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Myths of Ketogenic Diet on Weight Loss and Medical Use


I find that the Ketogenic diet is very popular in Taiwan in recent years, especially for people who want to lose weight. There are also restaurants selling Ketogenic foods on the streets of Taipei. I've always wanted to learn more about this new food choice, though I'm not a medical student or a doctor or nutritionist, eating choices about social behavior are all related to food safety. So it's interesting to start looking at this type of diet for Taiwanese, or perhaps people around the globe. 

 Ketogenic Diet v.s. Weight Loss

First, we must know what is the Ketogenic diet. After researching it, I found that the so-called "ketogenic diet" is actually eating "low-carb, high-fat food" (1). This actually surprised me. It makes me wonder how do you lose weight if you only cut the intake of carbohydrate but increase the intake amount of fat? How can such a diet be healthy?

We can see that many articles on the Internet suggest that when choosing a Ketogenic diet, a person is recommended to take 20%~25% of your total calories per day should come from protein, 70%~75% from “good” fat, and less than 5% from a low enough amount of carbohydrate. The method of this diet of intaking fat instead of carbohydrates will force the body to burn fat as a source of energy, thereby reducing fat.

What A Recommended Ketogenic Diet Would Look Like 

Ketogenic refers to a diet that allows the body to produce more ketones (4). But why is this necessary for burning body fat? Because ketones are metabolites that burn fat when the body's sugar content is low enough, a high concentration of ketones means the body knows to burn fat for energy instead of carbohydrate (4). In fact, I believe that many people have a doubt that when the body does not have enough carbohydrates to use as energy, the body will automatically start to use "protein" as its energy source instead of "fat". Therefore, it is said that people in the fat reduction period should also eat enough carbohydrates, otherwise the loss will not only be fat but also muscle. 

By suggesting people consuming less carbohydrate for total daily calories, I believe, it means to consume less carbohydrate, or perhaps sugar, from refined starches, for example, bread, pastries, cake, and so on. Most of it refers to something sweet. But it's important to remember that fat from this specific diet means “good” fat, for instance, fat from fruits, vegetables, or nuts. Please do not consider deep-fried animal food as a fat source when you are considering taking the Ketogenic diet!

I think we all know how eating more natural foods and less processed foods can help with weight control. However, the purpose of this article is not to talk about weight loss. So, I will stop talking more about the diet and weight loss for now.

Ketogenic Diet v.s. Health Care Function

With regard to Ketogenic diets and health, many people associate the Ketogenic diet with a way to cure diabetes or cancer. I think it's acceptable for diabetics to try the diet to manage their sugar levels, but please don't believe that the Ketogenic diet can reverse or cure diabetes.

Then what about cancer? Do some people say that taking the Ketogenic diet can lose weight and starve cancer cells to death(3)? It has been verified that there are some cases of cancer patients in the world getting better after changing their diet, but is this "improvement" due to the Ketogenic diet? This answer has not been confirmed by scientific and medical clinical trials. Instead, a 2016 study found that a low-sugar, high-fat diet significantly increases bad cholesterol, triglycerides, and other risk factors for diabetes and heart disease (2). What I'm trying to say is that if you choose a Ketogenic diet that replaces carbohydrates with a lot of animal protein or fat, your health is going to suffer in the long run. Remember my previous articles on 10 facts about animal protein? I am not going to go through the list of the long-term health risks of a diet that is high in animal protein and fat here again. I just want to suggest that if you want to stay healthy on a Ketogenic diet, it's best to choose plant-based protein and plant-based fats, and carbohydrate from unprocessed whole grains.







References:
  1. Lin, Q. (2019). Can zhuo shang de wei ke xue. Taibei Shi: Yi xin wen hua you xian gong si. P. 165-177.
  2. Vitale, M., Masulli, M., Rivellese, A. A., Babini, A. C., Boemi, M., Bonora, E., … Vaccaro, O. (2016, June). Influence of dietary fat and carbohydrates proportions on plasma lipids, glucose control and low-grade inflammation in patients with type 2 diabetes-The TOSCA.IT Study. Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26303195.
  3. 謝 明玲. (2017, October 16). 台灣瘋「生酮飲食」，可減重又能餓死癌細胞？｜天下雜誌. Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://www.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=5083972.
  4. Peeta 作者. (2019, July 8). 什麼是生酮飲食｜完整生酮攻略大補帖｜Peeta Fitness 健身網. Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://www.peeta.tw/ketogenic/what-is-ketogenic-diet/.
  5. (2015, December 21). 這些五穀雜糧糖友該吃！｜健康時報. Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://kknews.cc/zh-tw/health/2mj8mg9.html   

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