The keto diet is an interesting approach. It’s promoted as a healthy way to live, one that can help stabilize blood sugar levels and promote weight loss. Such features could make it powerful for obese seniors and perhaps also for those with diabetes.
Yet, keto is also a highly controversial diet.
While it is often practiced and seems safe enough for many people, is it something that seniors should try? Today, we’re considering the pros and cons of the keto diet for seniors, along with things to consider when starting the approach.
Whatever you decide, it’s important to talk to the senior’s doctor before starting keto and keep an eye out for problems as you go. Doing so is crucial, as keto doesn’t work well for everyone.
What is a Keto Diet?
In a nutshell, a keto diet is an eating plan that involves dramatically cutting down your intake of digestible carbs, while typically increasing fat intake at the same time.
This often involves getting down to between 20 and 50 net grams of carbs (fiber doesn’t count in this calculation, as it is largely indigestible). Decreasing carb intake like this allows the body to enter a state called ketosis, where the body is using ketones from fat as a source of energy instead of carbs.
Keto advocates claim that ketosis is an incredibly powerful state. In particular, burning fat instead of carbs could lead to better weight loss and more stable blood sugar. The ketones produced during ketosis may also improve health in other ways.
Benefits of the Keto Diet for Seniors
Helps With Weight Loss
Many people find that keto dieting truly helps them to lose weight, partly because of the way ketosis burns fat. Appetite can also decrease while practicing keto, which helps with weight loss as well.
Beyond this, keto helps because it doesn’t always feel like a diet. Participants are still allowed many favorite dishes, including those that are high in fat. For some, this approach even makes the diet feel decadent and delicious.
It’s also possible to make keto versions of most high carb dishes, like bread and rice. While these don’t taste as good as their high carb counterparts, they’re better than missing out entirely.
Finally, many people gain weight from sugar rather than fat. The low carb aspect of keto means that sugary treats are no longer an option, which may be enough to kickstart weight loss for some seniors.
Could Help With Cognition
Some theories suggest that the ketones produced during ketosis could help with memory and cognitive function. This is a powerful feature that isn’t seen with other diet approaches.
Much more research is needed here and the effects haven’t been broadly proven. Still, it’s exciting to find any diet with the potential to improve cognition.
Often Leads to More Nutritious Foods
Modern processed foods tend to be high in carbs, so a keto diet typically leads to a greater focus on nutritious homemade foods instead. This can lead to more nutrients, fewer calories, and better health.
There are heavily processed keto foods too, but there aren’t that many of these and they tend to be expensive. So, for the moment, keto dieters are forced to rely on meals they prepare themselves.
Reduces Inflammation
Studies also suggest that keto helps to decrease inflammation, partly because of how dieters are consuming much less sugar than previously.
This inflammation reduction is especially important for seniors, as it could lower the risk or severity of some inflammation-related conditions like arthritis. Pain from such conditions could be decreased as well.
Can Help With Blood Sugar Control
Because sugar and carb intake is lower with a keto diet, blood sugar levels tend to be more stable too. This could decrease the risk of complications for seniors with diabetes.
There are even thoughts that the keto diet could lower the risk of diabetes, although this effect has yet to be proven.
Problems of the Keto Diet for Seniors
There Are Complex Health Implications
Ketosis is an alternative energy pathway, one that burns fat instead of carbs. At the same time, dieters are varying the foods they eat, along with the balance of carbs, protein, and fat.
Such changes have many impacts for health – some of which aren’t easy to predict.
As such, the diet could easily cause health issues, especially for seniors with multiple chronic health conditions. This is why it’s crucial to get the senior’s doctor involved right from the beginning.
A doctor can help you ensure the senior is still getting enough nutrients on their diet and will be able to spot any signs of a problem, including ones that you might overlook.
Many Substitutions Need to Be Made
One of the biggest aspects of keto dieting is cutting your carb intake down – way down. Common recommendations suggest consuming between 20 and 50 grams of net carbs each day.
