You’d be excused for thinking that keto was just another popular fad that will soon give way to the next wave of popular diets promising rapid weight loss and impressive health benefits. 

So, for some, it might come as a surprise to discover that the ketogenic diet first became popular in the 1920s and 30s as a therapy for epilepsy. And while this form of therapy eventually gave way to drug therapies the ketogenic diet has always had a presence.

Over the last 30 years, there has been a surge in research on the therapeutic and metabolic benefits of the ketogenic diet.

We now have a growing body of evidence demonstrating that the ketogenic diet is not only effective for losing weight but also has therapeutic value for a host of different conditions.

To explore this topic we invited Dr Dominic D’Agostino onto the show. 

Dr D’Agostino is a researcher and professor with a diverse background in neuroscience, molecular pharmacology, nutrition and physiology, and is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida. The main focus of his lab over the last 10 years has been understanding how ketosis and a ketogenic diet can be therapeutic for a wide variety of pathologies linked to metabolic dysregulation.