The Keto Diet Isn’t New: It’s Just Improved

The Ketogenic diet is one of the most ancient diets in existence.  While it isn’t new, because of the foods available today and ease of going to a fresh produce grocery store and purchasing what you need, it has really improved. The diet was actually discovered by the Ancient Greeks at a time when there wasn’t the same refrigeration, preservatives, or other impacts to food.  The wisdom of the Ancient Greeks contributed to philosophy, literature, and astronomy, while establishing the first guidelines for fasting and dieting with help from Natures Rise blog post. By exploring the effects of restrictive dieting, they discovered they could treat a variety of health-related issues by modifying the foods consumed.

Forging ahead to the 1920s, physicians introduced the ketogenic diet as a broader treatment option for epilepsy. For decades, the Keto diet has been widely approved and used to reduce the number of seizures a person has, as well as the severity of those same seizures in children. Once anti-epileptic drugs were discovered, the keto diet took a backseat to the drug-based options; however, nowadays, it remains a viable alternative for physicians looking for additional means to control health-related challenges.

Despite new medical marvels, a wide variety of people, (and their physicians), have returned to the Ketogenic diet as a preferred lifestyle choice. Today, the Ketogenic diet is used not only for specific health conditions, but also for weight management because diets such as this fulfill a need without taking away from a rigorous lifestyle. If you decide to try Ketogenic diet, you may need to research what kinds of food you should include in your diet like keto bbq sauce. For board-certified physician of internal medicine, Dr. John Limansky MD, that need is proactive healthcare.

“My goal is to revolutionize health care by going back to the basic building blocks which constitute health,” he says. “By taking simple steps such as modifying diet, exercising, incorporating stress reduction, improving sleep and focusing on meditation among other techniques, many of the diseases afflicting our society may be reversed. My ultimate goal is to practice health care instead of sick care.”

Dr. John is a practicing physician who believes in the combination of personal responsibility and modern medicine. He is a proactive doctor who believes in health care not sick care. In other words, he strongly believes that when we take ownership of our health, we suffer from far fewer illnesses.  The Ketogenic diet is just one tool in his toolkit – but a very important one at that.

As a greater focus extends to diet and nutrition, as people we are emphasizing the  wisdom of the Ancient Greeks by finding sustainable means of healthy living through diet and exercise. For decades, the ketogenic diet has offered a solution to multiple illnesses – from epilepsy to diabetes – but at the same time, it also affords us a type of “insurance policy” for healthy living. Recent clinical trials have proven that the Ketogenic diet has a definite, innate impact on the reduction of seizures in children who did not respond well to anti-epileptic drugs (AED). That same report noted that “over the course of three months, 40% of children who began the diet displayed a reduction in the number of seizures by over one half and were able to reduce their medication.”

Researchers have also discovered that the diet can be used as a treatment for other conditions, including diabetes. Diabetes is growing at an alarming rate.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2017 report, noted that researchers discovered that “over 100 million Americans are living with diabetes or prediabetes today.” For those that don’t know this, prediabetes is a condition that often involves insulin resistance. When untreated, prediabetes can lead to type 2 diabetes over a five-year period. The best way to control prediabetes – and diabetes – is through proper nutrition and diet.

“A ketogenic diet enables us to relearn what it means to be hungry instead of simply craving foods. As the levels of diabetes and insulin resistance in our society continue on an upward trend, we need to radically change our approach and our understanding of nutrition’s’ importance in combating these epidemics. Keto is one such tool in which I believe is sustainable and allows for eating high-quality tasty foods,” Dr. John Limansky adds.