The Keto diet is recommended for health and weight loss. There are claims of a lot of health benefits with it. Moreover, many celebrities are fans of this diet and follow it diligently for many years.
And now the focus of researchers is on finding whether this diet can help treat serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Australian university James Cook University will investigate whether this low-carb, high-fat diet helps manage major mental conditions.
Keto diet
The Keto diet is replacing the primary source of energy for the body. Normally, the body uses carbs for energy production. It breaks down carbs into glucose that the body cells take up for energy synthesis.
But in the Keto diet, fats replace these carbs in foods. And this particular diet is useful for various health benefits and weight management.
But now scientists from the James Cook University at Townsville in Queensland want to study whether these diets are beneficial as a supplementary treatment for major mental disorders.
Keto diet (Source: Elite Medical Center)Australian neuroscientist Zoltan Sarnyai states that the diet is good for weight loss and bodybuilders. But now they want to know whether ketone or keto diets are good for the management and control of major mental problems too.
What do researchers say?
Prof. Zoltan says:
“The focus is on foods like eggs, meats, dairy, healthy fats such as avocado, nuts, salmon and low-carb vegetables and fruits, as well as sugar-free drinks,”
‘It restricts highly processed items and unhealthy fats.’
The ketogenic diet (Source: Harvard Health)With the ketogenic diet, the daily diet should have 75% fats, 20% protein, and 5% carbs. Since carbs are less, the body breaks the fats in the liver to produce ketones. Ketosis results. Zoltan adds:
“The body changes its whole metabolism, from breaking down sugars, which is the sort of default condition, to breaking down fat.”
Often, mental issues happen because the brain cannot use glucose properly. When fats replace carbs as primary fuel, utilization is better. Brain cells start talking to each other normally. Thoughts, emotions, and impulses might get better.
Previous mice study
Zoltan explains that initially, they had conducted an animal study. They produced schizophrenia-like conditions in mice using drug injection. After that, they provided a ketogenic diet to them.
They found that the ketogenic diet reversed schizophrenia in the treated mice.
Schizophrenia (Source: Help guide)In the current study, 100 patients with mental disorders of the major type like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia would participate. Scientists would put them on ketogenic diets.
These patients would have a follow-up and monitoring for 12 weeks to look for improvement of symptoms if any. It is felt that the patients might have general improvement as well.
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Also, normally with anti-schizophrenic medicines, these patients put on excess weight. The keto diet would help them lose that excess flab.
Additionally, it is known that schizophrenic patients die early due to weight gain and its effect on the heart and blood vessels. This can be averted with the ketogenic diet, it is assumed.