The Ketogenic Diet has exploded in popularity over the past few years, and can can you blame it? The idea of eating rich healthy foods, easily going 4-5 hours between meals, and not having to exercise to lose weight almost seems too good to be true. However, it’s not so new, and not so unique, and not as rare as you might think.

In the US, it’s acceptable to eat low calorie or low fat foods, eat unlimited carbohydrates, snack between meals, and occasionally participate in strenuous exercise that makes no difference. If you’ve traveled outside the US, you’ll know that our eating habits in the US are weird!

People in most countries around the world eat rich healthy foods, limit meals to three times a day, aren’t hungry or snack between meals, and keep exercise to a daily routine of walking, with some other activity thrown in for variety. France is a great example. The people of France have a healthier body weight, lower cholesterol, and lower incidents of heart disease than most people in the US, and regularly eat large amounts of fatty foods like cream, butter and cheese.  Why don’t the French…or Japanese…or Greeks get fat?

Well, it’s simple….they eat a certain proportion of carbs, proteins and fats in a day, they are taught this from a very young age, and it’s culturally normal to eat this way.

After 20 years of researching healthy eating habits and diets, the Paleolithic (“Paleo”) and Ketogenic (“Keto”) diets are my favorites, with Keto winning the race. 

For a more detailed comparison of the Paleo and Keto diet, read my post Keto vs Paleo.

The Keto diet is not only incredibly effective with weight loss, but also with greatly minimizing symptoms associated with diabetes, high cholesterol, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease, and many others. It most closely resembles the diets of people outside the US, so no, it’s not weird, unique or new….it’s how most people in the world eat.

Anyone can benefit from the Keto diet, except children. The Keto diet isn’t for children and do not put a child on the Keto diet. The Keto diet is very low in carbohydrates and children need carbohydrates for their bodies to grow, and for their brains to function. It’s fine to have your children eat the Keto meals you prepare but you’ll need to add a healthy amount of carbohydrates to their meal (e.g rice, potatoes, pasta, etc).