The goal of a ketogenic diet plan is to improve wellbeing through a metabolic change in which the primary cellular fuel source switches from carbohydrate based fuels (glucose) to fat fuels and fat metabolism products called ketones. This is achieved through a metabolic process called ketogenesis, and a body state called ketosis. Ketosis is simply a normal metabolic pathway in which the body cells utilize ketones to make energy, instead of relying on sugar or carbohydrate. In fact, humans developed an evolutionary ability to burn ketones as an adaptation to periods of time when food was unavailable.

A great deal of research is being done on ketosis as it relates to disease, because ketone bodies have some very beneficial effects on the human body. Increasing the rate of metabolic ketogenesis is an effective treatment for many disease conditions, because the presence of ketone bodies in the blood improves our health at the cellular level, specifically in the function of cellular energy pathways and mitochondrial health. Ketogenic diets are now being used to treat medical conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, autism, Alzheimer's, cancer and others and much of the success of these treatments is rooted in these cellular effects.