“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates.

The Low-Carb diet is effective for fat loss, but it still contains a fair amount of Carbs which metabolize into glucose as the energy source. A better option for ‘fat loss’ and many other benefits is to lower the carbs further, add more fat and fibre into the diet and keep protein at moderate levels. Such a diet is called the Ketogenic Diet. The Ketogenic Diet is really a sub-set of the Low­Carb diet. In the Low-Carb diet the carbs would range below 130 to 150 gms daily, while in the ketogenic Diet there would be further reduced to 50 gms daily.

The “keto” in a Ketogenic diet comes from the fact that it makes the body produce small fuel molecules called “ketones”. This is an alternative fuel for the body, used when blood sugar (glucose) is in short supply.

The Ketogenic diet is a high fat, high fibre, moderate protein and low to very low carbohydrate diet designed to make the body burn fat for fuel and produce ketones as the energy source for the body. Such a diet will soon cause your appetite to reduce and hence you will also eat less. However do ensure that you do eat enough vegetables and beans to get adequate insoluble fibre. (See – ‘Glossary and Explanation of Terms’).

Eating fat to burn fat may sound contradictory, but Ketogenic Diet has many researched benefits, that beneficially impact your; body composition, weight-loss, fitness, oxidative stress, inflammation and insulin sensitivity.

The standard American diet, which is recommended by the US Government and also by almost all conventional Physicians across the world, consists of high levels of carbohydrates and extremely low levels of fat. This diet is now considered to be one of the major causes of obesity and the epidemic of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and cancer which is afflicting the majority of those who eat such a diet today.

Healthy cells can use either glucose or ketone bodies as their primary energy source.

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