The Keto Diet abounds in the media these days. Is it just another fad diet?

Keto diet, is it another tool for health? In my 34 years of studying nutrition a lot of “diet gurus” have come and gone and a lot of fad diets have come and gone. Even doctors who actually know something about nutrition have and continue to advocate for a certain way of eating, vegan; vegetarian, low-fat, low-carb, etc. Their mantra seems to be: “If it works really well for me, then everyone else should eat that way too.”

But we all have unique metabolic needs so one size does not fit all, one way of eating does not fit all. After reviewing and even trying some of the diet plans myself, I go back to the basics of what works for the human body in regard to food intake as described in The Natural Healing Cookbook, a way of eating that serves your body well.

Most diets that are actually health regenerating have one thing in common – they take people off of junk food. Then how you divide up the percentage of the macronutrients; protein, carbohydrates and fat depends on your unique metabolism and whether you’ve trained yourself to be a fat burner instead of a sugar burner.

Consider the Keto Diet

That’s where the keto diet can be considered. Scientifically it makes sense. The keto diet trains our bodies to burn fat which produces ketones, a cleaner fuel than carbohydrates and sugar, causing less production of free radicals that damage tissues. Also each gram of fat produces a lot more energy than each gram of carbohydrate. So switching to a higher fat diet decreases the production of the inflammatory by-products of digestion and increases our energy.

Studying and implementing the keto diet may seem overwhelming at first. Since I like to keep things simple here are some basic guidelines:

Carbohydrates

Eat as many organic low carbohydrate vegetables as you want in lovely salads, soups, stir fry dishes.

Limit carbohydrate intake to  20 to 50 grams per day (Net carbs = total carbs minus fiber) Net Carb list

Eliminate from diet

Eliminate all processed carbohydrates like sugar, bakery items, white flour items, etc. Also eliminate grains and high carb fruit. Some lower carb fruit like berries, limes and lemons can be eaten in small amounts.

Fat

Eat 50 to 85% of your daily calorie intake as healthy fats like coconut oil, organic butter, avocadoes, MCT oil, pecans, macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, coconut.

Protein

Limit healthy protein intake to one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass.

Calculate percent body fat here:

https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/bodyfat

Chart of lean body mass fitness levels:

https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-use-body-fat-percentage-calculator-3858855

LBM Calculation: 100 minus body fat percentage times your current weight

If your percent body fat is 24%

Then Lean Body Mass = 76% of your weight (Total weight minus 24% of weight)

If you weigh 150 pounds, then   76% of 150 = 114

Protein intake = 0.5 grams times 114 = 57 grams of protein per 24 hours

Healthy protein includes organic poultry, beef, pork, eggs, wild caught fish free of toxic metals and chemicals. Avoid all factory farmed meat and conventionally fed animals that are raised on genetically modified food and pesticide sprayed grasses. These animals contain Roundup that is classified as probably carcinogen and causes many other disruptions to the human body.

Chart of food to eat on keto diet:

https://naturalsolutions.nz/content/ketogenic-diet

The keto diet can be a really fun, tasty way to eat. For instance treats of berries covered with organic cream titillate the tongue and satisfy the appetite. Eating healthy fats keeps your appetite satisfied longer and eating a variety of nutrient dense food quells cravings because your body knows that it’s finally getting the building blocks it needs.

So what’s the answer? Is the keto diet a fad diet?

Benefits of Keto Diet

The scientific research on the keto diet shows that it can:

•  help generate good health,
• aid in reversing or preventing some of the degenerative disease like cancer, heart disease and diabetes,
• is quite beneficial in weight loss and maintenance of health weight
• helps athletes perform better
• and more

So my vote says it’s a dietary approach that can be healthy and productive. I would definitely  advise

shifting away from the high carb foods and looking at adding more healthy fats to your eating plan.

Resources for the Keto Diet

Dr. Mercola explains the keto diet in more detail. Do a search for his articles on www. mercola.com

These 2 articles will get you started:

A Beginner’s Guide to the Ketogenic Diet: An Effective Way of Optimizing Your Health

https://articles.mercola.com/ketogenic-diet.aspx

With intermittent fasting:

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/07/02/intermittent-fasting-with-ketogenic-more-effective.aspx

If you like to calculate your percentages of protein-carbohydrate-fat in your meals try:

www.cronometer.com

Another helpful  overall keto diet calculator

https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

Picture thanks to https://dlife.com/ketogenic-diet-foods-keto-diet-low-carb-high-fat/