Ketogenic diet

Has anyone tried this to assist in managing symptoms?

For managing which symptoms?

Just any really. l have been reading about it in relation to depression, epilepsy, bipolar and there is suggestion that it can be beneficial (no concrete evidence). Also may benefit inflammatory diseases, joints etc...

l know it has been used with some great effects on children with treatment resistant epilepsy.

So just wondered.

Maybe try google?

I looked up on Wikipedia but only skimmed parts of it.

"The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. "

The Ayurvedic cleanse I have done does something like this but more intense for only a week. The result is that it cleans out your gut. There is a possibility of a correlation between gut issues and MI. I suspect this is why the Weston Price diet works too, you are absorbing more fats but they are nutrient dense fats high in fat soluble vitamins and minerals. The only thing is it doesn't restrict carbs or proteins and it isn't a specialized diet. I wonder if you did this diet but ate fat from processed food if it would work so well or maybe it would just be impossible to stay on it. There is supposedly some bipolar patients that were able to end their meds but no study.

This is a lot of speculation.

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Yes but interesting. My searches have led off to Paleo, which seems to make logical sense as a natural diet for humans. In mans evolution farming and therefore grains and carbs, have been a relatively new introduction into the diet. Maybe cutting carbs and increasing fats is something I am going to explore.

Hmmm... I think that one will go the way of Atkins and low fat. That's just my opinion. If you go on any traditional whole food diet in the world you will improve your health. That includes blubber whale diets where veggies are scarce. The key is traditional whole food. No food group restrictions. My opinion.

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Thanks Michanne, I agree that wholesome food is a better diet than processed muck, but where a ketogenic diet has been researched in terms of difficult to treat epilepsy in children, there does seem to be objective evidence that it improves symptoms. Of course it may not apply to other health symptoms, but I believe there is a growing body of evidence that sugars (and therefore carbs) are more damaging than was first thought. And a blubber whale diet gives the same high fat, low carb ratio

There just isn't enough research happening so I follow a mixture of common sense and research and what I can live with. I think everyone agrees the farther from the source the worse it is and moderation almost always works. And SAD doesn't work. So I look for solutions that are as close to whole food as I can get taking in mind I live in a area with only three season markets and I can't exactly spend all day cooking. I just don't buy into any diet that says "no" to any group of foods. And I don't like completely raw diets either because cooking does things to food that either makes it easier to digest or eat. I like juicing, don't get me wrong. I really like nourishedkitchen.com's philosophy but I modify it to what works for me. She follows weston price but she has way more veggies but there is no way I am going for raw milk from the store. I believe that if you follow a whole food, >seasonal<, balanced diet you don't need supplements and you are in such a better place. It cascades into good exercise and mindfulness practices if you want.

I emphasize seasonal because that's the one thing that might raise eyebrows and is closest to the whole "paleo" idea. I didn't pluck it out of the air but nobody really talks about it. Besides being available I think it rather makes sense that your body uses and processes different foods at different times of the year. In winter you are trying to stay warm so potatoes and cabbage are great for that. Carbs are useful for generating all that internal energy too. In summer you need lighter fruits and celery, etc to stay cool. You don't need so many carbs in the summer. We now have controlled climate, especially in the winter. There is a theory that contributes to obesity.

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I recently heard this mentioned in a medical discussion group--- it appears to be very much like Atkins... The MDs were cautioning that girls with eating disorders were using this "diet" to hide behind.

I had tried Atkins but I recently read that you don't really lose on Atkins because you are restricting carbs but because you are simply taking in less calories than you're expending.