Imagine you look at yourself in the mirror and you see all your flaws staring right back at you. Maybe you gained only a bit of weight and you’re not as skinny as you used to be, but you can’t ignore it. It commands your attention. You feel like everything you are doing is wrong, there’s a voice in your head telling you that you’re going to mess up and that you are such a loser. That’s your insecurity. It’s that same insecurity that will come and repeatedly tell you that to the point where you feel worthless.The more you try to ignore it, the more attention it begs for. You don’t want to look at who you’ve become, a freak that weighs more than they should, let alone feel like you are worthless anymore. You start to think maybe there’s something wrong with you. You’ve had enough. You want change. You want better. You look at yourself in the mirror one more time. This time not with disgust for the lesser you, the you that isn’t skinny, that has flabby muscles, a belly that sticks out making you look pregnant, but with determination, to see the better you, the you that is skinny, that is in shape with toned muscles, visible abs and and excess amount of confidence. You have that fire, that determination to strive for change, to strive for better. That’s how you started your new diet, the keto diet.
Maybe you don’t even have to imagine this scenario. Maybe something similar has already happened or is already in the midst of happening to you. That’s how my uncle David felt when he decided it was time to be the better version of himself, to start a diet and to lose weight. He, like most, wanted to be a better version of himself. He wanted self-improvement. And like most, he wanted it fast. I remember recently, my uncle told my family that he wanted to lose weight and that he’s trying this new diet trend called the ketogenic diet, or keto diet for short. Most of us didn’t know what he was referring to, so he explained it to us. A few weeks later, we saw him again and he actually lost a noticeable amount of weight. We were all shocked to say the least. We all thought that fat makes you fat, but he just proved to us otherwise. Then my dad brought up an interesting question. How safe is the diet? This question got me wondering the same thing. At this point, I was curious as to know if it was actually healthy. I felt scared for my uncle because I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. I wanted to learn more about keto so that I wouldn’t fear it anymore. I wanted to know more about the scientific aspects behind the diet, about the ketogenic process. All this thinking leads me to the following question. Are diets healthy and effective means to lose unwanted weight?
To learn more, I started from the very beginning and asked myself, what is the Keto Diet? The simple answer, it’s just a diet. And like any other diet, it has restrictions for what you can and can’t eat. What exactly is it though that you can no longer eat? The answer is actually surprising. It’s not to limit your fat intake, actually, it’s to increase it. Essentially, the keto diet reduces your carbohydrate intake, until the smell of your favourite baguette fresh out the bakery turns into a vague memory, and replacing it with fat, delicious, mouth watering, succulent fat. Your diet should consist of 60 to 80 percent of your calories coming from juicy and fatty foods, like everyone’s favourite breakfast crispy bacon, 20 percent coming from every muscle heads favourite thing, PROTEIN, and only a small 10 percent should come from carbs. This is all to achieve ketosis, which can take anywhere from two to four days to actually start. Only when you reach ketosis is when you start to lose weight. But, what is ketosis? Ketosis is like a hybrid car. When it runs out of gas, it switches to electricity. When you reduce the amount of carbs you intake, your main energy source is gone, so your body utilizes your reserves of ketones instead, which are compounds the liver creates from fat when the blood is low on insulin.
The Keto Diet sounds so cool right? I mean, what type of sicko wouldn’t want to eat crispy bacon that with every crunch creates a symphony as it crackles with every bite for breakfast, salty, fatty dripping bacon that instantly lifts your spirits, as if you were being lifted away by food angels into a euphoric food coma for lunch and even more mouth watering, juicy bacon for supper? Probably vegetarians, but besides them who? Not many people that I know of. The Keto diet seems like every foodies fantasy diet, but what does it really do? What are the effects it has on our body? The Keto diet actually has some nasty side effects. According to MensHealth.com, the risks associated with the keto diet are worse than usual breath, so if you suffer from bad breath already, it’s going to be even worse for whoever talks to you, the smell of a decomposing corpse escaping with every syllable that exits your mouth. Also there’s diarrhea, an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes and the Keto Flu, which affects 25% of people who try the keto diet. Symptoms include vomiting, gastrointestinal distress, a lot of fatigue, and lethargy. It sounds worse than it actually is. In reality, it’s not even a flu and it tends to pass within a couple of days because your body just needs to make that transition into ketosis. Although it has its bad sides, and bad breath standing atop it all, the good outweighs the bad. After all, the Keto Diet is very popular for a reason.
