A ketogenic diet and ketogenic food, which provides 99 percent of calories from fat and protein and only 1 percent from carbohydrates, results in short-term health benefits. However, negative effects can occur after about a week, as researchers found in a study on mice. The results provide initial evidence that theKeto Dietcan improve human health over a limited period of time by reducing the risk of diabetes and inflammation. Such research is also an important first step towards possible clinical trials on humans.
Long-term ketogenic eating
The keto diet is becoming increasingly popular. Celebrities likeGwyneth Paltrow, Lebron James and Kim Kardashian promote such weight loss diet plans. In the study, researchers found that the positive and negative effects of the diet were due to both immune cells called gamma delta T cells and tissue protective cells. The latter can accordingly reduce the risk of developing diabetes and inflammation.
A keto diet tricks the body into burning fat, said lead author Vishwa Deep Dixit of the Yale School of Medicine. When we lower the body's glucose levels due to the low carbohydrate content of the diet, it behaves as if it were in a state of starvation. However, although this is not the case, the organism begins to burn fats instead of carbohydrates. This process, in turn, produces chemicals that scientists call ketone bodies, or an alternative fuel source. When we burn ketone bodies, tissue-protecting gamma delta T cells spread throughout the body.
Accordingly, this reduces blood sugar levels and improves the body's metabolism. After a week on the keto diet, mice show a reduction in blood sugar levels and inflammation. However, if the body is in this mode, fat storage also occurs at the same time as fat loss. If mice continue to eat a low-fat, low-carb diet after a week, they consume more fat than they can burn and develop diabetes and obesity.
Health perspectives
Long-term human clinical studies are still needed to validate the anecdotal claims about keto's health benefits. With the latest findings, researchers now better understand what mechanisms are at work in bodies based on the keto diet.
“Our results demonstrate the interplay between metabolism and the immune system and how it coordinates the maintenance of healthy tissue function,” said Emily Goldberg, a postdoctoral fellow in comparative medicine who discovered that the keto diet expands gamma-delta T cells in mice.
If the ideal length of the diet for human health benefits is a topic for later studies, Dixit said, the discovery that keto is better in small doses is good news. He also said, “Who wants to be on a diet forever?”
