Popular Celebrity Diet That Boosts Mood, Heart Health, And Much More…

Halle Berry says a century-old diet keeps her diabetes under control, maintains her weight, and has “also given me a ton of energy”. Kourtney Kardashian, LeBron James, and other celebrities also give it the thumbs up.

But it’s not just celebrities…

Science shows that this diet not only helps people lose weight, control diabetes, and improve physical performance but also lowers the risk of heart disease and can even suppress tumor growth.

Since the diet was originally created to treat epileptic seizures, researchers at Stanford Medicine wondered if it could also improve mood. So, they set up a first-of-its-kind trial to find out.

The Ketogenic Diet Improves Mood And Mental Health

The ketogenic diet, or the keto diet as it’s known, is low in carbs, moderate in protein, and high in fat. It’s also known as metabolic therapy because it reduces the body’s dependence on glucose for fuel. Instead, it relies on ketone bodies formed from fat to supply the body with energy.

Over the last six years, research findings suggest psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disease may arise because of metabolic (energy) dysfunction. In other words, some doctors believe that psychiatric disorders are not so much mental issues as metabolic issues that cause mental health problems.

Strong Link Between Psychiatric Disorders & Metabolic Syndrome

Evidence for this comes from the high prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with severe mental illness. This syndrome increases the risk of Type-2 diabetes and conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels. Such patients die ten to 25 years earlier than the general population, largely because of premature cardiovascular disease.

Psychiatric drugs - which have undesirable metabolic effects of their own, such as insulin resistance and obesity - can’t always control mental conditions or have unpleasant side effects, so patients stop taking them. Providing an alternative fuel for the brain might impact metabolism in such a way that patients can take their psychiatric medication without side effects.

In addition, the diet itself is believed to have many positive impacts on the brain, such as suppressing inflammation, reducing free radicals, and stabilizing brain networks. This can help mental health, mood, and so much more.

Outside of its very successful long-term control of epileptic seizures, there were only a few case reports - all positive - of its use in schizophrenia. As a result, Shebani Sethi, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, set up a pilot trial in 21 patients with either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder to put the ketogenic diet to the test.

All participants had at least one metabolic problem, while 29 percent met the criteria for metabolic syndrome, having at least three of the following: abdominal obesity, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, and elevated fasting glucose levels.

The research team told all participants to keep taking their prescribed medication and follow a ketogenic diet, with around 10 percent of calories coming from carbs, 30 percent from protein, and 60 percent from fat. They were given keto-friendly meal ideas, cookbooks, and access to a health coach.

The trial's findings were highly encouraging, not just for mood and mental health benefits.

Metabolic Syndrome Solved!

By the end of the four-month trial, 14 patients had been fully adherent, six were semi-adherent, and only one abandoned the diet. The results for those who fully adhered to the diet included:

• Lower blood pressure
• Lower triglycerides
• Lower blood sugar
• Improved insulin resistance
• Lower body mass index
• Weight loss (up to 12 percent lost)
• Smaller waist circumference (up to 13 percent reduced)
• Less visceral fat (fat around organs, up to 36 percent lost)
• Better sleep
• Clearer thinking
• Greater life satisfaction

And a whopping 75 percent experienced a meaningful improvement in their mental health as assessed by a psychiatric rating scale of mental illness. The average improvement was 31 percent.

Those who were semi-adhered to the diet also gained the same benefits but to a lesser extent, suggesting a dose-response relationship.

Dr. Sethi was delighted with the results: “It’s very promising and encouraging that you can take back control of your illness in some way, aside from the usual standard of care.

“We’re seeing huge changes. Even if you’re on antipsychotic drugs, we can still reverse the obesity, the metabolic syndrome, the insulin resistance. I think that’s very encouraging for patients [who also] reported improvements in their energy, sleep, mood and quality of life. They feel healthier and more hopeful.”

Metabolic Psychiatry

Several years before the study, Dr. Sethi coined the term metabolic psychiatry, a new field that approaches mental health from an energy conversion perspective.

Metabolic deficits in the brain are believed to over-excite neurons. The ketogenic diet can dampen this down by improving the brain’s metabolism just as it improves the rest of the body’s metabolism.

“Anything that improves metabolic health in general is probably going to improve brain health anyway,” Sethi said. “But the ketogenic diet can provide ketones as an alternative fuel to glucose for a brain with energy dysfunction.”

Following The Keto Diet

For those interested in following the ketogenic diet used in this trial, patients were asked to avoid bread and pasta and focus on non-processed foods. Carbohydrates were limited to 20 grams a day (excluding fiber), and they were asked to eat a cup of non-starchy vegetables, two cups of salad vegetables, and eight glasses of water. They were encouraged to use avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil, and butter.

In addition to the above, a keto diet generally includes moderate protein (20 to 25 percent) from meat, fatty fish, eggs, nuts, and seeds.