Type 2 diabetics can benefit from the keto diet, and many other people with other diseases or issues can also benefit from it. These advantages are a fantastic motivational boost for anyone beginning this diet.
It’s normal to feel worn out or exhausted while on a diet because your body is undergoing a transformation. But keep trying because there are many advantages to anything worthwhile and beneficial:
Hunger and small-mindedness
As the ketogenic diet returns your body to its initial state of ketosis, it has been shown to reduce people’s appetite. This occurrence makes it simple for you to stick to the keto diet and lose weight; you won’t even have to deprive yourself of food because your body won’t be experiencing hunger.
Weight Management
One of the best aspects of a good ketogenic diet is that you won’t experience any weight gain or see your weight shoot back up. Most diets frequently have a starving mentality, and as a result, your body switches into a phase of storing as much energy as it can.
No matter how little you eat, your body will attempt to retain the majority of what you consumed due to a shortage of nourishment. Starvation is not an option on the keto diet, though, as you eat regular meals throughout the day. The number of calories you consume still matters, therefore no matter what diet you are on, if you consume more than your daily calorie allowance, you will gain weight.
Mental Sharpness
Your brain changes as a result of ketones’ neuroprotective effects, becoming sharper and more perceptive. Over time, the haziness in your mind will dissipate and your mental processes will become more clear.
Although we are unaware of it, our diets are very important to our health. When you consume a lot of carbohydrates, you frequently feel sleepy and your thinking is typically foggy. However, the ketones produced by the ketogenic diet effectively burn your fat as fuel while improving your mental clarity.
This idea can be explained by thinking of how burning fats produces less smoke than burning carbs does, which results in less mental clouds.
Enhanced Sleep
People who follow a ketogenic diet report getting better sleep, mostly as a result of how full it is. People who are dieting frequently find themselves sleeping on an empty stomach, and lack of sleep is caused by an empty stomach.
Researchers found that the ketogenic diet led to deeper sleep compared to carb-heavy diets in a 2008 trial involving 14 non-obese men. Your tissues repair, the brain resets, and the brain gets cleaned of extra proteins thought to promote Alzheimer’s during deep sleep.
It is important to keep in mind that the keto diet was found to decrease REM sleep, which is thought to be the finest period of sleep and is when dreams and memory consolidation occur.
Superior metabolic performance
Making the switch from a diet high in carbohydrates to one high in fats is one of the quickest methods to enhance your metabolism. The keto diet and other low-carb, high-fat diets turn your body into a fat-burning factory. When the majority of your diet’s carbohydrates are eliminated, your body starts to depend more heavily on fat, which causes you to lose more fat and, as a result, lose weight.
According to some reports, persons who follow the ketogenic diet reportedly burn 300 more calories each day than the average person on a diet high in carbohydrates. This effect is thought to be caused by a process called thermogenesis, which was demonstrated in an animal study showing that the more fat your body contains, the more heat you produce while at rest.
It may take a few weeks for your body to adjust to this diet, but once it does, you will start to see a faster metabolism.
Sensitivity to insulin is restored
Your body produces insulin, a hormone that aids in carbohydrate digestion and causes your cells to absorb glucose. Because you can’t effectively digest the carbohydrates you consume if your body becomes insulin resistant, your blood sugar rises and you experience a variety of negative effects.
When following a ketogenic diet, you rarely eat carbohydrates, but you do ingest a little amount of them since, in order to enter ketosis, you still require a small amount of carbohydrates, primarily for brain function. Your brain will still need some glucose even if it shifts to ketones.
On the ketogenic diet, your liver can produce a small amount of glucose as a dietary supplement and brain fuel. When you are entirely fasting or eating no carbs, your liver produces some glucose that travels through your bloodstream to give your brain a boost. This is why fasting or following a low-carb diet won’t ever result in your blood sugar levels decreasing to zero.
This diet seeks to stabilize your blood sugar levels so that your body can resume its normal operations rather than lowering them to a harmful level.
Decreased Inflammation
Omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial polyunsaturated fats that are abundant in the keto diet and can help you reduce inflammation in your body. Everyone will benefit from this, but notably people with chronic inflammatory disorders. Additionally, the carbohydrate restriction will lower sugar levels, which is another factor that will cause your inflammation to diminish.
