7 Hidden Benefits of A Ketogenic Diet

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The ketogenic diet goes by many names, but what is it really?

Referred to as a low-carb diet, low-carb high-fat (LCHF) diet and the keto diet, this approach to nutrition has to do with the process it triggers in your body.

When you restrict your carbohydrates, up your healthy fat intake and get plenty of protein, your body reaches a state of ketosis. It begins to produce ketones in your liver which are used as energy, instead of carbohydrates.

When you eat a lot of carbohydrates your body produces insulin and glucose. Glucose is the easiest energy source for your body to convert. When you have plenty of glucose, from carbohydrates, your body chooses this over any other source of energy.

Insulin helps your body process the glucose in your bloodstream. Since you are using glucose as your main energy source, your fats are not burned, and are stored instead. In a high carbohydrate diet, this is how your body becomes overweight, obese and unhealthy.

By lowering your carb intake, your metabolism increases. You still eat plenty of calories, just not very much carbohydrates, and this allows your ketogenic approach to nutrition  deliver quick weight loss and a healthy body weight regulation.

When your body reaches ketosis, you stop getting unhealthy sugar cravings. You don’t feel hungry all the time, as with some other diet plans. Your cholesterol, triglyceride and blood sugar levels return to normal. Your mind actually becomes sharper, and you regulate a healthy blood pressure. You also sleep better, and lower your risk of developing chronic disease.

That is what the ketogenic diet is in a nutshell, as well as some of the wonderful health rewards it can deliver.

Hidden Benefits

The premier goal of adopting a ketogenic diet is weight loss. Weight loss does happen dependably and quickly with this type of low-carb nutrition approach. Your body begins burning fat for energy, since you have limited the number of carbs you ingest as an energy source. Because of the way your body responds when it reaches a ketogenic state, you also receive the following benefits.

1 – No More Unhealthy Sugar Cravings

Sugar is extremely addictive for some people. It creates the chemical response in your brain much like a drug addict receives when he takes his favorite narcotic. If you suffer from cravings for unhealthy sugar-filled and fast foods, you can expect those desires to dissipate and begin to disappear entirely in your first 30 days on a ketogenic diet.

2 – You Don’t Feel Hungry All the Time

Ketosis satisfies your appetite. So does healthy fat, which you will be eating a lot of. The typical Standard American Diet (SAD) enjoyed in most modern countries is full of unhealthy processed and fast foods. Your body never gets all of the wonderful nutrients, minerals and vitamins it needs like it does on the ketogenic diet. This is why you are constantly hungry, and end up overeating, overweight, and obese. This doesn’t happen when you reach a constant state of ketosis.

3 – You Regulate a Healthy Blood Pressure

Low-carb eating is excellent for dropping your blood pressure to a normal and healthy level. Many that take up the ketogenic diet are able to cut back on their blood pressure medicines within the first 30 days of this healthy dietary approach.

4 – Cholesterol, Triglycerides and Fasting Blood Sugar Levels Return to Normal

With a dramatic drop in how much sugar you eat, your blood sugar level, cholesterol and triglycerides all return to a normal range.

5 – Your Mind Becomes Sharper

Ketogenic diet practitioners talk often of this hidden benefit. They say they never realized how “foggy” their thinking was until they freed themselves of massive amounts of carbohydrates.

6 – You Sleep Better

Sleep is important for every process in your body. High carb diets have been linked to poor sleep patterns, and an increased sleep apnea risk. You may also notice you lose the need for an afternoon nap during the day.

7 – Less Inflammation, Stiffness, Joint Pain

This wonderful benefit occurs because you remove wheat and flour from your diet. In some studies, wheat and white flour have been directly linked to increased inflammation throughout the body, which not only causes physical pain, but increases your risk of developing heart disease.

What Do You Eat On The Ketogenic Diet?

You may have heard of the many health benefits of a ketogenic diet, but you’re probably wondering at this point what you can eat (and what you can’t). Basically …

You want to eat REAL, NATURAL, UNPROCESSED foods.

You want to avoid PROCESSED FOODS.

