Ketogenic Diet Shows Long-Lasting Impacts on Metabolic Health

By Irene Yeh

The ketogenic diet has gained popularity for weight loss and managing conditions, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. There have also been speculations that a ketogenic diet can improve metabolic health. Researchers from the University of Utah investigated the long-term effects of the ketogenic diet and the impact it may have on an individual’s metabolic health.

The ketogenic diet is a very low-carbohydrate, very high-fat diet that is designed to induce ketosis, a state of increased ketone body production. Ketone bodies are produced mainly from the liver when glucose and insulin levels are low and are meant to act as an alternative brain fuel source. In their study, published in Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adx2752), the research team gave mice—split between male and female groups—and divided them into one of four diets: a high-fat Western diet, a low-fat high-carbohydrate diet, a classic ketogenic diet, and a protein-matched low-fat diet. The mice were allowed to eat as much as they wanted over a period of nine months or longer. They were monitored for body weight, food intake, blood fat profiles, liver fat accumulation, and blood sugar and insulin levels.

The results showed that the ketogenic diet successfully prevented weight gain in both sexes compared to the high-fat Western diet, and mice that were on the ketogenic diet maintained much lower body weights. However, the mice on the ketogenic diet also developed severe metabolic complications, with symptoms showing up in only days.

“If you have a really high-fat diet, the lipids have to go somewhere, and they usually end up in the blood and the liver,” said Amandine Chaix, assistant professor of nutrition and integrative physiology at University of Utah Health and senior author of the study, in a press release. The male mice developed severe fatty live and had worse liver functions, which is typically associated with obesity, while the female mice did not. The team will conduct further investigations into why this is the case.

There were also findings that the ketogenic diet may damage blood sugar regulation. Because of the low-carbohydrate intake, the pancreases of the mice were not producing enough insulin. The high levels of fat also distressed the pancreas cells, which resulted in impaired blood sugar regulation. However, the effects were reversed once the mice were taken off the ketogenic diet.

While this study was conducted on mice, it provides insight into the long-lasting impact of ketogenic diets. The diet has some benefits, but there are also detrimental effects that can lead to even worse conditions.