The ketogenic diet is a well-established dietary therapy for children with epilepsy that has been in use for over 30 years (1). The ketogenic diet can be used as a sole source of nutrition or combined with other food groups to provide a less restrictive form of the diet.
Ketogenic diets are considered safe and effective, especially for young children who have epilepsy. The diet should not be started without medical supervision because it requires careful monitoring and can quickly lead to serious side effects, such as vomiting or heart problems.
The main goal of the ketogenic diet is to keep carbohydrates low enough so that you get your body into a state called ketosis.
The human body produces ketone bodies in the liver after a very low sugar intake (2). When you eat lots of carbohydrates?the type of food that most people on the Standard American Diet (SAD) eat?your body tends to convert them to glucose, a type of sugar.
Ketosis is an alternate metabolic state where fat is the main source of fuel instead of sugar. If you're in ketosis, your body switches from using glucose as its primary source of energy to ketone bodies. Ketones are a more efficient energy source for your brain and heart, so your body uses them when glucose levels are low.
Keeping your carbohydrate intake low enough to get into ketosis can help you lose weight, lower your blood sugar levels, control your appetite, and reduce some types of seizures.
The ketogenic diet is a special high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that helps to control seizures in some people with epilepsy. The ketogenic diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose (sugar) for use as energy by the body's cells.
The diet was first used in the 1920s as an alternative to traditional therapy for epilepsy. Because the ketogenic diet is not an established medical treatment, it is commonly used by individuals with epilepsy as a way of controlling seizures. Its effectiveness in controlling seizures has been demonstrated using published research based on clinical trials that followed adults who were given this diet.
In these studies, the adults who were given this diet had between 20 and 70% fewer seizures and their seizures were less severe (3). The number of children who have tried the ketogenic diet has grown significantly over the past few years (4).
