That keto thing…are you really sure?
Judd-Leonard Okafor If you ever considered yourself overweight, or with just a bit too much flesh on your stomach, you probably have heard of keto. It is the new fad word in weight loss circles that has gripped Nigeria hard. It has also spawned a handful of health-and-wellness groups on the internet, linking tens of […]
Judd-Leonard Okafor
If you ever considered yourself overweight, or with just a bit too much flesh on your stomach, you probably have heard of keto.
It is the new fad word in weight loss circles that has gripped Nigeria hard. It has also spawned a handful of health-and-wellness groups on the internet, linking tens of thousands of people across body sizes by the sheer pull of the perfect body image.
Keto, ketogenesis, ketodiet—it is all in the name. But is ketosis, and why is it catching on?
Ketosis is a normal metabolic process, writes James Macintosh on Medical News Today. The article is reviewed by University of Chicago-Illinois School of Medicine.
Your body gets its energy from burning glucose—derived from sugars (think fruits and milk or yoghurt) and starchy carbohydrates (think bread, pasta, yam). When it can’t get enough glucose, it burns stored fats instead.
Diet and weight loss enthusiasts have jumped on this natural metabolic process to make their bodies burn off unwanted fat by forcing their bodies to rely on fat for energy, rather than carbohydrates.
That’s the genesis of ketogenesis. And enthusiasts use that diets that use the procedure—burning fat stored within the body—to facilitate weight loss.
“I have used it, and it works,” says Kadiri Dada.
Before his first child, he spent time worrying about his growing paunch. He did floor bicycling, jogged, drank different flavour weight-loss teas. He lost some weight all over, grew some firmer muscle, but it wasn’t enough.
Then he found keto. His diet consisted a N500-per-week mix of lemon, ginger, carrots and cucumber.
“It depends on what you want. I went for reduction of stomach fat, and it worked,” he says, proud to talk about a now-trimmer midriff.
“I know of someone who’s doing for total weight loss and he has lost about 10kg.”
Thousands of women who have adopted the ketogenic lifestyle have formed online communities to support each other—and they swear by keto. The community provides diet tips, recipe assistance, meal plans, and food stuff sourcing.
It has even spawned a growing niche of gourmet cooking, with strange recipes only found in select stores in major cities across Nigeria.
Their commonest complaint is the strangeness of the diet; their biggest is the cost of maintaining it, separate from foods they would normally eat.
But is it healthy? A keto diet can have help improve levels of high-density “good” cholesterol better than other carbohydrate diets. Losing excess weight and eating healthier foods, rather than a reduction in carbohydrates, could be why.
Doctors have also supervised ketogenic diets to reduce seizures in children, and some studies show adults with epilepsy may benefit.
But sticking to keto long term and any other low-carbohydrate diet doesn’t appear to be have any great benefit, according to the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the Obesity Society.
One thing is of note. Ketosis produces ketones in the body. While your brain can use them for energy, ketones in abnormally high proportion poison the body—a condition known as ketoacidosis.