Are these celebrity diets healthy?

The Ketogenic Diet

Often shortened to “The Keto Diet”, this is a low-carb diet that excludes grains, dairy, legumes, soy, fruits and some starchy vegetables. The idea behind the Keto Diet is that when put in a place of ketosis (a build up of acids in the body from inadequate glucose), our bodies more efficiently burn stored body fat for fuel. According to the gossip, stars subscribing to this diet include Kim Kardashian, Halle Berry, and Rihanna.

Pros

You will see a lot of leafy greens in this diet.

Cons

When the body is depleted of stored glucose (known as glycogen), it also loses water. This initial, fairly quick, water loss hooks people because they mistake it for fat loss. The body can only sustain the lack of carbs for so long before it goes berserk, screaming for carbs. When biology takes over and someone finally “breaks down” (it’s not actually “breaking down” or a lack of “willpower”) and eats carbs, the amount is going to be big because the body is screaming for replenishing carbs and wants to consume a lot of carbs, fast. This replenishes glycogen and stored water, resulting in water weight regained, perpetuating the belief that eating carbs makes us fat.

There are a lot of nutrients missing in this diet. Any diet that eliminates fruit is a fad.

This is the Atkins diet repackaged. If the Atkins diet worked, it wouldn’t have gone away. The scientific flaw with the low-carb diet, whether you want to call it Ketogenic or Atkins, is that our bodies were not meant to operate in a state of ketosis. We are built to effectively and efficiently use glucose (carbs) for fuel. Protein and fat have other physiological roles – they are not meant to be used for fuel.

Many of these diets are very tough for non-celebs to follow because of the time involved with planning and cooking (or in Sting and Gwyneth’s eating style, not cooking). Time and energy involved in successfully following strict diet plans can be draining without the help of a personal chef or nutritionist. For those of us without a kitchen staff, the effort required might be so much that it takes up too much time and space in our lives.