The Keto Diet - 4 minutes read
The Keto diet
Beginning in the 1920’s, the ketogenic diet, or “keto” diet — which involves eating mostly fat and protein as an energy source with low intake of carbohydrates — has been used by many for weight loss and in helping patients with diabetes or epilepsy. But there’s another less-talked about benefit of this diet: ketosis for mental performance.
If you’re experiencing brain fog, lack of productivity, or poor mental performance, ketosis might be a solution for you. We’ll go over some of the ways ketosis can have a positive effect on cognition and may help you be more productive throughout your day.
KETOSIS FOR MENTAL PERFORMANCE
First, let’s start with a little refresher around ketosis and energy.
The basis of the ketogenic diet is that it uses specially designed macronutrient balance to get a certain response from the body. Those on the keto diet eat normal amounts of protein, higher amounts of fat than the average person, and they keep their carbohydrate intake very low, less than 50 grams per day.
When carb intake is this low, it triggers a response in the body that is similar to how it would act during starvation. Instead of simply utilizing glucose, the primary source of energy, the brains pulls from its alternative energy source: fat. But before fats can be used by the body, the liver has to first convert them to ketone bodies. Then, these ketone bodies are used as energy for the body and brain when there is lack of glucose.
This is how ketosis works. Now that we’ve understood that, let’s talk about how ketosis might be used as an advantage for your mental state and productivity.
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KETONES IMPROVE BRAIN FUNCTION
The standard Western diet is deficiency in many areas, including the very important essential fatty acids. This is detrimental to health because we need these for the body and brain to function properly.
It’s been known for a while that ketones can benefit those with neurodegeneration issues like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and aging-related cognitive diseases. The production of ketone bodies can help in these cases because the brains of people with these problems can’t use enough of the available glucose to handle cognition and perception. A ketogenic diet can then assist by providing a backup source of energy.
The increased fat intake itself from low-carb and keto diets has also been shown to improve brain function in specific ways. For example:
- During a study published by the American Diabetes Association, type 1 diabetics saw improved cognitive performance and preserved brain function during hypoglycemia after ingesting medium chain triglycerides (derived from coconut oil).
- Those with Alzheimer’s have seen improved memory scores that might correlate with the amount of ketones levels present.
Now the question becomes: does a ketogenic diet bring a true cognitive advantage for healthy people? And might ketosis encourage better brain health for the average person?
A big element of how a ketogenic diet can offer benefits for brain function of healthy people has to do with its neuroprotective properties. With that, we have to think about the essential fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6, which are crucial for brain health and function.
Most of our brain tissue is made up of fatty acids, so it makes sense that they would be vital for not only the overall health of the brain but also its important functions like learning and sensory execution.
A benefit of the ketogenic diet is its use of fats that help maintain the proper balance of omega-3s to omega-6s, including:
- coconut oil
- olive oil
- butter
- avocados
- animal fats
- fish
- eggs
Also, when one is in a ketogenic state, ketones are used by the brain to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule responsible for carrying energy where it’s needed for metabolism within the cells. And although glucose remains the primary source of energy for the body when it’s present, many people aren’t aware that ketones are actually a more efficient energy source than glucose and can reduce the amount of destructive free radicals produced. And in the brain, energy is everything. This helps better protect the brain — and the rest of the body — from oxidative stress, which negatively affects mental performance and brain aging.
KETONES IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY
Another way ketone bodies may reduce free radicals in the brain is by improving the efficiency and energy levels of the mitochondria, which produce energy for the body’s cells. Ketosis can also help make new mitochondria and increase ATP in your brain’s memory cells. An example of this was shown during a rat study in which those subjects given a diet of mostly ketones performed better in physical and cognitive tests than those fed a high-carbohydrate diet or typical Western diet.