The ketogenic diet (or keto diet, for short) is a low-carb, high-fat diet that offers many health benefits.
In fact, over 20 studies show that this type of diet can help you lose weight and improve your health.
Ketogenic diets may even have benefits against diabetes, cancer, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. Here is a detailed beginner's guide to the keto diet.
My husband lost 25 lbs on a semi-keto diet. Don't quite agree with the keto diet as it eliminates fruits which have a lot of vitamins and minerals. Also, legumes contain a lot of vitamins essential for PwP. Fava beans contain L-dopa and my husband eats a lot of them. All legumes contain natural L-dopa besides essential vitamins. Caloric restriction also works, intermittent fasting, with Mediterranean diet being the best for me/us.
We don't go out to restaurants any longer. They use wrong oils to cook/bake/grill non-organic meats and farmed raised fish/shellfish, foods that are not recommended. Also, their vegetables are not organic. I buy and cook only organic/grass fed beef, lamb, and free range chicken. If I find a restaurant with an organic menu, I would be going there to eat every day. 
I have been following my mother's steps--cooking everything from scratch as that's the way we do it in my homeland.
PS. I have maintained my weight for as long as I can remember myself--95 lbs since the age of 18. As a kid, I was skinny and didn't have an appetite.
Despe, I"m interested in the fava beans that your husband eats. Are they canned, or do you cook the dried or fresh favas? Approximately how much does he eat and does he think they lessen his PD symptoms? Thanks.
HeartSong, my sister mails dry fava beans from Greece. I put them in water and I leave them overnight. Next day, I toss the water they were in, add fresh water (barely covering the beans) and boil them until they are soft. When we eat them, we add raw extra virgin olive oil. You can also order on line FoodToLive.com. Their product is edible without cooking, it's like eating nuts and they are delicious.
Fresh fava beans are best since they have more L-dopa, but these are only available in the spring time. Although they are very popular in Greece, I haven't been able to find them in the States.
My husband eats them almost every night mixing them with different nuts. Any food items that contain natural L-dopa help PwP. Fortunately, my husband's symptoms are still very mild, basically intermittent tremor and not frequent.
I admit to an increasing laziness with regards to proving my point with scads of data, but it is my opinion based on lengthy research that red meat and dairy should not be part of a healthy diet or at least minimized. I also have posted over and over that evidence as to why a ketogenic diet is helpful to people with neurodegenerative diseases is highly likely due to the fact that it increases the production of NAD+.
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My advice: It is better to eliminate or greatly reduce red meat and dairy AND processed foods like pasta and bread rather than go keto and eat bacon, eggs, and cheese.
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However, IF your goal is to lose weight, I whole heartedly agree there is simply no better way to lose weight and not feel hungry all the time.
My husband (the pwp) and I have started with a new nurse practitioner within the last couple of months. She is a big advocate of the APOE "diet" (I hate that word) which is supposed to help if you want to prevent Alzheimers. If you have genetic testing done, you will know your APOE numbers. (I'm a 3/4 - not good, my husband is 3/3 - good). We are both supposed to eat 55% of our calories in good carbs (fruits/vegs/grains), we vary a little in the percentage of protein and fat. This could NOT be further from a keto "diet." This could not be further from even paleo. This is NOT vegetarian/vegan. So who is right? I say everything is individual. We all process foods differently from a metabolic standpoint. My personal philosophy, if anyone cares, is eat real foods, the best quality you can buy. And, anything in moderation. Sorry for the rant - nutrition is a big issue for me.
And, BTW, sunvox, you might be interested in a book by John Douillard (ayervedic doc) called Eat Wheat that refutes a lot of the anti-wheat/gluten and dairy angst out there. Interesting read.
Hmm. I eat full-on keto. And there is a huge misconception out there: keto means tons of meat. That is not true. Keto is low carb and also LOW protein. It is high fat, and mostly high green vegetable. Low sugary fruit...but berries are OK, in moderation. Dairy is OK, meaning butter, double cream and high fat cheese. No milk. No casein, no lactose.
Keto is not as much a diet as it is a physiological state within your body. You can get there as a vegan, if you want. It's just kind of boring.
BTW one study changed that dairy association w/PD to low fat milk, not all dairy.
But even so, I put little stock in associative studies. It's like the red meat studies: they never separate out red meat and preserved, processed meat. How do they know that the people in the studies who eat more red meat aren't also the same kind of people who eat more junk food?
Here's I treat scientific research--until you come up with a plausible physiological mechanism to explain your results (they haven't, not for med diets or milk or dairy or vegan...but they HAVE for keto) I only put real faith in blinded, prospective studies (there aren't any.)
Amykp.
You are absolutely correct about the fact that there is a lot of misconception as it relates to Keto. Keto diet never said you have to eat just bacon and eggs - OK I eat a lot of bacon and eggs. My keto journey started with lots of salads with olive oil and vinegar, low carb (50 g or less), and about 122 g of protein, everything else is fat. Eating enough fat is the hardest part for me.
Now, I am basically eating paleo keto and cycling in an out several times a year with healthier carbs. I also do 24+ hours of fasting serveral times a year. Daily, I try not to eat anything between 8 PM and 10 am the next day.
I am in the best shape, health wise, since high school.
Mon
I have been unable to reach a level of ketosis where I might feel some effect of increased ketones. Using the strips, I am always in the low of the three purple ranges. Overall, it would seem to be an unsustainable way of life. If I could only reach that deep ketosis point and felt tons better, might I have the *strength* to stay on course. However, though I have been pretty good for this week,I saw some fruit, and ate 7-8 chunks that will no-doubt send me back over to glucose thereby blowing a weeks worth of Keto diet work. Am I wrong in thinking that to gain any long term functional benefit (I have Parkisons for 9 years), that I would need to be in ketosis constantly for the remainder of my life in order to gain some independence back and quality of life? BTW, I don’t need weight loss; I need to regain some functional movement and balance without relying so much on L-Dopa. Any one with practical ideas on this? Do the BHB siupplements work? Why do we say that Ketones are the PREFERRED fuel for mitochondria, when in fact glucose is. It seems to me that Ketones are emergency fuel.
All comments welcome.
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