Photo by Tom Sharrow/SoNourished.com

Keeping Keto in the Wild

Though it failed to gain traction in the States, The Island is a popular show in the UK. For a month to six weeks, two teams of eight face several survival challenges on a deserted island. This year, as an added element, the teams were divided along socioeconomic lines. One group consisted of professionals earning upwards of £100,000 a year. The second was made up of those who earned below Britain’s minimum wage.

While there were many highlights in the season, one standout was not a cast member's intriguing personality, but rather her diet: keto. Shereen, a nutritionist and single mom, credited a ketogenic diet as a factor in her success on the show. Overall, she found that she was in better shape and could endure more than most of the others competing.

One thing that most impacted her, however, was viewing the difference in how people related to food. Said Shereen, “People don’t look at the psychology of eating and how food is attached to emotion.”1 Most of the others on the show, she noted, were initially fixated on the fast foods they weren’t eating. She was happy to see improvement in their attitudes toward food as time passed on the island.

Unhealthy Obsessions

Shereen isn’t the first to notice that many people have unhealthy relationships with food. People have been turning to food for comfort and relaxation for centuries. However, as society has moved towards more processed sugars and carbs, this relationship has become tragically toxic.

This toxicity is all the more troublesome when taken together with some of the other alarming effects of high-carb, high sugar habits. Studies have shown that eating high levels of both contribute not just to weight gain. These foods can affect moods, leading to higher instances of anxiety, aggression, fatigue, and depression.2

A Better Way

A ketogenic diet, on the other hand, helps alleviate the above. Ketosis helps stabilize a person in both body and mind. Shereen’s observations of herself and castmates is a testament to this. In the first place, she highlighted the importance disengaging from sugar and carbs.

Second, her success shows how the diet works with a person to provide the actual nutrition one needs. While carbs might give people energy, they don’t help build a body efficiently. Carbs burn hot, but only for a short time before being stored and forgotten. Fueling with fats, as one does with keto, provides steady levels of energy for extended amounts of time. This makes it perfect for endurance and most weight loss and training programs. It also gives a person like Shereen an edge in the wilderness where carbs aren’t available, but endurance crucial. So on islands and in life, keto is a win-win all around.

NUTRITIONAL DISCLAIMER

The content on this website should not be taken as medical advice and you should ALWAYS consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. We provide nutritional data for our recipes as a courtesy to our readers. We use Total Keto Diet app software to calculate the nutrition and we remove fiber and sugar alcohols, like erythritol, from the total carbohydrate count to get to the net carb count, as they do not affect your blood glucose levels. You should independently calculate nutritional information on your own and not rely on our data. The website or content herein is not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose or treat any disease. This website shall not be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or recommendations on the Website or actions you take as a result. Any action you take is strictly at your own risk.

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