Feeling Joyful
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that helps the brain function, and glutamate are two more neurotransmitters that your body balances when it reaches the ketosis stage. The neurotransmitter GABA functions to relax the brain. Your cerebral system is stimulated by glutamate. This is the secret to a brain that is both healthy and content.
Blood Pressure is reduced
With the inclusion of exercise, a diet high in fats and low in carbohydrates can help you maintain healthy blood pressure. But it’s important to make informed fat selections. Because harmful fats are bad for your heart, always prefer healthy fats over unhealthy ones.
Higher HDL Cholesterol
You will see in your test results that your HDL cholesterol has increased while your LDL cholesterol has decreased once you begin the keto diet and successfully apply it to your daily life. It’s possible for your cholesterol levels to rise if you detect an increase in both your HDL and LDL cholesterol levels at times.
It is crucial to be aware of this problem because some people have expressed concern about it. Let’s say that eating processed food and sugary carbs causes metabolic damage to your body over the course of a few years. In that case, after you begin the keto diet, you’ll notice an increase in your cholesterol level. This indicates that your body is returning to its regular metabolic process. When the majority of the damage has been corrected, your body’s LDL and total cholesterol levels start to decline.
The time it will take for your body to heal varies depending on your kind, so it’s crucial to keep that in mind. While some people can notice effects in as little as a few months, others might not see results for several years.
Increases the ability to fast
One day of fasting will lower your body’s glycogen (stored glucose) in the liver to the point where it enters gluconeogenesis, the stage at which your liver begins to produce glucose for your body. Even without fasting, it is still possible to have healthy ketones levels, but for some people, this may be challenging.
The problem could be that you are overeating if you are eating the right amount of carbohydrates, the right amount of protein, and the right amount of fat while still producing adequate ketones.
Consider using intermittent fasting to gauge your level of fitness while following a ketogenic diet. You will be able to go without food for up to 12 hours after your body has fully adapted to the keto diet. You may even be able to fast for a full twenty-four hours on some days as long as you stay well hydrated.
You won’t want to think about food for longer than three hours, which will make you feel liberated. You will become more alert and have better control over your appetite if you use ketones as your fuel instead of utilizing willpower to fend off food cravings.
Spontaneous fasting without any negative consequences on the body is a sign that the metabolism is in outstanding shape.
Cuts down on heartburn
Your stomach is designed to be so acidic that if any of the contents leaked outside of your body, your skin might become damaged. Your PH levels are between 1 and 3, which is as acidic as sulfuric acid, when you have a lengthy gap between meals and are otherwise fasting. Your stomach acid increases to a PH level of 4-5 after a meal.
On a PH scale, 1 to 3 is regarded as extremely acidic, whereas 4 to 6 is regarded as slightly acidic. The range from 7 to 8 is considered neutral, and the remaining ranges progress to become alkaline. Your stomach is a hundred times more acidic than PH 7 even when it is somewhat acidic. When examining very acidic objects, this spectrum of acidity becomes even more apparent. The acidity of a lemon is between 2-3 PH, however the acidity of your stomach can reach the same level as that of a battery.
For your stomach to work properly, it needs to be acidic. Because of the salivary enzymes, the breakdown of carbohydrates begins in the mouth. The initial stage of protein and fat digestion takes place in your stomach because your stomach is where your fats and proteins are broken down.
Your proteins are like knotted up strands of hair. The first step in the process of breaking down proteins into individual amino acids or even smaller groupings of amino acids known as peptides is accomplished by your stomach acid, a process known as denaturing. This reduces things to their most basic form, allowing your body to access them more easily.
In addition to denaturing proteins, stomach acid signals enzymes, causing them to activate and carry out additional digestive-aid actions. Your body will digest food more quickly the more acidic your stomach is because the proteins will denature more quickly.
Heartburn results from your stomach’s acidity not decreasing as a result of your diet’s deficiency in protein or other foods. When you have acidity, your stomach’s acid travels upward rather than downward, which results in a burning sensation in your neck and chest.
However, because your stomach acid is working hard to help break down the proteins when you follow the ketogenic diet, the acidity is reduced.
