Is a long term ketogenic diet healthy?

When a hospital has a power cut, it’s backup generator kicks into action. Without this generator, the critically ill patients on life support would soon succumb. The question is, should the hospital remain on its back up generator indefinitely?

That’s the best analogy I can give for a state of ketosis and the question I propose today. As I mentioned in my previous post, humans have quite the tool kit at hand when it comes to survival. Not only can we consume a wide variety of foods, we can also convert all of them into the energy currency we so dearly need, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Without having an alternative energy pathway, our brain, a very energy hungry organ, would be extremely vulnerable.

This has of course given rise to a substantial ‘keto’ community. These people argue that actually, a state of ketosis is more efficient but before we get into that, how does ketosis work? When the body doesn’t have sufficient quantities of glucose or glycogen available, it will start sniffing out other macronutrients. For example, the body breaks down fat into fatty acids and glycerol, more specifically, the glycerol undergoes a process called gluconeogenesis, which converts it into sugar, while the fatty acids are converted into ketone bodies during a process called ketogenesis. Quite the lengthy process I might add.

There is no denying however, that this process is a ‘back up’. If it wasn’t, we would simply enter into ketosis far more readily. This metabolic pathway is activated during states of metabolic stress. Of course, there is a small amount happening at any one time but the body knows what it wants and that’s simple glucose.

This is why I’m always confused when people argue ketosis is a more ‘natural’ state in some way. In my eyes, a state of ketosis was something humans drifted BRIEFLY into during certain periods of the year. I also like to do this, because checking your back up generator is working is smart. These brief spells can be incredibly healing for many health conditions, but like my thoughts on the vegan and carnivore debate, black and white diets are simply not suitable for humans long term except in a few specific cases.

If you are following a long term ketogenic diet and generally feeling better doing so (which I understand many people do), just keep an eye on your health and blood work. The kidneys and gallbladder can take a bit of a battering.