“The ketogenic diet was developed as a treatment for epilepsy in 1924 by Dr Russell Wilder at the Mayo Clinic.
“Research has found the diet to be effective in reducing the frequency and severity of seizures in patients with severe epilepsy, but many people, including Hollywood’s A-list, have adopted the extreme diet for quick weight loss.
“The keto diet involves eating very small amounts of carbohydrates, medium amounts of protein and getting most of your daily kilojoules from fats.
“Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy. When we starve the body of carbs, ketone bodies (or ketones) are produced by the liver from fat, and used as fuel for the brain and body.
“So on a ketogenic diet, ketones replace carbs as the body’s main energy source, meaning it runs almost entirely on stored fat.”
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