Most Replayed Moment: This Diet Could Fix Your Mental Health! - Dr Georgia Ede

Transcript from https://podmenti.com/t/cc0e5110464e88bd

Uh
This ketogenet. You um you did a study on the ketogenic diet. Got the study here, the ketogenic diet for refractory mental illness, a respect a retrospective analysis of thirty-one
In patience.
What is the ketogenic diet for someone that might not know?
So a lot of people think or they've heard about a ketogenic diet as a weight loss diet.
Um, they think of it maybe maybe it's a fad weight loss diet. Um, if they think of it as a very, very low carbohydrate diet, they might think of it as a diet that's very high in meat and dairy products.
Um
And
But actually the ketogenic diet was originally created in nineteen twenty one.
More than a hundred years ago?
to stabilize brain chemistry.
In children with
Severe sieurs.
Um this was long before
the availability of useful seizure medications.
So these were children who
Um
Uh we're having multiple seizures per day in many cases.
And so the ketogenic diet was designed back then, created back then, a very strict version of the ketogenic diet.
Um
to get as close as possible to
To fasting.
Without
Starving children to death.
Because for millennia
People had noticed.
That those with epilepsy
Would often improve.
If they were fasting.
But you can't fast forever.
So how do you get close to fasting?
This is the original fasting mimicking diet. How do you get as close to fasting as you can while still providing some nutrition?
So that was the original goal.
of the ketogenic diet. It was very
Successful.
Procedures.
more than fifty percent of children had more than a fifty percent and and adults as well.
It's since been shown.
More than fifty percent response rate in children and adults.
And ten to twenty percent uh completely
uh uh free of seizures following a ketogenic diet.
How's it acting on the brain? What's it doing to the brain?
The ketogenic diet does many, many things. It's like a multipurpose tool for brain health.
So one thing it does,'cause we talked about how
Uh
Some of the root causes of
mental illnesses which are only
relatively recently
A focus of research are
Inflammation.
and oxidative stress and insulin resistance.
The ketogenic diet reduces inflammation.
It reduces oxidative stress.
And it reduces insulin resistance.
Uh it also improves
The balance of chemicals in the brain. So a lot of people think of
Um
Uh
mental illnesses as problems with chemical imbalances in the brain.
And these are the chemicals that they're talking about.
You might have heard of serotonin or dopamine or norepinephrine, there are others, glutamate, GABA, many different chemicals in the brain.
are uh associated with
Or in some cases even very much.
Uh causing.
Mental health symptoms?
But
The question is
What's causing those chemical imbalances in the first place?
And
Uh
One of the things that's causing this chemical imbalances
Is that inflammation an oxidative stress?
But another thing is that the brain
Is uh if you're feeding it the wrong way.
It will not be able to
In many cases.
Produce energy reliably.
And if it can't produce energy reliably
all kinds of things will go wrong and in quite spectacular fashion.
What actually goes wrong is going to depend on who you are. And that's where our individual differences come in. So if I eat the wrong if you and I eat exactly the same bad diet.
Depending what runs in your family and how you've lived your life to this point.
You might develop Alzheimer's disease, you might develop bipolar disorder, you might develop type two diabetes, you might develop fatty liver disease.
Um
I might develop
Completions. I might
I might develop
um cardiovascular disease, I might develop depression, um, I might develop um ADHD.
It's and that's where the individual differences are.
But all of these conditions.
Are just
Uh
metabolic malfunction.
really at at the heart of it. That's what's going on.
If cell aren't functioning properly
You will develop the disease.
physical and mental diseases. And which ones you get, it's really
Kind of luck of the draw.
Um, but you have tremendous control.
over what you are at risk for.
If you understand how to help your cells operate at their personal best.
Why is it so hard to stay on the ketogenic diet?
I've managed to do it for I s I was saying to you before we start recording.
Once a year, around this time of year. I do it for about eight weeks.
And it has a really profound impact on a
lot of my life it helps me feel more focused.
Um
My body composition radically changes.
Faster than any other
diet or thing that I've ever tried faster than just exercise alone.
Um
I I sleep a little bit better as well, I noticed.
But you've been doing it for a long time.
You've been doing it for roughly what almost ten years?
For the better part of tw I mean, but more often I'll say I've been following a ketogenic diet for twelve years.
