Is the ketogenic diet bad for your cholesterol? Quite a lot of fats (butter, whipped cream, cheese, etc.) are used.
Patricia Schutte, nutritionist
The keto diet, also known as the ketogenic diet, is the strictest form of a low-carbohydrate diet. For example, people follow a ketogenic diet to lose weight or as part of the treatment of certain diseases such as epilepsy. You can take a maximum of 50 grams of carbohydrates per day.
How does the diet work?
Carbohydrates are an important source of energy for the body. When you eat (almost) no carbohydrates and you run out of supplies in the liver and muscles, your body switches to burning fatty acids to still have enough fuel. Your body goes into ‘ketosis’ by following a ketogenic diet. The burning of fatty acids creates ‘ketones’ or ‘ketone bodies’. Your body can use ketones for fuel instead of glucose from carbohydrates. If you take in less energy than you use, you will lose weight. When you follow the ketogenic diet to lose weight, you will lose weight quickly in the beginning. This is mainly loss of fluid, which is stimulated by ketosis.
Effects on Cholesterol
There are several effects of the ketogenic diet on cholesterol, research shows. This has several reasons. If you replace carbohydrate-rich products with animal products, a ketogenic diet is often high in fats and therefore often too high in saturated fat. Saturated fat is in fact a lot in fatty meat, full-fat dairy products (such as the butter and whipped cream from the example in the question) and full-fat cheese. Saturated fat raises the blood’s LDL cholesterol. Too high LDL cholesterol is not good for the blood vessels.
But there are also studies that show that the ketogenic diet has no effect or a positive effect on your cholesterol. This is probably because you lose weight when you follow a ketogenic diet. If you are overweight, weight loss can have a positive effect on your cholesterol. However, these studies show that people with a healthy weight actually get less good cholesterol levels when they follow a ketogenic diet with a lot of fats.
Other Diet Effects
The ketogenic diet is difficult to maintain, because you can eat so few carbohydrates. This makes it difficult to study the effects of the ketogenic diet on health, and therefore cholesterol, in the long term. We do not yet know what the effects of a ketogenic diet on weight and health in the long term are.
In addition, there are other caveats to the ketogenic diet. Because you also avoid many healthy carbohydrate-rich products, such as fruit and whole grains, you have a greater chance of deficiencies of certain B vitamins, fiber and iodine. And you miss the positive effects on your health of some carbohydrate-rich products. Whole-grain products, for example, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Help with a healthy diet
The Nutrition Center advises to follow the ketogenic diet only under the supervision of a doctor or dietician. They can assess whether this is safe and whether you are getting all the nutrients your body needs. They can also help you on your way to a healthy diet.
Do you also have a question? Then ask one of our experts. Always go to your doctor with urgent questions, the experts are not the right person for that. Nor do they make diagnoses. You can find the other conditions here.
Patricia Schutte has been working as an information officer at the Nutrition Center in The Hague for more than 25 years. She answers questions about healthy, sustainable and safe food.
