How the keto diet helped a Malaysian family tackle health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and anxiety, and lose weight in the process
- The Farooq family say that following a high-fat, very-low-carb keto diet for several years has improved or reversed their individual medical issues
- They find that following a diet of ‘real foods’ is a joy rather than a sacrifice – with added bonuses like the father and son losing a combined 50kg between them
The table is brimming with food at the Farooq household in the Petaling Jaya suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There is creamy spinach, broccoli, cauliflower rice, beef and chicken for Sunday lunch – and seated around the table are Norah Mohammed Khir, her mother Chan Yoke Yen, husband Mohammed Farooq and son Azran Farooq.
The point of the keto diet is to reduce the intake of carbs drastically and replace it with fats which put the body into a metabolic state of ketosis, allowing it to burn fat for energy instead of carbs.
On the keto diet, only 20 to 50 grams (0.7 to 1.8 ounces) of net carbs per day are allowed. Typical keto foods are meat, fish, cheese, full fat yogurt, healthy fats such as avocado oil and coconut oil, non-starchy vegetables, berries – but no fruit.
Khir was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2003 and was prescribed medication. Her blood sugar levels continued to creep up, and she developed “type one-and-a-half diabetes”, also called Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (Lada).
“I tried to follow doctor’s orders like eating whole grain, fruit and vegetables, but whenever I had carbs, my blood sugar went very high and I would get the shakes and become tired and lethargic,” says Khir, a mathematics teacher.
