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.
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.
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 Nature Communications , found a link between a keto-style, high-fat, low-carb diet and improved blood sugar control in mice.
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.”