Here’s why the super low carb ‘keto’ diet could leave people feeling euphoric – Business Insider

healthy man with glasses, eating from a bowl

Here are some of the reasons that the keto diet makes people feel like they are in a euphoric state. During the first few days of the diet, the body is making the switch to burning fat before carbs. This means that for the days leading up to the full switch that the body is feeling like it is starving for more foods with carbs. Also it has similar effects to fasting diets, where the body gets a similar feeling to being drunk. This makes people feel like they are getting a natural high.

Key Takeaways:

  • Anecdotal evidence suggests that people on a low carbohydrate diet feel a sense of euphoria similar to that of a person taking liquid ecstasy (GHB).
  • When a person’s body uses up all its glucose reserves, it relies on the breakdown of fatty acids into ketones to fuel itself. This process ultimately produces BHB, a substance very similar to GHB.
  • The evidence of euphoria as a result of ketosis first occurred in the 1950s during treatment of obese patients on low carb diets.

“A very low-carb diet flips your metabolic switch from burning more carbs than fat, to more fat than carbs.”

Read more: Here’s why the super low carb ‘keto’ diet could leave people feeling euphoric – Business Insider