A medical ketogenic diet is a specialized diet used to manage drug-resistant epilepsy. It involves a high-fat, low-carbohydrate, and adequate-protein approach. By shifting the body’s energy source from carbohydrates to fats, it aims to control seizures. Variations of this diet include the classic ketogenic diet and the modified Atkins®* diet (MAD). Before starting any ketogenic diet variation, it’s important to always speak with a ketogenic healthcare professional.
Robyn Blackford, RDN, LDN and Stacey Bessone, RDN, LDN are both ketogenic registered dietitians. They helped us create 2 short videos explaining some basic ketogenic diet information to help you understand and prepare you to learn more.
What Is A Medical Ketogenic Diet?
Video Transcript:
Hi! I’m Robyn! I’m a registered dietitian. Today I am here to tell you about the medical ketogenic diet. The medical ketogenic diet is a special diet that can help people manage their drug-resistant epilepsy.
The medical ketogenic diet is an umbrella term that includes the classic ketogenic diet, the modified Atkins diet and all other versions in between to help manage epilepsy. It’s used with children and adults.
No matter what type of medical ketogenic diet you use, it must be managed by your medical team including a registered dietitian who is familiar with safely starting and managing the medical ketogenic diet.
Thanks for watching! Be sure to check out our other videos on the medical ketogenic diet.
Ketones & Ketosis
Video Transcript:
Hi! I’m Stacey. I’m a registered dietitian. Today I’m here to tell you about ketones and ketosis. The medical ketogenic diet is a high fat, low carbohydrate adequate protein diet. It is used for the management of drug-resistant epilepsy. When on the diet, your brain uses ketones instead of glucose (or sugar) for energy. Ketones are chemicals made in the liver from fat. The fat can come from the diet or from fat stored in the body.
There are 3 types of ketones:
- Acetoacetate, which is measured in the urine,
- Beta-hydroxybutyrate, which is measured in the blood, and
- Acetone, which is measured in the breath.
There are now different ways to measure each one of these ketone levels at home, but we are going to focus on urine ketone levels in this video using urine ketone testing strips, like these. When the strip shows dark colors, it means your body is in ketosis. It is thought that some of the things that happen to the body when it is in ketosis may be one of the reasons the medical ketogenic diet works to help manage seizures.
Thanks for watching! Be sure to check our other videos on the medical ketogenic diet.
Click here to see part 2 of our ketogenic diet video series – learn more about ketogenic diet ratios, how to read labels, and find tips for starting the classic ketogenic diet and the modified Atkins diet.
*Atkins is a registered trademark of Atkins Nutritionals, LLC and not affiliated with Nutricia North America.
KetoCal® is a medical food for the dietary management of drug-resistant epilepsy and must be used under medical supervision.
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