Improved Fertility
Infertility in women is frequently attributed to inflammation. However, it has been demonstrated that adhering to a healthy ketogenic diet can enable you to quickly lower your body’s insulin levels and further control the levels of other reproductive hormones like:
Testosterone
LH, or luteinizing hormone
FSH, or folic acid-stimulating hormone
Women with ovulating problems can overcome the challenge and release eggs for fertilization or to simply get their periods on track by using the ketogenic diet and managing their body weight; this means women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can overcome the challenge without having to take a lot of medication. Five to ten percent less body weight can increase ovulation again in PCOS patients since they frequently need to drop a little bit of weight.
Numerous studies have revealed that, in addition to helping PCOS-affected women lose weight, the ketogenic diet may also help them restore their hormonal balance. It has occasionally assisted infertile women in regaining their fertility.
In a study published in September to October 2018 in the “Journal of AACE clinical case,” researchers followed four obese women with PCOS who were trying to get pregnant by eating a ketogenic diet. All four ladies have dropped weight, ranging from nineteen to thirty-six pounds, after tracking their monthly progress for up to six months. Their menstrual cycle also resumed its regular course. Two of the four women were also able to become pregnant on their own without the aid of other medical professionals.
Improved Immunity
Mice on a high-fat, low-carb diet in a 2019 study that was published in the scientific immunology journal discovered that their diet boosted their resistance to influenza infection.
Gamma delta T cells are supported by the ketogenic diet in the airways. The lungs’ mucus lining, which the gamma delta T cells can create, protects your body from bacteria and illnesses that might enter through the airways. The lung’s epithelial cells are supported by the gamma delta T cells as a barrier.
Researchers have also discovered that because a ketogenic diet contains anti-inflammation capabilities, you can boost the reaction of your immune system even more. According to a study done on mice, those that were kept on a ketogenic diet had a higher probability of surviving than those that were on a diet high in carbohydrates.
Numerous studies using mice have discovered that animals on a ketogenic diet had a lower risk of developing cancer. According to a study that was published in the PLOS One journal, the maternal immune activation model for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the keto diet are both effective at improving people’s behavior.
Infections with germs or viruses during the first trimester can occur in infants with ASD due to some factors in the parent’s maternal immune activation (MIA). Mice that were pregnant were used in a trial where the MIA-producing agent polylysine-polycytidylic acid was injected into them.
Following birth, the mice’s offspring were given either a normal diet or a ketogenic diet for three weeks. Male mice lacked social skills and engaged in a lot of repeated self-directed behavior. The female mice, however, were unaffected. However, all of the MIA-induced behaviors in the male mice were reversed once they were given a ketogenic diet, and no behavioral alterations were noticed in the female mice.
This study shown that simply feeding children a ketogenic diet can help them overcome the negative effects of MIA if a parent’s MIA results in their developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Decreases acne
People develop acne when their sebaceous glands, which secrete the oil and sebum that keeps their skin moisturized, become blocked with dead skin cells and extra sebum.
It has now been established that carbohydrates are the main causes of this problem since they disrupt your hormones by elevating your blood sugar to occasionally harmful levels. The amount of insulin and the androgen hormone, which produces sebum, increases in proportion to your glycemic load.
Consequently, you will develop more acne the more sebum your body generates. However, one of the side effects of the keto diet is that it can help your hormones balance out and restore regular sebum production. Your body will manufacture ketones from fat instead of glucose as its primary fuel, which will lower insulin levels.
Your skin will look healthier if you include healthy oils in your diet; but, if you consume unhealthy oils, you will start to get breakouts on your skin.
Brings down oxidative stress
The ketogenic diet is believed to boost your body’s antioxidant production, which in turn lowers the level of oxidation in your mitochondria. While you are following the ketogenic diet, this will increase the antioxidant activity within your body. In other words, it will be harder for free radicals to harm your body through oxidation.
Your cells and organs will perform better and have a significantly longer lifespan if your body experiences less oxidation; the longer your cells live, the longer you will live. One of the main causes of aging is thought to be oxidation. Since its activity is somewhat decreased when following a ketogenic diet, you are indirectly slowing down aging.
