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  • Hey, guys. Dr. Axe here, founder of DrAxe.com and Doctor of Functional Medicine. Today,

  • I'm going to share with you the benefits of a ketogenic diet and how ketogenic diets can

  • help weight loss, cancer, and even the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

  • Basically, what a ketogenic diet is, it's putting your body in ketosis, which means

  • your body is burning fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. So again, your body will

  • burn its own body fat or fat that you're consuming dietarily for its overall energy production.

  • This is very effective. In fact, there are medical studies now showing that the ketogenic

  • diet is an effective treatment for cancer, for Alzheimer's disease, and effective for

  • very fast weight loss. I've worked with thousands upon thousands of patients over the years

  • in my clinic, and I've actually found that the ketogenic is quite possibly the best diet

  • for very fast fat loss.

  • Now, I don't believe that the ketogenic diet should be done for typically periods more

  • than three to six months. After that, I think that you do want to add some good carbohydrates

  • back in. But if your goal is especially fast fat loss, the ketogenic diet is the perfect

  • diet.

  • The reason why it works so effectively is that when your body goes into ketosis and

  • starts burning fat for energy, your body is burning up its own body fat. Your body also

  • stops feeding on sugar. So let's go into next in terms of what it does for those three conditions.

  • Let's start off with cancer, so the ketogenic diet for cancer. We know that cancer cells

  • feed off of sugar. So when you restrict your body, a ketogenic diet is essentially a diet

  • that is made up of around typically 80% fat, 10% carbohydrates, and 10% protein or maybe

  • even let's say 70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are very,

  • very minimal. So again, you can see your body is really burning fat for energy.

  • But the reason why the ketogenic diet is effective in cancer treatment is that the cancer cells

  • are being starved. They have no sugar to feed off of and so the cancer cells starve to death.

  • That's why the ketogenic diet is effective in cancer treatment.

  • The second thing a ketogenic diet is effective for is weight loss and the reason being, again,

  • your body starts burning its own body fat for energy. Think about this. Your body will

  • also then continue to burn fat even while you're sleeping at night. So your body is

  • burning fat 24/7. It's not just burning the fat you consume. It's burning your own body

  • fat. That's why it's the most effective way to burn fat fast.

  • And last, but not least, the ketogenic diet is effective for Alzheimer's disease. In fact,

  • there is a female medical doctor in Florida who treated her husband, who had dementia

  • and Alzheimer's, with what she called the coconut ketogenic diet and said it cured his

  • symptoms completely. The reason why it would be effective is we know that part of what

  • happens in dementia and Alzheimer's is the degeneration of the nerve system in the brain.

  • So you really need to support the brain nerve system. Well, a diet that has around 70% healthy

  • fats, we know will help the brain, and we also know that ketosis and your body being

  • able to burn fat for energy or utilize fatty acids is critical for the brain and for the

  • natural treatment of dementia.

  • Now, if you want to know what a diet would look like on a ketogenic diet, again it's

  • going to be specifically you want to add three types of healthy fats in your diet -- healthy

  • saturated fats, omega-3 fatty acids, and then healthy fatty acids from things that are omega-9

  • fats that are going to be found in olive oil, avocados, and almonds, so sprouted nuts and

  • seeds. The omega-3 fats, so eating a diet that's high in things like salmon, chia seeds,

  • and flax seeds. Then also getting good quality saturated fats from things like coconut oil

  • and high-fat dairy like butter, so again coconut oil and grass-fed butter or ghee. Those are

  • some of the most effective healthy fats you want to be consuming as part of this ketogenic

  • diet.

  • So again, I can tell you in working with thousands of patients over the years, the ketogenic

  • diet is absolutely effective in the treatment of weight gain as well as cancer, and also

  • it's effective for the treatment of Alzheimer's. So again, if you can follow a ketogenic diet,

  • I recommend it. It is beneficial, but I only recommend it for about a three to six month

  • period of time. You don't want to do it longer than that because your body does need carbohydrates

  • long term to function at its absolute best.

  • Hey, guys, this has been Dr. Axe talking about the many benefits of a ketogenic diet.

Hey, guys. Dr. Axe here, founder of DrAxe.com and Doctor of Functional Medicine. Today,

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