I must admit, I do not understand this New York Times story at all — the thesis, that for some forms of extreme epilepsy in children, an extreme low-carb diet can greatly reduce or even eliminate seizures.
Yes, it is very interesting. But it is hardly groundbreaking. I know that the Johns Hopkins University Press has been talking about this issue since the mid-1990s (when I was working there, I remember one acquisitions editor talking about this a lot).
Anyhow, I have been quite interested in the low-carb thing and its many variations for some time. I don’t really subscribe to any one low-carb house of worship, but in general I like to eat healthier, and for me, when I try to low carb, it means a lot more vegetables and little/no junk food. And I like how I feel when I eat this way.
The NY Times article suggests some interesting implications of this diet, in addition to the anti-epilepsy thing:
There has been so much buzz around keto that neurologists and scientists have begun wondering what else it can do. Could it be used to treat seizures in adults? What about Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, A.L.S. and certain cancers? Tumors typically need glucose to grow. There is very little of this simple sugar in a keto diet, and there have been interesting results with mice that suggest the diet might slow tumor growth. These scientific explorations are in their early stages and may not amount to much. Nonetheless, researchers are taking them seriously.
Putting one’s metabolism into ketosis mode also is fairly well-known technique for shedding fat, especially among hardcore bodybuilders who want to achieve very low bodyfat%s (e.g., 5-9%) and unwilling to muck about with pharmaceuticals and capable of the dietary discipline required.