Benefit and concern of ketogenic and vegan diets: A revisit to pathophysiology

The ketogenic diet has in normal healthy individuals no metabolic advantages over diets with normal composition (more carbohydrates). It comes with a risk to lose fat free (muscle) mass in inflammatory conditions including obesity. In this condition more glucose is required, which needs in part to be produced from muscle derived amino acids in view of the low glucose content of the diet. The vegan diet is a truly unbalanced diet, containing protein with low biological value. It is deficient in a number of vitamins and trace elements and contains excessive amounts of vegetables. It decreases body weight and consequently, diminishes the severity of the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease cancer. In pregnancy and children, the diet stalls growth, so that a number of food components need to be supplemented. This may also apply in aged people.