Is the keto diet safe? USC experts have serious concerns

The keto diet (high-calorie, moderate-protein, very low-carb diet) may well overshadow the paleo and Whole30 as a hot diet trend in 2019.

The diet advocates deleting major food groups, such as grains, legumes and dairy products, and sometimes cutting down some nutrient-rich vegetables. The idea is to get your body from burning carbohydrates to burn fat as fuel, in turn producing ketones, leading to ketosis.

Perhaps you have already seen #keto on your Instagram feed – plates filled with steaks, bacon and avocado. Meal delivery companies also welcome keto consumers, like vegetarians or vegans, and even offer test strips to test your ketone levels.

But USC experts recommend caution when trying the trend.

Ninety per cent of Americans have dieted and when asked why they are dieting – for health or for weight loss? of gerontology.

So it's not surprising that keto – a new approach to the Atkins diet – is popular because it causes weight loss, he said. But in the long run, the keto diet could be detrimental because eliminating carbohydrates increases health risks and mortality over time, Cohen said.

The ketogenic diet is usually prescribed by a dietitian. For example, Jessica Lowe, a ketogenic dietitian at the USC at the Keck School of Medicine, said she could prescribe it to a patient with epilepsy because research has shown that it can help control seizures. There is also a growing interest in whether a high-fat diet could help with brain damage or neurodegenerative disease, Lowe said. According to Lowe, it is important to consult a dietitian for people on the daily diet.

Is the keto diet safe: the main problem

"The main problem is that it's not nutritionally adequate," Lowe said. She often asks her patients to supplement her with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Otherwise, she added, "you are at risk of micronutrient deficiency".

Ssuking Cohen's concerns, Lowe explained that it was also difficult to determine the long-term impact of a keto diet on bone health.

Then there is the problem of ketosis.

"It's not dangerous, we simply do not understand what is the long-term impact of ketosis on long-term health," Lowe said. "For some populations, especially those who suffer from persistent epilepsy and who are subject to a ketogenic diet, it is necessary to achieve ketosis."

Is the keto diet safe? Get results

Michael Goran, an obesity researcher at the Keck School of Medicine, said that you can achieve the same results as the keto diet without being so extreme. He advises his patients to remove added sugars – sodas, fruit juices, processed foods – and simple carbohydrates that metabolize faster to sugar and lack fiber.

"These are the main culprits that you should be concerned about eliminating from your diet," he said.

Lorraine Turcotte, a researcher in metabolism at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said that while less trendy, a healthy long-term diet is the proven solution. She does not understand why people prefer "dietary manipulations difficult than saying" I'm just going to eat moderately – a well-balanced diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables ".

Maybe it's not as fun as jumping on a trend.

About the keto diet

The ketogenic diet, also known as keto, is a diet high in fat and very low in carbohydrates. According to the Mayo Clinic, the goal is to bring the body to ketosis, where the body starts to burn fat instead of carbohydrates to get energy.

People may want to get ketosis for different reasons. For some medical conditions, such as epilepsy, it may be necessary to see the benefits of diet. For dieters everyday, this could be due to more anecdotal side effects, such as a lighter head. But this can be risky for some people, such as people with kidney problems, according to experts at the USC's Keck School of Medicine.

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University of Southern California