A ketogenic diet is a one that shifts your body into using fat as the primary energy source. When you limit intake of carbohydrates as well as protein, your body will instead use fat for energy, breaking them down into ketones that can be used for energy.

The ketogenic diet has much evidence to support benefits in many brain disorders including dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, autism, bipolar disease, and seizure disorders. The reason for this is that ketones have many brain benefits including:

Ketones can be an essential tool to protect the brain, especially in neurodegenerative disease states. Dr. Dale Bredesen, author of The End of Alzheimer’s and The End of Alzheimer’s Program, has found that ketosis is a critical component of his program that has been shown to help patient’s prevent and reverse cognitive decline.

I was very fortunate to have been trained by Dr. Bredesen in his program (also called ReCode) through the Institute for Functional Medicine. His version of the ketogenic diet, termed KetoFLEX 12/3, is a heavily plant-based, nutrient-dense, whole foods diet that emphasizes local, organic, and seasonal non-starchy vegetables from every color of the rainbow, combined with an adequate amount of protein, and generous amounts of healthy fat. 

Many people mistakenly think keto is a limited diet filled with meats of all kinds, cheese, and butter and devoid of healthy plant-based foods. Unfortunately, this is the way many people practice keto and it is absolutely the WRONG and unhealthy way to do it. The right way to do keto is to fill your plate with low-carb veggies, herbs, spices, avocados, nuts, and seeds with smaller amounts of clean-sourced animals proteins and seafood.

While coaching my patients through the Ketoflex diet, I have found very common mistakes that keep many patients from successfully getting into ketosis:

I’ve done some of the work for you…. Click here to download keto meal ideas.