Ketogenic Diet

The very popular ketogenic diet is based on the science of ketosis.  Ketosis is when your body begins to burn fat for energy.  Here is the basic science behind ketosis.  When you eat carbohydyates, the carbs are converted into sugar. The sugar enters the blood stream and fuels the body with energy.  More importantly, the sugar fuels brain function.  When there are no to little carbs in the body, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketones.  The ketones than replace the sugar as fuel for the brain.  When your ketone levels are high you are in a state of ketosis.  This is when your body primarily is burning fat for energy.  The diet was originally researched and designed to treat epilepsy. Due to the fat burning nature of the ketosis, the diet has become very popular as a way of losing weight and body fat.  In addition, the diet has been shown to lower blood sugar and insulin levels and is considered a good choice for Type 2 diabetics.  The standard ketogenic diet is a low carbohydrate high fat, moderate protein diet.  The majority of your calories come from healthy fat, protein and fibrous vegetables.  The diet is 75% fats, 20% proteins and 5% carbs.  The foods you would eat include: healthy oils (avocado, olive, walnut, grapeseed, coconut, fish), low carb veggies (green leafs, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, peppers, squash, etc.), nuts and seeds, cheese, butter, eggs, fish, meat (chicken, beef, turkey).  The foods to avoid would be anything with sugar in it. No sugary foods. No grains or starches (bread, cereal, pasta, rice, potatoes etc), alchohol, fruit, and beans.  As you can see,  it is a tough diet for the average person, because it eliminates the majority of your everyday foods.  A sample diet from a day in my life would be a breakfast of grilled chicken tenderloin over baby spinach covered in olive oil and organic dried spice combo.  My 11 am snack is a sweet potato mashed with whey protein and 2 table spoons of walnut oil. Lunch at 2 pm is a mixed leaf salad with vegetables, grilled chicken, nuts and covered in olive oil and a little vinegar with dried spices.  A 4pm snack would be some walnuts and almonds with a piece of cheese.  Dinner is a casserole of vegetables and meats with liberal use of oils. Sauces vary, but are usually made with no grain flours.  So for this example day, my carb calories came from 1 sweet potato. The rest of the calories come from fat and protein.  This type of diet is very healthy for the body as you are not eating processed food or sugar.  Two very unhealthy things to eat.   Variations of this diet are easy to make.  And can be just as successful.  Try eating keto style for most of the day and eat a normal dinner (one with carbs on the don’t eat list).  Or do ketogenic eating 3-4 days a week and eat as u normally would the other days.  Next week I will talk about intermittent fasting and how you can combine intermittent fasting with ketogenics for extreme fat loss.

Chiropractic Thought for the Week: Veteran’s legislation passes and includes increased chiropractic care.  “Complementary and integrative health treatments have the potential to be life changing for our veterans, from managing chronic pain and reducing dependency on prescriptions, to helping treat anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder,” said Northwestern Health Sciences University’s Dr. Michele Maiers, DC, MPH, PhD, and executive director of Research and Innovation. “It’s a great step forward to see the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs approve the bipartisan bill (S. 785).

Chiropractor care for pregnan Pregnancy care is a large part of my chiropractic practice.  Over 30 years of experience caring for women during pregnancy. The pregnant patient has lots of needs concerning her pelvis and spine alignment during pregnancy.  The chiropractor helps with the bodily aches and pains that develop during the 9 month term.

Author

Dr J. Zimmerman, Chiropractor Dr. Zimmerman is a practicing chiropractor from Galloway, NJ with 30 years of chiropractic practice.