But, what makes it so popular? What’s with all this hype surrounding the Keto diet anyways? The answer is simple. It’s because it works. Not only does it work, it works well. If the Keto Diet only had one job, it would be the Bill Gates of what it does. That job is weight loss. When it comes to weight loss, “There is no question that ketosis does work in the short,” according to Men’s Health. The Keto Diet also has a lot of benefits such as it reduces seizures in children who suffer from epilepsy, reduced hunger and cravings and promotes the loss of water weight. The diet also has been shown to improve blood sugar control for patients with type 2 diabetes, at least in the short term. Weight loss is the main reason most people start the diet. But according to The Harvard Health Publishing, “that difference in weight loss seems to disappear over time.” But things start to be more complicated and controversial when the effect on cholesterol levels is considered. A few studies show some patients have increased cholesterol levels in the beginning, only to see cholesterol fall a few months later. All this considered, the Keto diet has proven to be very effective when it comes to losing weight faster than the Flash can run around the world. Yet, the Keto diet still lacks the proper long term studies and is like a bad choice, we don’t fully understand its long term effects until much later. This is why Marcelo Campos, a primary care doctor at Harvard Vanguard, suggests that people embrace a more sustainable diet rather than trying the next cool trends, since these more sustainable diets have been proven to lead to a longer, healthier, vibrant life.
All this talk about the safety of diets raises more questions. Why do people continue to partake in these diets that lack proper long term studies? Why are so many people obsessed with the fastest ways to lose weight? The Keto Diet has the amazing ability to contribute to weight loss, but it’s just like every other fad diet. Before this came the Atkins diet, and before that came the Paleo Diet. Why are people in such a need to lose weight fast? People just want to be better, they want to improve, and they want to be happier with the person that looks back at them every time they look in a mirror. But at the same time why does this need to attain this perfect image we have of ourselves exist? And where does it stem from? It may be because people want to fit in with everyone else. Perhaps, everyone wants to be the ideal slim and fit person that the media, the same media that distributes these new fad diets, imposes on us.
At the end of the day, it’s not about the who, what or why of it all, it will always be about you, and your desire to be a better version of yourself; self-improvement. When you see all the hard work and effort you put in, all those extra pounds that once went to your stomach, now grinded away, those flabby arms, now toned and that once heavy feeling of insecurity that loomed over you, that never leaves your side like a shadow, has now vanished with this new bright ray of sunshine from your newfound confidence and self love, it’s in that moment that you’re met with a euphoric sensation, that hugs every inch of your body, from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. You begin to realize why so many people are hooked, like a hungry fish on a fisherman’s line, to the feeling of being that better version of themselves. Maybe there’s a lot more to all this. Maybe I’m oversimplifying things. Maybe there’s a lot more than meets the eye. But regardless, one of the best feelings in the world is being a better person, and that’s undeniable. Change starts with you and to quote the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways.”
Work Cited
Campos, Marcelo. “Ketogenic Diet: Is the Ultimate Low-Carb Diet Good for You?” Harvard Health Blog, 30 July 2019, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/ketogenic-diet-is-the-ultimate-low-carb-diet-good-for-you-2017072712089.
Matthews, Melissa, et al. “Thinking of Trying Keto? Here’s What to Know.” Men’s Health, 21 Oct. 2019, www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a19530409/ketogenic-ketosis-diet-for-beginners/.
“Michael Jackson – Man in the Mirror.” Genius, 16 Jan. 1988, genius.com/Michael-jackson-man-in-the-mirror-lyrics.
Steiber, Mia, et al. “8 Fad Diets and How They Work: Finder Canada.” Finder CA, 14 Feb. 2020, www.finder.com/ca/best-fad-diets-weight-loss.
Preiato, Daniel. “Does Keto Work for Weight Loss?” Healthline, Healthline Media, 13 Nov. 2019, www.healthline.com/nutrition/does-keto-work.
MacMillan, Amanda, and Amanda MacMillan. “7 Dangers of Going Keto.” Health.com, www.health.com/weight-loss/keto-diet-side-effects.
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