The Keto Diet: Can It Supercharge Your Brain and Body?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Science, Education, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 11.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The ketogenic diet has been booming for years, with people swearing that it boosts their brainpower — maybe even helping with mental health — and that the diet can melt fat and make them better athletes. So does keto live up to the hype? To find out, we go keto … (plus, we do a bunch of research and talk to scientists!). You’ll hear from neuroscientist Dom D’Agostino, psychiatrist Dr. Shebani Sethi, and nutritionist Louise Burke. Also, Wendy’s mum drops in. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsKetoDiet In this episode, we cover: (00:00) The promise of the ketogenic diet (06:58) Keto and epilepsy (09:43) Can keto help your brain — and mental health? (17:06) Can keto help you lose weight? (20:36) Can keto boost athletic performance? (23:47) What are the risks of keto? This episode was produced by Kaitlyn Sawrey and Michelle Dang, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Rose Rimler, Shruti Ravindran, Meryl Horn, Ekedi Fauster-Keeys and Romilla Karnick. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Additional help from Eric Mennel and Simone Polanen. Fact checking by Michelle Harris and Eva Dasher. Research help from Dorea Reeser. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger and Sam Bair. Music written by Bobby Lord. Recording help from Marissa Shieh and Mary Shedden. Extra thanks to Professor Russell Swerdlow, Professor Jon Ramsey, Professor Judith Wylie-Roset, Professor Clare Collins, Dr Deirdre K Tobias, Thanks to Frank Lopez, and Joanna Lauder. And extra special thanks to Joseph Lavelle Wilson, Jack Weinstein and Ingrid Zukerman. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to science verses.
0:04.0	This is the show that pits facts against a lot of fat.
0:10.0	On today's show, the ketogenic diet.
0:13.2	This is the diet where you have to eat a bunch of fat and almost no carbs. It's been booming for years now. Online, people just love it.
0:30.1	Wow, this is amazing. This is like a medication, but better.
0:34.4	The biggest benefit is cognitive, like I'm more awake.
0:38.4	People say that it helps them lose weight, makes them run faster, be stronger, and we're hearing that it might even
0:44.3	help with some serious mental health conditions. But it's not just folks on
0:49.4	socials that are getting excited about the keto diet. Scientists are as well.
0:55.0	If a drug did everything that the ketogenic diet did,
1:00.0	it would be an enormous blockbuster drug worth billions of dollars.
1:06.0	That's Dom De Agostino at the University of South Florida.
1:10.0	And he didn't start researching diets.
1:12.0	No, Dom is a neuroscientist, a brain guy.
1:16.4	But when he started reading about this weird ketogenic diet,
1:20.4	he just got so intrigued that he had to try it and Dom says that after a couple of weeks
1:27.6	I could go throughout the whole day with a lot of energy and I could go to work
1:37.7	Forget about eating, and bang out a whole day of work. I almost owe my career in some ways, you know?
1:41.7	I don't want to make this sound like a stretch of the imagination, but I'm not sure that I would be able to achieve the productivity that I achieved to be able to get tenure because I pushed myself in ways I never thought I would be able to push myself.
1:57.0	And this all made us to science versus very curious, especially me and producer Caitlin Soray.
2:05.0	I would love that.
2:06.0	Yeah.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Spotify Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Spotify Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.