Is the ketogenic diet a boon for weight loss or a health killer?

Wuhan Evening News (reporter Qi Yan correspondent Yao Zudong Hu Bingxun) Recently, the topic of overweight or obesity in 600 million Chinese has aroused heated discussion. In this context, various Internet celebrity weight loss methods have set off wave after wave of weight loss storms in social media. In recent years, the ketogenic diet has been highly popular and followed, "ketogenic 20 days to lose 13 pounds" and "7 days of rapid ketogenic recipes, drop the scale of 5 to 7 pounds" Similar public number articles have also been forwarded in large quantities. Many celebrities claim that this method of losing one or twenty pounds a month is not a problem, the key is not to exercise, not to starve, nor to restrict eating meat, once it came out, it simply became a "weight loss gospel".

Luo Yun (pseudonym), 28 years old in Hankou, is an urban white-collar worker, who usually likes to make up, and when dressed up, he also has high requirements for stature - 1 meter 68 tall, weighing less than 55 kilograms, but she is still not satisfied with her symmetry, and hopes that she will lose less than 100 pounds as soon as possible. Two months ago, she tried to lose weight according to the ketogenic diet shared by Little Red Book, and for better results, she also superimposed light fasting, eating only two meals a day.

Grilled chicken breast, cold bitter chrysanthemum, sugar-free yogurt are breakfast, and by noon, white-seared shrimp, lemonade and a little greens are rejected, while staple foods such as rice noodles are rejected. Sure enough, in the first week, Luo Yun dropped 4 pounds, and this way of not dieting and not exercising made her happy.

After more than a month, Xiao Luo achieved her weight loss goal, and she found another problem, began to constipation, and often felt some bitterness in her mouth.

When the reporter browsed various e-commerce platforms, he found that the ketogenic diet products currently on sale are mainly divided into two categories: one is a single product, mainly coffee, whey protein and other ketogenic meal replacements and snacks; the other is a package, mainly a 7-day ketogenic snack package and a 21st full meal, and the monthly sales of a ketogenic wafered biscuit can reach more than 4,000 pieces.

"In fact, our doctors do not recommend that ordinary citizens, especially healthy people, try the ketogenic diet on their own." Wei Qi, head of the Standardized Metabolic Disease Management Center and director of the Department of Endocrinology of Wuhan Red Cross Hospital, introduced that this is an adjunctive therapy for specific patients, which requires doctors to strictly and accurately control the entire process, otherwise although short-term gains may cause weight loss, in the long run, it may increase the risk of metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases and so on.

What exactly is the ketogenic diet?

In 1921, American doctors first proposed that the ketogenic diet (high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet) simulated the metabolic effect of hunger and could well control pediatric seizures.

To put it bluntly: basically do not eat grain potatoes, beans and fruits and other foods with more carbohydrates, but mainly a lot of oil (lard butter butter, coconut oil, etc.), a certain amount of meat (mainly red meat) and a small amount of vegetables or other plant foods with the same amount of carbs.

Increases the risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases

As we all know, long-term intake of high-oil and high-fat foods will cause a great burden on the cardiovascular system, too much fat deposited on the blood vessel wall, over time the vascular elasticity is weakened, the lumen is narrowed, blocked, resulting in hypertension, coronary heart disease and other diseases. Too much fat is deposited in the liver, which can also lead to the development of fatty liver.

Due to changes in metabolism, the ketogenic diet also greatly increases the risk of liver disease and kidney disease. A longer ketogenic diet can induce kidney stones, osteoporosis, and high uric acid. She recommends finding a professional doctor for systematic and professional evaluation before starting a ketogenic diet, and it is not recommended to blindly follow the trend.

Source: Wuhan Evening News