It may seem complicated, but behind this name that sounds like onomatopoeia, lies a diet based on a good knowledge of metabolism and common sense.
The keto (or ketogenic) diet appeared in the 1920s. And not at all for reasons of weight, diabetes or any other nutritional reason.
A discovery due to chance!
Doctors at the time, seeking to alleviate the symptoms of epileptic children, made several attempts based more on intuition and logic than on specific studies. They first had them follow a period of fasting, which was inconclusive, before putting them on a sugar-free diet. Thus, over the years, the results were increasingly convincing, and the medical profession recognized a very clear improvement in 50 children subject to more than 200 seizures per month. At the end of a ketogenic diet, an alleviation of symptoms in more than 50% of the children was observed. Better still, after a year of the diet, approximately 30% of the children benefited from a reduction in the number of seizures of approximately 90%. To this day, the keto diet is still recommended for people suffering from epilepsy, but it is also increasingly offered to people with structurally high blood sugar or in the prevention of a large number of metabolic diseases but also cancers (cancer cells love glucose...). Further back in the history of nutrition, we find the work of Dr. Wilhelm Ebstein who in 1892 proposed a diet low in sugar and rich in good fats (no white sugar, bread or potatoes) because he had observed the presence of sugar in the urine of diabetics. Synthetic insulin would be discovered some 30 years later…
Keto = ketogenic
Eating according to the rules of the ketogenic diet simply means opting for a diet in which the amount of sugar has significantly melted. To go even further, "ketogenic" comes from the word "ketosis" which describes a metabolic state in which the body uses fat more as fuel rather than sugar. However, this state is the one we had originally, the muscles being naturally made to consume fatty acids as a priority. The brain, in a metabolism put on a "ketosis" diet, is capable of going from consuming 100% of the glucose present in the body to consuming 20% of it. The whole history of the ketogenic diet comes from the observation of the blood sugar level. This being dependent on hormonal secretions capable on their own of raising or lowering blood sugar, especially after a meal that is a little too sweet. The match is between insulin and glucagon, two hormones secreted by the pancreas and whose functions oppose each other in a permanent quest for homeostasis, the perfect balance of all metabolic functions.
Concretely, what is keto?
A true diet in the strict sense of the term and… its application. By severely limiting the amount of sugar absorbed, the body is put into a state of ketosis and the presence of ketone bodies (acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetone) produced by the liver can be observed. This measure comes from the fact that we have changed energy expenditure, a bit like switching from gasoline to electric. The same way of functioning but by powering the car with another fuel. Be careful, a healthy person who voluntarily puts themselves into a state of ketosis by following a keto diet has nothing in common with a diabetic person in a state of ketoacidosis whose amount of ketone bodies is unbalanced. To become a keto "practitioner", we ultimately follow common sense. 2.5 million years ago, man naturally followed a ketogenic diet by eating plants found at random during his harvests. He was just starting to eat animal proteins from hunting and fishing. Sugar had no place in his diet... and for good reason, in nature (a forest for example) there are hardly any sources of sugar, fruit crops having been imported by the colonists from the 16th century.
Keto, common sense!
It is therefore logical that to follow his instinctive, original and balanced diet, man seeks rather to get closer to the ketogenic trend. As specified by Nelly and Ulrich Génisson, authors of Bonjour Kéto published by Marabout, "For 60 years, we have been faced with hyper-choice which imposes a new constraint on us to survive: learning to make the right choices!" Faced with shelves ever richer in processed foods, enriched more than reason with salt, sugar and fat, with sometimes misleading nutritional claims, consumers are lost. And what if to find ourselves all we had to do was take a Clean Eating approach, by adopting the ketogenic diet? Why not, as it seems to be in affinity with our roots. "Common sense is to realize that we have gone too far, and sometimes take a step back to find a solid base that I summarize as what nature has planned for us " insists Ulrich Génisson.
Returning to nutritional ketosis means reconnecting with the fundamentals: raw, healthy foods made with good fats, the opposite of the diet of our modern societies where sugar reigns supreme, to the great displeasure of nutritionists and diabetologists. Small downside, before embarking on a keto diet, we take stock of our cholesterol, the good health of our liver and kidneys. Ketosis is a balance that must be achieved on healthy bases and always with the advice of your doctor.
