By Griffin Cooper
Exploring the Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet
As traders, we're always looking for ways to improve our performance and gain an edge in the markets. While there are countless strategies and techniques out there, one area that's often overlooked is our physical and mental health. In this article, I want to share my personal experience with the ketogenic diet and how it has helped me both physically and mentally. However, I want to make it clear that I'm not a doctor or medical health professional, and this is just my own experience. That being said, I believe that the benefits I've seen from adopting a ketogenic diet can be applied to trading and other areas of life as well.
When people hear about ‘keto’ or a ketogenic diet, the main thing they think about is weight loss. Although this is a major benefit, and surely the one marketed most, there are a lot of other benefits to following this kind of diet. Ketones help to reduce inflammation and also decrease insulin sensitivity. The thing that really surprised me was just how much my energy improved. Before I started on keto, I used to always need a nap in the afternoon. I just had nothing left. After starting keto, I didn’t get tired in the afternoons or after eating. I could just continue with my day without a huge crash and the ketones provided this long-lasting energy instead of the peaks and valleys of sugar and carbs.
There are many things that are lumped together as “keto” that are very different both in practice and effect. The main idea of a ketogenic diet is that we want to reduce our carbohydrates to a level that our bodies start producing and burning ketones as energy instead of glucose. Our brains seem to be the last that switch over to burning ketones, and this transition takes a few weeks. But when that switch occurs, there’s an amazing flood of well-being and spiritual energy into our brains and bodies.
I have to give a big hat tip to Dr. Bosworth (aka Dr. Boz), whose book Any Way You Can where she described her journey with using a ketogenic diet to heal her mother’s cancer was where I first got serious about the diet. Dr. Boz has an amazing course about not only ketogenic diets for therapeutic healing, but also about brain health and healing as well. She has skin in the game (something a trader can really respect), as she has a weekly Youtube video where she fasts and takes her blood sugar and ketone readings live.
The combination of keeping our carbohydrates low and our fat intake levels up means that we can achieve a high level of ketosis and even autophagy where our body actually cleans out the damaged cells. And I do mean low for the carbs. Dr. Boz’s protocol is to keep the total carbs each day under 20 grams. This is not getting a ‘keto cupcake’ at the mall.
After being in ketosis for a few weeks I felt amazingly more alert. Everything felt clearer and easier to understand. I was also able to focus and work for much longer periods of time without getting tired. My overall mental health got a lot better. I found I wasn’t as easily irritated or stressed. And when stressful events did occur I was able to deal with them more calmly. I felt like my nerves were insulated.
I remember in the first weeks I had this funny feeling all around my head. I shared this at a support group meeting for those of us on the Dr. Boz ketogenic diet and one person noted this could be my brain de-swelling. It made sense, because I used to have almost daily headaches and they started to almost completely go away. In the first year I was able to get off four out of the five medications I was on. This alone was worth the effort.
Ketogenic has a long track record of being used to treat neurological disorders, so it’s no surprise that one of biggest benefits of this kind of diet is the mental uplift. It’s used to treat epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and prevention of dementia. The military has also shown interest in the ketogenic diet as a potential tool for improving decision-making and performance under stressful conditions. For example, a study conducted by the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine found that soldiers on a ketogenic diet had improved cognitive function and reaction time compared to those on a standard diet.
While I didn’t initially start the ketogenic diet to help with my trading, the benefits of a better mental state quickly became apparent. One of the biggest shifts I saw was that I was able to trade intraday, or day-trade, which I had never been able to do before. Before the keto diet I just couldn’t make decisions that fast, or I would get overwhelmed looking at the price charts on the screen and just freeze. I just couldn’t do it. There was this mental block that I could not get through.
But once I was on keto, I had the confidence and clarity to make decisions on even a one-minute chart. I was able to stay focused, make better decisions, and manage my emotions more effectively. I also saw I was able to stick to my trading plan really well because I wouldn’t get emotionally put off by a few losing trades. I was able to stay focused on my process and not get as stressed and anxious.
The ketogenic diet has been a game-changer for me both in terms of my physical health and mental clarity. By achieving a state of therapeutic ketosis, I've been able to stay focused, make better decisions, and manage my emotions more effectively while trading. While I'm not a medical professional and everyone's experience may differ, I believe that the benefits of a ketogenic diet are worth exploring for anyone looking to improve their mental and physical health. If you're interested in learning more about trading and other strategies for success, be sure to check out the courses and lessons offered by Ablewaytech.com.