Posted on 05/01/2021 4:12:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
According to a recent study in JAMA Network Open, Americans gained about 1 1/2 pounds every month during stay-at-home orders last year. At the same time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2 in 5 are struggling with mental health issues. One local researcher believes a ketogenic diet could help address both issues.
Eric Rodgers was running marathons when his doctor said he was pre-diabetic. At the time, he was also taking anti-depressants.
"You would lose enjoyment in things. You're not looking forward to things that you used to look forward to," Rodgers said.
He started doing his own research and came across the ketogenic diet. It's a very low-carb, high fat option and has been around for 100 years, first used to control drug-resistant seizures in people with epilepsy.
Now, there's a growing body of research suggesting it can ease mental health disorders, as well.
"It's not far-fetched at all to think 'Wow, if this diet can stop seizures, maybe it could have a powerful effect for some people with psychiatric disorders as well,'" said Dr. Chris Palmer, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
He also practices at McLean Hospital in Belmont and has used the ketogenic diet for 15 years to treat patients with treatment-resistant illnesses. He said it didn't work for everyone but for some people, he saw incredible results.
"Some people were actually able to get off of medications and be in full remission from their illness," Palmer said.
Palmer says processed foods high in fat and carbohydrates can negatively affect brain metabolism in anyone leading to stress, depression and anxiety. The ketogenic diet removes those foods.
"That results in an anti-depressant, anti-anxiety effect for at least some people," Palmer said.
If you're feeling anxious or stressed, Palmer suggests paying attention to what you're eating.
"Be more mindful. For the next two weeks try to change the diet, try to eat less processed foods, less junk food," Palmer said.
Rodgers cut out those foods four years ago and has followed a keto diet since. He reversed his pre-diabetes and was able to wean off his medication. He believes it's the diet that did it.
"If you're not happy with your health right now you should be looking into this," Rodgers said.
An extra support way to augment this is to take things that stabilize blod sugar when you eat. Cinammon, turmeric, green tea, and a few others, all help to keep blood sugar from spiking when you eat.
I did keto for a long time and lost a lot of weight. But I gotta have my bread so I just eat it in moderation.
I’ve seen all kinds of diets. What they all have in common is cutting sugar out of the diet. This includes knocking out all forms of refined flour.
Do that and your life improves a lot.
When I did keto, I made my own yeast bread with low carb flour, regular recipe, but throw in some extra gluten. Tastes just like regular bread. The low carb flour is called carbalose. You can order it from Amazon, Wal-Mart, or netrition.com. It smells odd, but it tastes fine.
I just forgo bread etc.
I do it 5 days a week. M-F. At work, easier to stay disciplined. Sat-Sun I eat my usual way.
That sounds good in theory but didn’t work for me. I didn’t take any supplemental protein and I was still having trouble going into ketosis (according to test strips). I finally had to cut out pretty much all meat for a few days to see if I could finally go into keto. I did go into ketosis but I was miserable and quit after a couple of days.
It’s called keto flu and only lasts a handful of days. If you’d kept going another day or two, you’d probably felt better than you did before you started keto. If you ever try it again - remember to eat high fat meats (beef) rather than high protein (chicken) or at least add a bunch of high fat items to it (sour cream, butter, high fat cheeses, etc).
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