Advertisement
Keto diet only works for a week before problem that can cause obesity and diabetes appears, study on mice shows
- Research from Yale University suggests benefits of eating a high-fat, low-carb diet may be time-limited
- After a week on the diet, the body starts replenishing its stores of fat faster than they can be burned, the study indicates. A follow-up human study is needed
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
If the start of the new year led you to go on the ketogenic diet in an effort to lose weight, a new study suggests you may have been on it a little too long.
Researchers at Yale University in the United States have conducted a study on mice to review the effects of the keto diet. They discovered that beyond a week, the benefits begin to cease.
The study was recently published in Nature Metabolism and results indicate that over a limited time period, consuming a high-fat, low-carb diet can possibly offer health benefits to humans, Yale News reports. They include lowering the risk of diabetes and inflammation.
The diet’s positive effects are related to cells called gamma delta T-cells, immune cells that protect the tissue and lower the risk of diabetes and inflammation. However, the same cells are also tied to negative effects of the keto diet.
Vishwa Deep Dixit, lead author of the study, who is a professor of comparative medicine and immunology at the Yale School of Medicine, says the keto diet tricks the body into burning fat. The body acts as if it’s in starvation mode when the low consumption of carbohydrates causes glucose levels to drop.
Advertisement