What Is a Ketogenic Diet?

Hey guys, Dr. Axe here, doctor of natural medicine and founder of draxe.com. In this video, I'll be telling you what the ketogenic diet is and what it is not and how it is the diet that can work when nothing else will.

And medical studies now are proving that the ketogenic diet can help you lose weight, boost your brain health, fight neurological disease, balance hormones, and do a whole lot more I'll share with you in this video. And for starters, I want to talk about what is it? And where did this idea come from? Well, the ketogenic diet is a very low-carb diet, okay?

So when you're on this diet, you're consuming little to no carbs at all. Now, over time, you can move into something called keto cycling, which I'll talk about at the end, but for starters, you're doing very little carbohydrates in your diet. Now, this was created in the 1920s specifically to treat epilepsy, okay? Epilepsy and seizures, and they found great results with the ketogenic diet.

The thought was this, your brain is made Yeah. And so when your brain is made up of fat and cholesterol, it's really important that you're getting plenty of those things that really support the brain. In a ketogenic diet, what happens is your body stops burning sugar for energy, starts burning fat, your body creates ketones, and it's actually a fuel source for your brain.

Here's another thing to know about the ketogenic diet, 70% to 80% of your diet is fat. Fat when you're on the ketogenic diet. The typical ratio once somebody gets about— typically the first week or 2, a lot of times people may consume about 80% fat.

Then that ratio goes to about 70% fat, 25% protein, 5% carbs is what I've done with most of my patients in the past and the results have been phenomenal in helping them get into ketosis and experience that health breakthrough. A ketogenic diet puts your body into ketosis. That's where your body switches from being a sugar burner into a fat burner.

Now, one of the things I've noticed is I started— now, when I first went on a ketogenic diet myself before I started recommending it to patients, I noticed I woke up in the morning and I looked leaner. I looked more fit in the morning. Here's the amazing thing that happens on the ketogenic diet, your body will keep burning fat While you sleep, so your body is actually burning that fat.

It's pretty incredible. But again, your body burns fat rather than sugar for energy and your body produces ketones as your fuel source which your brain and your cells and body run off of instead of carbohydrates. So here are the big benefits of the ketogenic diet. Again, number 1 is weight loss. It's what I just talked about. When your body starts burning fat for fuel, you're going to lose weight.

You start losing those love handles and that abdominal belly fat that sits right here. You lose weight really, really fast. In fact, this is my number 1 diet for people to lose weight quickly. Number 2, PCOS, that's polycystic ovary syndrome.

I can tell you this, in working with thousands of patients over the years, many women that struggle with PCOS, even sometimes issues like infertility or painful PMS during their monthly cycle. When that happens, oftentimes that's related to a hormone called insulin.

And what we found is when both men but especially women with PCOS get on a ketogenic diet, when insulin regulates— insulin is a hormone— all of these other hormones regulate as well. Estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, they all start to balance out on a ketogenic diet.

So if you've struggled with hormonal issues and you've tried other things, The ketogenic diet can be the diet that works for hormones when nothing else will. Number 3, mental clarity. Now, people for thousands of years have fasted for mental clarity.

So when somebody starts doing a fast, let's say they do mostly a water fast, what will happen is their body will start to go into ketosis as well for fasting when somebody does just a pure water fast. And when you fast, And your body starts using ketones for energy, your brain, you have more mental clarity, less brain fog.

A lot of times people say they experience spiritual breakthroughs and emotional breakthroughs when they go on a ketogenic diet or a fast because, again, a lot of these carbs and foods we're eating on a daily basis, they affect our hormones, they cause inflammation, and they affect the brain. Again, mental clarity, spiritual awareness can have greater benefits. Yeah.

When you're following a healthy ketogenic diet. All right, number 4, lower type 2 diabetes risk. Most people are getting way too many carbohydrates in their diet affecting insulin.

When you go on a ketogenic diet, you give those insulin receptor sites that get burned out— just so you know, that's what, for the most part, type 2 diabetes is like somebody yelling and screaming in your ear to where you sort of burn out your eardrums. Those insulin receptor sites burn out.

And kind of go deaf over time when you have too much sugar and carbs in your diet or consume too many things or have too many emotions that affect insulin. The name of the game is balancing insulin. When you do that on a ketogenic diet, you can see great results in lowering your risk for type 2 diabetes. Number 5, having a healthier heart.

You know, the ketogenic diet, when you're consuming lots and lots of healthy fats, It can reduce inflammation in your body, again, also support your body hormonally and improve your heart health. And number 6, possible cancer fighter. You know, I actually just talked to a friend who's a doctor in Texas yesterday and he told me, he said, you know what? I beat cancer with the ketogenic diet.

