# Episode 282: Dr. Erin Bellamy | Can a Diet Replace Psychiatric Meds? Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy for Food Addiction & Mental Health

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/food-junkies-podcast-3077617/episode-282-dr-erin-bellamy-can-a-diet-replace-psychiatric-meds-ketogenic-metabolic-therapy-for-food-addiction-mental-health
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/food-junkies-podcast-3077617/episode-282-dr-erin-bellamy-can-a-diet-replace-psychiatric-meds-ketogenic-metabolic-therapy-for-food-addiction-mental-health.md
Podcast: [Food Junkies Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/food-junkies-podcast-3077617)
Published: 2026-05-21T17:34:00+00:00
Episode link: https://foodjunkies.libsyn.com/episode-282-dr-erin-bellamy-can-a-diet-replace-psychiatric-meds-ketogenic-metabolic-therapy-for-food-addiction-mental-health
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/foodjunkies/282_episode.mp3?dest-id=2520758
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/food-junkies-podcast-3077617/episodes/episode-282-dr-erin-bellamy-can-a-diet-replace-psychiatric-meds-ketogenic-metabolic-therapy-for-food-addiction-mental-health
Duration seconds: 3259

## Resource

What if the most powerful tool for mental health recovery isn't a medication — it's your metabolism? Dr. Erin Louise Bellamy joins Dr. Vera Tarman for a deep dive into ketogenic metabolic therapy: what it is, how it works, and why it may be one of the most underutilized interventions in both psychiatric care and food addiction recovery. Dr. Bellamy is a chartered psychologist, CEO of IKRT (International Ketogenic Research & Therapy), and a research fellow at the University of East London. She has been researching and applying ketogenic metabolic therapy in clinical settings since 2014, with a background that bridges eating disorders, psychiatric research, and metabolic health. In this episode, Vera and Erin discuss: How Erin went from eating disorder and alexithymia research to ketogenic metabolic psychiatry — and why the field's "biopsychosocial" model was missing the bio The difference between metabolic psychiatry, ketogenic therapy, and therapeutic carbohydrate restriction — and why the terminology matters What carbohydrate range actually produces therapeutic ketosis (and why "dirty keto" doesn't cut it) The shared mechanistic pathways across psychiatric diagnoses — including mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, and neuroinflammation Why antipsychotic medications create metabolic dysfunction, and how ketogenic therapy can help offset those side effects The GABA/glutamate shift that makes ketones naturally anxiolytic — and why this may work differently than the serotonin model of depression The "buffer effect": what it feels like to be in ketosis when you're a food addict — and why some people describe it as a pane of glass between themselves and a trigger food How ketogenic therapy compares to GLP-1 medications (Ozempic/ Wegovy ) for reducing food noise —…

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