Although many misconceptions about the ketogenic diet have long since been widely and widely outdated by science, so-called 'nutrition experts' continue to make the same fallacies.
It remains fascinating and yet also quite frustrating to see these 'experts' stumbling over each other to give their opinions on eating and lifestyles that differ from their standard 'Disc of Five'.
This is no different with the keto diet, as evidenced by a recent news article about the famous top chef Sergio Herman, who swears by a keto diet without carbohydrates.
In the article, an 'expert' from the diet department of the University Hospital Antwerp speaks. A professor of Nutrition and Health will also speak.
These are people who you might expect to be able to make a nuanced judgment about a particular way of eating.
But is it?
You might guess.... No. In the article of Algemeen Dagblad there are quite a few indiscriminate statements about the ketogenic diet.
So it's time to take some of the statements from the newspaper article about the ketogenic diet and see what's missing.
Verdict 1:
"You can eat a lot of high-fat products such as butter, cream, meat and avocado. Protein intake remains limited."
This is a limited and too concise summary of a keto diet.
As you may already know, we at Keto.nl are in favour of a nutritiously varied ketogenic diet based on unprocessed, natural nutrition.
A look at our Ultimate Keto Nutrition List teaches you that a ketogenic diet is more than butter, cheese and eggs.
Also, the statement that protein consumption is restricted is not necessarily true. Compared to a standard Western diet, a ketogenic diet even contains more protein.
A standard Western diet consists of about 50% carbohydrates, 35% fat and 15% protein. A ketogenic diet can consist of up to 25% protein.
If you get 25% of your calories from protein on a daily basis, you can't speak of a protein-limiting diet.
A balanced ketogenic diet therefore consists of much more than just butter, cream, meat and avocado and it is NOT necessarily protein limiting!
Verdict 2:
"After all, there is a risk that the body will be poisoned by an excessive accumulation of ketones. Ketoacidosis can also occur in patients who do not yet know they have diabetes. Typical symptom is that their breath then smells like apples or acetone. Or they get a sleepy feeling and or even loss of consciousness."
The argument about ketoacidosis is a well-known recurring guest in many articles that criticize the ketogenic diet. We have debunked it before, but will explain again why the above assumption is wrong.
Ketosis and ketoacidosis are two completely different states.
Accumulation of ketones is only possible in individuals who have type 1 diabetes or a form of diabetes where insulin sensitivity is completely impaired.
For people without type 1 diabetes and without other insulin problems, it is virtually impossible to get ketoacidosis. This is because insulin, the hormone that regulates your sugar levels, also regulates the presence of ketones in the blood.
In other words, insulin causes fewer ketones to be produced. Because of this, you'll never get too many ketones in your blood. Ketoacidosis is therefore excluded.
The whole story about possible ketone poisoning can therefore go to waste!
Verdict 3:
"It happens that, in the absence of glucose, the body will get its energy from the digestion of muscle mass. Then you lose muscle instead of fat. That's not going to be told."
With any diet where you go into a calorie deficit to lose weight, you may lose muscle mass. This is not just the case with a ketogenic diet.
The striking thing is that a ketogenic diet protects muscle mass in the longer term! In our extensive article on ketosis, we discuss this natural reason of ketosis and why your body produces ketones to protect muscles:
In prehistoric times, there were no 24-hour petrol pumps where our ancestors could score a bus of Pringles in cases of acute food shortage and desperation.
So it sometimes happened that they ran out of food for a longer period of time. And at such times, the mechanism of ketosis ensured that they did not digest their valuable muscles, but that the fat reserves were first used, in order to survive longer without food.
This survival mechanism in which the body appeals to fat reserves is so effective that people who are severely overweight can survive for a very long time without actually eating, provided under medical supervision.
The most famous example of this is Angus Barbieri, a 27-year-old Scot, who weighed about 205 kilos.
After he had fasted for 382 (!) days, under medical supervision, he had lost a whopping 126 kilos. You read it right, he hadn't eaten in over a year.
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