Introduction
Louise. A. Costas has always enjoyed healthy eating. When it comes to diets, it is very important to her to know exactly what the diet claims to do and its possible side effects, if any at all. She knows that popular diets come and go; and can be quite faddish. But her concern when looking into various diets is to find out if it’s something that will be easy enough to follow or if she will have to go out of her way too much in order to pursue it.
If it’s the latter, she usually doesn’t bother starting on it because the more adjustments needing to be made, the easier it is to stop following the diet and start making excuses. This is mainly why she looks for diets that are easy to follow so that she can stick to it and finally reap the results. If you share her sentiment, then you will love this book.
Diet of adequate protein intake, high in fat and low carbohydrate consumption is a ketogenic diet. It has been primarily formulated as a special diet aimed at controlling epilepsy symptoms in children. Daily meals under this diet provide proteins in amounts just enough to allow growth and repair. The calories are calculated and provided in sufficient amounts that supports the maintenance of the proper weight require for the child’s weight and height.
The ketogenic diet was first introduced in 1924 at the Mayo clinic. Dr. Russel Wilder found that by putting epileptic patients on a fast, the symptoms became less frequent. The classic diet incorporates a fat to combination of protein and carbohydrates ratio of 4:1. A; high-carbohydrate food sources are eliminated from the diet. These high carbohydrate foods are starchy vegetables, fruits, grains, pasta and sugar.
The popularity of this diet as a means of controlling epilepsy decreased in succeeding decades with the advent of anticonvulsant drugs. Most patients and health care givers found it easier to administer pills than to adhere to the strict ketogenic diet. However, there are still a few who offered and used the diet as a treatment option, like at the Johns Hopkins Medical and a few other medical centers.
In the mid-1990s, there was a resurfacing in the interest on the ketogenic diet as a management option for epilepsy. Film producer Jim Abrahams had a 2-year old son who suffered from a seizure disorder. The child underwent treatment, which included the ketogenic diet. The seizures were successfully controlled after adhering to this diet. Because of the success, the family founded The Charlie Foundation. It helped fund research on ketogenic diet. A made-for-television movie in 1997, First Do No Harm, helped make the public more aware of this diet as a form of treatment. Since then, there was a renewed scientific interest on how to improve the diet and its possible other uses.
last word
A high fat diet can be healthier. It depends on the type and source of fats. Clean saturated fats in the diet in addition to keeping the carbohydrate consumption low improve the body’s fat profile. This diet raises the HDL (good cholesterol) levels and lowers the triglyceride levels. This type of fat profile is linked to increased protection against heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.
