Beware: The Keto Diet Can Kill!
The Keto (ketogenic) diet is a popular weight loss fad, offering an approach to eating that has been found to have positive benefits on overall health & well-being. According to Healthline:
“The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low-carb diets.”
“It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis.”
“When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the brain.”
“Ketogenic diets can cause massive reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels. This, along with the increased ketones, has numerous health benefits.”
Healthline
The main appeal of this diet are the two main benefits: weight loss and blood sugar moderation. These are two areas that many pre-diabetic & diabetic patients struggle with, so the Keto diet seems to be a good bandwagon to jump on.
Unfortunately, a new warning about the keto diet should make all patients take pause, particularly those with high blood pressure. As with diabetes, obesity can be an indicator for high blood pressure. Consequently, many type 2 diabetics are overweight.
An ‘Ask the Expert’ report presents some of the following considerations to make if you have high blood pressure and want to start the keto diet:
“Before you jump on that high-fat eating plan to drop pounds, there are some things you should know about its effects on blood pressure…”
“He (Dr. D.P. Suresh) says the problem is that, as new research in the American Journal of Physiology, Heart and Circulatory Physiology shows, when it comes to blood pressure, a diet 75 percent fat, 20 percent protein and 5 percent carbs — which is what a high-fat plan recommends — while you may switch the body to starvation and burn fat for fuel, when you do that the hormones released actually increase your blood pressure.”
Ask the Expert
Frankly, Dr. Suresh warns against any diet that promises rapid weight loss:
“Dr. Suresh says when it comes to any diet that promotes rapid weight loss, there is nothing beneficial in the weight loss. He advises instead to lose the weight gradually over 12 months, saying your blood pressure wouldn’t go up.”
“You also tend to keep weight off when you lose weight gradually, and gradual weight loss can help manage blood pressure.”
Ask the Expert
The main take away is that if you have high blood pressure, look before you leap into a Keto lifestyle. A general rule of thumb is to remember that the best path to weight loss are programs that structure out long term goals achieved by lifestyle changes and exercise.
I lost 50 lbs on the KETO diet, but it took a whole year. I’ve always exercised minimum of 3 – 5 days a week until the YMCA closed due to the pandemic, I was forced into lockdown which really had a great effect on me because I started exercising all day, everyday. The KETO diet used up all my stimulus check as I switched to cage free eggs, organic chicken, 2 avocados everyday. Wild caught Salmon 3 days a week for dinner, sometimes 4 days a week. I only eat the fatty nuts and macadamia nuts are expensive so are Brazil nuts. I do the intermittent fasting which really only allows 2 meals a day. I only allow myself one cheat meal a week or I gain weight which then takes another 3 days to lose. You have to be very dedicated and sometimes I only have 1 cheat meal a month. Also the no alcohol part was extremely hard.