And I agree with you, it's not always easy.
I'm not perfect about it myself, but I have been on the Kiant diet the lion's share of the last twelve years.
It being hard is an important factor. Yes. Because when you're trying to prescribe it to somebody who is
but you know, treatment resistant depression or is really suffering in some way. I I imagine they'll find it even harder than I do.
Yes and no. Okay.
So uh it's har well, it's definitely there's no question about it that's
Hard to eat a low carbohydrate diet in a high carbohydrate world. Yeah.
So there's that. There's the the environmental
temptations and the social temptations and the habits and the addiction.
Sugar addiction is a very real
biochemical phenomenon. So there's that.
But
But
Mm-hmm.
It is I mean I've been
I I I had a weight issue growing up, everyone in my family did, um, and
I've been on lots of different diets in my life.
This is the easiest one.
To stay on.
uh I can't say about any other diet that I've followed for twelve years.
And the reason why
Is this diet?
Really stabilizes appetite hormones.
So
Your cells are getting energized in between meals. You're not getting those spikes and crashes in glucose, which cause spikes and crashes in appetite hormones, satiety hormones, stress hormones, reproductive hormones.
Uh
Brain chemistry.
Um you're not getting
You're not on that roller coaster anymore.
So
Your cells are are are being satisfied, they're getting the energy needs satisfied in between meals.
And everything is quiet and calm on the inside.
It doesn't mean you're a hundred percent protected against temptation.
Uh so I describe it to my patients with food addiction.
I describe being in ketosis as
A suit of armor?
You know
The sword can still get you, but you but you know you're not a hundred percent protected.
But you've got a real fighting chance. And
For for anybody who's never tried a ketogenic diet and been on it for at least
I would say six to twelve weeks.
It most people have no idea how much easier it is.
Um
to follow
To follow a healthy eating plan.
when their appetite is in good control.
A lot of people know they've shifted into ketosis.
Without even checking their ketone meter.
Because they can go for so long without eating, without even thinking about food.
They can work through lunch and not even realize that they've missed a meal.
Most people
The way we eat.
Most of us now?
Are thinking about food all the time.
You haven't even finished breakfast and you're already thinking what we're gonna have for lunch.
You you're carrying food around with you everywhere you go.
You're eating at least six times a day in many cases.
This is
Not the I mean, we would never have survived as a species if we needed to eat six times a day.
So
We're not eating in a way that is that is nourishing us and and satisfying us. We're eating in a way that's making us
Hungry.
I find
What you've said there to be sort of
True in my experience.
Especially in the context of
The roller coaster analogy.
So when I'm not on keys ketosis, I do feel like sometimes I'm in a bit of a roller coaster.
Of like
Temptation, craving, et cetera.
And then when I do
ketosis and I get past the first week or two.
The the roller coaster seems to
Stop.
I I'm I'm off the roller coaster.
It's then maybe six, eight weeks later, you're busy, life happens, you're traveling, you're tired.
that temptation creeps in and it just takes that one moment of weakness
in my head to then fl fling me off ketosis and all my effort is gone.
And in my head the way I've I've always thought about it, and I'm sure this is wrong, but
I thought about it like
It takes a couple of days to get into a state of ketosis.
And then
Once you're in and I usually get headache.
Yeah. On my way into ketosis. I feel a little bit bad on the way in.
And then
Once I'm in there, it's fine. So when I have something that breaks my keto, this is what I refer to. Me and my girlfriend talk about it about I've broken my keto.
Whatever.
I think, Oh my God, I've got to go through another headache and another five days of
You know, uh getting back into it.
Well
Is that correct?
It's a very common experience because there are these adjustments.
uh that happen inside uh with your physiology.
I as you're shifting from one operating system to another. When you're shifting from a carbohydrate burning system.
to a more m uh you're shifting your ratio of your fuels. So the body and the brain are hybrid engines, so
We're never burning a hundred percent fat.
Um we're burning a mixture of of fat and carbohydrate.
When you're shifting from a
From a system that's fueled almost entirely by carbohydrate almost all the time.
To a system where you're burning more fat than carbohydrate.
Um
That's uncomfortable for some people shifting back and forth, especially
If what they have
If if the reason why
You've quote broken your keto is because you've had something.
