Ketogenic Reset 101 (eBook)

Many diets today are just fads, but the ketogenic diet has been around for a long time. It may seem like something new that you have come across on the internet, but it was actually developed in the 1920’s. At the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, a doctor named R.M. Wilder was looking for ways to treat patients who suffered from seizures. In his research, he discovered the ketogenic way of eating and used it to treat his patients. During the same era, the ketogenic diet was being pioneered by researchers in pediatric epilepsy at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. The ketogenic diet proved successful at working miracles for these patients, and it was beloved for a period of time. Eventually, however, anti-seizure medications were introduced to treat patients; and for most people, taking a pill is far easier than completely changing the way you eat. The ketogenic diet was all but forgotten for decades.

Then, in 1994, Jim Abraham (the Hollywood film director) did an interview about his son Charlie on Dateline NBC. Abraham's son Charlie suffered from severe seizures. They had tried many forms of treatment, including all the seizure medications to no avail. When nothing else worked, Abraham sought different answers. In his search to help his son, Abraham rediscovered the ketogenic diet that had been pioneered decades before. The Abraham family started following a ketogenic diet, and soon Charlie was living life seizure-free. Since the ketogenic diet reappeared on the healthy eating scene in the 1990s it has become increasingly popular.

At this moment, it is likely that you are burning glucose for energy. Your body has been taught to tap into its limited glucose stores when it is seeking energy to carry out normal functions. You have been taught by the food pyramid, food companies, and most dietary advice that this is sound science. Many people believe that running on glucose is the only healthy way to live. Truth is, no one’s body needs to be full of glucose to survive. There are other options. Better options. Much more enjoyable options.

The purpose of the ketogenic diet is to retrain your body to run on better fuel. Rather than glucose, your body will learn to run on fat for fuel. Eating this way will place your body in a position wherein it primarily uses fat, rather than sugar for energy. When your body is burning fat for fuel, it produces molecules called ketones. This is a natural metabolic process of your body called Ketosis.

Ketosis is achieved by removing most of the sugars and starches in your diet, and instead of following a high healthy fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate approach to eating.

When you have very little carbohydrates in your diet, your body does not receive enough glucose to keep up with your body’s caloric requirements for energy. As your body eats depletes glucose that has been stored in your liver and muscles, your blood sugar levels are in rapid decline.

As your blood sugar level decreases, your body begins looking for the stored glycogen present throughout your body. When your body discovers some hidden glycogen, it breaks it down into glucose and then dissolves it in your blood to be distributed throughout your body. However, your glycogen stores will also eventually run out. When this happens, your body will begin to search for a different source of fuel before it becomes energy starved. Another, more efficient source of energy for your body is the stored fat. Your body will begin to use fats as a source of energy for almost all functions in its different parts. As your body burns fat, it will begin to produce ketones.

When you first embark on this ketogenic journey, the fats your body is burning will come mainly from the foods you eat at your meals. Your body will still have plenty of stored glucose from the carbohydrates you were eating previously. Once your body has burned off all the extra glucose and is burning primarily fat for fuel, your body will enter nutritional ketosis. Once in nutritional ketosis, your body will begin to burn the fat it has stored for fuel. Goodbye love handles! Not to mention, losing that terrible, hidden visceral fat is wonderful for your health!

There are a few bodily functions that absolutely require glucose to work. Your brain needs a small amount of glucose, as do your red blood cells. You do not have to eat a baked potato to satisfy this requirement though. Your body has the capability to convert amino acids from protein and fatty acids from fat into glucose. This is done through a process known as gluconeogenesis.

The main point, you do not need to eat a bunch of carbohydrates to have enough energy to function. Your body is capable of running quite efficiently on fuel from fats. When your body is undergoing the process of burning fat for fuel, it is producing ketones. These ketones become the fuel our body runs on when we are in ketosis.

Benefits of ketosis

The primary advantage of following a ketogenic diet is that it restores the capability of your body to use both fat and glucose as fuel to meet its energy or caloric needs.

Your body is designed to use both glucose and fat as fuel. However, the diet eaten by most in the western world at this juncture in history does not allow the body to do this properly.

When you eat a diet that is heavy in carbohydrates-grains, sugars, starches, vegetables, fruits- you are feeding your body a ton of glucose. Your body stores this glucose away as glycogen in the liver and muscles for later use. The glucose stored in the liver can be used by most systems in the body. The glucose stored in your muscles can only be used by the specific muscle it is stored in. However, your body can store only a limited amount of glucose. Once it has all it needs, it converts the rest into fat (more on this later).

When your body is full of glucose and then you feed it a banana for a healthy snack, it has nowhere to put that glucose, so it stores it away as fat. Then later you eat a small serving of potatoes with your dinner, which your body again has no place to store so must convert to fat. Add some fat to those meals, and your body has no use for it as energy since it has more than enough glucose, so it just stores the fat away as well. Because most people in the western world eat diets that are insanely high in carbohydrates for the majority of our lives, our bodies have all but lost the ability to use fat rather than glucose for our energy needs. This results in nations full of people that have a hard time maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy body fat percentage, both of which contribute to poor health.

In fact, even if you are not overweight or obese, you may still have excess visceral fat. This fat wraps itself around your internal organs like your liver, pancreas, and kidneys. Visceral fat is dangerous, and heavily linked to metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and can result in an increased risk of death even for otherwise healthy people. Visceral fat is also responsible for much of the inflammation people suffer with and can wreak havoc on hormonal functions.

With a ketogenic diet, your body can relearn how to burn both glucose and fat as fuel for its energy needs. This flexibility keeps your fat cells, both visceral and subcutaneous (the fat located under your skin and on top of your muscles), in check by using the stored energy found in those fat cells. If your body can be taught to burn both glucose and fat, then less glucose will be stored away as fat and more fat will be burned.

Your body having the ability to burn off excess fat results in the reduced risks of having diseases involved with having high-fat stores, specifically visceral fat. Some of these avoidable diseases are:

● Type 2 Diabetes

● Breast Cancer

● Colorectal Cancer

● Alzheimer’s Disease

● High Blood Pressure

● Stroke

● High Cholesterol

● Dementia

● Coronary Artery/Heart Disease 

● Metabolic Syndrome

In addition to decreasing your risk of some major diseases and health problems, this flexibility contributes to losing excess fat and weight in a manageable manner. Because your body is able to burn both fat and glucose, it is no longer storing the extra glucose as fat and can burn the fat it needs instead of storing it away. Normally, during and after losing some weight, your body would feel less satiated after eating the same meal you ate before the weight loss process started. If you follow a carbohydrate-heavy diet right now, the idea of eating a meal made of turkey thighs and zucchini noodles might not sound appetizing. After getting into ketosis, you will find that such a meal will leave you far more satisfied than you thought it could.

If you have been depriving yourself on a low calorie or restrictive diet, you might feel an increase in appetite to compensate at first. However, once your body is in a state of ketosis, ketones will help your body to manage the hormones that decrease your satiety after meals and increase your appetite and hunger. With this process going on in the background, you lose weight without fighting your body to gain it back through its natural responses as to what it believes to be starvation. You will be less likely to binge or cheat because you will be more satisfied by what you are consuming.

Moreover, having the ability to utilize glucose as well as fat for energy prevents you from experiencing the big swings that affect your mental focus. These swings probably make you hungry and irritable or “hangry”. When your glucose stores...