Summary Of Key Benefits And Risks To Ketogenic Diet

so what about heart disease will be evidence for heart disease wait a couple of early studies and in these studies basically showing that keto diets increase total LDL and HDL cholesterol but they decrease triglycerides of the 2006 study also reported improved particle size

we have three meta-analysis looking at low carb versus low fat and when I say low fat it’s almost always just under 30% so it’s not really low fat but it’s it’s you know what what they label low fat

so in 2012 23 studies in 2013 32 studies in 2016 11 studies and the findings were very consistent that low fat diets lower total and LDL cholesterol and high fat diets lower triglycerides and increase HDL and increase total and LDL cholesterol

and in children with epilepsy the findings are very interesting several studies between 2015 and 2017 finding that keto diets consistently promoted negative changes in lipid profile and particle size increasing you know they’re just atherogenic diet since

and so what they reported was increased total and LDL cholesterol increased triglycerides increased oxidative stress unfavorable changes in particle size so all negative findings

and then if we look at cardiovascular disease and low low carbohydrate diets in general the findings are so consistent when we have a low carbohydrate diet that’s mainly animal food diet in this study in 2010 it increased mortality 14 percent if the protein came from plants it actually reduced mortality 23 percent

and then this study in 2012 the lowest carbohydrate eaters had a 60% increase in mortality so that’s huge they actually quantified the increase for every 20 grams of carbohydrate you eliminate from your diet and for every 5 grams of protein you add to your diet you increase risk of cardiovascular disease by five percent that’s incredible

and then in 2014 this study showed oh this is a US study and they showed that a low-carb high animal protein diet increased risk by 51 percent and that’s mortality risk the low carbohydrate plant diet there was no association with increased mortality

so the last is is longevity and the evidence in favor of longevity is just to 2017 studies that reported increased midlife longevity using ketogenic diets in mice it improved their memory and health span their their their strength and speed and all of that

and and so what we have no human studies so when they say that it helps with longevity the studies are very limited and they’re not based on humans

but we do have some strong studies on longevity and low carbohydrate diets in people in and this is these aren’t randomized control trials but these are studies that we’ve been following people for a long time

people eating the low-carb animal diets it increased mortality 23% and and with low-carb plant it reduced mortality 20% and in in 2014 low-carb animal diet increased mortality 33%

and then the newest study they the 2018 study the lowest carbohydrate intake was associated with a 32% increase in mortality risk the last ones I was talking about were cardiovascular disease mortality and I don’t know if I made that clear so this is total overall mortality

this study was really interesting because again if you look at it this is a graph showing the link between carbohydrate intake and mortality and you can see the highest mortality is with consistently with the lowest carbohydrate intake and then you see the lowest Mort at around 50 to 55% of carbohydrates and then you see mortality going up again

and so you think what is with that because this is you know diets that are fairly low fat plant-based diets there are like 75 or 80 percent carbohydrate because they’re about 10% protein and about 10% fat right

so why are we seeing this well actually the the low carbohydrate intake what we saw was a 32% increased mortality with high carbohydrate intake we saw 23% increased mortality so not as much as the low carbohydrate diet

the lowest risk as I mentioned 50 to 55 percent and this part here mortality increased 18 percent when the carbohydrate was exchanged for animal derived fat or protein and it decreased by 18 percent when the substitutions were plant-based

but here’s why they think the association with the high carbohydrate intake was it’s because high carbohydrate diets in that in these studies were associated with refined carbohydrates so the populations were mainly people eating white flour and white rice

and they thought they wouldn’t have seen that increase if the carbohydrates were actually coming from whole foods so the authors concluded these data provide further evidence that animal-based low carbohydrate diets which are more prevalent in North American and European populations should be discouraged

so then we have to say how much carbohydrates do the world’s healthiest people eat the people who live the longest lives like the people of the Blue Zones who live to be a hundred and are still productive what do what are they eat to be able to achieve that kind of longevity

well actually their carbohydrate intakes sorry I shouldn’t have switched that so fast their carbohydrate intakes you can see range from about 40 percent to over 80 percent but they average about 62 percent

can you see the difference here he the longest healthiest people on the planet here’s what their diet looks like about 25% fat about 12% protein and about 62% carbohydrate this looks very different than ketogenic or paleo diets right or at least what people call paleo diets

so if we look at the main e in Bolivia in South America these are the people that live a sort of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle they have the lowest reported rates of chronic disease of any population on the planet what is their diet it’s 14 percent protein 14 percent fat and 72 percent carbohydrate

so the verdict is I think can be summed up fairly well with this quote from Michael Pollan eat food mostly plants not too much that’s the key to longevity

so in summary keto benefits are reduction in epileptic seizures decreased energy and takes weight loss improved blood sugar decreased triglycerides increased HDL

the risk short-term increased LDL cholesterol impaired glucose tolerance worsening kidney function reduced reduced athletic performance bone loss vitamin mineral deficiencies constipation weakness fatigue bad breath and muscle cramps through n headaches

and in the short term in the long term increased all cause mortality increased exposure to persistent organic pollutants that induce metabolic disorders and increased birth defects persistent organic pollutants are things like dioxins and PCBs because they move up the food chain

impaired artery function increased total and LDL cholesterol kidney stones nutritional deficiencies and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatic steatosis which is worse than non-alcoholic fatty liver disease