Um, that has a lot of refined carbohydrate in it, a lot of sugar or flour in it, for example.
Um
So it depends on
what you've eaten and how much and for how long
Um but
But many people do experience the so called keto flu.
When they are shifting from
A carbohydrate based system.
to uh fat based metabolism.
And some of this can be uh m much of this can be prevented in a couple of different ways. One is with electrolyte supplementation.
supplementing electrolytes to keep your your salt balance
Even as you're transitioning?
And another uh is by transitioning slowly.
onto the ketogenic diet rather than all at once.
And so
And there are many there are other tips in the book about how to do this more comfortably.
But those are the two big ones.
Uh and going slowly, so in the book I don't recommend that people start
It on a ketogenic diet.
Just straight away, like learn about it on a Monday, start it on a Tuesday.
But
Ease into ketosis over a week or two.
And uh there's a
There's a
Uh
Kind of a
moderate carbohydrate plan in the book that allows people to do this. So you you follow that plan for a couple of weeks to
gradually lower those glucose and insulin levels.
It's gonna be a lot more comfortable, it's be a lot less of a shock.
To the brain and body.
Um and
And if you're supplementing electrolytes and going slowly.
Most of these quo kitoflu simptoms.
will uh will not occur.
Or they'll be very brief and mild.
So
Um
Again, these are posit it's it's a positive change to have these electrolyte changes and
Um it's it's pa all of these things are are good.
But there is this transition period which can sometimes be uncomfortable.
This is um
Not to say that it's dangerous. Again, it's a very s we're designed.
Our biology is designed.
For us to be able to shift back and forth between fat and carbohydrate as fuel sources.
But many of us have lost some of our metabolic flexibility because we've done some damage to our metabolic engines by eating the wrong way for too long. So we don't shift as comfortably back and forth as we used to be able to.
I guess most people don't even know what foods are included in a keto diet because most diets are restrictive to the point that, you know
People think they just make your life miserable.
What are the sort of big misconceptions you've seen with the foods you're able to eat on a ketogenic diet?
Yeah, so because a ketogenic diet i it because the definition of a ketogenic diet is any way of eating that lowers insulin levels enough to turn on fat burning and generate ketones in the blood.
Because because it's about insulin.
It
The the it's really not a food list.
So you can it you can it's not about plants and animals, it's not even about fat or carbohydrate. It's about understanding how to lower your insulin levels, which you can do
With a vegan dietary pattern.
With a vegetarian dietary pattern?
Вив en omnivoр дієтарі паттерн.
Um uh with or even with a carnivore dietary pattern.
So whatever your dietary preferences are.
You can get the benefits, the brain healing benefits of of ketosis. So it's not about the foods you're eating.
Um, it's it's more about understanding what raises and lowers insulin.
The things that raise and lower insulin are
Refined carbohydrates.
Whole foods, carbohydrates.
Refined proteins like protein powders.
Whole food sources of protein.
And guess what barely touches insulin at all?
That.
Fat is metabolically the quietest and safest macronutrient you can eat because it barely stimulates insulin.
Is ketosis a state?
Like do I
Is it like a binary state like now I'm in ketosis and now I'm not?
So yes, but there's there's um yes, um
Let me put it this way.
That most experts
We'll agree.
That
In order to be quin ketosis.
Um your level of
Beta hydroxybutyrate on a blood ketone meter.
Uh like ketone meter, uh uh um
Is
Prick your finger.
And and put a drop of blood on this little test strip.
And it will read the amount of a particular ketone in the blood called beta hydroxybutyrate.
And it will give you a reading.
If that reading is
Point is zero point five millimole or higher.
you are in ketosis. In ketosis.
So what does that mean? Why the why is the cutoff point five?
Because three things have to happen.
for you to get to at least point five.
One is your glucose levels have to come down.
The second thing is your insulin levels have to come down.
The third thing is you have to burn off a certain amount of the stored starch in your liver.
We have a
A storage tank for carbohydrate in our liver. It's not very big.
It holds less than a day's worth of carbohydrate.
Because really as animals we're designed to store
Energy as fat.
Carbohydrate's there for
Quick.
Energy emergency short term.
Um
The fat
We have
For better or for worse, we have almost an unlimited
Capability to store fat. We can store
Months and months worth of that. And so um but we can only store
A very small amount of carbohydrate.
