot of energy and can run on glucose or ketone.

When the body produces ketones, it enters a metabolic state called ketosis. Fasting is the most likely method to cause ketosis. When you fast or eat only a small amount of carbohydrates and a moderate amount of protein, your body will burn the stored fat as fuel. This is why people tend to lose weight through ketogenic diet.

The benefits of ketogenic diet

Ketogenic diet is not new. In the 1920s, this diet began to be used as a drug to treat epilepsy in children, but it was not known until recently that antiepileptic drugs entered the market. In view of its success in reducing the number of seizures in epileptic patients, more and more studies are studying whether this diet can treat a series of nervous system diseases and other types of chronic diseases.

* neurodegenerative diseases. * * The latest research shows that ketogenesis is beneficial to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism and multiple sclerosis (MS). It may also have protective effects on traumatic brain injury and stroke. One theory that ketones have neuroprotective effects is that ketones produced during ketosis provide extra fuel for brain cells, which may help these cells resist the damage caused by inflammation caused by these diseases.

Obesity and weight loss. * * If you want to lose weight, the ketogenic diet is very effective because it helps to increase and eliminate body fat. Persistent hunger is the biggest problem when you try to lose weight. Ketogenic diet helps to avoid this problem, because reducing carbohydrate consumption and increasing fat intake will promote satiety and make it easier for people to stick to this diet. In one study, obese subjects who ate a low-carbohydrate diet (20.7 pounds) lost twice as much weight in 24 weeks as those who ate a low-fat diet (10.5 pounds).

* Type 2 diabetes. * * In addition to losing weight, ketogenic diet also helps to improve insulin sensitivity, which is an ideal choice for any type 2 diabetic. In a study published in the journal Nutrition and Metabolism, researchers pointed out that diabetic patients eating a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet can significantly reduce their dependence on diabetic drugs, and may even eventually reverse this situation. In addition, it can also improve other health indicators, such as lowering triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein (harmful) cholesterol and raising high-density lipoprotein (beneficial) cholesterol.