Keto History

Ketogenic eating was initially developed to reduce or prevent epileptic seizures in children for whom medications had not worked. In the 1920s, Mayo Clinic doctors like Russell Wilder discovered that children with epilepsy had fewer seizures when their blood sugar was low from being on a high-fat, low-carb diet. A corollary was that because patients were not eating carbs, their bodies were tricked into thinking they were starving and they lost weight. The phenomenon of mimicking starvation to stop epilepsy had been known about for hundreds of years but the term“ketosis” was only coined in the 20th century. It refers to the metabolic process that converts fats into ketones, which are released into the bloodstream and provide the body’s fuel in the place of carbohydrate-generated glucose. Current keto diets evolved from the original. These newer versions are more flexible and easier to manage and maintain