Keto Diet: What Are The Risks?

Keto diet is all about changes from your normal eating habits. It involves narrowing the consumption of carbohydrates and increasing the intake of fats. This step results in your body being dependent on fat for energy. Since there are fewer carbs, the liver breaks down fats to ketones, which are the new source of energy. This process goes on, and on and it places your body at a state of ketosis. In the case that you're unable to maintain this state you can try out the best keto supplement to pick you up and help you keep up with the requirements of ketosis.

Positive Impact

Keto diet has been congratulated for the many benefits that it has showcased to its users. Some of the great news that the keto diet is able to solve include:

Obesity - People who are obese will end up feeding on fewer calories on a keto diet, which will result in loss of weight and eventually control the eating disorder.

Metabolic Syndrome – People on keto diet lose more pounds than those on normal diets, which will reduce their risk of heart-related diseases.

Type 2 Diabetes – People experiencing high levels of blood sugar can help cut down the sugar consumption since it is the key focus on the keto diet.

Bipolar Disorder – Keto diet can stabilize mood.

Parkinson’s Disease

Dementia And Alzheimer’s Disease

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Certain Cancers

Possible Risks

Besides the substantial impacts it has made to different individuals, there are several risks of the keto diet. These are potential factors that can completely turn the tables around. 

The Diet Is Hard To Hold On To

Having to change your meals and recipes and giving up on your favorite foods to adapt to an alien diet can be quite a big move. For a newbie, things can look challenging but the zeal that drives you into achieving what you want can keep you going. However, as time goes by and the process becomes harder, it's very likely for you to backslide several times and eventually quit.

Yo-Yo Behavior

The frequent switching from one diet to another can be a great deal to your body since that is a lot of stress and can cause massive negative effects.

Several Nutritional Deficiencies

Removing grains, fruits, and legumes can have a large effect on your levels of certain minerals and vitamins that are necessary for the proper functioning of your body. Similarly, limiting the number of veggies that should be consumed – according to keto rules – worsens the situation, and this can drastically cause health issues. Such results are like the lack of fiber that causes constipation, deficiency of calcium that leads to fragile bones, and low iron level that can lead to a certain type of anemia.

Keto Flu

As your body transforms to adapt to the new diet, there can be a great loss of body water mass that can lead to dehydration. These changes cause fatigue of the body due to the endless burning of fat, which is not what it's used to, and further headaches from that exhaustion. You can incorporate drinking water frequently and including electrolytes to this diet to prevent the flu.

Gastrointestinal Distress

The changes in your gut from normal conditions to ketosis cause major distress to the esophagus. Having to digest new foods and adapt to the new nutrients available in them makes it a great deal to cope up. Similarly, lacking the support of the meals you were used to makes uncomfortable for the gut to operate well.

Kidney Stones

An increase in the consumption of red meat is a threat to the kidneys. Meat increases the acidity, boosts the levels of uric acid and further increases the amount of calcium. These are the perfect conditions for developing kidney stones. Meat overworks the kidney in filtering the complex contexts that end up as by-products in the urine.

Minimized Bone Mineral Density

Keto diet isn't conducive to good bone health due to the deficiency of calcium in the first stages. Low bone density - also known as osteopenia or weakness of the bone - is caused by bone loss. This can lead to fractures due to the fragileness of the bones.

Raising Of Bad Cholesterol

Keto diet is full of fats from cream, butter, chicken skin, and fatty meat which are very unhealthy. Bad cholesterol can cause clogging to the heart which puts someone at high risk of heart diseases like stroke and heart attacks. Keto diet and heart health are known to have a bad relationship especially for those people who don’t work out. Keto diet and cholesterol can be combined well if the sources of fats are healthy.

Serious Muscle Loss

A keto diet for beginners can cause drastic weight loss. When a dieter has no experience on how to make his meals balanced, and also the process the body takes to respond, the changes will involve losing a few pounds since the source of the normal calories is no longer available.

Bad Breath 

One of the byproducts of ketosis is acetone, which is a fruity-like smell that is usually excreted via breath or the lungs. Keto diet bad breath is usually experienced in the first stages.

Menstruation Alteration

The rapid weight loss at the first stages may result in irregular periods for women or make them stop completely.

Groups To Watch

The ketogenic diet isn’t for everyone because for some groups of people there can be major health effects. In case you’re wondering what to eat on a keto diet or whether there’s a keto diet for pregnancy, these are the groups to keep away from keto dieting:

1.   Patients of type 1 diabetes
2.   People who have no (removed) gallbladder
3.   Persons with a history of eating disorder
4.   Patients with multiple sclerosis
5.   Those suffering from thyroid disease.

Conclusion

As much as there are great benefits of the ketogenic diet, people intending to opt for it should put into account the numerous health risks that may result from it. Also, you should know your health status before beginning the program, having to take a couple of lab tests to ensure you are fit for the diet. Have you tried a keto diet? Do you know of the possible risks? How do you plan to or what are you using the keto diet for? Leave a comment.

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Written By:

Richard Browny is a fitness trainer and an expert in dieting. He has his personal experience of underperformance in the gym due to keto flu. He is currently doing well in the program and so are his trainees. Richie always encourages people at the gym to go keto. During his free time, he enjoys cycling.

Reviewed By:

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.

Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash