The ketogenic diet is often labelled controversial due to its low carb, high fat nature. However, it is also touted as one of the best diets for weight loss, improving insulin sensitivity, and controlling seizures. But could this diet also have the potential to help inflammatory autoimmune conditions and reduce chronic pain?
The ketogenic diet has been the center of some controversy over the years. It is characterized by a very low consumption of carbohydrates—less than 50 grams a day—offset by a higher proportion of fat. Its opponents often demonize it for cutting out whole food groups while its advocates maintain that its benefits outweigh the risks.
However, apart from its well-studied benefits in managing epilepsy in children, evidence for its other potential advantages—such as reducing inflammation—has remained scarce, at least in humans.
What’s certain for now, however, is that we are still uncovering the exact mechanisms behind why and how this diet works and impacts health.
In the latest installment of our In Conversation podcast, we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of following a ketogenic diet while diving into how the diet may potentially impact autoimmune conditions such as lupus, with Dr. Susan A. Masino of Trinity College, Vernon D. Roosa professor of Applied Science, and author of “Ketogenic Diet and Metabolic Therapies: Expanded Roles in Health and Disease” weighing in as an expert, and Shea, who has trialled the diet with his lupus, sharing his personal experience.
You can listen to this month’s episode below, or on your preferred streaming platform:
In 2021, the ketogenic diet officially marked its 100th anniversary. In the 1920s, the keto diet was introduced as an alternative therapy to help children with epilepsy after doctors saw that mimicking the metabolism of fasting not only improved symptoms but also helped control seizures.
“[The diet] was used to try and treat epilepsy because it had been observed when people who had seizures didn’t eat [carbohydrates] the seizures would stop. But, of course, that wasn’t sustainable. So, it was sort of developed to try and further explore this therapeutic potential of fasting, in…