The ketogenic diet is a very low carb, high fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low carb diets. It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ketogenic-diet-101

Normally carbohydrates in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is important in fueling brain function. But if little carbohydrate remains in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies, the latter passing into the brain and replacing glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood (a state called ketosis) eventually lowers the frequency of epileptic seizures https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet

Around half of children and young people with epilepsy who have tried some form of this diet saw the number of seizures drop by at least half, and the effect persists after discontinuing the diet.[2] Some evidence shows that adults with epilepsy may benefit from the diet and that a less strict regimen, such as a modified Atkins diet, is similarly effective. Side effects may include constipation, high cholesterol, growth slowing, acidosis, and kidney stones https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet

A keto diet may be helpful with control of epilepsy and for weight loss, but it is unhealthy re:cardiovascular disease and the immune system (alters gut bacteria that has a negative effect on the immune system). We all need probiotics + prebiotics (soluble fiber, best supplied by root vegetables) to bolster our immune systems.

"Those people seeking long-term weight loss, the ketogenic diet is not super sustainable."- Doctor Mike.

A lot of people are surprised that when they start the ketogenic diet, that they loss weight very quickly, but that's a little misleading because the majority of weight loss initially comes from water loss, not fat loss.

The Standards American Diet consists of 35% of fats, 15% of proteins and 50% of carbs. In ketogenic diet you can find quite different with 60% being fats, 35% being proteins and only 5% being carbs.

Ketogenic diet (KD) is calculated to produce ketosis depending on the ratio of fat to protein and carbohydrate, by weight. The foods chosen to implement KD menus necessarily impact health. The paper I was privileged to work on (1) describes the healthful anti-seizure diet I fine-tuned and implemented for my daughter over a period of 20 years. The majority of the calories of this diet are derived from dairy fat. The health of the colon is thus supported by buterate, which is the preferred fuel of the epithelial cells of the colon, accounting for ~70% of their total energy. In non-ketogenic diets, butyrate is derived mainly from the bacterial fermentation of carbohydrate in the colon; hence, under the condition of carbohydrate restriction required to maintain the steady production of ketone bodies, ghee (clarified butter) is the most readily available, most abundant source of this beneficial molecule. Named for its prevalence in butter, and present in milk fat at ~2% - 5% by weight, butyric acid inhibits histone deacetylases that affect gene regulation, immune modulation, cancer suppression, cell differentiation, intestinal barrier regulation, oxidative stress reduction, diarrhea control, visceral sensitivity, and intestinal motility (2). The beneficial synergy of butyric acid and the ketone body beta-hydroxybuterate has been studied (3).

1. Yuen AWC, Walcutt IA, Sander JW. An acidosis-sparing ketogenic (ASK) diet to improve efficacy and reduce adverse effects in the treatment of refractory epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2017 Sep;74:15-21.

2. Leonel AJ, Alvarez-Leite JI. Butyrate: implications for intestinal function. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metabol Care. 2012;15(5):474-79.

3. Cavaleri F, Bashar E. Potential synergies of beta-hydoxybutyrate and butyrate on the modulation of metabolism, inflammation, cognition, and general health. J Nutr Metab. 2018.

Apart from managing epilepsy, ketogenic diet is being used by many people to reduce their weights. Replacement of carbohydrates with fats may put a person in to risks of contacting conditions such as low blood pressure and some dangerous heart conditions. Carbohydrates being essential for some body functions, it's deficiency may lead to some abnormalities in the human body systems.

The medical literature covers ketogenic dietary treatments, while researchers probe the mechanisms whereby ketosis supports compromised metabolism. For example, on the one hand, according to the Glut 1 Foundation, there is currently no cure for Glucose 1 Transporter Deficiency: "treatment is aimed at controlling symptoms … the current standard of care is the ketogenic diet" while, on the other hand, there is "breaking news"- not yet peer-reviewed - of ketogenesis and COVID (see Ryu S. "Ketogenesis restrains aging-induced exacerbation of COVID in a mouse model." htps://www.biorxiv.)

The keto diet could cause low blood pressure, nutrient deficiencies, increased risk of heart disease, kidney stones, and constipation. Keto is not safe for patients with compromised conditions involving their pancreas, liver, kidneys and/or cardiovascular system.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/

Re Yuen AWC, Walcutt IA, Sander JW. An acidosis-sparing ketogenic (ASK) diet to improve efficacy and reduce adverse effects in the treatment of refractory epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2017 Sep;74:15-21.

I am working on a paper demonstrating that the ASK diet is nutritionally complete.