What are the best beta hydroxybutyrate food sources for boosting levels?

Healthy fats like MCT oil, butter, and coconut oil are the best foods for making more ketones.MCT oil is a favorite food and supplement among people on the keto diet because it helps the body make more ketones, gives you more energy, and lowers your appetite and cravings. Plus, it's cheaper than many exogenous ketone supplements. How do you use MCT oil? In the morning, try adding at least a tablespoon to your coffee.

When you're on the ketogenic diet, these are the best low-carb foods to eat every day:

Healthy fats — coconut oil, MCT oil, avocado, avocado oil, walnut oil, olive oil
Pastured/cage-free eggs
Grass-fed meats — beef, organs, game meat, lamb, bison, pastured chicken, turkey, duck
Full-fat dairy— choose organic types like cream cheese, cheeses, sour cream, butter, ghee
Wild-caught fish and seafood — some of the best choices are mackerel, sardines, salmon
Nuts and seeds — nut butter, almonds, macadamia nuts, cashews, walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds
Non-starchy veggies — all types of leafy greens, zucchini, asparagus, artichoke, cruciferous veggies like broccoli, etc.
Herbs, spices, vinegars, mustards, cocoa powder and stevia extract
Beta Hydroxybutyrate: The Ketone that Supports Weight Loss & Brain Health

The body can use two main types of fuel: glucose, which comes from carbs, and ketone bodies, which are made from fat. When you eat a very low-carb, high-fat diet, which is also called the "ketogenic diet," your body starts making organic ketone molecules, such as beta hydroxybutyrate (BHB or beta-hydroxybutyrate), which can be used as fuel instead of carbs.

What does the body do with beta hydroxybutyrate? Some of the most important benefits and uses of beta hydroxybutyrate are that it can help people lose weight, stop or treat diabetes and insulin resistance, help treat epilepsy, fight cancer, protect the brain, improve cognitive function, and maybe even make people live longer.

Ketone bodies, like BHB, can be made by your body, and you can also get BHB from ketone products. Exogenous ketones, or just eating foods like MCT oil, can help the many good benefits of the keto diet and intermittent fasting even more.

What Is Beta Hydroxybutyrate?

Beside being a ketone, beta hydroxybutyrate is also known as a ketone body. It is a byproduct of the body breaking down fats. Ketogenesis is the process by which fatty acids are broken down by β-oxidation. When a person is in the metabolic state of ketosis, their body makes three main ketone bodies. The other two are acetoacetic acid and acetone.

Usually, when someone eats a normal diet that includes many different types of carbs, the main job of carbs is to give the body food or energy. When there aren't any carbohydrates around and glycogen (the stored form of carbohydrate) runs out, which happens when someone is on the keto diet, the liver turns fatty acids into ketones.

Carbohydrates are the body's "preferred fuel source" and the first type of energy used for cell and body functions. Fat is also a fuel source. Normally, we only need small amounts of fat (essential fatty acids) to keep our energy level fixed. But on the keto diet, our need for fat goes up by a huge amount.

Beta hydroxybutyrate is also made when someone doesn't eat for at least 16 hours. When you fast, your body thinks that you are not eating enough energy, so it makes more ketones to have another food source. Ketone bodies are made to help save any glucose that is available for the brain, which needs it quickly. Fats and ketone bodies can also be broken down by the brain when glucose is not present.

Types of BHB

Is beta hydroxybutyrate a real thing? Yes, it is a naturally occurring chemical that the body makes when it is starving, dieting very low on carbs, or fasting. Beta hydroxybutyrate can be made by the body in two different types: D-BHB (which is used for efficient energy and also has anti-aging benefits) and L-BHB (which is used less for energy but also for making fatty acids).

When your body turns fatty acids into ketones, it does so in about these amounts:

Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) makes up 78% of all the ketones in the blood.
Acetoacetate (AcAc) makes up about 20% of the ketones in blood.
Acetone makes up only 2% of the ketones in blood.

Exogenous ketones, which are ketones that come from outside the body, are also used to copy or boost the good benefits of very low-carbohydrate or calorie-restricted ketogenic diets. In ketone products, you will usually only find beta hydroxybutyrate, even though there are three different types of ketone bodies.

Benefits

1. Supports Weight Loss

When carbs are severely limited during fasting or the keto diet, insulin levels drop. This makes it possible for fat to be released from fatty tissue and cause steady weight loss.

