Keto may help with depression, diabetes: Evidence from 3 recent studies

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. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry in February 2026 found an association between following a keto diet and experiencing improvements in the symptoms of treatment-resistant depression .

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.