Ketogenic Diet in childhood obesity

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a serious public health issue, which is associated with the development of metabolic risk factors, such as dyslipidemia, endothelial dysfunction, hypertension, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes mellitus during childhood. In addition, the presence of obesity during childhood also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life and impairs quality of life. These disturbing trends and associated health burdens have made identifying effective weight management strategies for obese children. In 1988 the U.S. Surgeon General recommended restricting dietary fat to less than 30% of total calories. Despite this decrease in fat intake from approximately 40% of calories to 33%, obesity has increased significantly over the last 30 years. Some experts believe that high fat diet could increase cardiovascular disease risk by increasing total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol but the results of a many studies show that the ketogenic diet elicited a greater improvement in weight loss, adiponectin concentrations, the lipidemic profile, and metabolic parameters concerning insulin sensitivity and resistance in the obese children. The purpose of this review study was to investigate the effect of a ketogenic diet on childhood obesity. Methods: Pubmed, scopus, and google scholar electronic data bases were searched using the following keyword: ( ketojenic diet ) AND ( obesity children OR overweight childhood OR obesity childhood OR overweight children ( to December 2019. Results: The children on ketogenic diets were able to achieve weight loss. The treatment of obesity is theoretically straightforward and is thought to be merely the maintenance of energy intake lower than the energy expenditure. For that purpose, fat- and calorie-restricted diets have traditionally been recommended in overweight and obese children. Recently though, low-carbohydrate diets have emerged as an important alternative to low-fat diets in childhood obesity management and seem to have more beneficial effects on weight loss, glycemic control, triglyceride levels, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)- cholesterol levels in many obese than low-fat diets. Conclusion: The ketogenic diet revealed pronounced improvements in weight loss and metabolic parameters and may be a feasible and safe alternative for children ’s weight loss.

Keywords:

Ketogenic diet , obesity , children