No longer the purview of Gwyneth Paltrow fans and Instagram influencers, the keto diet may finally be infiltrating the military.
A director from U.S. Special Operations Command has promoted the idea of service members following the ketogenic diet, which is high in fat and low in carbs. The diet recommends meat, fish, high-fat dairy, eggs, nuts, and leafy green vegetables, but prohibits starches, grains, and sugars (possibly including fruit, depending on how strict you get). The diet aims, over time, to adapt the body to burning fat for energy, a process called ketosis, instead of carbohydrates.
Lisa Sanders, director of Science and Technology at Special Operations Command, recently pitched an Ohio State University study showing that the diet could increase the fitness and endurance of service members.
The study, which included mostly members of Ohio State’s campus ROTC, tested 15 participants in the keto diet against 14 peers in a control group. According to the university, in the study, “Participants on the keto diet lost an average of almost 17 pounds and were able, with support of counselors, to maintain ketosis for 12 weeks. As a group, they lost more than 5% of their body fat, almost 44% of their belly, or visceral, fat and had a 48% improvement in insulin sensitivity — a marker that predicts risk of diabetes.”
Sanders says it could be helpful for the military, particularly Navy SEALS and other underwater dive-mission specialists.
“One of the effects of truly being in ketosis is that it changes the way your body handles oxygen deprivation, so you can actually stay underwater at depths for longer periods of time and not go into oxygen seizures,” she said at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in May, according to Business Insider.
She told the website that U.S. Special Operations Command was tracking studies to observe the effects a keto diet would have on military members in extreme conditions.
The ketogenic diet emerged in the early 1900s as a therapeutic means of helping stave off seizures in epileptic children. After returning in the 1990s for hard-to-treat epilepsy, a less stringent version has recently adapted as a means of combating obesity and reversing symptoms of diabetes.
The diet is controversial because it flies in the face of modern dietetic orthodoxy. But adherents swear by it and have reported benefits in terms of not only weight loss and blood sugar control but also increased energy, athletic endurance, and lower levels of inflammation. In December, the American Diabetes Association, citing three new studies, for the first time recommended a low-carb diet as an option for diabetics.
It could be difficult to implement such a diet in the military. In order for it to work, service members would have to maintain it both on and off the job, and daily urine or blood tests to measure levels of glucose or ketone would be necessary to ensure compliance. The diet would also require dramatic changes to the military menu.
The Military Times notes that military field rations, or meals ready to eat, would have to lose at least one staple: “The popular pepperoni pizza MRE would be a thing of the past.”