That’s not much at all, considering that a slice of bread typically has more than 10 grams of carbs (often closer to 15).
Besides, carb-laden ingredients like bread, rice, and pasta are exceptionally common in modern diets. To make keto work, seniors will need to make a variety of substitutes, such as using noodle alternatives like zoodles and sticking to keto bread recipes.
There are now many keto blogs and recipe books, so it’s possible to find recipes for everything the senior needs.
Still… because there are so many substitutions and tweaks, a keto diet requires considerable effort and dedication. This could be tough for seniors and caregivers, especially those who are already stressed.
Remember too that many seniors find cooking and/or eating more challenging as they age. This issue is frustrating enough with a conventional diet. It could be so much more difficult with a keto diet instead.
It Has Strict Elements
Keto is flexible in that there’s no set food plan. Yet, the approach only works if dieters keep within the target carb intake. Even a single high carb ‘treat’ meal could be enough to knock you out of ketosis entirely, forcing you to start the process all over again.
Some people do well with this level of strictness, but many others struggle with it.
Indeed, early research into low carb and keto diets for seniors suggests that the strictness of the diet is one of the big issues. Responses to the study suggested that food is “one of the few pleasures they still enjoy in life, and they aren’t willing to give that up”.
Such a stance suggests that strict diets like keto could be much more difficult for seniors than for the younger people who traditionally practice them.
Meals Have Extra Complexities
Keto makes meal planning and cooking difficult for two reasons.
First, seniors or their caregivers need to use different ingredients than normal, and may also need to rely on differing techniques. Such differences take time to adjust to.
Second, keto recipes often don’t account for senior-specific nutrition needs, while senior recipes don’t account for the keto diet.
For example, seniors who also need to keep sodium intake low may need to adapt many keto recipes to make them work. The same is true for seniors who need to regulate their protein or fat intake.
Sometimes carefully choosing recipes and making adaptations when needed will be enough. Other times, the keto diet may simply not be suitable.
There Are Side Effects
Even when the diet is working well, there are some notable side effects.
The first is sometimes known as the keto flu, where people experience a collection of symptoms as their bodies adjust to ketosis. This can include issues like fatigue, headaches, muscle cramps, irritability, and nausea.
Keto flu symptoms naturally fade on their own, typically in a week or less. While these symptoms aren’t anything to be worried about, they can be frustrating and difficult to cope with while they’re occurring.
There can also be ongoing side effects from keto, particularly constipation.
The differences in fat and protein intake could also have negative long-term effects, including negative impacts on heart health and a higher risk of kidney stones. There’s also the chance that higher protein intake leads to kidney strain and subsequent health risks.
These negative outcomes haven’t been proven and may not be the case for everyone. Still, they’re issues worth considering.
Can Be Difficult Socially
Eating can be a very social process and a time when we connect with others.
Following a keto diet makes this much more difficult, especially when going out to eat. Difficulties in finding appropriate foods and embarrassment at differences may make keto following seniors less comfortable eating with others.
This issue may raise the risk of social isolation, which is already a serious issue for seniors.
May Be Unsuitable for Facilities
Assisted living and other facilities do sometimes cater for specialized diets. However, this usually focuses on low sodium diets, renal diets, low calorie and the like – rather than keto.
For that matter, keto is still often viewed as a fad diet, which is another reason that facilities might be unwilling to offer it.
As a result, keto may only be a viable option for seniors living at home.
Research is Ongoing
Finally, we’re still learning about the effects keto has on health, including how it impacts organs in the body and whether there are any long-term complications.
This means there are still some huge unknowns with the approach.
Plus, studies on the keto diet rarely include seniors as participants. Even fewer focus on how the diet focuses on seniors specifically.
Should Seniors Try Keto?
As you can see, keto has a decent selection of benefits and risks.
It’s also a highly individualistic approach. This means that keto will work well for some people and poorly for others. The only real way to know is to experiment.
But, before you do that, think about the senior’s current health and their capacity for change.
If they’re in poor health or don’t deal with change well, a keto diet is likely to be more trouble than it’s worth. But, if they’re doing well, a keto diet might be a viable option.
