Wholly moly if I had to pick a diet trend/buzz word of 2019 it would probably be Keto. Everything from keto bars, keto supplements and keto smoothie powders are lining the grocery store shelves. There are even whole companies who base their entire product line on ketogenic food products.
But what is the ketogenic diet and is it good for you and your temperamental tummy? Well read on my curious friend…
What is it?
Keto is short for Ketosis which is when you eat in a way that changes your body’s fuel source from glucose to fat. In a nutshell it’s eating a very low carb diet (limit grains, starchy veggies, beans, legumes, fruit, etc) with a high amount of healthful fat (avocados, coconut, olive oil, butter, cold water fish). And by high fat I mean about 75% of your calories are coming from fat (yes that’s a whole lotta fat!).
When your body is in the state of ‘ketosis’ it is primarily burning fat for energy rather than sugar. In order to actually be in ketosis there needs to be a certain level of ketones in the blood stream.
What’s it for?
It was originally designed in the early 1900’s as a way to treat patients with epilepsy. But now there is some evidence of it also being effective for weight loss, reducing the risk of diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
Now there is significant interest in using the ketogenic diet for neurological disorders like epilepsy, alzheimer’s, autism, depression and anxiety.
Thoughts on Digestion?
While lots of healthful fat in the diet is incredibly nourishing for the intestinal walls ( I actually just did a live training on this in the Natural IBS Support Facebook Group) I am not sold on putting yourself in full blown ketosis as a digestive healing protocol. In fact there actually have been a number of reports of people getting diarrhea or constipated by following a ketogenic diet.
Though I DO love the idea of decreasing carbs and increasing fats for gut healing, just not quite as high as the 75% of your calories coming from fat.
Final word of warning…
If you’re interested in trying the ketogenic diet I would highly recommend working with a practitioner who understands it. It’s also important to assess if this is right and safe for you.
Check out more free trainings on repairing and soothing your IBS prone belly by joining the FREE Natural IBS Support Facebook Group.
