Understanding the Keto Diet and its Benefits

Joe Arrigo is a respected Northern California executive who works with Modis in ensuring that corporate staffing requirements are fully met. Fitness-focused, Joe Arrigo works out several times a week and strives to stay healthy throughout maintaining a ketogenic diet.

According to a recent Harvard Health blog article, the extremely low-carb keto diet is one that starves cells of blood sugar, which is derived from carbohydrates, and results in stored fat being broken down into ketone bodies. These ketone bodies are then used as a way of generating energy until carbs are consumed again.

This shift to ketosis typically occurs after a period of two to four days, in which carbs totaling between 20 and 50 grams are consumed. Restrictive and challenging to follow in the long term, the keto diet incorporates abundant fats and proteins. These encompass nuts, fish, eggs, meat, oils, seeds, cheese, and high-fiber vegetables.

While conclusive studies are still lacking, research into the ketogenic diet has revealed that it generates faster weight loss than Mediterranean diets and traditional low-fat diets, though this advantage evens out over time. In addition, the keto diet is important in helping patients with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar and it seems to have neuroprotective effects such as decreasing seizures in children.

Research-Proven Benefits of the Keto Diet

A resident of Orangevale, California, Joe Arrigo serves as the resource development manager at Sacramento-based Modis. Aside from his professional responsibilities, Joe Arrigo enjoys living a healthy lifestyle by weightlifting regularly and following a keto diet.

The keto diet focuses on clean protein sources, healthy fats, low-glycemic fruits, and an abundance of vegetables, and provides a number of research-proven health benefits. Some of the most significant positive results seen by following the diet include reduced inflammation and stabilized blood sugar levels, according to research published in a 2016 Journal of Nutrition article which investigated the effects of various diets on inflammatory markers in metabolic patients.

Since the body is stimulated into burning fat while on the keto diet, followers experience improvements in blood lipid levels and accelerated weight loss, according to multiple research studies. As the body’s cells shift to burning fat rather than sugars as their primary energy source, the cells replace weak and old mitochondria with younger and stronger mitochondria, which enables the body to produce energy more efficiently. Those following the keto diet not only feel more energetic, but also experience benefits including an improved rate of healing, enhanced mental clarity, and clearer skin, to name a few.