Hello and welcome back to Ask Dr Hazel are many episodes that drop each week. I'm your host Dr Hazel and I'll be answering all your burning questions.

So let's jump into this week's question.

I would like to ask a question about the keto or low carb hyphat diet.

I am wondering now if the keto diet is really for everyone or if there are some people to whom it may do more damage than good.

And increase their cholesterol or even cause non fatty liver syndrome.

I did read that it is normal that the lipogenic profile of the liver can change on the keto diet.

But I'm wondering if it's safe or even worth it.

And can you achieve similar fat loss goals on a more balanced diet that includes eating carbohydrates?

Thank you.

Thank you for your question. I'm going to answer this quite generically and remind you that the information provided here on the podcast should never be.

Take it as individual medical advice or replace that of your usual health care practitioner.

So firstly let's just talk about the ketogenic diet.

The keto diet or the ketogenic diet is one form of a low carb diet.

But it's considered to be a very low carb diet in that it only includes five to 10% calories from carbs per day.

So that's about 20 to 50 grams per day.

The amount that you'd probably find in about two to three slices of bread compared to the 50% of calories from carbohydrates currently recommended in the public health recommendations for the general population.

It also includes moderate levels of protein with no restriction of fat.

This means this diet tends to be really high in foods like meats, lards, butter, cream, olive oil and other oils, avocado and woolly fish.

As a result the keto diet can end up being quite high in saturated fat and cholesterol and low in foods which we know are good for our health such as legumes, whole grains, fiber rich, start to vegetables and most fruits.

In terms of weight management the research shows that very low carbohydrate diets can suppress your appetite.

But they haven't been shown to be superior to other types of diets for weight loss and they can also be really difficult to maintain in the long term so they're not very sustainable.

In terms of their impact on cholesterol levels and cardiovascular health studies have shown mixed effects on cholesterol levels with some studies showing an increase.

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