You might think cheating on your Keto diet once in a while is no big deal. But new research has found that even one cheat day when following a Keto diet to lose weight or treat diabetes can spike your blood sugar. That’s because a single dose of carbs can damage blood vessel walls.
Following the Keto diet
The main strategy of the Keto diet is to give your body fewer calories from carbs and more from fat and protein. The ratios will vary based on your activity and body mass, but generally the goal is to get 60 to 75% of calories from fat, 15 to 30% from protein and 5 to 10% from carbs.
After about three or four days into a Keto diet, your body starts to run out of glucose. This starts a metabolic process known as ketosis, in which your body starts to break down fat and protein to get energy since it’s not getting energy from carbs.
The problem with cheating
Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBCO) wanted to know what happens when people doing the Keto diet indulge in a “cheat day.” They were curious how the reintroduction of glucose would impact inflammatory responses or tolerance to blood glucose.
The study’s first author, Cody Durrer, says, “Since impaired glucose tolerance and spokes in blood sugar levels are known to be associated with an increased risk in cardiovascular disease, it made sense to look at what was happening in the blood vessels after a sugar hit.”
The results
The study was small. Only nine healthy young male volunteers were used.
The men followed a Keto diet for one week and consumed a 75-gram glucose drink before and after the seven days.
The researchers were surprised to find that inflammation and blood glucose levels were not the big issue. Instead, the team found biomarkers in the blood suggesting that sudden spikes in glucose were damaging the vessel walls. In fact, after drinking the glucose, the blood vessels were similar to those of people with poor cardiovascular health.
More research needs to be done, but for now, it’s a cautionary tale against cheating on a Keto diet.
