Keto Diet and Risk Consideration

Low carb, high fat diets are frequently used to lose weight, such as the ketogenic diet. A metabolic condition known as ketosis, when your body primarily uses fat for energy instead of carbs, can be reached by limiting carbs and increasing your intake of fat. Although some of this weight loss is water weight, the keto diet can be effective for rapid weight loss. It’s not uncommon to lose up to 10 pounds in just a few weeks.

The ketogenic diet recommends increasing protein and fat intake while reducing carbohydrate intake to less than 50g per day. On the keto diet, you’ll get 70 to 80 percent of your calories from fat, about 20 percent from protein, and as little as 5 percent from carbohydrates.

The keto diet is it secure?

The keto diet may result in low blood pressure, kidney stones, constipation, vitamin deficiency, and an increased risk of heart disease. Strict diets like the ketogenic diet might lead to disruptive eating habits or social isolation. Prior to beginning a ketogenic diet, any conditions affecting the pancreas, liver, thyroid, or gallbladder should be treated.

Here are some dangers of the keto diet

Could harm your kidneys

The keto diet relies heavily on high-fat animal products because they don’t include carbohydrates, like eggs, meat, and cheese. These foods may increase your risk of kidney stones if you consume them frequently.This is due to the possibility that eating a lot of animal products may make your blood and urine more acidic, which will result in a greater output of calcium in your urine.

The amount of citrate that is excreted in your urine may also be decreased by the ketogenic diet, according to some research. Citrate can bind to calcium and prevent kidney stones from forming, thus having lower levels of it may increase your chance of getting them.

People with chronic kidney illness should stay away from the keto diet because their kidneys may not be strong enough to eliminate the acid buildup that arises from eating animal products. This might result in an acidosis, which would accelerate the development of CKD. While the ketogenic diet contains moderate to high levels of protein, lower protein diets are frequently advised for people with CKD.

Could result in nutritional deficits

The keto diet may not offer the recommended levels of vitamins and minerals because it restricts a number of foods, including nutrient-dense fruits, whole grains, and legumes.

Only 12 of the 27 vitamins and minerals your body requires from food are sufficiently provided for by very low carb eating styles like Atkins, which is comparable to keto, according to a study that examined the nutritious profile of popular diets.

Clinicians who oversee patients on a very low-calorie ketogenic diet for weight loss are advised to supplement with potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, psyllium fibre, and vitamins B, C, and E.

Remember that your choice of certain foods will determine how nutrient-dense this diet is. Over processed meats and keto sweets, a diet high in nutritious low-carb foods like avocados, almonds, and non-starchy veggies offers more nutrients.

might lead to dangerously low blood sugar

The impact of the ketogenic diet on your chances of developing chronic diseases like cancer or heart disease is complicated and poorly understood.

According to some research, high-fat, low-carb diets that concentrate animal foods may have detrimental effects on one’s health, while those that prioritise sources of protein and fat from vegetables may have positive effects.Low-carb diets based on animals were linked to greater rates of death from heart disease, cancer, and other causes in a long-term observational research including over 130,000 adults.

Conversely, low-carb diets centred on vegetables were linked to a lower likelihood of death from heart disease and other causes.Similar findings were reported in a another study of more than 15,000 adults, however this study linked both low and high carbohydrate diets to a higher all-cause mortality risk.

Keto might give you kidney stones

The ketogenic diet has been shown to cause kidney stones in certain people. 13 out of 195 kids who were on the ketogenic diet as a form of epileptic treatment experienced kidney stones, according to prior studies. Kidney stones were less likely to form in children who received potassium citrate supplements in the trial. If kidney stones are a problem, talk to your doctor about taking supplements.

There are better and worse ways to follow a ketogenic diet, says Yawitz. Filling your plate with meats, particularly processed meats, may raise your chance of developing kidney stones and gout, a painful form of arthritis. Urinary acidity and calcium and uric acid levels rise when animal protein intake is high. Your chance of developing gout increases with high uric acid levels, and kidney stones are more likely to occur as a result.

Muscle Loss

Research on how the ketogenic diet affects muscle loss is underway. Even when they continue weight training, persons on the ketogenic diet may still lose muscle, according to small studies. This may be because, following exercise, protein and carbs work better together to create muscle than protein alone. In contrast, a recent research published in the journal Sports found that those who followed the ketogenic diet for three months lost almost the same amount of body fat and people on the keto diet did lose more muscle in their legs.

As we become older, losing muscle mass has a multitude of negative effects,  Muscle is metabolically active, which increases daily energy expenditure and reduces weight gain associated with ageing.losing muscle mass might reduce functional strength and increase the risk of falling. According to the Institute of Medicine Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in older people.