Once the keto flu symptoms go away, ketones can also help boost energy, physical function, and recovery. And exercise, especially intense and long-lasting types, raises the level of ketone bodies in the body, which helps burn even more fat.

2. Helps Prevent or Treat Diabetes/Insulin Resistance

Ketones lower the amount of glucose and insulin in the blood, which stops insulin-like growth factor receptors from sending signals. Studies with rats have shown that exogenous lowers blood sugar and insulin levels, even when the rats eat a lot of processed foods that are high in cornstarch. With this in mind, BHB can help with an insulin resistance diet.

3. Fights Cancer

Giving mice with late-stage cancer exogenous ketones has been shown to help significantly improve their chances of survival in animal studies. Supplementing with ketones was shown in a 2014 study in the International Journal of Cancer to "decrease tumor cell viability and prolong survival of mice with metastatic cancer."

Cancer cells have an abnormal metabolism that makes them use more glucose, which makes genetic mutations and mitochondrial failure more likely. This is one reason why very low-carb diets may help fight cancer. Researchers have found that healthy tissues can use ketone bodies for energy, but cancer cells can't. Ketones have also been shown to stop grown tumor cells from growing and living.

That particular study used mice that were fed a normal meal plus either 1,3-butanediol (BD) or a ketone ester that was broken down into BHB and acetoacetate. The growth of the tumor was tracked. During the mortality study, body weight, blood glucose, blood βHB, and the time people lived were all recorded. Even when glucose levels are high, adding ketones to the body was shown to lower the growth and survival of cancer cells. Adding BD and ketone ester to the mice's food increased their life time by 51% and 69%, respectively, when they had systemic metastatic cancer.

4. Protects the Brain

As per studies, BHB can help with cognitive and mental health by improving memory, focus, attention, physical performance, and learning; lowering free radical damage; lowering inflammation and the risk of cognitive decline in older adults; protecting against and treating epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases; and lowering the risk for mood-related disorders like depression.

Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other neurological diseases are less likely to happen because ketones lower oxidative stress in the brain and protect brain cells, especially the mitochondria, neurons, and synapses. Ketones also seem to help stop the buildup of a molecule known as amyloid-β, which has been linked to the growth of diseases like Alzheimer's. When there is no glucose available, the brain is very open to ketone bodies, especially BHB, which it takes quickly (about 0.032 mmol/kg per minute).

5. Has Anti-Inflammatory Effects

BHB can help stop the release of chemicals that cause inflammation, which is a factor in many diseases that affect the heart, brain, bones, skin, and other parts of the body. Researchers think that BHB stops NLRP3 inflammasome from working properly and also lowers the production of cytokines that cause inflammation, such as IL-1β and IL-18.

It was concluded by the author that "We hypothesize that increasing the levels of ketone bodies will also extend the life span of humans and that calorie restriction extends life span at least in part through increasing the levels of ketone bodies."

Ketones may be able to make people live longer because they make insulin and IIS less active. Also, ketone bodies seem to help protect cells from free radical damage and power mitochondria, even in older people who aren't as good at oxidizing glucose metabolites. This makes gene expression better and protects against oxidative stress by increasing the functions of antioxidant enzymes like catalase, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase 2, and others.

How to Optimize Levels

The ketogenic diet, which is very low in carbs and high in fat, is the best natural way to raise beta hydroxybutyrate levels. You can also do this along with irregular fasting or other types of fasting to make even more ketones. A ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, and exogenous ketones like BHB salts can all be used together to really boost BHB output and fat burning.

Many people can benefit from using ketone supplements (exogenous ketones) even when they are following the keto diet properly. However, to get the most out of them, you should change your diet so your body makes its own ketones. It is important to remember that most low-carb diets will not raise ketone levels; only the ketogenic diet can do this.

What does "nutritional ketosis" mean and how do you stay in it while on the ketogenic diet? Simply put, you should get 70% to 80% of your daily calories from fat, no more than 20% to 25% of your calories from protein, and no more than 5% to 10% of your daily calories from carbs.

What’s the best BHB supplement/ketone supplement?

When you add a beta hydroxybutyrate supplement to your routine, it can help you get into a state called ketosis, support your energy levels when you're fasting, stop keto flu symptoms, and improve your sports performance and recovery.Ketone pills are a quick way to get ketones. They can be taken between meals or before a workout. If you've been off the diet for a while, you can also use ketone pills to help you get back into ketosis more quickly and easily.

