The Keto Diet (short for “ketogenic) may do more than help people lose weight. A new study has found that it may also fight cognitive decline.
What is a keto diet?
The short answer is that a keto diet is low in carbs, high in fat and provides plenty of protein. The idea is to kick the body into ketosis, a metabolic process in which the body turns fat and protein into energy, causing you to lose weight.
On a typical keto diet, the person will get nearly 90% of their calories from fat. This works out to about 3 to 4 grams of fat for every 1 gram of protein and carbohydrates.
Some of the more popular saturated fats include: coconut oil, grass-fed beef, butter from grass-fed cows, and whole milk or whole-milk dairy foods.
The new research
A study from the Sander-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky in Lexington found that keto diets appear to help stave off cognitive decline in mice.
The researchers used two groups of mice and fed them either a regular diet or a keto diet for 16 weeks.
They found that the mice who consumed the special diet had improved blood flow, lower blood glucose, lower body weight and better bacterial balance in the gut. Most importantly, the mice who ate the keto diet saw a boost in their ability to clear beta-amyloid proteins from the brain. With Alzheimer’s, these proteins are what stick together to form toxic plaques that interfere with neuronal signaling.
As the study’s author, Ai-Ling Lin, explains, “Neurovascular integrity, including cerebral blood flow and blood-brain barrier function, plays a major role in cognitive ability. Recent science has suggested that neurovascular integrity might be regulated by the bacteria in the gut, so we set out to see whether the ketogenic diet enhanced brain vascular function and reduced neurodegeneration risk in young healthy mice.”
