How the Keto Diet Can Help You
By Alexis Mills
After watching the Netflix documentary The Magic Pill, I was shocked at the power of the keto diet and being able to aid people -- with a range of diseases -- be less reliant on drugs to help them. This high fat, low carbohydrate diet is known for its fat-burning effects and de-bunking the idea that fat is bad for you. This documentary proved to me the saying "you are what you eat" is so real and how much your diet affects your health and wellness.
Basic Keto Guidelines
- Eat organic foods
- Eliminate bad fats (vegetable oils) for healthy fats (avocados, olive and coconut oils, animal fats, and eggs)
- Consume free-range animals and wild caught seafood
- Eliminate processed foods, grains and legumes
- Avoid foods containing a lot of sugar and starch like bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes
- Drink water, coffee, tea, and an occasional glass of wine
- Introduce intermittent fasting, bone broths, and fermented foods
- Overall eat a high fat (75 percent), medium protein (20 percent) and low carbohydrate (5 percent) diet
How Does the Keto Diet Work?
The aim behind the keto diet is to work your body into a state of ketosis, which is when your body makes the shift from burning carbs and sugar to burning fat. It's a metabolic process; when you cut back on your carbs, your body will switch to ketosis for energy and, in effect, burn fat at a fast rate. Through this process it lowers blood sugar and insulin levels which specifically helps type 2 diabetes. It's also been shown to help diseases such as metabolic syndrome, bipolar disorder, obesity, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and certain cancers.
Getting Started
The keto diet can help you if you are looking to lose weight, get healthy, help disease prevention, or increase mental and physical performance. Getting started and adjusting to this new diet can be difficult, depending on what your diet was before, and will play into what your transition will be like. The most important part to remember is to avoid eating carbs in order to effectively reach ketosis. Start by making a grocery list at home of keto-friendly foods to make your meals for the week; if you aren't sure, just look it up. Once you get to the store, make sure you read the product labels and compare what is in each.
Personally, I have been trying to ease my way into the keto diet and staying completely on it has been difficult. It's been a learning experience of figuring out that staying under 20 grams of carbs was going to take planning and research into what is in the food or drinks I am putting into my body. I discovered foods and drinks that I would never guess had high carbs in them, do have a lot of carbs. Realize that, like me, you're probably not going to get it perfect from the start. Give yourself the room to explore and learn what works best for your body and if the keto diet is part of that.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Flowery Branch, Ga.