There are thousands of cases of people that have followed the ketogenic diet and beat cancer naturally. Now listen, I'm not telling you just following a single diet. Can cure cancer.

But I will tell you that following a ketogenic diet, consuming the right supplements, getting your body to the right place emotionally, and doing all of the things holistically to heal your body can help people experience a breakthrough both in preventing cancer and potentially fighting cancer as well. So the risks here are immense.

And this is me just scratching the surface in some of the most popular conditions. That the ketogenic diet can help. Now, here are some precautions if you're going to follow a ketogenic diet. Number 1, sometimes you get a keto flu. Now, a lot of us— they actually— I saw a study that said sugar is more addictive than cocaine. It is that addictive to the body. People crave it.

We've got to break those cravings. So similar like if you go off of caffeine or off of nicotine or tobacco or again, anytime you get off something you might be addicted to, You can get flu-like symptoms. It's no different with the ketogenic diet. Electrolytes. Now, you want to make sure on the ketogenic diet that you are getting lots of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.

You want to stay really well hydrated, drinking a lot of water and eating a lot of vegetables that are high in electrolytes like celery and cucumber. Number 3, don't overexercise. When you first get on a ketogenic diet, give your body a few days to adapt.

And get used to the diet you're on because sometimes your blood sugar can drop because your body isn't yet fully into ketosis, burning fat for fuel. Number 4, avoid processed meats. You know, processed foods are going to put your body in a more— a higher state of acidosis.

So again, on ketosis, when your body is following a ketogenic diet, your body tends to be slightly more acidic, so you want to be really cognitive Yeah. So be very cognizant of eating a lot of vegetables, a lot of leafy greens, getting a lot of chlorophyll and alkaline-rich foods into your diet. And then again, most people don't drink enough water.

Make sure you're getting plenty of water when following a ketogenic diet. Here are the best foods on a ketogenic diet. Olive oil, MCTs, which are found in coconut oil. So we've got actually long-chain fats here, we've got medium-chain fats, we've got short-chain fats, which you'll find in ghee and butter. Similar thing, chicken fat.

So if you've ever eaten a chicken and pulled the skin off, chicken skin is full of collagen and healthy fats if it's organic and natural. So again, chicken fat, avocados, flaxseeds, wild meat like bison and grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, bone broth, and then non-starchy vegetables is a perfect mix of foods to consume when you're on a ketogenic diet.

Here are the worst foods and foods that will actually pull you out of ketosis. Added sugars, all grains, most processed foods, and most alcohol will pull you out of ketosis. So these are the foods you want to stay away from that can really affect insulin there as well. And listen, there's also something great.

Now, when you hear the ketogenic diet, the ketogenic diet for most people can be followed for about 30 days, maybe 90 days or more.

But for most people, you're going to follow a ketogenic diet and then it's good to start doing what's called a modified keto or carb cycling or what I like to call keto cycling where you really consume essentially a ketogenic diet a few days or sort of on and off along with just a lower, generally lower carb diet and add a few healthier things into your diet like a little bit more fruit and potentially a little bit of rice or sweet potato on occasion.

But again, this is more flexible. You can aim for 30 to 50 net carbs a day. The big thing is you want to, again, stay about 50 or under and then go in and out of ketosis. In fact, my own wife does this to where she takes 3 days a week where she follows— or 4 days a week where she does a ketogenic diet, 3 days a week where she adds in carbs during those days.

And she's noticed huge changes in her body. Again, I've done this with thousands of patients and seen phenomenal results. Yeah. And then changing their body. So again, some days eat ketogenic, other days don't. That's probably the way our ancestors ate, so it's closer to the perfect original ancient diet there as well. So remember these benefits of following a ketogenic diet.

Major benefits with weight loss, balancing hormones and fighting conditions like PCOS, mental clarity, fighting diabetes, healthier heart, and possible cancer fighter. The benefits of the ketogenic diet are immense. And hey, if you want to learn more about the ketogenic diet, make sure to subscribe here to my YouTube channel.

We've got a lot of ketogenic recipes coming out, some other healthy ketogenic diet foods and tips. Also, if you want to learn more about the ketogenic diet, I've written several in-depth articles and have a whole recipe section on my website, draxe.com, that goes through ketogenic diet recipes. Simply Google search.

Dr. Axe ketogenic diet or Dr. Axe ketogenic recipes and you'll find a lot more information there on my site, guys. Hey, thanks for watching. Hi, Dr. Axe here. I want to say thanks so much for checking out this YouTube video and also don't forget to subscribe if you want to get more great content on things like herbs, essential oils, natural remedies, and how to use food as medicine.

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