Enthusiasts deem the ketogenic diet a cure-all, but the low-carbohydrate and high-fat food plan isn’t as beneficial for diabetes or weight-loss as keto-worshippers claim. In fact, this fad diet actually carries the potential for serious side effects including heart disease, kidney stones, high cholesterol, keto flu, selenium deficiency, cardiac arrhythmias, and even death. Given the lack of real health benefits and the potential for serious damage, as a medical doctor, I caution people before they hop on the keto diet train. My VegNews.com article, “8 Reasons to Forget Keto and Go Vegan,” detailed why a whole foods, plant-based diet is the healthier path to take, but some keto fans weren’t convinced. I now present 8 more medical reasons to avoid the keto diet and go vegan instead.
1. The Inuit are not in ketosis for a good reason
Despite popular misconception, the Inuit are not in ketosis, largely due to a widely-prevalent genetic mutation in the Arctic Inuit that prevents its occurrence. Although this may seem like fun trivia, it actually has sinister undertones. Ketosis was likely detrimental to the Inuit over generations and favored the survival of those with the mutation that circumvented the production of ketone bodies. One theory for this is that ketoacidosis—a potentially fatal complication—occurred too easily during times of stress, like illness, injury, or complete starvation. The combination of the keto diet and stress lowered the body’s pH to the point of ketoacidosis, causing the blood to be too acidic and resulting in death.
2. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies galore
The keto diet has a long history of being used as treatment for children with refractory epilepsy. In one study, researchers found those young people had deficiencies in their levels of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, folate, biotin, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, chromium, and molybdenum. Worse, the degree of deficiency usually increased with more ketosis, likely a result of increasingly restrictive diets.
3. Stunted growth
Also according to pediatric epilepsy literature, researchers noted another common side effect among children on the ketogenic diet: stunted growth. Children on the diet were not growing as fast as their peers on carbohydrate-rich diets. One reason for this is that they were found to be deficient in many important minerals essential for bone growth, like calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D.
4. No benefit to glucose levels
Keto enthusiasts claim the diet can lower glucose levels, which makes sense since it severely restricts carbohydrates. However, in a meta-analysis comparing low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets to low-fat diets, researchers analyzed eight studies of 770 participants and found no difference in fasting blood glucose levels between the two groups after one year of being on the diets. One possible explanation is that despite the reduced carbohydrate consumption, glucose metabolism worsened with the higher fat consumption on the ketogenic diet.
. . . .Read more by following the link below.
Shivam Joshi is a nephrologist, internist, and lifestyle medicine physician practicing at an academic medical center in New York City."
https://vegnews.com/2018/11/8-reaso...n7HzeK_5UaDsR6eOA12H6mz0OyxRRipVBVlp-5Nk-MJ84
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