Khaberni - Scientists have revealed that reducing carbohydrates may help in preventing depression, thus the keto diet could potentially be the key to overcoming low mood.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Interventional Psychiatry Program, St. Michael's Hospital in Canada, and the findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry (JAMA Psychiatry) on November 5th, and reported by the British newspaper, The Daily Mail.
This diet has also been used since the 1920s in conventional medicine to treat a serious neurological condition, drug-resistant epilepsy.
Researchers tracked the health records of over 40,000 adults and discovered that the keto diet could significantly reduce symptoms of depression, although the exact reason behind this was not determined by the scientists.
However, they suggested that this diet may provide an alternative energy source for brain cells, which could play a role in treating mental illnesses.
They said: "These findings suggest that the keto diet may be beneficial in treating depression among various population groups, including those with severe depressive disorder."
The Keto Diet?
The keto diet aims to nearly eliminate high-energy carbohydrates to reach a state called ketosis. This means not eating bread, pasta, rice, and avoiding starchy vegetables like corn, beans, and squash, and rarely consuming fruit.
In ketosis, the body burns stored fat for energy instead of carbohydrates, which helps people lose weight.
The keto diet typically consists of 75% fats, 20% protein, and only 5% carbohydrates.
Contrarily, the balanced dietary guidelines issued by the National Health Services in the United Kingdom recommend consuming 30% fats, 15% protein, and 55% carbohydrates.
The researchers hypothesized about the benefits of the keto diet, suggesting that it may be due to a link with depression and a mitochondrial problem, which are the powerhouses in all our cells.
For some individuals, the mitochondria cannot handle glucose properly, which is the body's main energy source, thus the cells do not function efficiently.
This can affect cell-to-cell communication in the brain, which in turn impacts brain functions and mental health, according to the theory.
