10 Health Benefits of Low-Carb and Ketogenic Diets

I have to let you know about the benefits of the Ketogenic Diet.

It not only helps you lose weight but reduces type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure and the risk of heart and brain disease.

It improves skin problems, boosts energy, helps you live longer, and much more!

Again, the ketogenic diet is a nutritional plan that gets an individual eating a combination of low carbs and high fat.

The goal of this diet is to replace high carb intake with dietary fat to achieve optimal wellbeing.

The main benefit of ketogenic is that it puts your body into “ketosis.”

How Does Ketosis Work?

On the ketogenic diet, in the absence of carbs, the liver takes fatty acids in the body and converts them to ketone bodies, also known as ketones, as an energy source.

This process is known as ketosis.

We will go more in-depth about how to get into and test for ketosis later on the ketogenic diet later.

1. Weight Loss

As with most diets, the ketogenic diet helps you shed weight, especially if you’re obese or overweight.

Unlike most other diets, the ketogenic diet isn’t a fad or a temporary Band-Aid.

The weight loss is permanent as long as you stick to the program.

Studies show that high-fat, low-carb diets can help diminish hunger and also boost weight loss through their hormonal effects.

So how exactly is this diet so effective with weight loss?

Answer: Ketosis

Ketosis occurs when glucose (the main fuel source the body burns when carb intake is high) is drastically reduced.

This forces the body to look for an alternative fuel source: fat.

As the body goes through ketosis, it starts producing ketones, which derives from the breakdown of fats in the liver.

Now, tell me...

What other diet has your body naturally switching up the way it fuels itself?

Better yet, what other diet makes your body burn fat without having to drastically reduce calories?

This diet is a weight loss game changer!

2. Reduce Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

29.1 million.

That’s how many people have diabetes in the United States.

And that number is growing as you read this.

About 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. every year.

If the ketogenic diet was taught as a method for eating, these numbers would drop dramatically.

This process of burning fat provides more benefits than helping us to lose extra pounds.

It also helps control the release of hormones like insulin, which plays a significant role in the development of diabetes and other health issues.

The keto low-carb diet not only controls insulin but stabilizes blood sugars as well.

Thus, it reduces the risk of high blood pressure as well.

And this reduces the onset of type-2 diabetes and improves your health.

3. Reduces High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is so deadly, I couldn’t briefly mention it and say nothing else about it.

Unfortunately, high blood pressure has always been swept under the rug.

It’s not like its cancer… but it puts on the path towards cancer and other harsh diseases.

That’s why it’s dubbed “The Silent Killer.”

Here are the other harmful effects:

• Stroke
• Angina (chest pain)
• Fluid in the lungs
• Heart disease
• Vision loss
• Memory loss
• Peripheral artery ailment
• Erectile dysfunction
• Kidney damage

Yeesh! Those are some problems I’m sure that you want no part of.

Well, following the keto diet ensures you don’t.

This diet normalizes your blood sugars thanks to the dearth of carb intake, sugar in particular.

Eating too much sugar spikes blood sugars.

Now, imagining spiking blood sugars every day for 20+ years.

That’s what the average American eater does! No wonder over 75 million (or 1 out of 3 Americans) U.S. citizens have high blood pressure!

4. Reduce Risk of Heart Disease

Guess what’s the top deadliest disease in the US?

No, it’s not another season of Keeping up with the Kardashians.

It’s heart disease!

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most ethnicities in the United States, including African Americans, Hispanics, and whites.

The keto diet nullifies all that!

Research shows that the keto diet reduces levels of high cholesterol and triglycerides, two markers that are linked to heart disease.

5. May Prevent Cancer

A chronic disease that’s about as worst as heart disease is cancer.

Each year, about 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from the disease.

The keto diet could throw a monkey wrench into this problem.

Some studies suggest that the keto diet may “starve” cancer cells, making them unable to replicate.

The regular cells found in our bodies are able to use fat for energy.

BUT, it’s believed that cancer cells cannot metabolically shift to use fat rather than glucose.

So cancer cells can fuel with glucose, NOT with fat.

This is how the keto diet starves them out.

Pretty cool, right?

6. Prevent Brain Disease & Other Neurological Problems

As stated earlier, the keto diet was used in the 1920s to fight epilepsy.

Well, it doesn’t end there!

Research shows that this diet can fight off other brain and nerve problems as well.

Putting your body to a low-carb state makes your brain use other ways besides glucose to fuel it.

This has a positive impact on the body, especially for those dealing with some sort of brain disorder.

The keto diet has been shown to potentially improve the symptoms of people suffering from:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Chronic headaches and seizures
• Neurotrauma
• Parkinson’s disease
• Sleep disorders
• Brain cancer
• Autism
• Multiple sclerosis
• Schizophrenia

Whoa! That’s a lot of serious diseases that one diet can defeat!

7. May Help You Live Longer

Who doesn’t want to live longer and improve your health?

If you do, the keto diet can certainly help your cause.

A study showed that people who ate a low-carb, high-fat diet tended to live longer than people who consume a high-carb diet.

Another interesting discovery from this study is that a high intake of saturated fat (in which many health experts have considered a bad fat) lowers the risk of having a stroke.

8. Reduce Acne & Other Skin Problems

Whether you’re 15 or 55, nobody wants acne on their face.

Keto could make that a reality.

There have been reports that suggest that a high carb diet causes acne.

Consuming a lot of processed, refined carbohydrates can alter gut bacteria, causing blood sugar fluctuations.

This could negatively affect skin health.

By reducing carb intake, you regulate blood sugar levels and reduce the onset of acne and other skin issues.

9. Boost Energy Levels

Keto may provide you with more pep in your step!

Following a ketogenic weight loss plan allows many people gain more energy to perform their daily activities.

This is all thanks to the ketosis effect.

The main benefit of ketosis is lower insulin levels.

When insulin levels are low, tiredness tends to disappear.

The funny thing is carbs are thought of as a source of energy.

And it is… temporary!

Think back to the times you ate a few slices of pizza and felt pumped! And then immediately feel like a lazy mofo for the rest of the day.

That’s why carbs aren’t a reliable source of energy.

You may feel cranky and little less energized the first few days on the keto diet.

But once you get adjusted, you’ll quickly realize what long-term energy truly feels like.

10. Elevates Brain Power

When you have more energy, improved brain power is sure to follow!

When carbs are removed or minimized, ketones offer as much as 70% of the brain’s energy needs.

This boosts mental consciousness and alertness all through the day.

The standard Western diet is a deficiency in many areas, including the very important essential fatty acids.

This is detrimental to health because we need these for the body and brain to function properly.

Most of our brain tissue is made up of fatty acids.

So not getting enough essential fats severely cripples brainpower.

The keto diet does more than cover up these deficiencies.

Open up most keto-oriented cookbooks and you will see one or more of these essential fatty acids used as a food source:

• Coconut Oil
• Fish
• Eggs
• Avocados
• Olive Oil
• Animal Fats
• Butter

These brain-boosting fats are a huge staple in keto meals.

And then when you combine that with the ketone producing effect of low-carbs, that’s a recipe for even more brainpower!

Like with the energy levels, your brainpower will be a little off when first starting a keto diet.

You may experience some initial mental fog or headaches.

That all will go away in a few days once your body flushes out the last bit of carbs and gets acclimated to your new lifestyle.

Conclusion

So, as you can see there are some amazing health benefits when you go on a ketogenic diet.

If you're interested in trying to the ketogenic diet we have a great free meal plan to get you started.

Our ketogenic diet meal plan will help you get started with the low-carb diet and help you lose weight.