is keto diet good for diabetes? If you are a person suffering from diabetes, there is a good chance that you may have heard someone suggest a ketogenic diet as a way to deal with your condition. In this post, we’ll discuss how the ketogenic diet works for diabetes.
In the last decade or so, tremendous research has been done in the field of obesity.
We’ve understood we are, “what we eat”, “when we eat” and “how much we eat”. With not many pills to deal with obesity, we have realised the hidden ability of food as a medicine.
Keeping in mind above, many dietary arrangements are evolving over a period, and one such is “keto diet”.
Let us first understand what a keto diet is and Is keto good for diabetes?
What is the Keto Diet?
A ketogenic diet is a very low carb diet with about 30 grams of carbohydrates per day with medium protein and high fat intake (70-80% calories). There are many variations by which people do it.
Also read: low carb diet for weight loss
This eating option sees less carb food, which includes both unsaturated and saturated fats that enable the body to convert fat rather than glucose. The converted fat is then used as the main source of energy that the body needs, even providing medical treatment for people with diabetes.
Since the body is forced to convert only fat-related foods to energy production, it reduces the signs and symptoms of diabetes. Note that when someone has diabetes, one of the main goals is to lose enough weight, especially with other types of diabetes. Thus, maximizing the keto diet to lose weight is a better option for people who have diabetes, without fear to experience either an increase or decrease in blood sugar levels.
Before becoming a good alternative to diabetes management, the said diet was originally designed to treat epilepsy. The diet scheme was developed in the 1920s, but when repressive and medicines became available to treat epilepsy, dietary therapy was abandoned. Since then, and even today, the keto diet to control the body’s blood sugar levels has become an option other than insulin injection.
How Does Keto Diet Work?
Just because such a diet involves eating most fats does not mean that any food with high levels of fat should be eaten. It is also necessary to eat a healthy diet to treat diabetes. Some of the most recommended foods are:
- Fishes high in omega-3 (salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, herring)
- avocado
- seeds
- nut
- butter
- pork
- Lean Meat (Chicken breasts)
- eggs
- olive oil
- cream cheese
- leafy greens
The Keto diet includes a meal plan that combines healthy food options not only with fat but at the same time. It is also suggested to add little protein-rich food, but only at the lowest percentage.
Keto diet works as an alternative to carbs. Usually, foods containing carbs are converted into sugar, but this time the fat accumulated from the keto diet is being fueled for energy use. It makes it unnecessary for the production of glucose in the body, thus eliminating the possibility of fluctuations and irregular levels of blood sugar. Although this form of diet can be effective, it is important to discuss it with your medical expert.
How low should blood glucose be for ketosis
- Reducing refined carbohydrates helps stabilize your blood sugar and boost ketogenesis.
- High blood sugar levels are linked to our increased risk of many modern metabolic diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, etc.).
- Insulin controls the release of glucose and ketones in your blood flow. When you eat, your pancreas increases insulin to store your fat. When you do not eat, insulin levels decrease to allow the energy stored in your body to be freed.
- You become ‘insulin resistant’ when your fat cells are filled and cannot store excess energy efficiently. When your adipose tissue is filled with more than your personal fat threshold, excess energy accumulates in places that are still insulin sensitive (such as your liver, pancreas, heart, brain and eyes) and excess energy flows into your bloodstream (in the form of high glucose) triglycerides and ketones).
- Exogenous ketosis occurs when you consume extra diet fat or supplements to increase the level of ketone in your blood.
- Endogenous ketosis occurs when you consume less energy. Your insulin and blood sugar decrease and the production of ketone from fat on your body increases.
- While a low carb or ketogenic diet will help stabilize your blood sugar, most of the benefits of ketosis are caused by endogenous ketosis when you are burning fat in your body.
- Reducing the intake of processed carbohydrates helps you avoid highly delicious nutrient-poor “junk food”, increases satiety and helps you eat less and hence lose weight with less effort.
- There is nothing magical about having a special blood ketone value, ketosis or a high-fat ‘ketogenic diet’, which will lose your body fat more quickly (especially if this extra diet is due to the addition of fat or exogenous ketone).
