Keto and the power of social media

"With all the side effects and complications this diet has, I'm truly surprised by the popularity it has gained—it's just so darn unhealthy and unappetizing in so many ways." Toby Amidor - Dietician

I love looking at cookbooks in bookshops, but of late it has been less fun because most of the ones on display seem to be on various, to my mind, extreme diets and ways of eating. And of late a high proportion of them seem to have keto in the title. I had a vague memory of a scientific kind of word a bit like keto - and yes indeed I was thinking of ketones and ketosis. But even so I could not remember what it meant. So I thought I would check it out.

And I'm somewhat alarmed.

I have now read a whole lot of scientific stuff that I don't fully understand, but the gist of the diet is this:

"In essence, it is a diet that causes the body to release ketones into the bloodstream. Most cells prefer to use blood sugar, which comes from carbohydrates, as the body’s main source of energy. In the absence of circulating blood sugar from food, we start breaking down stored fat into molecules called ketone bodies (the process is called ketosis). Once you reach ketosis, most cells will use ketone bodies to generate energy until we start eating carbohydrates again." Marcelo Campos - Harvard

A keto diet is not new. It was developed 100 years or so ago to help children with epilepsy. Well actually the ancient Greeks realised that extreme fasting caused a decrease in seizures. Anyway then they developed drugs which kept epilepsy under control although those who are not helped by the drugs are still helped by the keto diet. So as a treatment for epilepsy it has some virtue. But of course, these would be diets strictly administered by doctors and dietitians.

It seems that a side-effect was fairly rapid weight loss. Well the fat in your body is being used to create energy. This was was eventually picked up and for the last couple of years or so it has been the number one diet. Really you would have to wonder why though, as it is apparently very difficult to keep to and has a number of really unpleasant side effects - diarrhoea, constipation, bad breath, nausea ... not to mention potential long-term damage like increasing the bad cholesterol in your blood and hence the likelihood of a heart attack, and decreasing the vital minerals and vitamins. Moreover it is likely that once you stop it - and apparently nobody should keep doing this - it's a short burst thing - then you will put on more weight than before.

But of course the fanatics make all sorts of claims:

"The Magic Pill made its debut on Netflix in May of this year. The doc argues that the keto diet can cure cancer, obesity, and liver disease; improve symptoms of autism and diabetes; and reduce dependence on prescription drugs in as little as five weeks." Shape

Elsewhere I saw reference to curing Alzheimers and Parkinsons and other such neurological diseases. They are looking at these things but so far there is no convincing evidence of it being good for anything other than epilepsy.

And I have to say that when I saw what it was - a 4:1 ratio of fats to proteins and carbohydrates - I wondered why anyone would go for it. I mean we all know that fat is bad don't we? And we all know that fruit and vegetables and fibre are good don't we? And there are no fruit and vegetables or fibre - or very little in this. It seems like a no-brainer.

So why is it so popular? Well basically social media and celebrities who make unsubstantiated claims. If the Kardashians say it's good then it must be. Plus ruthless money-making supplement companies who produce pills that seem to imply that you don't actually have to go on the diet you just take their pills and within a couple of days you will have lost weight. And a lot of money in the process.

It's a very sad commentary on us all is it not that we care so much about what we look like? I admit that I do. The main reason I went on my 5/2 diet and why I still more or less keep to it - well 6/1 mostly but with the occasional 5/2 - was because I was appalled at how I looked. I do know that it is unhealthy to be overweight, but really I was more concerned with how I looked. And I'm 76 so really it shouldn't matter at all to me what I look like these days. I am certainly no longer trying to attract a mate.

There was hope for a while there that the obsession with being slim would go away. There was all that bad publicity about underweight models which led to various bans on very young models and very thin models, Princess Di and her bulimia, various people dying of anorexia ... but it seems it just won't go away. Yes there are some more curvy celebrities out there but on the whole the models are still ultra slim and the celebrities too, no matter how many 'large' women are making a mark. We females, and, increasingly males too, want to be slim. Perhaps the fact that being obese is very definitely unhealthy has sort of got through, although now that I think about it we seem to have simultaneously an obesity epidemic and a diet obsessed epidemic. Are they related in some strange kind of way or is it a socio-economic thing, because it has to be said, that most of the obese are poor and most of the super thin and diet obsessed are wealthy - well have money anyway. Sweeping generalisation I know but probably with a grain of truth in it.

It does seem strange that this diet is so popular though - mostly because it's difficult. Or maybe that's part of its charm. Perhaps that's why there are so many keto cookbooks out there.

“This diet is not to be taken lightly and there are healthcare professionals who work specifically in administering it. Done incorrectly, you can alter your blood lipid parameters, which is not healthy." Professor Thomas Seyfried

I guess the Mediterranean diet, which seems to be the health professionals favourite, whilst attractive, easy and tasty doesn't have the same association with slim people. Perhaps we think of the Mediterraneans as plump and forget that they are long-lived and healthy too. Which one for you?