Module 11 Written Assignment - Evaluating Diets.

A ketogenic diet is one that is describes as being low in carbohydrates, adequate in protein, and high in fat in order to increase the level of circulating ketone bodies, but nonrestrictive in total energy consumption (Urbain et al., 2017). The purpose of this is to move the body away from a fuel source of carbohydrates to the fuel source of burning fat and ketones instead, being used as a weight-loss diet in the media lately. The nutritional breakdown of the keto diet is to keep carbohydrate intake at or below 10% of total calorie intake and to increase fat intake to 60% or more of total calories. Protein recommendations are that they stay within range of the RDA without exceeding. However, even though lean protein is not discriminated against, there does tend to be a focus on proteins that are high in fat as well, such as beef, pork, and bacon (Harvard Health, 2018). In a 6-week study of a keto diet where blood parameters were checked, after the 6 weeks, there was an increase in LDL levels for participants, however, lipoprotein subclasses were not assessed, it is undetermined in this particular study if the keto diet has an atherogenic risk (Urbain et al., 2017).