Ketogenic Diet and Diabetes
Reducing carbohydrate intake can reduce insulin requirement, improve insulin sensitivity and reduce postprandial glycaemia.
This diet helps in reducing the body’s demand for insulin which benefits people with diabetes.
The Keto Diet and Type 1 Diabetes
Studies show that the keto diet can significantly lower blood sugar levels and improve A1C levels in people with type 1 diabetes. Still, there is a catch – diet can greatly reduce blood sugar in some people with diabetes. Complications of low blood sugar can range from confusion to loss of consciousness, so you may need to adjust your insulin dose to avoid it.
Keto can also help people lose weight – but losing weight is not desired or safe for all people with diabetes. If you are underweight or have other health concerns related to weight loss, the keto diet may not suit you.
Also read: good carbs for weight loss
Finally, it is important to remember the difference (and similarities) between diabetic ketoacidosis and nutritional ketosis. Nutritional ketosis refers to the condition where a keto diet encourages the body to produce ketones from fat in the liver using fat as its primary fuel source. As part of this process, the level of ketone in the blood flow increases.
Diabetes ketoacidosis also includes high ketone levels, but the same is true for blood sugar – which can waste your blood acid-base balance. Due to this, ketoacidosis is considered a medical emergency. While these conditions are far from the same, both of them include blood ketone levels. As a result, you will need to consult your healthcare team before starting a keto diet.
Have a read on: keto vs Atkins
The Keto Diet and Type 2 Diabetes
A ketogenic diet can help some people with type 2 diabetes as it allows the body to maintain glucose levels at low but healthy levels.
Low intake of carbohydrates in the diet can help eliminate large spikes in blood sugar, thereby reducing the need for insulin.
Studies on ketogenic diets, including 2018 research, have found that they may be helpful in controlling HBA1C levels. It refers to the amount of glucose travelling with haemoglobin in the blood in about 3 months.
Ketogenic diet helps the body burn fat. It is beneficial when a person is trying to lose weight, and it can be helpful for people whose excess weight has influenced the development of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Even light to moderate weight loss through diet and exercise can support glycemic control, overall well-being and energy distribution throughout the day in people with diabetes,
Research has shown that people who take a ketogenic diet show improvements in managing blood sugar levels and some have experienced noticeable weight loss.
However, if you decide to follow the keto diet while living with type 2 diabetes, you should be careful. (*)
For people with type 2 diabetes, the keto diet can cause dangerously low blood sugar levels. To avoid this, you need to do blood sugar tests throughout the day and make adjustments according to your results.
Diabetes Ketoacidosis is relatively rare in people with type 2 diabetes, but high ketone levels are a risk factor. Keeping this in mind, it is important to know what to see if you are following a keto diet with type 2 diabetes. Specifically, if your blood sugar is 240 mg/dl, you should use the urinary strip to test ketones.
Low carb Ketogenic Indian chicken recipes
Advantages and Benefits
- Increased satiety
- Loss of appetite. The effect of satiety with reduced food cravings is due to the high-fat content of the diet.
- Increase in calorie expenditure due to metabolic effects of converting fat and protein into glucose.
- Promote fat loss versus lean body mass, partly due to a decrease in insulin levels.
Common Side Effects of Keto Diet
- The challenge of maintaining a high-fat diet for a long time.
- Excessive carbohydrate restrictions can cause hunger, fatigue, low mood, irritability, constipation, headache and brain “fog” that can last for weeks.
- Increased fatty accumulation in the liver
- Deranged lipid profile.
- The prolonged ketogenic diet has been linked to an increased risk of kidney stones and osteoporosis and increased blood levels of uric acid.
- Potential nutrient deficiency
- Cost Involved
Major side effects from keto diet
The Bottom Line
Talk to your doctor before signing up for a keto diet. For some people with diabetes, especially those who need to lose weight, this method of eating can help improve symptoms and reduce the need for medication. But for others, the keto diet can make diabetes worse.
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