That may sound pretty simplistic, but that is really the basis of this miraculously healthy diet approach. You probably understand that your body and your health are largely the results of the things you eat and drink. This is how simply changing from a processed to a ketogenic diet delivers so many health rewards.

You eat grass-fed beaf and meats, eggs, vegetables, yogurt and nuts. You enjoy wild caught fish and seafood, pasture-raised pork and poultry. You eat plenty of healthy fats like gelatin, ghee, animal fats, avocado and olive oil, and butter. You occasionally eat fruit, keeping an eye on how much you consume because fruit is full of natural sugar.

You don’t eat processed foods, wheat, grains, salt, baked goods, refined sugar and most foods which come in a wrapper or package. You avoid factory-farmed fish, pork and meats, artificial sweeteners and refined fats like cottonseed, sunflower and corn oil. If a food contains preservatives, steroids, hormones, antibiotics and other man-made ingredients, skip it.

The result is you, as a product of nature, eat natural foods. Your body naturally and automatically begins to return you to a healthier state than when you were eating mostly processed foods.

Ketogenic Diet Pros and Cons

Aside from healthy weight loss and body weight regulation, the ketogenic diet can lead you to experience a number of diverse health benefits.

In an effort to be totally transparent, we should tell you that there are some minor negatives to a ketogenic diet as well.

Typical ‘Cons’ of the keto diet that affect some people include …

• Your breath might smell something like nail polish remover
• Your urine has an unattractive smell as well
• This is a restrictive way of eating. This might be difficult for you in certain social settings
• You may experience flu-like symptoms for a few weeks

The reason your breath and urine may begin to smell like nail polish remover is because of how your body starts to process acetoacetate. Acetate is the main ingredient in nail polish remover.

If you brush your teeth regularly and keep breath mints on hand, bad breath usually is not a problem.

Flu-like symptoms come from carbohydrate withdrawals. You may feel a little weak and “foggy” headed for 2 to 5 weeks when you first begin this healthy diet plan. However, a feeling of endless energy, laser-sharp mental focus and overall health immediately follows the symptoms.

What are the pros of the keto diet? Just the following …

• Quick and healthy weight loss
• Fewer unhealthy food cravings
• A satisfied feeling of being full throughout the day
• Healthy blood pressure
• Healthy cholesterol level
• Improved mental focus and ability
• Better sleep patterns
• Less inflammation and stiff joints
• Lowered risk of contracting chronic disease

For millions of keto diet followers, the many health benefits far outweigh the manageable negatives. Your personal choice is up to you.

Is the Ketogenic Diet Safe?

Detractors of the ketogenic diet, and other low-carb nutrition approaches, say it is unsafe because you are drastically limiting the number of carbs you eat. Your body needs to get its energy from somewhere. In the typical modern-day diet, carbohydrates are the source of your body’s fuel. So if you limit the number of carbs you ingest, doesn’t that make this an unsafe and unhealthy diet plan?

Not necessarily.

You simply have to replace that fuel source with something else. There are plenty of healthy fats which can power your body. When your body does not have carbohydrates to turn into fuel, it turns to fat. This is why the ketogenic diet is so efficient for weight loss and fat burning.

The reason why modern man is more overweight and obese than ever before is because of the carbohydrates he is eating. Modern food manufacturing processes remove many of the healthy nutrients and minerals from food. Unhealthy refined sugar and simple carbohydrates are added. These simple carbs are processed extremely quickly, and enter your bloodstream almost immediately upon consumption.

They are processed and stored as fat. This has led to the drastic rise in heart disease, obesity, cancer, neurological disorders and other health conditions which has increased right alongside modern farming and food processing methods.

The ketogenic diet is so named because your body enters a state of ketosis.

Basically put, this means you burn fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. This healthy nutrition approach also means you will be eating a lot more vegetables and little to no processed foods. Doctors, nutritionists and fitness experts all agree that fewer processed foods and more natural foods is a guaranteed recipe for health improvements across the board.

As long as you eat the right types of fats, healthy fats which are good for you, the ketogenic diet is not only safe, but incredibly healthy.

