The Keto Diet: Fat is the Cure

Welcome to the Keto Diet. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner consist of mainly fats in a 3:1 ratio of fats to carbohydrates and protein but can be increased to 4:1 or even 5:1 for younger children. That sounds unhealthily delicious doesn’t it? To be able to eat bacon for almost every meal of the day?

This obviously raises some health concerns for parents who are new to this idea. Not only does it mean that your options for food is severely limited, but your child’s diet is reduced down to foods with a high fat content. Not only that, every meal has to be carefully calculated and weighed out down to the last gram. Many families have to go to great lengths to plan out their child’s meals and can never say,” let’s just order some pizza” at the end of a long day. Snacks have to be packed for sleepovers, your child can never partake in some of the birthday cake, and restaurant outings are an almost nonexistent possibility. So, why would you saturate your child’s diet with fats and place such restrictions on his or her life?

Well for one thing, these diets are usually implemented for severe cases, where medications do little to limit the amount of strokes. As a University College London study noted, 38% of patients had reduced frequency of strokes by more than 50% and 7% had the seizure frequency reduced by more than 90%. When there are some children out there who suffer up to 100 seizures per day, this can greatly increase a child’s quality of living. It’s crazy how fat can sometimes be beneficial.

Nutrition Issues in Gastroenterology. Series 39. June 2006. “The Ketogenic and Atkins Diets: Recipes for Seizure Control.” Retrieved November 11, 2013. http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/medicine/divisions/digestive-health/nutrition-support-team/nutrition-articles/TurnerArticle.pdf

New York Times. November 17, 2010. “Epilepsy’s Big Fat Miracle.” Retrieved November 10, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21Epilepsy-t.html?pagewanted=all