Dr. Savant shared his experience with the keto diet, and now he's here to answer some burning questions about it.

Are there any risks with the ketogenic diet?

Yes, there are some risks with the ketogenic diet and most of them happen early when you transition to doing the ketogenic diet.

So in the first two to three weeks, your body is still looking for glucose (or sugar energy) and if you don't give it sugar energy, it becomes very tired. 

And so it's something that people call the “ketogenic flu.” A way to treat that is actually to drink more water with a little salt. When you transition to a ketogenic diet, your body will lose water and salt with it, but that is only because your body is shifting from burning sugar to burning fat, and it takes about three weeks. During that time, it's very important to drink more water and to take in a little more salt. The best way is in a broth, like a soup with some salt in it.

So, people worry about taking too much salt because they think it's going to make their blood pressure go high, but the salt that you add into your food is actually very little compared to the amount of salt in a food that's been in a package. And so, if you have problems with your kidneys or your liver, you should always check with your doctor first before starting any new diet like this.

Who should be cautious of or avoid the keto diet?

So the people who should be careful, again, are those people who have liver and kidney problems, and also people who have had their gallbladder taken out because they can't eat so much fat.

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