The ketogenic iet is a high fat, adequate protein, low carbohydrate diet, primarily used in the treatment of difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet mimics aspects of starvation by forcing the body to burn fat rather than carbohydrate. The normal metabolic process generates glucose as fuel for the body and the brain. If carbohydrates are severely restricted, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. Of these two fuel types, only the ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. The excess production of ketone bodies, a state known as ketosis, has an anticonvulsant effect.