Yes, indeed, there is significant research in mice AND humans of the cognitive benefits of ketones.
Ketogenic diet reduces mid-life mortality and improves memory in aging mice
A ketogenic drink improves cognition in mild cognitive impairment: Results of a 6-month RCT
Modified Ketogenic Diet Is Associated With Improved Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarker Profile, Cerebral Perfusion, And Cerebral Ketone Body Uptake In Older Adults At-Risk For Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study
I initially adopted the diet and fasting overlay for cognitive protection, but have since learned of their mutually independent systemic, cellular wide benefits to all cause mortality. Keto and fasting triggers pathways that impact EVERY cell in the body, encompassing mTOR reduction and beyond. I’ve referenced earlier.
Keto can be hard, but I found one meal a day MUCH harder. The Ghrelin hunger signal begins first thing in the morning and roars throughout the day until my single meal, dinner. It takes great fortitude to ignore the signal (it’s been 5 yrs for me, I have adapted, but takes massive self discipline). It can be very anti-social.
As for keto and protein, it’s really VERY easy if you stick to the macro targets and very selective food groups. First of all, no diet is ketogenic unless you ACTUALLY measure your blood BHB levels (you can buy sticks and meter just like glucose). So low carb does NOT mean ketogenic! Because typically people will overload protein macros, and this kills ketosis (ie Atkins). High fat, low protein, little to no carbs is the achievable keto recipe reference point.
The basic macros are 75% fat, 20% protein, and << 5% carbs. Now there is “dirty” keto, which most people associate keto with…animal fats to achieve the fat macros. But this regime is highly atherogenic. I practice “clean keto”, so my fats are all plant fat based. I only eat very lean animal proteins, whether red meat, chicken, or seafood. These are not hard to find. My typical meal is a whole avocado, handful of nuts (macadamia, walnut, pistacchio, pecan, pumpkin), EVOO, and a few squares of 100% dark chocolate (a super food unto itself). That is the fat bolus. Then max 50-75g net animal protein (of course one cannot have plant protein since it’s very carby). If you’re worried about “protein” targets to muscle maintenance, I put no real stock in that because I use resistance exercise as my muscle builder, not relying on amino acids. As Blagosklonny told me once, “amino acids do not make muscles stronger, exercise does. And Rapamycin potentiates strength”. I eat max daily 50-75g protein (70 kg) and have hugely increased my muscle build over the years. And finally, as much above ground leafy green, low carb veggies as one can eat to satiation. No fruits, other than sometimes low glycemic such as blueberries/blackberries. One can get all the nutritional benefits in fruit from vegetables, so you’d not be missing out. That’s it. If you find you tend to want more protein, its because you’re not getting satiated with the fats and low carb veggies…that is the fine balance. So it takes some iteration, tweaking macros, checking blood BHB, until you find your “keto window”, and then you have your guardrails, don’t need to continuously measure your blood ketones. It took me a few months to settle into the food groups.
I track my lipids regularly. I only look at TG/HDL, and remnant cholesterol (TC-LDL-HDL) as CVD proxies. All excellent (people may wonder about the CVD risk having all that “fat”, but as stated, pursue the plant fat based route).
Many people do keto just for weight loss…I can confirm amazing efficacy. I lost 50 lbs in 6 months, and have been weight stable since, tweaking increasing muscle mass with lowering body fat %. I went from high BMI (approx 30), high body fat, low muscle to a current BMI around 22-23, very muscular, very lean.
