The One-two Keto Punch

Keto isn’t just about weight loss anymore. It’s a whole-health plan that can benefit your brain, liver and more – if you do it right.

- By Jonny Bowden. Photography by Maya Visnyei

Parents ask me time and again: “How do I get my kid to eat healthier?” My answer is always the same: Take away the alternative. If all you have in your fridge is good food, your kid will complain for a couple of days, and then – eventually – they’ll eat it.

And so it is with your body’s source of fuel. We have trained our bodies to be very good at running on sugar. The metabolic pathways that are involved in breaking down sugar and using it for energy are well-worn, like popular hiking trails in the Delaware Water Gap. We train these metabolic pathways to be more or less efficient, just as we train our biceps to either get bigger by performing biceps curls or get flabby from lack of stimulation.

However, we have not done a very good job of training our bodies’ fat-burning pathways. For years, people have been taught to eat “mini meals.” To graze. To eat every two hours. To avoid fat and load up on carbs. To never ever skip breakfast. But now we know better.

Forward-thinking clinicians routinely speak of getting their patients into what we call a “fat adapted” state, where they are more easily able to access (and burn) their fat stores. These folks are always surprised to find that they actually don’t need an energy bar every two hours once their body has dusted off the metabolic pathways needed to burn fat.