Top 10 Benefits Of Keto Diet

The Keto diet is more than just a weight loss formula. Here are many reasons you can prefer a Ketogenic diet over other diet plans at your disposal. Here I am listing out the Top 10 benefits of the ketogenic diet to exhibit how going keto can improve your overall health and lifestyle.

1. With Keto, You Don’t Have To Fight Hunger And Cravings.

Losing your unwanted pounds require too much effort. It takes a toll on your patience and sanity. Many leave their journey in half because fighting against cravings becomes nearly impossible in the long run.

The Keto diet makes it easier naturally. Cutting on carbohydrates is difficult for around two weeks only. After that short period, your cravings will naturally attenuate.

One’s appetite is suppressed because constant energy is supplied to the body throughout the day by burning body fats. A high-fat diet helps you feel fuller for longer periods, reducing cravings and preventing overeating compared to a low-fat diet.

Keto diet is an easier and more practical way to lose weight. I will call it a Quit Proof strategy. Facing less hunger means you can stick to the plan longer and happily.

With a keto diet, you don’t have to fight the battle between your hunger pangs and your weight loss goals. It is not just an easier but faster way to achieve your weight loss goals.

Attaining the state of ketosis is hard work and takes time. But, once your body adapts to ketosis, stored fats burn faster than a speeding bullet.

2. Keto Diet Makes Your Brain More Active And Focused

Keto diet is proven to help in cognitive performance in a rat model study.

Brain’s cognitive function refers to many mental abilities, including thinking, reasoning, learning, remembering, decision making, problem-solving, and paying attention. A keto diet efficiently provides the body with a sufficient amount of energy. The more energetic you feel, the better your brain performs.

The production of ketone bodies is associated with your brain’s performance. The human brain requires Glutamate (a neurotransmitter that promotes stimulations) to be converted into GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) to reduce stimulations. Insufficient amounts of GABA cause the brain to have trouble in focus and concentration. Ketones are another alternate for GABA production. A high-fat diet assures a high level of ketones in your blood. Hence your overall mental performance is improved, along with your ability to focus and memorize.

3. Keto diet Accumulates Good Cholesterol in the body.

Our bodies produce around five different types of lipoproteins (Cholesterol), which help perform different developmental and metabolic functions like building hormones, strengthening cell membranes, absorption of certain vitamins, etc.

65% of these molecules are naturally produced by our bodies, rest of the 35% comes from our food intake. These molecules are essential for our life.

Our liver and intestine produce High-density lipoproteins (HDLs). Their function is to make sure that the excess lipoproteins are successfully brought back to the liver. They make sure their proper disposal as waste.
Low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) are produced in our bodies too. They have to supply our cells with the required nutrients and energy.

But LDLs contribute to plaque build-up when they are oxidized in our bloodstream. Small LDL particles can easily penetrate the arteries and build-up plaque, leading to heart disease. When LDL particles are big, they are less likely to cause heart disease.

In a meta-analysis in 2012, researchers found a rise in healthy HDLs and a lowering in LDLs in the body of subjects introduced to a low carb diet.

A ketogenic diet allows the accumulation of HDLs molecules in our body, which is important in controlling so-called bad cholesterol molecules. Keto diet being high in fat contributes to increasing LDL molecules’ size and stops them from building plaque.

4. Keto Guards Your Heart And Brain Health

The Keto diet efficiently guards and improves organ health, especially the heart and brain.
As mentioned above, human bodies produce various classes (types) of cholesterol. Keeping it hot, LDL (low-density lipoproteins) and HDL (high-density lipoproteins) are produced to take part in various functions.

Observations reveal that high HDL levels are associated with lower heart disease risks; the opposite is true for LDLs.
High levels of HDL can be attained only in natural ways. No effective medicines are presently available. A Keto diet is a high-fat diet, is the most effective way to attain higher levels of HDLs.

In 2012 researchers found that a low in carb diet can lower cardiovascular risk factors and heart failure.
Researchers from Saint Louis University found that a keto diet has the potential to completely prevent or even reverse heart failure.

Keto diet reportedly contributes to brain health as well. It revolves around healthy fatty acids like omega 3 fatty acids. It provides our brain with a good amount of essential fatty acids (EFAs) that are important in brain tissue development.

This diet helps to improve the brain’s cognitive abilities. It is also effective in curing mental conditions like anxiety and depression.

5. Ketogenic Diet improves Your Liver And Kidney Health.

Over 1 billion people are victims of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NFLD) worldwide, leading to many seriously severe health conditions in the population.

Including genetics, excess energy intake, too many refined carbs, too much sugar, and a sedentary lifestyle are reasons to develop NFLD in a person.

Keto diet sufficiently helps in improving and reversing NFLD.

In a study, consuming a low-carb diet showed a successful reduction in liver fats than low-fat diets.
Several other small studies back the results and even suggest that low carb eating approach may reverse Fatty liver disease.