Things to Consider When Following Keto
Start Slowly
The switch from regular eating to keto can be challenging, both physically and emotionally.
So, one of the most powerful approaches is to start slowly. This might mean simply decreasing carb intake, rather than switching to keto entirely.
Decreasing carb intake mightn’t be enough to bring seniors into ketosis. However, this can be an easier approach than keto and still provides some health benefits.
Doing this also makes it easy to see whether keto is likely to work. After all, if the senior struggles with a fairly lenient low carb diet, they’re unlikely to do well with a strict keto diet.
Watch For Issues
Because keto comes with so many potential side effects and interactions, it’s important to watch for signs of a problem.
Notably, watch for side effects that last beyond the first week of the diet, including signs of fatigue, decreased cognition, or nutrient deficiency. Such side effects suggest that the diet is not working well.
Pay attention to the senior’s mood and mental health as well. Most of us do better mentally and emotionally when we actually enjoy the food we’re eating. Diets that are overly restrictive or don’t include enough foods a person enjoys can lead to low mood and are difficult to adhere to.
Honestly, aging is challenging enough without seniors needing to follow a diet they loathe.
Focus on Nutrient Dense Foods
A keto diet isn’t an excuse to eat whatever you like as long as it’s low in carbs. The principles of healthy eating are still crucial, which includes focusing on nutrient dense foods and limiting intake of heavily processed foods.
This often means stacking up on low carb vegetables to ensure the senior is getting the nutrients and antioxidants they need.
In fact, simply focusing on low carb foods can mean that seniors end up deficient in key nutrients – so it’s important to still plan meals carefully.
Limit Saturated Fat
Keto diets often end up being high fat, moderate protein, and low carbs. This balance works better than you might expect, as fat and carbs are both primarily a source of energy.
Even so, it’s important to think about the type of fat.
There are still many concerns about the impact of saturated fat on health. It could easily increase the risk of heart disease and lead to other health problems.
As such, it’s best to focus on heart healthy fats, like those found in olive oil and avocado oil. Try to limit intake of foods rich in saturated fat, including butter, bacon, and fatty cuts of red meat.
Think About the Senior’s Needs
You’ll also need to carefully consider the senior’s needs and how these relate to the diet.
For example, some keto dieters heavily rely on red meat for protein and nutrients. However, seniors who struggle with chewing may need softer foods instead, such as flaky fish.
Even more creativity may be needed if the senior relies heavily on soft foods, as these are often laden with carbs.
Medications may also impact the foods you choose. For example, seniors taking blood thinners like warfarin often need to closely monitor their vitamin K intake. This requires being cautious with vitamin K rich vegetables, such as dark leafy greens.
Try It As A Short-Term Approach
Many keto dieters turn the approach into a lifestyle, with the goal of continuing it for years (if not the rest of their lives). However, it may be wiser to start with a short-term approach, where the senior follows the diet for a few months, then you re-evaluate.
There are a few reasons for doing so.
First, short-term studies on keto are much more common than long-term ones. This means we know there are plenty of short-term benefits of keto, while less is known about the long-term effects.
Focusing on the short-term also gives you the chance to see whether the approach works without too much pressure.
Finally, it’s probably much easier to sell your doctor on a three-month approach compared to a long-term one. This is relevant, as everything is easier if the senior’s doctor is working alongside you rather than arguing against your every move.
For that matter, the senior may be more willing to experiment if the diet is just for a few months. If everyone is happy after this initial period, it’s possible to continue the diet for longer. If not, it may be time to swap to a different eating approach.
Final Thoughts
There’s no way to know how a particular senior will respond to the keto diet.
Some could easily thrive, perhaps ending up thinner and healthier than they were before. Others may experience negative effects instead and find the diet a poor choice.
This is the reason for taking it slowly and experimenting.
Remember that, despite the hype, the keto diet is just one eating approach out of many. Some seniors may do better by simply decreasing their carb intake, without trying for a full keto diet.
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