What is the keto diet?

On a typical ketogenic diet, carbohydrates are limited to about 20 to 50 grams a day, with roughly 70 to 80 percent of calories coming from fat. After a few days without much glucose, the liver starts converting fat into molecules called ketones, which the brain and muscles can use as energy. The diet was developed in 1921 by Dr Russell Wilder at the Mayo Clinic as a treatment for epilepsy, and it is still used for children whose seizures do not respond to medication. Keto became a huge weight-loss trend and was the most-searched diet on Google in 2018. Early side effects known as keto flu are common, and long-term effects, including raised LDL cholesterol in some people, are still debated.