Ketogenic Diets and Mental Health

I figured this might interest some peeps here. Dr. Georgia Ede, a fabulous psychiatrist, wrote this article a few months ago and I only just saw it! It's definitely worth checking out. Even if you don't eat a super low-carb diet, or are in ketosis, this might be a decent read nonetheless :)

And no, individuals can't necessarily replace psych meds with diet, however it's interesting to me just how much of our health we relinquish control of when we live to eat instead of eating fuel to survive. I wonder sometimes if I'd have wound up with depression had I learned that lesson sooner.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/diagnosis-diet/201706/k etogenic-diets-psychiatric-disorders-new-2017-review

Interesting! Thanks for this info!

Just booked marked it and will read this afternoon, thank you for sharing.

Thanks for sharing Donna. I too struggled with both obesity and depression most of my life and was left wondering the same thing.

Interesting article, what I really thought was interesting is near the end she had a linked article for cautions before you go on a Keto diet..... and one of the medical conditions she says you should do it only with medical supervision is Bariatric surgery.

Funny for all my adding carbs for my own medical reasons- when I see my macros on MFP I am still usually 50% fat, 25% each carbs and protein.... I love my MCT oil- liquid coconut oil in my morning latte. I tried one day last week to leave it out to see if I'd miss it- as it's just one more special thing to buy- and I missed it. Really missed it. Not sure why per se but I am hooked on using it.

I don't get the coconut oil fad... if you look at the macros, you're better off eating lard than nasty coconut oil products.

I love cooking with "nasty" coconut oil products. It works really well for stir fries and curries.

The rapidity with which coconut oil hit the scene makes one a bit suspicious that someone has been working to reposition it from a cheap commodity oil sold in bulk to the food processors and fast food chains to a high margin boutique product sold through the likes of Whole Foods. There's no question that it's a good high temperature cooking oil (why it's long been used for french fries and KFC), but the trendy thing of adding it to everything, or making sweetened fat balls, does seem to hit the fad button just a bit.

Back when low fat diets were the "in" thing, the science (same science that we have today, btw) had some findings that fats were triggering, crave inducing and addicting (I know, contrary to keto doctrine, but we're talking science here, not religion....) Given that fats had been the predominant dietary abuse at the time, it is worth considering. Try treating your apparent coconut oil trigger/craving as one would today treat a simple carbohydrate trigger - avoid it for 3-4 days and see if that cures it. It's worth a try, what have you got to lose?

I don't see it as a negative... just an unusual thing I tried and ended up really liking, my blood work improved as well. I feel it helps with hunger as well. I don't do bulletproof coffee and all that just add it to my coffee and fairlife milk latte.

Since it hasn't had negative effects Health-wise, in maintenance low volume ways to add calories work.