As another new year approaches, resolutions are announced and some of us are deciding how healthy our lives will be in 2025.
In this age of social media, many diet tips are trending, but two of the trendiest diets are: Keto and paleo.
The popularity of these diets stems from the weight loss success people often see when first following these two diets, which experts say is due to their restrictive nature. According to Federica Amati, chief nutritionist at Zoe, a UK-based health sciences company known for its home blood sugar and gut health test kits, when restricting calorie intake in any way, in this case specifically As for restricting carbohydrates — you may lose weight.
What is the Keto Diet?
of ketogenic diet It is a high-fat, adequate protein, low-carbohydrate diet used in conventional medicine primarily to treat difficult-to-control (intractable) epilepsy in children. Dieting forces your body to burn fat instead of carbohydrates.
Normally, carbohydrates in food are converted to glucose, which is then transported throughout the body and is important for providing energy for brain function. However, if there are only a few carbohydrates left in the diet, the liver converts fats into fatty acids and ketone bodies, the latter of which enter the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. Increased levels of ketone bodies in the blood (a condition called ketosis) ultimately reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures.
“There is science supporting the use of keto for certain brain diseases, such as severe epilepsy and children with schizophrenia,” Amati said.
The keto diet is named after the concept of ketosis, a metabolic state in which the body burns fat for energy instead of glucose or carbohydrates. It can take anywhere from two days to a week or more to reach ketosis.
The keto diet gained momentum as part of the low-carb weight loss trend, along with similar diets such as Atkins and Whole30. According to the Cleveland Clinic, people on a keto diet will get about 60% of their calories from fat, 30% from protein, and 10% from carbohydrates. For someone eating 2,000 calories, this would be approximately 165 grams of fat, 40 grams of carbohydrates, and 75 grams of protein.
Keto diet foods include:
red meat, turkey, chicken, fish
egg
Avocado, avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil
butter and cream
nuts and seeds
Low-carb vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, kale, tomatoes, lettuce, and bell paper; zucchinicucumber
berries
High-fat dairy products such as cheese (cheddar cheese, parmesan cheesegoat cheese)
High cacao chocolate.
What is the paleo diet?
The Paleolithic diet, Paleolithic diet, caveman diet, or Stone Age diet is a modern-day fad diet that is described by its proponents as reflecting what humans ate in ancient times. It consists of foods that are considered to be paleolithic age. The diet avoids food processing and typically includes vegetables, fruits, nuts, root vegetables, and meat, and excludes dairy products, grains, sugar, legumes, processed oils, salt, alcohol, and coffee.
Historians can trace the ideas behind this diet back to the “primitive” diet proposed in the 19th century. In the 1970s, Walter L. Voigtlin popularized the meat-based “Stone Age” diet. In the 21st century, Lauren Cordain’s best-selling book popularized the Paleo diet.
Scientist Loren Cordain’s best-selling book, published in 2001, popularized dietary habits that mimic those of the Paleolithic era, about 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago.
Cordain argues that changes in modern diets are outpacing the human body’s ability to adapt, and believes this is a contributing factor to the current epidemics of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Cordain says the best approach is to go back to eating what our bodies should be eating as a way to prevent chronic metabolic disease.
Paleo diet foods include:
Fruits such as apples, bananas, oranges, pears, avocados, strawberries, and blueberries
Low starch vegetables such as carrots and leafy greens
Nuts and seeds such as almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds
grass fed meat
fish
egg
Whole grains and gluten-free grains
dairy products
Legumes such as beans, peas, lentils, tofu, and other soy foods
Peanuts are considered a legume, not a nut
How do you choose?
The biggest difference between the keto and paleo diets is the types of foods you can eat.
While the Keto diet is very strict on carbohydrate intake, the Paleo diet has no particular restrictions on carbohydrates and leaves room for more carbohydrates in the form of fruits and vegetables.
Paleo, on the other hand, eliminates dairy products such as milk, butter, and cheese. These are all keto staples due to their high fat and protein content.
On the one hand, Paleo is thought to be rooted in diets from thousands of years ago, before the advent of processed foods, whereas Keto is less fussy about eating processed foods.
A 2015 meta-analysis of paleo diet studies observed that participants lost an average of about 1 inch in waist circumference over a short period of 10 days to 5 weeks.
However, while researchers observed similar weight loss results during the first 6 to 12 months of the keto diet, the effects appear to taper off after 12 months.
However, the keto and paleo diets are only useful as interventions for specific health reasons.
For example, the ketogenic diet has long been used to treat children with epilepsy and people with certain mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
You can try a keto or paleo diet for temporary weight loss. However, after quitting such a restrictive diet or for those who are trying to change their diet away from processed foods, it is nearly impossible to continue losing weight.
However, Amati said, “They’re terrible for the environment and pretty unsustainable,” adding that she’s concerned about the environmental impact of eating diets high in such animal products and the importance of adhering to these diets. pointed out the overall difficulty of doing so.
It is not recommended to introduce a strict diet into your life without weighing the advantages and disadvantages and consulting a nutritionist or nutritionist. Please consult your health care provider for further understanding and insight before choosing any of these diets.
