Many of my clients come into my office believing they have a really good grasp on nutrition based on what they’re seeing publicized on Facebook, Instagram, or a magazine cover — but in reality, these are just trends. We have to dial it down and understand that there is no one-size-fits-all diet, and unfortunately, diets like the keto diet, paleo diet, and low-carb diet can cause more harm than good.
Obviously, it’s hard to discuss what harm can come about from utilizing diets such as these without understanding what they do, exactly. Let’s take the keto diet, for example. Understanding what makes this diet so intriguing requires a basic knowledge of how our bodies process and create energy. Typically, our bodies use glucose to provide us with energy. The general human diet consists of carbohydrates–corn, rice, sugar, legumes– that our bodies break down and turn into glucose. Our cells then use this glucose to pump out energy for our bodies.
The keto diet, on the other hand, urges the body to use a different fuel source– fat. Individuals who are correctly utilizing a keto diet are consuming more fats than carbohydrates, which means that their bodies aren’t getting enough glucose to use as a fuel source. So the body looks to the next best thing and starts breaking down the fat into ketones. Since there’s not enough glucose in the body for the cells to use as fuel, the cells will instead start using the ketones to generate energy.
But what’s the difference between glucose and ketones if they’re both just sources of fuel? Well, especially if you’re speaking in terms of weight loss, the keto diet tends to be pretty effective because a diet consisting of mostly fats is typically more filling, so you’ll tend to eat less. Beyond that, though, when carbohydrates are stored, there’s typically a lot of water stored along with them. So, when individuals who are looking to lose weight begin a keto diet, there’s often a pretty significant water-weight loss when their bodies stop using carbs and glucose for fuel. I believe this adds to the appeal of the keto diet; it’s not uncommon to see an initial five- to ten-pound weight drop in the first few days of the diet, and so people tend to have a really strong initial motivation to continue utilizing the keto diet.
Another upside is that burning fat if done correctly, is less inflammatory to your body. When your body is burning glucose, it has to balance the sugar spikes–the energy highs and lows. When you take this into consideration, it also makes sense that the keto diet is often used to address blood sugar concerns and correct any imbalances there.
There are definitely a lot of benefits to the keto diet and diets that trigger a similar process in the body. The trick is figuring out not only how to do it right, but also how to do it right for your unique dietary needs. As I said previously, sometimes these diets can do more harm than good, and the dangers usually come about by not understanding your body’s processes, by skipping out on crucial food groups that your body needs to function at its optimum capacity, or by ignoring your body’s needs for the sake of the trend. That being said, it’s important to partner with experts like functional medicine practitioners or functional nutritionists who are dedicated to uncovering your specific imbalances and tailoring a diet, whether it be keto-inspired or otherwise, to help you reach your health goals.