The Basics of the Keto Diet and its Health Benefits
The Keto Diet is rapidly becoming one of the more popular diets, especially for weight loss. It is a low-carb, high-fat diet similar to Atkins, and the underlying principle is to limit the carbs eaten to encourage the body to use its stored fat as fuel (ketosis). The Keto diet is essentially a super-charged version of the low-carb, high-fat diet.
The Keto Diet typically prescribes a macro-nutrient allocation of roughly 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbs (these percentages vary with practitioners and with minor modifications for reference body weight).
Depending on the actual ingredients in the meal, the nutritional content may vary drastically. A Keto Diet incorporating healthy fats like avocados, fatty fish, nuts and olive oil will differ dramatically from one incorporating nitrate-packed processed meats. Hence, the distinction between “Healthy” Keto and “Dirty” Keto.
There are several excellent introductions to the basics of the Keto Diet and its health benefits.
A Beginner’s Guide to the Keto Diet
The Diet Doctor’s web page “A ketogenic diet for beginners” and its Youtube video “A Keto Diet for Beginners” provide an excellent short introduction to the concepts underlying the Keto Diet (low-carbs, burning fat, ketosis), its health benefits and the diet composition (what to eat, what to avoid, what to drink).
How to Start the Ketogenic Diet
Dr. Nick Zyrowski’s Youtube video provides a synopsis of the Keto Diet, its health benefits, the macro-nutrient break-up of the diet, and sample food and drinks that can be consumed.
A Healthy Keto Diet for Beginners
Dr. Berg’s web page “The Healthy Keto(TM) Diet for Beginners: Your Quick Start Guide” describes how to customize the Ketogenic Diet to focus on healthy options: “organic vegetables, full-fat organic dairy, and wild-caught, grass-fed, pasture-raised meat, fish, fowl, and eggs.”
Some Caveats
Note that the US News and World Report Diet Review rated the Keto Diet poorly, partly due to the difficulty in adhering to the diet (sample expert review comments: “the hardest of the extremely hard“, “people become very bored just eating fatty foods, fat and meat“) and partly due to the lack of prescription of the fat source (“Healthy” Keto vs “Dirty” Keto) (sample expert review comments: “Any diet that recommends snacking on bacon can’t be taken seriously as a health-promoting way to eat“, “This plan could be dangerous for some“.
