Keto diet for people: What are the pros and cons?

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(NewsNation) — If you’re a person looking to lose weight, then most likely you’ve heard the term keto diet.

The eating plan, which has actually been around since the 1920s, has gained a ton of popularity over the last decade after it first became acknowledged for helping reduce epilepsy in children.

The ketogenic (keto) diet is a term for a low-carb diet. The purpose of the plan is to increase the intake of calories from protein and fat, while reducing the intake of carbohydrates.

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The diet has numerous advantages, including rapid weight loss. “There has been anecdotal evidence of people losing weight on the ketogenic diet,” says Dr. Melinda R. Ring with Northwestern Medical Group. “People also report feeling less hungry than on other types of restricted diets.”

The keto diet also allows the enjoyment of high-fat foods and has potential benefits for individuals with specific diseases or nutritional deficiencies.

People are allowed to eat red meat, fatty fish, nuts, and cheese while losing weight. Meanwhile, athletes and bodybuilders to scrap fat quickly using keto. However, even with those excellent advantages, the keto diet does pose some risks.

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Maintaining the plan can be very hard for people due to its rigid food restrictions.

“We know in studies of these types of diets that once people stop following that diet, they regain at least half of the weight that they lost. Sustainable change over time is far more important,” Dr. Baljash Singh Cheema, Northwestern Medical Group.

Along with food restrictions, keto’s negative effects involve nutrient deficiency, calorie depletion, and being bad for your heart and kidneys. Regarding the heart and kidneys, high-fat diets can spike up bad cholesterol, and dehydration from the diet can eliminate glycogen, which holds water, from the bloodstream.

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