{"id":167456,"date":"2025-09-29T05:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167456\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T05:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:48:09","slug":"long-term-keto-diet-regimen-may-be-risky-study-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167456\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-term keto diet regimen may be risky, study suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long-term adherence to a keto diet regimen — high in meats, proteins and oils — may pose health risks, according to a study in mice. Photo by Adobe Stock<\/p>\n

It sounds counterintuitive: Eat more fat and lose more weight.<\/p>\n

But it’s the underpinning of a keto diet — a controversial eating regimen designed to retrain the body to rely on something other than sugar for energy. The regimen is rich in meat, eggs, high-fat dairy and oils.\n<\/p>\n

“I think a lot of people look at a ketogenic diet and think, ‘I’ll lose weight, I’ll be healthier,’ ” said lead researcher Molly Gallop, an assistant professor of anatomy and physiology at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind.<\/p>\n

The biology goes like this: On a keto diet, a person’s liver converts fat into molecules called ketone bodies that the body can burn for energy. Despite a high fat intake – up to 90% of daily calories – it can lead to substantial weight loss.\n<\/p>\n

And while it may seem OK on the surface, new research in mice suggests that staying on a keto regimen for a long time might be risky.\n<\/p>\n

Lab rats fed a keto diet for up to a year — decades in human time — showed signs of liver and heart disease and developed glucose intolerance, a team led by Gallop recently reported in the journal Science Advances<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It’s a cautionary tale,” said study co-author Amandine Chaix, an assistant professor of nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “This is not a magical dietary approach.”<\/p>\n

For the study, researchers put mice on one of four diets for about eight months. Body weight was lowest in animals in low-fat eating regimen, but those on a keto diet weighed less than those on a Western-influenced regimen.<\/p>\n

That supports the idea that ultra-high-fat, low-carb food intake could help keep weight down.<\/p>\n

But overweight people looking to slim down may want to proceed with caution. Results of studies done in animals often yield different results when repeated in people.<\/p>\n

Still, the new findings raise concerns.<\/p>\n

Mice given the keto diet had a key marker of heart disease – excess fat in their blood. Male mice also developed fatty livers and lab tests provided evidence that the organs weren’t functioning as they should, the study found.\n<\/p>\n

The most telling finding, Gallop and Chaix said, involved blood sugar.<\/p>\n

Normally, the hormone insulin is secreted by the pancreas. This tells tissues to draw sugar from the blood and store to make energy. But insulin-making cells in keto-fed mice struggled to release the hormone. It’s not clear why. Quitting the diet solved that problem.<\/p>\n

The findings dovetail with the experience of a neurologist at Johns Hopkins<\/a> in Baltimore who offers a keto diet as a treatment option for patients with epilepsy.<\/p>\n

For more than a century, the diet has been used to treat folks with epilepsy, said the neurologist, Dr. Tanya McDonald, who reviewed the findings.<\/p>\n

“We don’t recommend that the general public use ketogenic diets without medical supervision,” she said in a news release, adding that if they do decide to load up on such keto fare as nut-based french fries and extra cheese, they should let their doctors know so they can watch for potential problems.<\/p>\n

More information<\/p>\n

Harvard Health has more about how a keto diet works<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

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