The Ketogenic Diet Will Get You Off The Blood Sugar Roller Coaster, According To Science

Editor’s note: Will Cole, D.C., is a longtime member of the mbg family (he’s in the mbg Collective and is even a class instructor!). His new book, Ketotarian, is all about marrying a ketogenic and vegetarian, vegan, or pescatarian diet for exponentially greater health benefits. Here, he shares how going on a ketogenic diet can help get you off the blood sugar roller coaster.

Before we talk about burning fat for fuel, it's important to know that the majority of people are burning sugar for fuel most (if not all) of the time. And that's because, as humans, we're eating sugar and carbohydrates, well, all the time. The typical American eats an average of 765 grams of sugar every five days—and much of it comes from not knowing where sugar is lurking or whatever alternative name it's going by! Compare that number to 45, which is the number of grams of sugar Americans ate in 1822 in the same time period. Every person eats and drinks 130 pounds of added sugar every year, an average of 3,550 pounds in a lifetime. That is equal to eating 1.7 million Skittles or an industrial-size Dumpster full of sugar! On top of that, we eat grains like breads, pastas, granola bars, cereals, and crackers, which also break down into—you guessed it—sugar.

Need some good news? You don't have to get stuck on the blood-sugar roller coaster, with its erratic peaks and crashes. Burning fat is another, more efficient fuel source for your metabolism and ketones are a beneficial product of fat metabolism. When you lower your carbohydrates, it lowers your blood sugar and insulin levels. As insulin levels fall and energy is needed, your liver then produces ketones to fuel your body. Your brain can also use ketones as an alternative fuel source when blood levels are high enough to cross the blood-brain barrier, which is great news because ketones have been shown to be very neuroprotective1.

A healthy ketogenic diet isn't about starving your body of food, it's about allowing your body to be in a better metabolic state. Think of ketosis as converting your metabolism from a gasoline-chugging semi truck (sugar burner) to a hybrid engine that is able to work more efficiently by burning either fat or sugar when it needs to, something called metabolic flexibility. Use healthy fats for fuel and sugar only as a secondary form of energy. In addition to lowering your carbohydrate intake and focusing on healthy fats, intermittent fasting is another way to go into a ketotic state. (If you're interested in intermittent fasting, you can check out my guide here.)