Today we are looking at how popular the keto diet is.
If you look at the current news stories, you may think that Vegan diet or Plant-based diets are the most popular, but this is not the case.
I went looking from statistics on whether keto is still popular or in decline and I will share them with you today.
Hello and welcome to Fearlessly Holistic.
My name is Irma and I want to share my journey to improved health by eating whole foods, moving my body and eliminating stress as much as possible.
It is my hope to inspire you to make daily changes. Why? Because eating fresh, seasonal food, getting some sunshine, and purging unhelpful thinking is the best way to increase longevity. But you do not want just a long life.
You want a quality long life.
Ready to start keto? Grab my KETO FOOD GUIDE and start eating better today. Keto diet, and especially clean keto which I advocate for, it healthy and delicious and nourishes your body which encourages healing and weight loss.
My blog posts are my opinion and the results of things that I have tried that either worked for me or didn’t. My opinions are for informational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Medical advice should always be obtained from a qualified medical professional for any health conditions or symptoms associated with them. As well, there may be affiliate links in this post. Read more here.
What Is A Keto Diet Plan?
Keto is short for ketogenic, and the therapeutic ketogenic diet was developed by Russel Wilder in the 1920’s to help treat epilepsy.
Wilder’s ketogenic diet was important help for almost 10 years, until anti-epileptic products became more popular.
It is important to note that the standard ketogenic diet is higher in carbohydrates than the therapeutic ketogenic diet.
For this post, we are talking about the therapeutic version with the lower amount of carbs per day.
The macronutrient ratio for a therapeutic diet has the net carbohydrates at 20 grams per day, as well as 65% of calories from fat and 15% from protein. (more info from Optimizing Nutrition)
The reason for this is because a high fat diet can help turn around many health issues.
People successful with keto diet report improvements with:
- Weight loss
- Reversal of metabolic syndrome
- Reduced inflammation
- Type II diabetes
- Cardiovascular health
- Cancer
- Improved brain function i.e less brain fog and more comprehension
- Improvement for IBS and digestive issues
- Headaches/migraines
- Increased stamina while exercising
These results are due to the lowering of carbohydrates and the increasing of dietary fat, resulting in ketosis.
Ketosis is when you burn your excess body fat for fuel. This will not happen until all carbs have been used up.
A therapeutic ketogenic diet of no more than 20 grams of carbs per day, in the form of mostly vegetables, is also less inflammatory.
The higher amount of fat grams in the diet, coming from healthy fat foods like butter or avocado, are satiating so you can eat less food, less often.
That means that you will naturally fast while on keto diet.
Fasting is a key component of being in Ketosis.
When you are not eating i.e. fasting, your body can access your body fat stores to burn as energy.
This is why keto diets are popular for weight loss.
Is Keto Diet Still Popular in 2022?
Yes, very much so.
Keto diet searches outperform Vegan diet and Plant-based diets in every year that Google Trends has data for.
Google Trends can show data back to 2004, but Vegan and Plant-based were not actively searched until around 2016.
Top search terms for keto diet are:
- The Keto diet
- What is keto diet
- What is Keto
- Keto diet plan
- Keto Diet menu
Rising queries are almost identical:
- What is keto diet
- What is keto
- Keto diet plan
- Keto diet menu
- Best Keto diet
According to Google Trends, the highest search point for Keto diet was in January 2019.
The trend for Keto diet took a huge dip in March of 2020, it started to come back up in December.
Is The Keto Diet Losing Popularity?
Statistics would say no.
This following Google Trends graph shows the most recent increase for the keto diet, starting in 2016.
Vegan diet and plant-based diet search terms peaked in 2017, then declined, and then peaked again in 2019.
Neither Vegan diet or Plant based diet have caught up to keto diet in any year as searches.
Keto diet trends higher despite being at the bottom of most diet picks for any given year.
Keto diet’s popularity remains due to the success that people have, and they are happy to share it online.
Market research companies are expecting a lot of growth in the keto diet food and supplements market, projecting numbers into 2027. More on this below.
Why is Keto Diet Trending?
In 2019, a poll conducted by Dalhousie University told us that 26 percent of Canadians have either adopted the keto diet, have tried it or have considered trying it in the last 18 months.
70% of people surveyed stated that they started keto diet based on their own research.
Less than 5 % said the diet was recommended by a Dietician. (source: keto diet survey results)
People are trying keto diet to see if they can achieve their health goals, with the number one goal being weight loss.
Thanks to their being more widespread acceptance of the diet, more and more people are willing to give it a try.
Currently the global markets are gearing up to get on board with more Keto products.
Since the Atkins diet days, there has been a demand for ketogenic food products.
It has been getting easier to find clean keto and regular keto food products in local grocery stores.
One of the best places to find keto diet products is Costco, which carries many keto items.
The largest growth appears to be because of marketing on social media.
Instagram stories and Facebook marketing are getting small-batch new products in front of the people who want to buy them.
This is driving the growth of the marketplace.
