Ketones promote weight loss, muscle preservation and mental wellbeing
Ketones are the Ultimate Fuel
Check out an Introduction to Ketosis video here.
The ketogenic diet is a nutritionist’s nightmare. High in saturated fat and VERY low in carbohydrates, “keto” is adopted by a growing population to paradoxically promote weight loss and mental well-being. Drinking coffee with butter? Eating a block of cream cheese? Little to no fruit? To the uninitiated, keto defies all common sense, inviting skeptics to wave it off as an unnatural “bacon-and-steak” fad diet.
Yet versions of the ketogenic diet have been used to successfully treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children since the 1920s – potentially even back in the biblical ages. Emerging evidence from animal models and clinical trials suggest keto may be therapeutically used in many other neurological disorders, including head ache, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, bipolar disorder, autism and brain cancer. With no apparent side effects.
Sound too good to be true? I feel ya! Where are these neuroprotective effects coming from? What’s going on in the brain on a ketogenic diet?
Ketosis in a nutshell
In essence, a ketogenic diet mimics starvation, allowing the body to go into a metabolic state called ketosis (key-tow-sis). Normally, human bodies are sugar-driven machines: ingested carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, which is mainly transported and used as energy or stored as glycogen in liver and muscle tissue. When deprived of dietary carbohydrates (usually below 50g/day), the liver becomes the sole provider of glucose to feed your hungry organs – especially the brain, a particularly greedy entity accounting for ~20% of total energy expenditure. The brain cannot DIRECTLY use fat for energy. Once liver glycogen is depleted, without a backup energy source, humanity would’ve long disappeared in the eons of evolution.
The backup is ketone bodies that the liver derives primarily from fatty acids in your diet or body fat. These ketones – ?-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), acetoacetate and acetone – are released into the bloodstream, taken up by the brain and other organs, shuttled into the “energy factory” mitochondria and used up as fuel. Excess BHB and acetoacetate are excreted from urine, while acetone, due to its volatile nature, is breathed out (hence the characteristically sweet “keto breath”). Meanwhile, blood glucose remains physiologically normal due to glucose derived from certain amino acids and the breakdown of fatty acids – voila, low blood sugar avoided!
Find out about our experiences with the Ketogenic Diet and find out more about the healthy fats that you need to eat here.
What are the benefits of Ketosis?
- Promotes Relaxation.
- May Reduce Stress & Frustration.
- May Temporarily Reduce Absentmindedness.
- May Boost Stamina.
- Helps Enhance Muscle Tone.
- May help provide relief from stress, such as occasional simple tension, nervousness due to common over work and fatigue, and gently soothes away tension.
- Stimulates Fat Loss.
- Increases Muscle Preservation.
- Reduces Brain Fog.
- Increases Focus.
- Improves Strength Gain.
- Promotes a Better Mood.
- Causes Primal Body Function.
- Provides a Deeper Sleep.
- May Promote Cleaner Digestion.
- Enhances Physical Performance.
- Promotes High Nitrogen Retention Protein Synthesis.
- Provides Elevated and Sustained High Energy Ketones.
- Promotes Thermogenesis.
- May Provide Neuroprotection & Increase brain activity.
- Promotes Triglyceride Reduction.
- Promotes Enhanced Neurological Efficiency.
- Promotes Re-balancing of Yeast in Gut (candida).
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