Mavericks get a bad rap. Their sober peers hate them. Science demands consensus, evidence, hard facts. Contrarianism? It rarely gets you anywhere.
But rules break. Look at the ketogenic diet.
Everyone knows keto. It is a weight loss tool. Restrictive. Brutal even. Now suggest it treats anorexia nervosa. That is a psychiatric condition defined by the refusal to eat. The idea sounds insane. Or dangerously irresponsible.
Take it seriously.
This week’s cover story digs into it. Small study, sure, but the results point one way. Keto actually helps. Maybe because it stabilizes energy release in brain cells. That cuts anxiety. And when the anxiety drops, so does the urge to starve.
Is this magic? No. But standard treatments fail a third of patients. Anorexia kills more people than any other mental health condition. If a radical diet saves some, we need to look closer.
Here is the problem though.
Promoting keto for mental health aligns you with the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The controversial US health secretary who insists, without a shred of evidence, that vaccines cause autism 🛑
He is maverick through and through.
The line between breakthrough and conspiracy is terrifyingly thin.
You can’t have it both ways. Want to explore wild ideas? You risk sitting next to people who reject reality entirely. The maverick gets a bad reputation for a reason. Yet sometimes the truth is ugly. Or at least uncomfortable.
Maybe the next cure lives in that mess.
Who wants to risk it?