Growth is expected to reach 5.45% by 2027, in the key areas of snacks, supplements, beverages and dairy. (Global New Wire 2022)
People are attracted to keto diet because of the link between diet and wellness.
Many people have made the connection that eating a high carbohydrate diet has not given them the health results they were expecting.
However Keto diet does.
Most keto diets emphasize eating the freshest and cleanest food possible, so this enhances health.
Keto diet is rising in popularity around the world.
This image shows the expected growth through to 2027, as markets around the world start creating more keto products.
Off-shoot programs related to Keto diet are also popular.
Information shows that for the 2018/2019 period, the top diets in the US were, in order of popularity:
- Clean Eating (10%)
- Intermittent Fasting (9%)
- Paleo diet (7%)
- Ketogenic, Gluten-Free diet and Low-Carb diet (6% each)
(source: Statistica.com)
“Keto” was the most Googled food-related topic in the world in 2020, with 25.4 million searches. (bolstglobal.com)
Their research suggests that Keto has overtaken Atkins and Intermittent Fasting.
The keto diet itself is becoming more popular with younger people.
Millennials and Gen X-er’s are disillusioned by the prevalence of unhealthy food in the marketplace.
They drive the demand for keto diet, clean eating, organic and natural food products. (source: foodnavigator.com)
If you are following a clean keto diet, you will be incorporating intermittent fasting naturally along with clean/organic/natural eating.
This combination is also propelling Keto diet forward among younger people. (source: The Washington Post)
Keto Diet Market Size
If you ever considered creating a product to fit the keto diet niche, now is the time.
“In 2020 “keto” was the most Googled food-related topic in the world with 25.4 million searches. Keto has overtaken previously popular diets such as Atkins and intermittent fasting”…
The compound annual growth rate is at 5.3%, which is why keto products are exploding…
As well, because of the explosive growth, the market is spreading to Europe and the Asia-Pacific region; high-protein diets are now mainstream in Japan…
The ketogenic diet market is predicted to reach global value of $15.6 billion USD by 2027″.
(source: bolstglobal.com)
Estimated growth in the keto diet market will rise by 5.5% every year from 2020 to 2027. (source: grandviewresearch.com)
- North America is dominating the keto diet market due to the popularity of the diet in the USA and Canada.
- The rise in popularity is due to concerns of overweight and obesity among younger people, millennials and working class people.
- This is the reason for the explosion in the past few years of products related to the above search queries.
Because of the potential growth of the keto diet market, we are now seeing:
- Keto meat delivery boxes
- Grass-fed meat fat (tallow, lard etc) available from multiple sources, as well as products made from them
- Bone broth delivery
- Clean meat jerky, pepperoni, and pork rinds
- Freeze dried meat capsules or snack foods
- Keto meals in Delivery Meal Kits
- Keto or low carb options when dining out
- Supplements, like sugar-free electrolyte mixes.
- Keto snacks
- Beverages, including alcohol
- More availability in grocery stores
The market is wide open for any new and interesting keto foods or products that will help people maintain their diet.
What Is The Success Rate of The Keto Diet?
I have done Keto diet off and on since Atkins was the thing, and I know many people who stopped and started as well.
This had more to do with trying to follow a specific plan rather than creating a personal way of eating based on your own health needs. At least according to the people posting on Reddit and Quora.
It is hard to find hard data for success rates because everyone is not reporting their results to the same places.
But by checking Reddit, Quora, Twitter and Instagram, you can find plenty of success stories.
And they all seem to be based on variations of the basic keto diet of 55% to 60% fat, 30% to 35% protein and 5% to 10% carbohydrates.
Other low carb diets that are gaining in popularity are carnivore (meat only), ketovore (alternating between carnivore and keto), and keto one meal a day (OMAD) to gain fasting benefits.
That being said, the people who achieve the most success with keto diet are the ones who stick with it.
For me personally, I gained the most health benefits when I eat a clean and seasonal ketovore diet, which incorporates intermittent fasting.
Here are success stories via Perfect Keto.
10 Success Stories via Diet Doctor.
110 Before-and-After pics from Womens Health mag.
And finally, here are 10 graphs that show the power of the ketogenic diet from Healthline.
A quick Google search of the term “keto diet success” will net you pages of success stories from multiple websites.
Conclusion
I love eating low-carb (<20 grams of carbs per day) and being in Ketosis; it has healed so many areas of my health. Making the Keto diet to fit my life and the concepts that I am aligned with, which are clean, seasonal eating, has changed my health for the better.
If you are interested in how I do Keto then get your copy of my KETO FOOD GUIDE and check out your options.
I advocate for clean food keto, to give my body the most nutrients. This allows for quicker healing and sustained weight loss.
Holism targets overall wellness, and when we are well, we only get better with age.
Eat the best food that you can afford to give your body the building blocks it needs for optimal health, longevity, and looking good for as long as possible 😉
Please share this post with anyone who can benefit from it. Sharing is caring! And follow me on Pinterest!
Until next time, here’s to our health!
-Irma