The Keto diet helps in improving kidney health too. Patients with high blood pressure, obesity, and type 2 diabetes are at high risk for kidney failure.

A recent meta-analysis measured the impact of low carb diet on renal function. Results revealed that a low carbohydrate diet can improve renal function due to its weight loss effect.

6. Keto Diet Improves Your Sleep

A good sleep pattern is salient in maintaining good health. The Keto diet is alleged to improve night-time sleep. Low carb and high-fat diet help in reducing daytime sleepiness and improves deep sleep during the night. Studies report improvement in sleep abnormalities with weight loss induced by the ketogenic diet.

Ketogenic diets interact with the production of Adenosine. It is a chemical that plays a key role in sleep regulation.
Adenosine keeps building up in our bodies during the day. With the gradual increase in this chemical level, our body feels less and less active with every passing hour of the day.

At night when a significant concentration of this brain chemical is reached, it eventually leads our brain to deep sleep. Ketogenic diets help in adenosine function and relax the brain inducing slow-wave sleep at night.

7. Ketogenic Diet is Effective In Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndromes like obesity lead to many other diseases and organ dysfunctions. For example, many Cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, liver and kidney problems, type 2 diabetes, etc. Even certain types of cancers are alleged to be associated with Metabolic Syndrome. [*]

A high-fat and low-carb diet help in reducing weight and effects positively in curing metabolic syndromes.
Stats tell that about 23 percent of adults in the United States have metabolic syndrome.

Dr. Alex Jimenez says: “Many of the risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome can be addressed through diet and lifestyle modifications, such as the ketogenic diet as well as exercise and physical activity.”
Going keto can reduce the risk of these diseases as it is an unmatchable weight loss solution.
“Although the metabolic syndrome can be a serious health issue, people can reduce their risks by reducing their weight,” says Dr. Alex Jimenez.

8. Low-carb Diet Makes Your Skin Gleaming

A high-fat and low-carb diet help you attain clear and smooth skin along with other health benefits.
Acne, eczema, dry and scaly skin are some of the most common skin conditions people want to get rid of. Moreover, different health conditions can start acne breakouts on your skin, such as a fatty liver. Eczema and scaly skin can be a product of inflammation in sebaceous glands.

The good news is that a ketogenic diet can help you fight these conditions and give you clear and radiant skin instead.

The Keto diet is based on cutting down daily carbohydrate intakes and increasing healthy fat intakes in replacement.
Carbs are notorious for causing inflammations in the body. When you start taking fewer fats, your acne gets clear over time. Redness and skin tone also improve after a short span. An increase in good fats in your body makes your cell membrane structure better. And you must know that flawless skin is sheerly dependent on healthy cells. The Keto diet is a high-fat and low-carb diet that allows you to relish both benefits.

9. Keto Diet Has Anti-Cancer Potential

Cancers are one of the major health concerns over the past decades. There are few advancements in the field, but cancer is not completely curable to date. Cancer or tumor is an abnormal growth of cells. It is a disease caused by uncontrolled cells leading to incomplete abnormal cells in the system.

If you have noticed, I wrote “rapid” here. Glucose/sugar is an easy source of energy that can fuel the production of cancerous cells. It is also said that “cancers feed on sugars.”

Keto diet being deficient in carbohydrate intake, starves the cancerous cells by cutting short the supply of easy energy for rapid growth. It promotes the production of healthy cells instead of supplying necessary lipids for membrane formation.

Recent studies are voting in favor of the keto diet having the potential to treat and accelerate cancer patients’ treatment.

More trials are required, but the keto diet can:
Slow down the tumor growth by cutting short sufficient energy supply
Protect healthy cells from potential damage caused by chemotherapy or radiation treatment
Anti-cancer drugs work better when powered by Ketogenic Diet.
Inflammation in the body can accelerate cancer growth. The Keto diet prevents that.
Weight gain can cause the reoccurrence of cancer cells. The keto diet is an undoubted weight loss solution in that case.

10. Keto Diet Is Effective In PCOS

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is one of the biggest infertility problems affecting women of fertile age. Hormonal imbalance and obesity are closely integrated with this condition.

A ketogenic diet improves insulin profile and reduces weight fast, proving best in treating infertile females.
Studies show that a ketogenic diet led to significant weight, percent free testosterone, LH/FSH ratio, and fasting insulin in women with obesity and PCOS over 24 weeks.

Eleven women with a clinical diagnosis of PCOS were instructed to limit their carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or less per day for 24 weeks.

5 women who completed the trial demonstrated a significant reduction in body weight, percent free testosterone, LH/FSH ratio, and fasting insulin.

A decrease in insulin, glucose, testosterone, HgbA1c, triglyceride, and perceived body hair was also reported in minor values. Even two out of those five women became pregnant successfully despite their previous infertility problems.