The Mediterranean-Keto Diet is the Key to Healthy Living

One major reason for many of the health problems we have now is the obesity epidemic, and it is only getting worse. In 2017, I wrote Dr. Colbert’s Keto Zone Diet to help combat this epidemic, and it helped thousands of readers lose weight and control their appetites. But I soon began to hear that many people on a keto diet, including some of my patients, were being prescribed statin medications to lower their cholesterol. Some had even seen their cholesterol spike as much as one hundred points. And that wasn’t all. Some keto dieters were complaining of joint pain, muscle aches, sinus issues, brain fog, gut issues, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and occasionally even weight gain.

When I dug into the issue, I realized many people would revert to their old habits after achieving some weight loss on the keto diet. But now they were adding the foods they had come to enjoy while losing weight on the keto diet—such as butter, cream, cheese, coconut oil, and fatty meats that they ate while losing weight—with the excessive sugars, carbs, and starches in the typical American diet.

The keto diet is good, and it is still the absolute best way to lose weight, maintain a healthy metabolism, and fight sickness and disease (even cancers). But if people eventually revert back to their old eating habits—only now mixing the eating of a lot of saturated fats with the usual high-carb, starchy, sugary American diet—then the health benefits of a keto diet will begin to unravel.

Fortunately, there is a better way, what I call the Mediterranean-keto diet. This provides the benefits of a keto diet with a lifestyle that can be maintained long term. So I now recommend a simple two-step process for beating obesity and achieving a healthy weight for the long-term.

Step 1: Start with a healthy keto diet to lose weight, gain health benefits, or treat or prevent sickness or disease.

Step 2: Then slide over to a healthy Mediterranean-keto lifestyle that enables you to keep the weight off, be healthy, and avoid sickness and disease.

Everyone wants their bodies to be fat-burning machines. Yet committing to a strict keto diet over the long haul is a challenge not many are willing to embrace. Despite the allure of being in a constant state of fat-burning, many individuals, whether it’s been a span of three months or three years, eventually gravitate back to eating lots of carbs. Unfortunately, this can yield unfavorable outcomes, particularly if the keto diet included excessive saturated fats and is followed by a high-carb regimen.

The solution lies in transitioning from the keto diet to the Mediterranean-keto lifestyle, or even alternating between the two. This shift is a seamless progression. Once the healthy keto diet has steered your body toward your desired outcomes—be it weight loss or overcoming illness—the time has come to segue into the Mediterranean-keto lifestyle.

Embracing the Mediterranean-keto lifestyle—characterized by lower carb intake, generous healthy fats, and moderate protein consumption (like the keto diet with a touch more flexibility)—your body engages in cycles of entering and exiting ketosis. This dance is much like flying; it lives in the ocean yet it can glide over the waves for long distances, then land back in the water, and then zoom out again.

Throughout this process, your body will continue to burn fat as its primary fuel source. While the degree of fat utilization may vary from day to day, you control this fat-burning engine through your dietary choices. This is how ketosis can become a way of life. This way of life empowers you to enjoy good health, it’s adaptable, and it give you the freedom to enjoy life to the fullest. It’s exactly the place you want to be. It’s where all of us want to live!

To read more from Dr. Colbert’s Health Zone Essentials, visit MyCharismaShop.com