Glucose or Ketones? Carbs or fats? Carbohydrates have been a staple part of meals for centuries, but there is evidence that ketones produce more energy per mole of substrate than glucose, while optimising body composition, cognition and sports performance.
Brett Melanson, a PhD Candidate in Behavioural Neuroscience, talks about how following a ketogenic diet allows our body to tap into fat stores to produce energy during extended periods of low glucose availability. He explains that burning ketones instead of glucose preserves carbohydrates in muscle. Therefore transitioning the body’s energy dependence from glucose to ketones could be beneficial in the long run, both mentally, and physically.
Low-carbohydrate and high-fat (LCHF) diets are increasing in popularity as new research continues to emerge disproving the the merits of the low-fat dogma that has shaped Australian dietary guidelines and those of most of the western world since the 1960s. The counterargument has been packaged in various forms like paleo, primal, ancestral and keto. As we rediscover these traditional ideas of food consumption, so too are we seeing the resurgence of a healthy population.
