If the ketogenic diet can help people who struggled with metabolic and mental illnesses, how come it was never taught in medical school? 

Dr. Bret Scher, a trained cardiologist, completed a combined preventive and general cardiology fellowship. As a certified cardiologist, he was hesitant when a health coach advised they try keto diets with their patients. Fat is bad. But after conducting extensive research on ketosis, he became an advocate for nutritional ketosis. Despite the evidence contradicting commonly held beliefs regarding saturated fat, cholesterol, and carbohydrates, there are still those who remain resistant to the idea. 

In this episode, Dr. Scher explains how doctors' attitudes have changed towards therapeutic nutritional ketosis, its association with mental health, and why he emphasizes the need for the supervision of a trained clinician if one uses ketogenic diet as a health intervention.

Quick Guide
00:52 Introduction
04:49 Ketosis changed his diet and his cardiology practice
13:30 The different studies and evidence about ketogenic diet
23:50 Relationship of mental health and dietary ketosis
26:41 What is therapeutic nutritional ketosis?
31:11 The goal of Metabolic Minds
34:36 The effects of dietary changes on mental health
38:52 Nutritional ketosis for non-mental health issues
42:28 The mismatch between the strength of the recommendation and the strength of the evidence

Get to know our guest
Dr. Bret Scher is a board-certified cardiologist who specializes in preventative and integrative cardiology. At present, he is the director of Metabolic Minds.

“But that is a completely different story than if we're talking about eating a diet that is low-carb, and the fat is coming from natural animal sources, not ultra-processed, it's not hypercaloric, it’s within a setting that's improving your metabolic health, that is a completely different scenario. But that takes longer to say, that takes longer to think about, that's a nuance that is not easy to understand when you haven't seen it, you haven't considered it. But I think that’s the first step, is to say, look, what are the studies that we're basing our recommendations on? How strong is the evidence?” - Dr. Bret Scher

Connect with him:
Twitter: @Metabolic_Mind
Website: metabolicmind.org

Episode snippets
02:57 - 04:14 - An eye-opener for a cardiologist
08:11 - 09:31 - To change the practice of medicine and to really help people
14:56 - 15:38 - Low carb that comes from natural animal sources
19:13 - 20:48 - Doctors don’t have time to check every piece of evidence
33:51 - 34:35 - The information and research standpoint
43:57 - 45:01 - The mismatched recommendations and evidence

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(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings

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