- The ketogenic, or keto, diet has become increasingly popular over the years, particularly for its potential weight-management benefits.
- Recent studies suggests that it may also aid health in other ways. One study, for instance, drew a link between keto and improvements in treatment-resistant depression.
- A preclinical study in mouse models has suggested that a keto-like diet may help manage blood sugar levels.
- And research in humans suggests that a ketogenic diet could actually be effective in sending type 2 diabetes into remission.
The ketogenic — or keto — diet is a dietary plan that involved minimizing carbohydrate intake, upping consumption of healthy fats, and including an adequate amount of protein.
This dietary approach is meant to trigger ketosis, a metabolic process where the body switches from using carbs for energy to burning stored fat instead. This is why some people may choose to switch to a keto diet to achieve greater weight loss.
However, studies have shown that this type of diet may also aid health in other ways. Here is what some of the latest research covered on Medical News Today has found about the potential health benefits of this diet.
This was a clinical trial involving 88 participants from the United Kingdom, aged 18 to 65, who had treatment-resistant depression, and had scored 15 or more points on the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), which assesses the severity of depression symptoms.
Researchers randomly assigned some of these participants to follow either a keto diet or a phytochemical (phyto) control diet over a period of 6 weeks. The keto diet involved consuming 30 grams (g) of carbs or less per day. After 6 weeks, all participants were able to return to their usual diets.
When following up with the participants after 12 weeks, the researchers saw that participants who had followed a keto diet experienced a slightly higher improvement in their symptoms compared to their peers.
Specifically, participants in the keto group saw their depression scores drop by about 10 points, while those in the phyto group saw an approximately 8-point drop.
Min Gao, PhD, an epidemiologist and health behavior scientist at Oxford University, and lead study author, noted that whiles these findings were promising, keto should not be treated as a cure-all:
“The key takeaway is that a ketogenic diet may offer a small short-term benefit for some people with severe depression, but it’s not a cure, it’s difficult to stick to, and it doesn’t change current treatment recommendations. This is promising early evidence, but it comes with clear limits.”
Another study published in February 2026, this time in
The research team looked at mice with induced high blood sugar versus control mice with healthy blood sugar levels.
They placed some high-blood-sugar mice on a keto diet, others on a regular diet, and matched thus dietary intervention in the controls.
At the study’s conclusion, the research team found that mice with induced high blood sugar that had been on the keto diet had reverted to regular blood sugar levels.
They also found that high-blood-sugar mice on the keto diet who also underwent exercise training responded better to the exercise than high-blood-sugar mice on a control diet.
Study author Sarah Lessard, PhD, Associate Professor in the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at the Center for Exercise Medicine Research, Virginia Tech, explained:
“When combined with exercise training, a keto diet can improve the health benefits gained from exercise in mice. Specifically, mice with hyperglycemia that consumed a ketogenic diet had bigger improvements in aerobic exercise capacity (a measure of the body’s ability to use oxygen) than mice consuming a regular diet with high carbohydrate content.”
While these findings are promising, experts have pointed out one main potential drawback. Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RDN, for instance, who was not involved in this study, stressed that: “[O]ne of the biggest questions [with a ketogenic diet] is sustainability. The long-term success of any dietary pattern ultimately depends on whether someone can realistically maintain it over time.”
Another key question is whether findings from animal studies do, in fact, also apply to humans, and in this case it appears they might.
This trials involved 51 participants aged 35 to 65 with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Participants followed either a keto diet (high in healthy fats and low-carb) or a low-fat diet over a period of 12 weeks.
While all participants had experienced weight loss at the conclusion of this intervention, only participants following the keto diet experienced an decrease in
Study author Marian Yurchishin, MS, pre-doctoral training fellow in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, explained that “proinsulin is a precursor to insulin, so elevated proinsulin levels indicate that beta-cells are overwhelmed and secreting ‘unfinished’ molecules as an attempt to keep up with the body’s increasing demands for insulin.
“A larger decrease in proinsulin suggests that the ketogenic diet reduced this stress and allowed beta-cells to work more efficiently, as evidenced by the improvements in beta-cell function,” Yurchishin noted.
According to the researcher:
“Removal of this exposure via a carbohydrate restricted diet may therefore provide an environment for beta-cells to repair their secretory mechanisms, but more research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms behind this effect. As beta-cells are responsible for secreting insulin in response to increases in blood glucose [sugar], restoration of their function allows these cells to produce adequate insulin to sustain adequate blood sugar levels.”
Once again, experts call adherence to this diet into question, however. Is it sustainable to remain on a healthy keto diet for a sufficient amount of time to experience the greatest benefits?
Longer future studies may offer further answers.
