The devil is in the detail. The principles of the ketogenic diet are simple. But there are a lot of issues relating to its practical management, and these can make all the difference between success and failure. This section reviews a variety of topics from calculating the diet through to weaning from drugs.

Calculating the ketogenic diet

It is not necessary to do any calculations to operate the ketogenic diet - your dietician can do them all, and provide you with a list of menus, or an exchange list. However, if you want to get the best from the diet, you will need to understand how the diet works and to be able to "fine tune". Generally, using the ketogenic diet involves doing calculations. Fortunately, these are not very difficult, and can be handled by anyone, even if they are not a mathematical genius.

Food values

To calculate the ketogenic diet, it is necessary to know how much fat, carbohydrate and protein there is in each food. Most foods are now labelled with their food values, but this is not always the best source of information.

Cooking the ketogenic way

(not available)   Weaning from drugs

The strategy of weaning from drugs is particularly important in relationship to the ketogenic diet. The process is complex, and needs to be planned in detail with your doctor.  Some anti epileptic drugs interact with the diet and should be withdrawn before the start of the diet; the effect of others may be amplified by the use of the diet, so that the levels need to be cut, and there is the overall strategy for reducing or eliminating drugs as the diet becomes effective.

return to   The ketogenic diet

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(update 1.3: 29 January 2003)
(issue 1: 26 May 1998)