Last week, actor Mishti Mukherjee, who was in her mid-thirties, passed away in a Bengaluru-based hospital, owing to kidney failure. The actor, who had starred in several movies, was on a keto diet, which allegedly affected her kidney function. Although the keto diet is one of the most popular ones to have emerged in the past five years — with the likes of Kim Kardashian, Halle Berry and Gwyneth Paltrow, among other celebrities, trying it — Mukherjee's sudden death highlights the need to understand the risk of following fad diets.

What is it?

Dr Alifia S Bhol, clinical nutritionist, lifestyle therapist and founder of NutriAl online diet clinic, explains that the ketogenic or keto diet was originally developed as a measure to treat epilepsy patients in the 1920s. "It's a low-carbohydrate, high-fat and controlled protein diet. It was not considered the best measure to treat epilepsy patients, but was used as other forms of medication weren't working," she shares, adding that following the diet leads to the formation of ketone bodies which help with seizures.