The nutritionist said that the long-term safety of the ketogenic diet is unknown, and the implementation may include side effects such as constipation, headache, muscle cramps, diarrhea, and general weakness.

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[Health Channel/Comprehensive Report] Some people will try to lose weight with a ketogenic diet, but it is risky.

Nutritionist Lu Mengfan said that she does not agree with the ketogenic diet for weight loss, because the long-term safety is unknown, and the implementation may include side effects including constipation, headache, muscle cramps, diarrhea, general weakness, etc. Other serious conditions have acute Pancreatitis, severe metabolic acidosis, hypokalemia, and even sudden death.

She also appealed that there are thousands of ways to lose weight, but the most important thing is "not hurting the body" and "performing for a long time".

Lu Mengfan posted on the Facebook fan page "Nutrition Bread (Lv Mengfan Nutritionist)" that the ketogenic diet has been popular for a long time, but her position has always been against it, but she has never written related articles.

Recently, a new article published in "Medscape Medical News" pointed out that a low-carb, high-fat "ketogenic diet" can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Please read on...

The principle of ketogenic gluconeogenesis consumes calories

Lu Mengfan pointed out that the principle of the ketogenic diet is that starvation or deliberately avoiding carbohydrates will increase the secretion of glucagon and reduce the secretion of insulin.

Glucose is the main source of energy for the central nervous system. Since fatty acids cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier, the brain cannot use fatty acids as an energy source.

After a few days of the ketogenic diet, the body does not have enough glucose to produce enough oxalyl acetate (a product of glucose metabolism) to allow fat to enter the citric acid cycle for normal metabolism and to supply the central nervous system energy.

Under the condition of eating carbohydrates, insulin is secreted normally, and the lipid decomposition of fat cells will be inhibited; while glucagon can promote the lipid decomposition of fat cells.

Under the condition of starving or eating very low carbohydrates, the secretion of glucagon increases, which promotes the decomposition of triglycerides in fat cells into fatty acids, and releases them from fat cells, and then a large amount of fatty acids will enter the liver for production. Ketones to produce ketone bodies that can replace glucose as a source of energy for the central nervous system.

She said that the human body needs an average of 60-65 grams of glucose a day. In the initial stage of the ketogenic diet, because there is no supply of carbohydrates in the diet, the body will start to undergo glucogenesis, of which 16% is converted by glycerol, and the rest The lower ones are mainly converted from protein, and the source of glycerol and protein is diet or body tissue.

As the number of days increases, the proportion converted from protein will decrease; on the contrary, the proportion converted from glycerol will increase.

In addition to consuming protein and fat in the body, gluconeogenesis also consumes a lot of energy, consuming 400-600 calories a day.

The weight loss effect of the ketogenic diet may simply come from a caloric deficit

Lv Mengfan pointed out that the researchers concluded that the ketogenic diet can reduce weight in the following ways (several of which cannot be proven and remain at the hypothesis stage):

Appetite will be reduced: reasons include that protein can provide a higher sense of satiety, hormonal changes that regulate appetite, and ketone bodies themselves can suppress appetite.

●Lipogenesis decreased; lipid breakdown increased.

●Respiratory quotient decreases, so the metabolic efficiency of lipid intake will increase.

●Glucogenesis consumes more energy.

(Interestingly, there are no studies to support this hypothesis, but actual studies have found that ketogenic diets do not increase resting metabolic rate.)

●Thermic effect of protein.

The initial weight loss is due to a diuretic effect: both glycogen depletion and ketonuria increase renal excretion of water and sodium.

The liver will store about 100 grams of glycogen; the muscles will store 400 grams of glycogen, and 1 gram of glycogen will entrain 2 grams of water, so when the glycogen is exhausted, a lot of water will also be lost.

Some studies have also found that when eating a ketogenic diet, even if you don’t count calories, the total calorie intake will naturally decrease (the subjects in the study naturally reduced their calorie intake by about 1300 calories), so the scholars of this study believe that life The weight loss effect of the keto diet may simply come from

a calorie deficit

.

The long-term safety of the ketogenic diet is unknown and there have been cases of sudden death

Lu Mengfan said that the reason why she does not agree with the ketogenic diet for weight loss is mainly because the long-term safety is unknown, and the relevant research on the ketogenic diet is rarely done for more than 1 year.

Other reasons include side effects (constipation, headache, muscle cramps, diarrhea, general weakness, etc.) and other more serious conditions, such as acute pancreatitis, severe metabolic acidosis, hypokalemia, and even sudden death.

Although it is difficult for normal people to eat ketoacidosis after eating a ketogenic diet, there are indeed cases of hospitalization due to ketoacidosis caused by eating a ketogenic diet.

In addition, an unbalanced diet leads to insufficient intake of various vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.

The ketogenic diet will cause the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the research seems to be both positive and negative, because there are many ways to produce ketosis, and there are also individual differences, so there is no way to draw a conclusion.

She appealed that there are thousands of ways to lose weight, but the most important thing is "not hurting the body" and "performing for a long time".

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  • sudden death

  • lose weight

  • protein

  • Hypokalemia

  • ketogenic diet

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