Following a Ketogenic Diet Plan

What is the Ketogenic diet? It literally means a diet that makes ketones. When an eating plan is very low in carbohydrates and very high in fat, the body will break down fat for energy and produce chemicals called ketones. These Ketones are used by the body for energy and extras are excreted in the urine.

First developed in the early 1900s, and successfully used for the treatment of seizures in children during the 20s and 30s, the Ketogenic diet was then gradually forgotten as new anticonvulsant medications were developed. Strangely however, most drugs used today to cure seizures were discovered to have anti-epileptic properties by chance. We have used these drugs with great benefit for years without really knowing how they work. The Ketogenic diet has recently been rediscovered and is achieving increasingly widespread use. Its modern day role as alternative management for children with difficult-to-control epilepsy is currently being redefined.

What does the Ketogenic Diet do? The diet was designed to simulate many of the metabolic effects of starvation. It has long been believed that starvation, drinking only water for 10 to 20 or more days, results in the control of seizures for prolonged periods of time. During starvation, the body first uses up glucose and glycogen, then begins to burn the stored body fat. When there is not sufficient glucose left, fats cannot be completely burned and Ketone is left, as the residue of incompletely burned fat. The Ketogenic diet provides fat from outside the body for the body to burn but limits the available carbohydrate so that the Ketone builds up. It is the high level of these ketones, which appear to suppress seizures.

The Ketogenic diet has been fairly successful for treating children with epilepsy. Doctors often ask parents to try the diet for at least one month and even as long as two or three, if it's not working at first. About a third of the children who try the Ketogenic diet become seizure free, or almost seizure free. Another third improve but still have some seizures. The rest either do not respond at all or find it too hard to continue with the diet, either because of side effects or because they can't tolerate the food. One interesting side benefit of the Ketogenic diet is that many parents say their children are more alert and make more progress when on the diet, even if seizures continue.

Need help losing weight? Try the diet forums

Diet Plans