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Science Weekly

Keto: what’s the science behind the diet?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.2938 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While other diet fads come and go, the ultra low carbohydrate Keto diet seems to endure. But as scientists begin to understand how the diet works, more is also being discovered about its risks. To find out more, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Javier Gonzalez, professor in the department of health at the University of Bath, with a special interest in personal nutrition. He explains how the diet works, what it could be doing to our bodies and what could really be behind the weight loss people experience while on it. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:43.6

There's certainly no shortage of fad diets being espoused on social media. But there's a few that remain fashionable

0:57.0

no matter what. One being the keto diet. I swear by the ketogenic diet. What is that? It's a diet

1:05.4

simple. It's just no sugar and no carbs. And what you force your body to do is instead of burning

1:10.6

sugar for fuel,

1:12.1

you start burning healthy fats. This low carb, high fat diet actually first became popular in the

1:18.4

1920s as a treatment for epilepsy. And while it's still used today to help manage epilepsy and now

1:25.5

type 2 diabetes, it's also become prevalent as a way to

1:29.5

lose weight. If you're thinking about doing the keto diet, I need to know this right now.

1:34.5

I lost four pounds last week eating pretty much this exact breakfast. Every day, it's packed with

1:39.7

protein and healthy fats. Here are the five best tips I can give you if you're going to start the ketogenic diet.

1:46.0

But as scientists begin to understand how the diet works, more evidence is emerging about some of the potential risks.

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