Wow-I missed quite a bit of discussion!
Can someone explain to me the difference between a ketogenic diet and a paleo diet? I know ketogenic diets are meant to induce ketosis, but I am not sure what that entails, practically speaking.
I'll try to add a little detail to
@Kyla's overview . . .
Paleo tends to be lower-carb (though there are many, many versions of diets that people call "Paleo" and some pretty pretty high in sugar to me, as I think it was Kyla pointed out) through its emphasis on whole, ancestral foods.
Ketogenic diets, however, are specific diets that shift the body into ketosis-a state where it relies on ketone bodies produced in the liver rather than glucose. (This is
not the same as the similar-seeming ketoacidosis-the dangerous state diabetics risk getting into.) It's the same metabolic shift that happens in starvation that allows the body to burn its stored fat, but ketogenic diets are of course not starvation diets (though people do use them to lose weight). They create a state of nutritional ketosis.
A pretty good explanation of how ketosis works as a part of metabolism is
here (there are two parts). It's by an MD who used ketosis for losing weight and now for performance.
Nutritional ketosis only happens when a diet is very high in fat, proportionally (usually about 80% of calories). As
@Kyla pointed out, ketogenic diets have been used for many decades to help control intractable eplieptic seizures (though I don't think anyone knows just why they work). They were used as a first-line therapy in the early 20th century, and then fell to later-tier therapies, usually for severely affected children, once there were anti-seizure medicines.
The ketogenic diet has again become an earlier-line therapy for epilepsy in some hospitals, and is currently a subject of interest among some researchers for a variety of neurological diseases. It's been or is being looked at in Alzheimer's disease (in an attempt to slow progression), ALS (same), progressive MS (same), and Parkinson's, off the top of my head. (These are mostly small studies, not much replication yet.)
As
@Sidereal touched on, ketosis is also used by some healthy people who believe it increases their performance. And the familiar Atkins diet is one form that been used a lot by people trying to lose weight. (The "induction phase" is ketogenic.)
@jeff_w linked to
this helpful Reddit forum that shares a lot of info-the forum is mostly people working on losing weight, etc.
As
@Sidereal and
@Gondwanaland also suggested, I don't think this is anything to undertake lightly, and likely wouldn't work for everyone. Traditional therapeutic ketogenic diets have been very hard to start (commencing with a several-day fast to get the body into ketosis), and go up to a 4:1 ratio of fat to other calories. They are very low carb--even limiting vegetables--and require lots of electrolyte replacement and probably some other supplementation. They've also been hard to do, because they required weighing food, etc.
However, for a long time now, there have been more doable versions. "Modified Atkins" is one (as i understand it, it's basically the early phase of the Atkins diet, longer term). Another is using copious amounts of medium-chain triglycerides, found in, e.g., coconut oil and, umm
MCT oil
). With the MCT oil version, the idea is that the MCT oil is very easily used. It allows the diet to contain more vegetables and other carbs.
I'm exploring this, but am not an expert. Again, it's an intense undertaking, and may be more difficult on a sick body than a healthy one. But because I have a lot of neurological symptoms, it is something I'm interested in trying for myself.
Re Paleo: I'll also say that I read a lot on the Autoimmune Paleo Approach Sarah Ballantyne came up with last year, and I think she covered a lot of bases for anyone who may have autoimmune features. Her book is great (also with excellent diagrams
) - an interesting mix between a bio textbook and a dietary approach. It is not ketogenic, or even super low carb (though it is lower-carb), but based on cutting out things that many people react to or that enhance inflammation. It focuses on fats, proteins, and lots and lots of vegetables for micronutrients. It doesn't rely on specific calorie counts, etc., which again I find in its favor. After all, humans vary a lot in what works for them, within reason. Again, it's all unproven, but I found it plausible, and have considered it strongly, too.
Hope that helps a bit! I have to go again for awhile, but am happy to share sources if helpful to anyone...just PM me.
I'll try not to be too slow . . .
Vasha