Today’s children are predicted to be the first generation of human beings that will not live as long as their parents. That is because of the extremely unhealthy and downright deadly processed food diet they enjoy. Taking a ketogenic outlook removes that unhealthy diet.

The ketogenic approach lowers carbohydrate intake to a sensible level. It also ensures that the carbs you are eating are healthy, that you eat lots of nutrient rich fresh vegetables, and healthy fats. You enjoy a moderate level of protein intake as well. This recipe provides for weight loss and a healthy body weight regulation, all-day energy, improved brain function and a lowered risk of developing a long list of chronic disease.

Is the Diet Expensive?

Eating a low-carb diet can be expensive … if you don’t know what you’re doing. The person who does little research and just rushes to the nearest car lot to make an impulse purchase is probably going to spend too much money. If that same person knew tips and tricks for getting the price of his vehicle lowered substantially, he could save a lot of money.

That’s the aim of this section. You will learn a few simple ways you can cut down on your ketogenic diet experience. With a little work, many ketogenic dieters have actually lowered their grocery bill. They now spend more with this healthy nutrition approach than when they were putting unhealthy food into their bodies.

1 – Buy In Bulk

Food purchased in larger sizes usually means a discounted cost per serving. Buy your ketogenic friendly foods in bulk whenever you can.

2 – Buy a Freezer

This type of low-carb approach means possibly eating more meat than you are used to. When you purchase half a pig or half a cow, you can save hundreds of dollars. Obviously, you need to store this meat somewhere. You can get a used freezer for $100 to $150 online at sites like Craigslist and other classified ads platforms.

3 – Buy Vegetables When They Are on Sale

Don’t plan your meals until you see what fresh veggies have been discounted. Even if you stick with organic vegetables, you can expect to pay less than $2 per pound if you keep your eyes open and shop for bargains.

4 – Cut Back on Ketogenic “Luxury” Foods

Some supermarkets offer olive counters where dozens of delicious olive varieties are offered. Per serving, these ketogenic-friendly foods are extremely expensive. The same is true for organic dark chocolate, dried fruit and other luxury items that qualify as ketogenic-approved. Cutting back here and there allows you to still eat these foods from time to time, without taking a bite out of your wallet.

5 – Make Your Own Broth

Bone broth is great for your hair, skin and weight loss. It delivers tons of healthy nutrients and minerals, and keeps you feeling full throughout the day. Broth from organic turkey legs or other keto-friendly meats is easy to make, and can be used as the base for an unlimited number of recipes.

6 – Stop Wasting Food

Before you absentmindedly chunk some food in the trash can, put your brain to work. Almost all scraps can be used to make some other type of meal. When you throw food in the trash can you are literally throwing away your money.

How Exercise Improves The Keto Diet For Better Weight Loss

The keto diet burns fat. It does this extremely well.

Exercise builds muscle. A muscular body burns fat much more effectively than a non-muscular body.

Add the keto diet (efficient fat burning) to a consistent exercise plan (efficient fat burning) and you improve your weight loss efforts. This is not a “maybe” or “possibly” scenario.

It is based on the way the human body works.

The ketogenic diet puts you in a state of ketosis, where you burn fat rather than carbohydrates. You limit the number of carbs you take in, and this leads to weight loss. Exercise creates strong muscles, and those muscles spend 24 to 72 hours after your workout repairing themselves and coming back stronger than before.

This process continually burns calories and fat, and your muscle mass improves. Muscle burns fat better than a non-muscular body, so the exercise joins the ketogenic process to literally shred fat and weight from your body, while adding a lean, strong, toned, muscular look.

Just remember that muscle weighs more than fat. What this means is if you were to burn 10 cm³ of fat from your body and replace it with 10 cm³ of muscle, you may actually gain a little weight.

However, the result is a strong and muscular, toned and slim physique, rather than a flabby, fat, unhealthy and unattractive reflection in your mirror.

Give the keto diet a try today. In as few as 10 to 14 days you can see significant and noticeable weight loss results. Add exercise, and you replace your fat and flab with toned, strong muscle.