Do you have ‘keto flu’? Expert reveals why following Kim Kardashian’s diet regime could lead to nausea, insomnia and dizziness
- It’s a fashionable diet, endorsed by celebrities including Kourtney Kardashian
- But trying to lose weight by following the costly keto diet can lead to ‘keto flu’
- Sophie Medlin is a lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London
- She argued the diet is not balanced and can easily cause nutrient deficiencies
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It’s a fashionable diet, endorsed by a range of A-list celebrities including Kim and Kourtney Kardashian.
But trying to lose weight by following an expensive keto diet can lead to nausea, insomnia and dizziness, claims a dietitian.
Sophie Medlin, a lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, made the stark warning in a piece for The Conversation.
She argued the diet can lead to ‘keto flu’ because it is not balanced and can easily cause nutrient deficiencies.
It’s a fashionable diet, endorsed by a range of A-list celebrities including Kourtney Kardashian. But trying to lose weight by following an expensive keto diet can lead to nausea, insomnia and dizziness, claims a dietitian
What is the Keto diet?
A diet developed in the 1920s to treat children with epilepsy is suddenly all the rage. The ketogenic diet, or ‘keto diet’, has reportedly been endorsed by celebrities and even athletes are giving it a go.
The keto diet is one of a series of fashionable low carb diets that include the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet and the Zone diet. There are hundreds of people selling ketogenic diet plans online and on social media, with big promises of the results to be expected.
The keto diet got its name because ketones are the source of energy that the body uses when it’s burning fat.
Ketones are produced in weight loss regardless of the type of diet you are following. So, actually, anyone who is losing weight is actually on a keto diet.
It doesn’t matter to your body whether the fat it’s burning is from your existing reserves or from the high fat meal that you just ate. And the production of ketones doesn’t necessarily mean you are burning body fat.
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So when keto dieters add fat to their diet through bulletproof coffee or coconut oil, it is burnt as fuel instead of body fat – which defeats the object of the diet achieving weight loss.
By adding additional fat to the diet, your energy balance will remain positive regardless of the fuel (carbohydrate, fat or protein) and this will promote weight gain, as is demonstrated by children on ketogenic diets when they gain weight despite the fact that their urine shows that they are producing ketones.
Another fad?
Inducing ketosis – a natural state for the body, when it is almost completely fuelled by fat – in therapeutic diets is a skill that needs the close supervision of a dietitian in a specialist clinic.
This is because the diet is not balanced and can easily lead to nutrient deficiencies, nausea, vomiting, headache, tiredness, dizziness, insomnia, poor exercise tolerance and constipation – sometimes referred to as keto flu.
The effects of maintaining ketosis for long periods of time are unknown.
But concerns include the impact on important gut microbes that are likely to be starved of essential fibre required for healthy balance. The potential effect of this on long-term health is still not clear.
WHAT IS THE KETO DIET?
The Ketogenic diet defines a low-carb, high-fat way of eating.
Following this eating plan forces the body into a metabolic state, known as ketosis, which starves the body of carbohydrates but not calories.
Carbs are shunned in the keto diet as they cause the body to produce glucose, which is used as energy over fat.
Keto diets therefore lead to weight loss as they make the body burn fat as its primary energy source.
On the diet, followers can eat:
- Meat
- Leafy greens and most vegetables
- Full-fat dairy
- Nuts and seeds
- Avocadoes and berries
- Fats, such as coconut oil
People cannot eat:
- Grains, including rice and wheat
- Sugar, like honey and maple syrup
- Most fruit
- White or sweet potatoes
Most people calling their diet a keto diet are simply following a low or very low carbohydrate diet. Low carbohydrate diets can be helpful, at least in the short term, for some people to lose weight.
However, as with the true ketogenic diet, most people can’t stick with a very low carbohydrate diet for long.
The latest research shows that it’s the ability to stick to the diet that matters. So if a low carbohydrate diet or keto diet is a practice that works for you and you are able to maintain it for as long as it takes to lose excess body fat – and you are meeting your nutritional requirements – then the science says that this should be encouraged.
But it’s worth noting that, as yet, there hasn’t been enough research into the ketogenic diet to support its use in some medical conditions – so people using the diet to treat diabetes or polycystic ovarian syndrome, should consult their doctor before trying it, as it can affect blood sugar levels.
People with pancreatic or liver problems, or problems with fat metabolism should also avoid the ketogenic diet. This is because the diet is so high in fat that it puts added pressure on both organs, which are essential for fat metabolism.
Sensible eating
It is also worth considering that eating a well balanced, keto diet is actually very expensive.
For most people, following a low carbohydrate diet, rather than a no carbohydrate diet, is much more practical – as it will also allow for the inclusion of fruit and all vegetables.
This represents much better dietary balance and usually leads to people sticking with it for longer.
As always with weight loss, in the end it all comes down to taking less energy in than you burn.
In the UK, the National Diet and Nutrition Survey says that on average, people get about half of their energy from carbohydrates.
So by cutting out the source of half of your energy from your diet – even if some of that energy is replaced by fat – you are likely to reduce your energy intake, which leads to weight loss.
But if you can’t sustain the keto diet, don’t worry, you are in the majority. Try considering why you eat, rather than what you eat.
Tackling convenience buying and emotional eating is the key to successful weight loss for most people.
HOW DOES THE KETO DIET HELP EPILEPSY PATIENTS?
The ketogenic diet is a special high-fat, low-carbohydrate plan that is thought to help to control seizures in some people with epilepsy.
It forces the body to burn fat instead of carbohydrates for energy, which produces ketones.
It’s thought that having a high level of ketones in their blood helps reduce the amount and severity of their seizures. Doctors do not yet fully understand how or why this happens.
A study last year found that a high fat, low carb diet dramatically reduced attacks for sufferers of a deadly form of epilepsy called super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE). This kills 60 per cent of sufferers.
Research suggests the keto diet may help reduce epileptic seizures (stock image)
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University reported seizures stopped for 79 per cent of the patients on the diet, according to the paper published in the journal Neurology.
Meat, fish, poultry and eggs are all allowed, as are non-starchy vegetables and leafy greens. Dairy, organic, full-fat is recommended for keto diets.
It involves limiting added sugars and white, refined carbs and only a small amount of fruit is allowed.
Eating high carbs causes your body to produce glucose and insulin. Glucose is the easiest for your body to convert and use as energy so that it will be chosen over any other energy source, it is believed.
Insulin is produced to process the glucose in your bloodstream by taking it around the body. Since the glucose is being used as a primary energy, your fats are not needed and are therefore stored.
By lowering carb intake, the body is induced into a state known as ketosis, a natural process that helps us survive when food intake is low.
This makes us produce ketones, which are produced from the breakdown of fats in the liver.
The goal of the keto diet is to force your body into this metabolic state – essentially it’s a type of starvation but not of calories but carbohydrates.
Recent research suggests it torches ten times more fat than a standard American diet – even without exercise.
However, experts say low-carb diets bring heart and cancer risks from eating too much fat and protein.
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