02/12/2026
A Closer Look at the Health Secretary’s Claim That the Ketogenic Diet Can Cure Schizophrenia:
In recent weeks, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted that the ketogenic diet—a popular fad diet that advocates for low-carbohydrate, high-fat intake—could “cure” schizophrenia, a broad overgeneralization of preliminary research suggesting the diet may alleviate certain psychotic symptoms.
The claim Kennedy made referred to a 2024 pilot trial conducted at Stanford University, which investigated whether a 16-week ketogenic diet intervention reduced psychiatric symptoms in individuals with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. What is crucial to note is that this trial was conducted on a small sample—only 23 individuals—with existing DSM-5 diagnoses who also had pre-existing metabolic abnormalities. While the findings were promising, including a 32% reduction in psychotic symptom scores, a 17% increase in life satisfaction, and a 19% improvement in sleep quality, it is unwarranted to attribute these results to diet alone—especially in the absence of a control group for comparison.
Kennedy’s blanket statement does not address the nuances and limitations of this preliminary trial and spreads misinformation about the efficacy of diet alone in treating serious mental illness.
With that said, the ketogenic diet has shown some promise in reducing symptoms of several psychiatric illnesses and neurological conditions; it was, in fact, developed as a treatment for uncontrolled epilepsy and has demonstrated efficacy in stopping seizures. However, unfounded claims that the diet can “cure” any complex psychiatric disorder must be considered with caution and grounded in rigorous, large-scale clinical evidence, which does not yet exist.
