Is the ketogenic diet suitable for you? Medical doctor reveals: 7 advantages and disadvantages of ketogenic diet

"If you eat the wrong things, you will get sick." Some people suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, obesity, etc. The culprit is the imbalance of "nutritional ratios." In fact, the ketogenic diet that has been popular in recent years also requires attention to nutritional ratios. A doctor of natural medicine said that through testing, you can know whether you are suitable for the ketogenic diet. At the same time, he will debunk the myths about the ketogenic diet: such as "the ketogenic diet is a low-calorie diet" and "the ketogenic diet means only eating meat and no vegetables"? What is the truth?

Why is it so easy for diseases to come to you? The most often overlooked point is "nutritional ratio". The differences in the proportions of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats among the three major nutrients have a dramatic impact on the body, and when you reduce the carbohydrates in your diet, amazing things will happen. This is also one of the reasons why "low-sugar diet" and "ketogenic diet" have swept Europe and the United States in recent years.

Ketogenic diet myths: low-calorie diet, only meat and no vegetables

Dr. Chen Junxu, a natural medicine doctor, wrote in his book "High sugar, low sugar, ketogenic, which diet is right for me?" ” He said in the book: Many years ago, like most people, I liked to eat noodles, dumplings, bread, and fried rice, and I ate very “healthily”. But as I got older, the diabetes gene began to stir. Starting in your 30s, your blood sugar will start to fluctuate. After he turned 40, the appearance of waist and abdominal fat, drowsiness after meals, and brain fog forced him to embark on a "low-sugar, high-fat" diet.

In particular, he found that there are many ketogenic diet enthusiasts in Taiwan, but many ketogenic news are full of errors. For example, the ketogenic diet is a low-calorie diet, or that it only eats meat and not vegetables. There are many people who eat and do wrong things, but they continue to do so. This aroused the idea of ​​sharing correct information. I hope that through the content of this new book, I can make the concept clear and allow more experts to explore the impact of nutritional proportions on health from a scientific and empirical standpoint.

Who is suitable for the ketogenic diet? Who is not suitable?

To know whether you can adopt a ketogenic diet, Dr. Chen Junxu said that you can do the following test. If you meet more of the following conditions, you can try a low-sugar ketogenic diet:

1. Feeling fat and having body fat outside the "ideal" range.

2. I want to lose weight, but I have tried many weight loss methods and none of them worked well.

3. After lunch, I feel sleepy.

4. I get hungry easily and panic when I’m hungry.

5. Someone in the family has diabetes.

6. Slow thinking, poor concentration, and memory loss.

How to eat on a ketogenic diet? Pay attention to the nutritional proportions of the ketogenic diet

In addition, before starting a ketogenic diet, you must first understand the "nutritional ratio". Nutritional ratio is a very important part of the ketogenic diet. Many people misunderstand that the ketogenic diet is to eat a lot of meat, but in fact it is to choose high-quality fats and greatly reduce the intake of various carbohydrates. The following is the nutritional ratio of Dr. Chen Junxu according to his personal strict implementation of the ketogenic diet:

Carbohydrates < 5%

Protein = 25%

Fat＞70%

Accurately measure blood ketones and urine ketones and replenish minerals and trace elements in a timely manner

In addition, Dr. Chen Junxu also advocates that "blood ketones" and "urine ketones" should be measured before and after taking the ketogenic drink, and the correlation should be found before using urine ketones as a screening tool. Since the ketogenic diet lacks some essential nutrients for the body, during implementation, it is necessary to supplement minerals such as "potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium", as well as trace elements such as "selenium, iron, zinc, copper" in a timely manner to avoid side effects.

Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the ketogenic diet.

★【Advantages of Ketogenic Diet】

＊Better mental state＊

You won’t get tired easily, won’t feel sleepy after eating, and won’t want to drink beverages or eat sweets.

＊People with a body type prone to obesity are no longer prone to gaining weight＊

Waist circumference will continue to decrease, and waist and abdominal fat can be reduced quickly.

＊Improved sleep＊

I used to toss and turn and have trouble sleeping, but now I can sleep till dawn. Even people who have to get up to urinate several times in the middle of the night almost never need to do so.

* Meat lovers can enjoy braised pork, Dongpo pork, and garlic pork *

However, be careful not to consume too much protein.

★【Disadvantages of Ketogenic Diet】

The cost of eating out may be higher

Because in restaurants, the same weight of rice and noodles is usually much cheaper than meat. But if you cook at home, you can choose high-quality and low-priced ingredients, especially fats, if you choose them right, you can actually reduce your food expenses. I personally feel that after going ketogenic, my diet has become simpler and my expenses have also decreased. A healthy ketogenic diet requires a lot of vegetables. For this reason, Dr. Chen Junxu tries to grow his own vegetables as much as possible, which can save money and ensure that the vegetables are fresh and free of pesticides and fertilizers.

It is inconvenient to eat when you are out because most of the set meals outside are high in sugar. Even the diabetic meals on the plane are just bread, rice, noodles and drinks. So try to prepare your own food.

Social life is limited

Since the staple food at social gatherings or restaurants is high in sugar (high in refined starch, high in sugar), such as regular restaurants, noodle shops, and Italian restaurants, it is difficult to order dishes. So it's easy to eat too many carbohydrates when you attend a dinner party or hang out with friends. In front of friends or clients, if you don’t eat this or that, it will be awkward and you may even be considered as a loner. Therefore, the best place to eat out on the ketogenic diet is a buffet restaurant, where you can freely choose what to eat.

＊Explosive power may be reduced＊

When muscles burn glucose, they can quickly generate energy, so people who do weight training often eat some carbohydrates within 1 hour before exercising their muscles. For people who follow a ketogenic diet, since carbohydrate intake is restricted and there is insufficient source of glucose in the body, their explosive power may be insufficient. People on a ketogenic diet are not affected in endurance exercise, but they may find it difficult to perform some high-intensity exercises.

However, the body is very smart. After a period of ketosis, the body will slowly adapt and may convert the protein in the food into glucose and store it in the muscles in the form of glycogen. In this way, the explosive power will gradually recover. It usually takes at least 2 or 3 weeks, which is called "keto-adaptation". But the actual situation varies from person to person.

Dr. Chen Junxu used his personal example to illustrate that he did not feel a significant decrease in explosive power. On the contrary, he could only do 12 pull-ups at a time (commonly known as hanging on the horizontal bar), but after going on ketosis, he could do 15. By the sixth week of the ketosis, he found that he could lift a 10kg dumbbell with one hand 25 times in one breath, whereas before he could only do 12 to 15 times. He guessed that it might be because the burning of ketone bodies was very effective, which improved muscle endurance.