Nutritional Ketosis Diet May Be Key for Optimal Health. By Dr. Mercola. Obesity and top killers such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's and cancer have something significant in common — they're all rooted in insulin and leptin resistance. Sugars found in processed foods and grains are the primary culprits, and the standard American diet is chockfull of both. This is good news, as it significantly simplifies your approach to improving your health.
You won't need a different set of strategies to address each condition. So how do you correct these metabolic imbalances? Your diet is key. The timing of your meals can also play an important role. Nutritional Ketosis May Be Key for Optimal Health. By eating a healthy high- fat, low- carbohydrate and low- to moderate- protein diet, you enter into what is known as nutritional ketosis: a state in which your body burns fat as its primary fuel rather than glucose (sugar). Mounting research suggests nutritional ketosis is the answer to a long list of health problems, starting with obesity. Veganism is both the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of.Emily Ratajkowski says her chest size has prevented her from getting roles. In fact, endurance athletes are turning away from conventional high- carb strategies and adopting this way of eating because it boosts physical stamina and endurance. Cancer is another area where ketogenic diets show great promise. Other benefits include fewer hunger pangs and a dramatic drop in food cravings once you've made the shift from burning sugar to burning fat as your primary fuel. Being an efficient fat burner may also boost your longevity. Researchers have identified about a dozen genes associated with longevity. According to Jeff Volek, Ph. D., a registered dietitian and professor in the Human Science Department at Ohio State University, who has done enormous work in the field of high- fat, low- carbohydrate diets and has authored several books on this topic, the primary function of one of these genes is to cripple the degradation of branched- chain amino acids (BCAAs), such as leucine. Preventing this degradation can help preserve your muscle mass. BCAAs have other benefits as well: In a number of studies involving middle- aged animal models, adding BCAAs increased muscle and cardiac mitochondrial biogenesis (the creation of new mitochondria), improving both health span and longevity. Interestingly, BCAAs are very similar in structure to ketones — energy molecules created by your liver from fats — and ketones seem to be preferentially metabolized. In other words, ketones spare those branched- chain amino acids, leaving higher levels of them in circulation while also helping you retain muscle mass and promoting longevity. Ketones — A Healthy, Clean- Burning Fuel. The primary reason that so many people are overweight and/or in poor health these days is that the Westernized diet is overloaded with non- fiber carbs as the primary fuel, which in turn inhibit your body's ability to access and burn body fat. High- quality fats, meanwhile, are a far preferable fuel, as they are utilized far more efficiently than carbs. When you burn fat as your primary fuel, your respiratory quotient (the amount of oxygen you need) typically goes down,2 which is a sign that your metabolism is running more efficiently. How to Enter Into Nutritional Ketosis. The most efficient way to train your body to use fat for fuel is to remove most of the sugars and starches from your diet, and that's true for everyone, whether you're an elite athlete or a sedentary diabetic. At the same time, you'll want to replace those carbs with healthy fats. This is only a generalization, as each person responds to foods in a different way. Some people can enter into full ketosis while eating as much as 7. Others, especially if you're insulin resistant or have type 2 diabetes, may require less than 4. This will give you an objective measure of whether or not you're truly in ketosis, rather than just relying on counting the grams of carbohydrates you consume. Nutritional ketosis is defined as blood ketones that stay in the range of 0. L). My first choice is Cronometer. That's my upgrade to the basic Cronometer nutrient tracker, and the default is set to macronutrient levels that will support nutritional ketosis. Avoid Milk and Consider MCT Oil. Aside from added sugars and grains, it is best to avoid milk for the time being, as it can be difficult to stay in ketosis if you eat or drink a lot of it. The galactose in milk is a carbohydrate and you can easily exceed your net carb allotment by drinking a single glass of milk. Casein, the primary protein in milk, can also trigger or contribute to inflammation. When you keep net carbs low, your body switches to burning fat for fuel and your liver begins to convert some of that fat into ketone bodies. This is endogenous production, meaning that they are made by your body from your fat stores or from the fats in the foods that you eat. You can boost your level of ketones by taking them in supplement form, but these exogenous ketones (made in a lab, not in your body) are not likely to be as beneficial unless you are already . Based on my understanding of mitochondrial health and metabolic function, a vast majority of health conditions could fall into this category. One of the conditions for which a ketogenic diet has the longest and best documented track record is epilepsy. This diet has been effectively used to treat drug resistant epileptic seizures since the 1. In my view, it would be wise to implement a ketogenic diet as a first- line therapy, but in conventional medicine, it's typically not considered or recommended unless the patient fails to respond to medication. Even then, this conversation may have to be initiated by the patient, or the parent of a child with seizures. As noted in the featured article: 5. This is also known as a 4: 1 ketogenic diet because it provides four times as much fat as protein and carbs combined. The modified Atkins diet (MAD) is based on a considerably less restrictive 1: 1 ratio of fat to protein and carbs. It has been shown to be equally effective for seizure control in most adults and children older than two years of age. While fats are unable to cross the blood brain barrier, ketones, being water- soluble fats, can cross it and feed your brain. They also appear to lower markers of systemic inflammation, such as IL- 6 and others. Many times, improved cognition and mental acuity are among the first things people notice when entering nutritional ketosis. Ketones are the preferred source of energy for your brain in general, but especially for those affected by diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and maybe even ALS, because in these diseases certain neurons have become insulin resistant or have lost the ability to efficiently utilize glucose, which causes the neurons to die off. When ketones are present, these neurons have a better chance of surviving and thriving. As noted in the featured article, . They also do not need insulin to help them cross cell membranes, including neuronal membranes. Instead, they use simple diffusion, so they can even enter cells that have become insulin resistant. This is likely one of the reasons nutritional ketosis works so well for a variety of neurological problems and diseases. It even shows promise for. Migraine headaches: Following a ketogenic diet for four weeks has been shown to reduce migraine frequency and lower the use of pain medication. Traumatic brain injuries: Animal studies suggest it can help reduce brain swelling, improve motor function and speed up recovery, although it appears more effective in the young than the old. Human studies still need to validate these findings. Metabolic Conditions Improve on Ketogenic Diet Nutritional ketosis is also indicated for obesity, metabolic syndrome (prediabetes) and diabetes. This is not surprising, considering the fact that one of its beneficial effects is correcting insulin resistance. If you meet at least three of the following criteria, you may be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome: abdominal obesity, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure and/or elevated fasting blood sugar. Nutritional ketosis has been shown to improve most of these. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is strongly associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, has also been shown to improve on a low- carb diet high in healthy fats. In one study,1. 3 obese men diagnosed with metabolic syndrome and NAFLD showed significant improvement in their weight, blood pressure, liver enzymes and liver fat after four months on a ketogenic diet; 2. NAFLD. Glycogen storage disease (GSD) and glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) deficiency syndrome are two other conditions for which a ketogenic diet is a literal life saver. GSD is characterized by a lack of an enzyme that helps store glucose as glycogen or break glycogen down into glucose. The exact form of the disease depends on which enzyme in question that's lacking. As noted by Authority Nutrition. However, early research suggests that a ketogenic diet may benefit people with some forms of GSD, . Seizures and impaired motor skills are two common symptoms that typically manifest shortly after birth. The benefit of a ketogenic diet is quite apparent in this case, as ketones do not need this protein in order to enter your brain. Hence ketones are an ideal fuel for GLUT1 deficient people, allowing their brains to function more normally. Hormonal and Nervous System Disorders May Improve on Ketogenic Diet. Your hormone regulation and nervous system may also benefit from being an effective fat burner. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and multiple sclerosis (MS) are two conditions that appear to respond well to this switch in primary fuel.
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