Conference Overview

Decades of flawed nutritional advice to limit fat is now coming to an end. An impressive body of scientific proof now shows that improved physical, cognitive and overall health comes from carbohydrate restriction, specifically ketogenic diets. Although the scientific evidence is compelling, consumer habit, policy and industry practice are just starting to reverse the unhealthy trends of the past five decades.

The Ohio State University is calling attention to this extremely promising yet little known solution to major health problems of our time. Over the last 15 years a growing number of researchers have contributed to what is now a critical mass of science that provides compelling clinical evidence that ketogenic diets uniquely benefit weight loss, pre-diabetes, and type-2 diabetes. In the last five years, basic scientists have discovered that b-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), the primary circulating ketone, is a potent signaling molecule that decreases inflammation and oxidative stress. BHB has been suggested to be a longevity metabolite, with strong support from recently published mouse studies showing decreased midlife mortality and extended longevity and healthspan. Although type-2 diabetes is often described as a chronic progressive disease, emerging evidence indicates that sustained nutritional ketosis can reverses the disease. There is growing interest in studying potential therapeutic effects of ketosis on cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. There are even reasons certain athletes may benefit from nutritional ketosis and ketone supplements ─ debunking the long-standing dogma that high carbohydrate intake is required to perform optimally.

This conference will bring together the top experts in these fields to share what has been achieved and what remains to be done to advance this exciting field of scientific discovery.

With the support of the well-established Ohio State Food Innovation Center, we are building a center of excellence in evidence-based nutrition and food science. This initiative has high impact implications for long term faculty hires under discovery themes devoted to solving food issues. Ohio State faculty experts have served on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans science advisories and we have hosted two Dietary Guideline summits. We will soon announce our August 2018 conference that will set the stage for the next decade of evidence-based nutritional advice.

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