Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Dr. Jeff Volek has been investigating how humans adapt to ketogenic and carbohydrate-restricted diets for the past 30 years. Today, he returns to STEM-Talk to discuss a growing accumulation of studies supporting a ketogenic diet as a way to improve metabolic health, as well as research confirming the relative safety of dietary fat.
Volek is a professor in the Department of Human Sciences at Ohio State University. He is known for his research on the clinical application of ketogenic diets in the management of insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes. His research particularly aims to understand individual variability, including how well-formulated ketogenic diets alter fatty acid composition, lipoprotein metabolism, gut microbiome and overall metabolic health.
He has performed several prospective diet studies that demonstrate that well-formulated ketogenic diets result in substantial improvements in (if not complete reversal of) metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes. In today’s episode, we talk to Jeff about:
-- How a well-formulated ketogenic diet results not only in weight loss, but also leads to substantial improvements in insulin resistance as well as improvements in a number of cardio-metabolic biomarkers associated with metabolic syndrome.
-- The remarkable progress that has been made in the science of low-carbohydrate nutrition in the past 30 years.
-- How his research has expanded to look at a well-formulated ketogenic diet’s potential in the treatment of mental health, heart disease and cancer.
-- An initiative he is conducting to address how the poor metabolic health of the nation is impacting our military troops and therefore poses a significant threat to the future of the military and our nation’s defense.
-- His thoughts on the recent popularity of fasting and time-restricted eating. We then ask what his own daily dietary intake looks like.
Full shownotes: ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-149
Dr. Jeff Volek has been investigating how humans adapt to ketogenic and carbohydrate-restricted diets for the past 30 years. Today, he returns to STEM-Talk to discuss a growing accumulation of studies supporting a ketogenic diet as a way to improve metabolic health, as well as research confirming the relative safety of dietary fat.
Volek is a professor in the Department of Human Sciences at Ohio State University. He is known for his research on the clinical application of ketogenic diets in the management of insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes. His research particularly aims to understand individual variability, including how well-formulated ketogenic diets alter fatty acid composition, lipoprotein metabolism, gut microbiome and overall metabolic health.
He has performed several prospective diet studies that demonstrate that well-formulated ketogenic diets result in substantial improvements in (if not complete reversal of) metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes. In today’s episode, we talk to Jeff about:
-- How a well-formulated ketogenic diet results not only in weight loss, but also leads to substantial improvements in insulin resistance as well as improvements in a number of cardio-metabolic biomarkers associated with metabolic syndrome.
-- The remarkable progress that has been made in the science of low-carbohydrate nutrition in the past 30 years.
-- How his research has expanded to look at a well-formulated ketogenic diet’s potential in the treatment of mental health, heart disease and cancer.
-- An initiative he is conducting to address how the poor metabolic health of the nation is impacting our military troops and therefore poses a significant threat to the future of the military and our nation’s defense.
-- His thoughts on the recent popularity of fasting and time-restricted eating. We then ask what his own daily dietary intake looks like.
Full shownotes: ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-149
