What is Keto?

WHAT THE HECK IS KETO?!

Wait, so is it Atkins? So, it’s like Paleo? OMG it’s the bacon and butter diet and you’re going to die of a heart attack!

My dear friend and fellow Keto-er, these are the same questions I get when people start asking me about my love of ketogenic living.

Ketosis

Ketosis, or “keto”, is a natural state for the body in which it becomes almost completely fueled by fat through eating a ketogenic diet: low carb, moderate protein, and lots of healthy fats. As babies, we are all born in a state of ketosis and remain that way until we begin eating solid foods (breast milk is almost entirely fat!) We also dip into a state of ketosis when we enter prolonged periods of not eating, or fasting, including while we are asleep. It is highly likely that you wake up in a ketogenic state!

Ketones

While in ketosis, the body is producing ketones. These small molecules are used as fuel when we have depleted our glucose (a.k.a. blood sugar) supply. Ketones are produced in the liver from fat, as we eat very few carbs and a moderate amount of protein.

The entire body – including the brain – consumes ketones as fuel.

 KETO FUN FACT: The brain can ONLY run on one of two fuel sources: glucose or ketones.

It’s a common misconception that the brain needs carbs. The truth is that carbs are the single macronutrient (there are three: protein, carbs, fat) that we do NOT need, and the brain will happily burn ketones for fuel. Our brains do need a small amount of glucose to function, but we can get this small amount from the protein we consume! More on that later.

Ketones provide sustainable energy, unlike carbohydrates, which are metabolized into glucose to give the body a burst of energy, spiking your insulin levels and then crashing later. Glucose is burned up quickly, leaving the body depleted of energy while leftover glycogen stores itself in the liver, or as triglycerides in fat cells. Without carbs, the body will quickly deplete its glycogen and will begin using fat for energy. Fat comes from the foods we eat as well as the stored fat – the triglycerides – in our cells.

Those of us who follow a ketogenic lifestyle switch our fuel sources back to the way we were born: we run almost entirely on fat. Insulin hormones dip to low levels and we rapidly burn stored fat for fuel. Outside of weight loss, we ketonians experience sustained energy, mental focus, exercise endurance, and a bevy of other health benefits such as preventing, treating, and curing chronic illness and life-threatening disease.

To put it simply: eat fat to burn fat…. Healthy Fats. Healthy Life!