5 Amazing Benefits Of A Keto Diet For Mental Health

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If you have been following health or weight loss content on the internet or lifestyle magazines for the last few years, you have probably heard of the keto diet.

When most people talk about keto, they usually highlight the diet’s ability to help people lose weight without sacrificing their daily energy requirements. However, what many often overlook is the benefits of a keto diet for mental health.

In this article, we will dive into the five benefits of a keto diet for mental health and also give you insights as to how you can maximize these benefits by combining a keto diet with fasting. 

What is The Keto diet?

To put it simply, a keto diet is a type of diet that is high in fat content and low in carbohydrate content. This allows the human body to break the fat down into molecules known as ketones, which later circulate through the bloodstream and act as the main energy source for the cells.

Foods like fish, meat, poultry, bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, avocados, nuts, berries, eggs, seeds, etc., are common in a keto diet. 

5 Benefits of a Keto Diet For Mental Health

The old adage is true. you are what you eat. Our diet doesn’t just affect us physically, but psychologically as well. Let’s look at 5 ways a keto diet impacts your mental health.

Let’s dive right in!

1. Ensures Better Mental Clarity and Performance

When you opt for an intermittent fasting keto diet, it will allow you to reach ketosis sooner than keto on its own. Research suggests that such a diet provides mental clarity and better brain health. Usually, when you fast but consume a high amount of carbohydrates at the same time, it can lead to blood glucose level swings. This, in turn, leads to brain fog. 

However, attaining ketosis while fasting helps your brain get energy from a consistent fuel source, which leads to better clarity and mental performance. 

A study that focused on cognitive impairment showed that people consuming a low-carb diet experienced cognitive improvements within a shorter period compared to those who were on a high-carb diet. The same can be achieved through keto diet-based intermittent fasting, as it solely focuses on low-carb diet consumption.

This further suggests that the keto diet, combined with intermittent fasting, will prevent the progression of mild cognitive impairment. 

2. Keto Provides Mood-Stabilizing Functions

When a diet is referred to as “mood-stabilizing,” it means that it can help stabilize your mood even in its highs and lows. 

Intermittent fasting helps lower the amount of high-carb content in your body. On the other hand, the keto part of the diet helps increase your brain’s intercellular calcium levels. This has been proved by preclinical studies published in Biological Psychiatry, an official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry. 

However, it is to be noted here that this is not a general conclusion regarding the impact of intermittent fasting and keto on mood stabilization. Therefore, further studies need to be conducted regarding this. 

3. Helps with Depression, Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia, and Dementia

Studies conducted on animal models reveal that a keto diet can be useful in treating depression. It has been observed that a ketogenic diet has almost similar effects as your usual antidepressant drugs. However, further studies need to be conducted to see how effective it is for humans. 

As for bipolar disorder, a combination of a low-carb diet with a keto diet can lead to better mood stabilization, something we have covered earlier. The stabilization achieved here worked better than with conventional medication. 

In another case, it was seen that a low-carb keto diet worked wonders in relieving symptoms associated with schizophrenia. This study included small-scale human studies but will require large-scale studies as well in the future to fully confirm the diet’s effectiveness in aiding schizophrenia treatment. 

Low-carb keto diets have also been found to be beneficial in reducing the formation of plaques and inflammation in the human brain that can lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. 

4. Reduces Stress Levels

Studies have revealed that when you fast and your body has reduced levels of carbohydrates and fats for a few weeks, your thinking capabilities will improve. Your emotions in this state will be well-controlled, and that, in turn, will reduce stress. After all, being able to control your emotions is one of the best ways to think more logically. 

Fasting and eating on a fixed schedule also leads to maintaining cortisol hormone levels in the body. This, too, helps reduce stress. What’s more interesting here is that the keto diet, too, affects your cortisol levels, and fasting on a keto diet is likely to help you manage your stress better. 

When you are on a keto diet, the body starves a little, and to balance energy levels, it releases stress hormones like cortisol. Of course, this initial cortisol release because of the keto diet can put your body through a bit of stress. However, once you start following the keto plan rigorously, the body will get used to it. In that case, it will not need to release much cortisol, resulting in better stress relief. 

Of course, the cortisol amount you might need once in a while can be provided through the fasting process. Thus, fasting and the keto diet work wonders together in this case. 

5. Promotes Brain Health

We have already discussed how the keto diet helps relieve stress and provide better mental clarity. All this happens because keto leads to better brain health. 

Keto increases the levels and activity of mitochondrial uncoupling proteins. In doing so, the keto diet successfully reduces oxidative stress in the brain. As a result, the chances of psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, brain aging, depression, and neurodegenerative diseases, are significantly reduced. 

Keto also helps change the blood flow in the brain. Research shows that the keto diet directs blood flow more to regions that promote better hormone health and process sensory information and motor function. As a result, keto is helping our memory and sensory functions and leading to more stable and logical responses from our brain when needed.

Final Thoughts 

From improving your brain health and giving you mental clarity to reducing stress, anxiety, and chances of mental health disorders, a keto diet can help improve your mental health in a variety of ways. This, of course, will not happen in a matter of days.

To fully witness the change in your body and mind through a keto diet, you will have to invest at least a few months in it. And before you do, it’s good practice to discuss diet changes first with your doctor or nutritionist.

What has your experience been with keto? Leave your comments below.

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