Ketogenic diet may be the answer to skincare woes
Oil is a strict no-no for most people, owing to its impact on the body as well as the skin. However, researchers have now observed that consuming oil in a well-balanced ketogenic diet may actually help fight skincare woes.
“This study leads to a broader understanding of possible effects of ketogenic diets with high-fat content on skin inflammation and underlines the importance of the composition of fatty acids in the diet,” says co-lead investigator Barbara Kofler, Research Program for Receptor Biochemistry and Tumor Metabolism, Department of Pediatrics, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.
“We found that a wellbalanced ketogenic diet, limited primarily to longchain triglycerides (LCTs) like olive oil, soybean oil, fish, nuts, avocado, and meats, does not exacerbate skin inflammation,” Kofler says, adding, “However, ketogenic diets containing high amounts of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), especially in combination with omega 3 fatty acids, should be used with caution since they may aggravate pre-existing skin inflammatory conditions.”
Ketogenic diets are increasingly preferred in the treatment of a number of diseases as wells as weight loss. They are being evaluated as a potential therapy in a variety of diseases and have been suggested to act as an anti-inflammatory in certain conditions, according to the study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Dietary products containing coconut oil (high in MCTs) or fish oil (high in omega-3 fatty acids), which are consumed as part of a ketogenic diet, are marketed and used by the general population, owing to their reported healthpromoting effects.
The investigators hypothesised that high-fat ketogenic diets would dampen psoriasiform-like skin inflammation progression and partial supplementation of long-chain triglycerides with MCT and/or omega-3 fatty acids would further enhance these effects. Although the study does not confirm the hypothesis, it showed that an LCT-based ketogenic diet does not worsen skin inflammation.
OIL IS OFTEN SHUNNED BY THOSE ON A DIET, BUT RESEARCHERS HAVE OBSERVED THAT CONSUMING OIL IN A WELL-BALANCED KETOGENIC DIET MAY IMPROVE ONE’S SKIN