Many people ask, what about the health aspects of a Ketogenic diet??!? Won't all this fat clog my arteries and kill me?
The answer is, it's really up to you. You can do a ketogenic diet while still eating totally healthy foods. For meats, you can stick to fish, chicken, and other healthy favorites. And for your 30 grams of carbs or so per day, you can have salads with lettuce, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, and so many other foods that are extremely healthy for you! For your fat consumption, you can completely avoid Trans Fatty Acids, which are the REALLY evil ones, and you can also mostly avoid Saturated Fats, or at least keep them down to a level that you'd see even on a regular diet.
The best resource I can point you to is a book called 'Fats that Heal Fats that Kill' by Udo Erasmus for under $20, it gives an absolutely astounding information on fats and health in general.
All I can really do here is give a brief summary. There are 3 major types of fatty acids, Saturated Fat (like beef fat/lard), Monounsaturated Fats (like Olive Oil), and Polyunsaturated Fats (like Fish Oil).
The best fats, the fats that heal, are the Polyunsaturated fats called 'Essential Fatty Acids', specifically called Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-6 fatty acids are actually quite common, and most people get enough of these from foods like chicken. Omega-3 fatty acids on the other hand are extremely important, and most people are deficient in them. Omega-3 fatty acids can be obtained from Fish Oils, Flaxseeds, and other sources.
The absolute worst kind of fat is called a Trans Fatty Acid, or TFA. TFAs are created when polyunsaturated fats are heated or 'hydrogenated' (as in 'Partially Hydrogenated Oil', which is very common in many foods). An oil's consistancy is directly related to the amount of unsaturated bonds found in it, when you partially hydrogenate an oil, and remove some of those unsaturated bonds, you make it solid, but also create evil TFAs. This is why they're now saying butter is better for you than margarine. Butter is almost all saturated fats, but at least it doesn't contain TFAs which are much worse. Note though, there are some margarines that are TFA free, such as 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter', which should be very healthy. The reason TFAs are bad is because they have the same structure as healthy EFAs, but the bonds are twisted around. This allows them to take up the receptor sites that EFAs usually take, but due to the twisted configuration, they don't have the same positive effect as EFAs do. This is very, very bad.
One really healthy food that's an INCREDIBLE benefit to ketodieters would be ground flaxseeds. Why? Because they're very high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which as you know now are some of the best fats you can eat. They're also high in much needed fiber, vitamins, minerals, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, which the ketogenic diet naturally drains from your system. Flaxseeds fix so many 'problem' sections of the diet it's just amazing. I recommend eating 2-4 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds per day, either with a protein shake, or sprinkled on your other foods such as salads.
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters Health) - The extremely carbohydrate-restricted Atkins diet is a safe, effective way to lose weight, according to studies presented at the Southern Society of General Internal Medicine in New Orleans.
A study of the diet conducted at the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina showed that on average, mildly obese people lost about 21 pounds in four months on the diet, and had positive changes in heart risk factors such as reduced cholesterol and increased HDL or "good cholesterol." These results are supported by a second study from researchers at the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York.
The Durham study included 41 mildly obese, healthy people who attended an outpatient clinic. The study participants followed a program that reduced carbohydrate intake to less than 20 grams per day, and included vitamin supplements, fish oil supplements and 20 minutes of exercise at least three times per week.
Over four months on the diet, the participants lost an average of 21.3 pounds, and showed a 6.1% drop in cholesterol, and almost a 40% drop in the level of triglycerides in their blood. In addition, their HDL levels increased by about 7%.
In a press release, the researchers also say that their study did not find any of the safety concerns voiced by the American Dietetic Association, such as potentially dangerous effects on liver and kidney function.
"In four short months on the Atkins Diet, we were able to confirm scientifically what Dr. Atkins states he has seen in his practice over the past decades. The diet lowers cholesterol and triglycerides and raises HDL... which may represent an entirely new approach to the control and prevention of heart disease," said lead researcher Dr. Eric C. Westman, assistant professor of medicine at North Carolina's Duke University.
The study is continuing in order to assess the long-term effects of the diet.
Reporting the results of the second study, Colette Heimowitz, director of nutrition at the Atkins Center in New York, said that it was based on 319 overweight or obese patients treated at the Center for at least a year. Investigators collected information on weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney and liver function and other parameters during the study.
"What we found is what we already knew from anecdotal data," Heimowitz told Reuters Health in an interview after the meeting on Friday. "There were some pretty impressive benefits in body composition, HDL levels went up, LDL levels went down and blood pressure decreased," she reported. Where HDL is the good cholesterol for its association with reduced heart risk, LDL has earned the name of being the "bad" cholesterol because high levels are associated with heart disease.
"We now have data for the scientific community" on the healthful benefits of the Atkins diet, Heimowitz asserted.
The Atkins diet severely restricts carbohydrate intake to induce a state of ketosis, or metabolic starvation. Dieters are encouraged to measure urinary ketone excretion as an indication of how effective the diet is in inducing fat breakdown. "Ketosis is a benign byproduct of fat burning," Heimowitz asserted. "With an adequate protein and fat intake, there is no loss of muscle mass...There is no change in (blood) pH if the diet is properly done," she said.
However the diet is not for everyone, Heimowitz warned. "It's for those who need a correction in their sugar and carbohydrate metabolism...We encourage (vitamin) supplementation and an intake of 'good' fats, such as fish oil," Heimowitz commented.