There are three main types of ketone supplements:

• Ketone salts (sometimes called BHB salts), which are ketones bound to minerals.
• Ketone esters, which are basically “raw ketones” and metabolize quickly into BHB. This type is not widely available for most consumers but is typically used in research/studies.
• Ketone oils, including MCT oil. MCT (medium chain triglyceride) oils are used by the body to boost ketones and burn fat easily. Coconut oil also contains medium chained triglycerides, but MCT oil is a more concentrated source. MCTs must be broken down first before they can be used for energy, making this type of supplement slightly less efficient.

The amount of ketones in your blood, urine and breath can be tested to provide a reading of your body’s ketone levels and to indicate that you are (or are not) in ketosis. Depending on the quality of ketone supplements, different brands and types will affect blood BHB (ketone) levels in different ways. The higher quality a product is, the better it will be at helping you enter and stay in ketosis.

• Quality ketone products can help increase blood ketone levels to as high as 1.5 mmol/L. Following a keto diet correctly can increase levels even more. Most people on the keto diet will have ketone levels between 2–3 mmol/L.
• The optimal range of beta hydroxybutyrate is between 0.6–6.0 mmol/L, depending on your goals and the condition you’re treating. When you’re not purposefully limiting carb take, levels will stay below 0.5 mmol/L.
• For general weight loss, aim to get your levels above 0.6 mmol/L. Doctors may aim for higher levels of ketones in patients who are being treated for therapeutic purposes, up tp 3–6 mmol/L.
• Fasting can increase BHB levels to above 0.6 mmol/L within 12–16 hours. If you fast for two days, your level will likely climb to 1–2 mmol/L.
• Intense exercise for 90 minutes can also boost BHB to 1–2 mmol/L.
• When you’re in ketosis, you have a higher than usual level of ketones in your blood or urine, but this is not the same as ketoacidosis, which affects diabetics. Ketone levels at or above 3 mmol/L in diabetics can be indicative of ketoacidosis and can be dangerous. In very severe diabetic ketoacidosis, the beta-hydroxybutyrate serum concentration may exceed 25 mmol/L. Diabetics should always work with a doctor and be monitored when following the keto diet in order to reduce the risk for any complications.

Lesson Summary

Healthy fats like MCT oil, butter, and coconut oil are great for boosting beta hydroxybutyrate levels. MCT oil is popular for aiding ketone production and providing energy while reducing appetite. To use MCT oil, consider adding a tablespoon to your morning coffee. As part of a ketogenic diet, consume these low-carb foods regularly:

• Coconut oil, MCT oil, avocado, avocado oil, walnut oil, olive oil
• Pastured/cage-free eggs
• Grass-fed meats like beef, organs, and game meat
• Full-fat dairy such as cream cheese, cheeses, and butter
• Wild-caught fish and seafood
• Nuts, seeds, and nut butter
• Non-starchy veggies and herbs

Beta hydroxybutyrate, a key ketone body, offers various benefits like aiding weight loss, managing diabetes, fighting cancer, supporting brain health, and reducing inflammation. The body produces BHB during ketosis, mainly when on a very low-carb diet.

Beta hydroxybutyrate can be naturally made or obtained from exogenous sources like ketone products. It assists in weight loss by promoting fat burning and increases energy levels. Additionally, BHB aids in diabetes management by lowering glucose and insulin levels and shows potential in cancer treatment by inhibiting tumor growth.

This ketone body protects the brain, reduces inflammation, and may extend lifespan by improving energy production and antioxidant functions. To optimize beta hydroxybutyrate, adopt a ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, and potentially include BHB supplements.

Several types of BHB supplements are available, such as ketone salts, ketone esters, and MCT oils. These supplements aid in achieving and maintaining ketosis, enhancing energy during fasting, and improving performance and recovery. Testing ketone levels can help gauge effectiveness, with quality products achieving levels up to 1.5 mmol/L.

• For weight loss, aim for BHB levels above 0.6 mmol/L.
• Doctors may target higher levels (3–6 mmol/L) for therapeutic treatments.
• Fasting or intense exercise can increase BHB levels.

Diabetics must be cautious with the keto diet to avoid ketoacidosis, a serious condition marked by very high ketone levels. Working with a doctor while following the diet is advised to minimize risks.