So
If your storage tank in the liver is full.
your body will not switch to fat burning because it says, Oh, we've got plenty of starch to burn. Let's start there.
Once it comes down to a certain point, the body goes, Oh
Running out of energy.
Let's go to fat now.
And that's when the the liver will start breaking fat down, whether it's
fat on your body or fat from your plate.
And start chopping it up into these keytones.
And
Uh but so those three things have to happen. And once that happens, that you'll see the ketone levels rise on the meter.
So most people who are not eating a ketogenic diet
are walking around with ketone levels either undetectable or they're point two or they're point three, they might
They might float up into above point five every once in a while if they're not eating for a long time, or um
Uh or if they've just exercised
But
For the most part, most people
Uh eating a typical diet are not in ketosis.
And when you get above point five
A lot of metabolic magic starts to happen.
Because there are lots of pathways in the body and brain.
that uh are not very active
Unless you're in ketosis and those are the healing.
Pathways.
the recycling and maintenance and cleanup pathways the recovery pathways.
All of us.
I this is something that I I came to appreciate a number of years ago as I've been studying this is that
There are many people, unfortunately, or fortunately, there are many people
Who discover with mental health issues.
That they need to be in ketosis long term in order to be well.
Бам конст биєс.
Need to be
In ketosis.
Um
At least intermittently.
All of us
Need to spend some time in ketosis on a regular basis.
Or else we can't heal.
Will only be
It's like a
It's like a manufacturing plant where
The plant is just running twenty four seven.
Twelve months a year?
And and
they never take time to replace the parts or clean up the floor, or you know, they they never do any maintenance work.
repair work and so eventually everything breaks down.
And when you say ketosis again, you're not saying that
the keto diet, you're saying the low levels of
Glucose.
Um and insulin. Exactly. In the blood. And that can be achieved by calorie restriction, potentially fasting, I guess you could achieve it.
And other diets like the Mediterranean diet, if
Administered in the right sort of doses, right?
Well, um we c we should come back to the Mediterranean diet a minute, but first uh the first part of your question is important because
ketosis is uh you can uh as you said, you can get into ketosis a variety of different ways.
If you're eating properly
And this would have been
Our evolutionary heritage, our ancestors, especially our prehistoric ancestors
Um
The they didn't have access to
Please.
lots and lots of refined carbohydrates uh a long time ago.
Um they were eating carbohydrates from uh whole foods.
Mm.
Uh fruits and starchy root vegetables, right?
And uh
And uh so even grains and beans are very, very relative relatively much newer sources of carbohydrate.
So let's think about fruits and vegetables.
But so they they would have been, we can only guess bas look on looking at their diets. We don't have proof of this, but think about it.
If you're eating in a way where your insulin levels are allowed to come down overnight.
If you're eating if you're eating a
A balanced diet, so to speak.
But it's got everything it needs in it.
And it's not giving you exaggerated spikes in your glucose and exaggerated spikes in your insulin, and you're not eating six times a day or all day long.
Your insulin levels will naturally come down overnight.
And that will that will allow you to go into a healing mode.
So
I believe
That if people have the right information about what a healthy diet is supposed to look like
They may not even need to, in many cases, especially if you're younger.
or athletic or don't have a lot of metabolic damage already.
Um
You may not need to
You may not need to lower your carbohydrate intake during the day. You might just need to be careful about what kinds of carbohydrate you eat.
And how often?
Um
So
For example.
It's known that in children
Um there who are eating a regular diet.
Many of them wake up the next morning in ketosis.
They're metabolically much healthier.
Then uh we are as we get older.
So they're much more metabolically flexible.
Um and
Uh so
No, they didn't go on a ketogenic diet, they're eating a regular diet.
They slept overnight, didn't eat anything. The next morning they were in ketosis.
That's not true for all children.
But it's true for enough children that we know it's possible.
Most adults it takes them several days at least to
to get into ketosis even if they're not eating anything at all.
So fasting can take two to three days.
at a minimum for most people to get into ketosis.
But some people it can take
A whole week.
What you just listened to was a most replayed moment from a previous episode. If you want to listen to that full episode, I've linked it down below. Check the description. Thank you.
Uh