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

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 — and Erin's concerns about the long-term research 

• MCT oil vs. exogenous ketones: when each is useful, and when exogenous ketones are counterproductive 

• Applying ketogenic therapy to people with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and co-occurring food addiction 

• How to support vegan or plant-based clients who want to pursue ketogenic therapy 

• Why the first week matters most — and how to help clients through withdrawal without triggering a binge 

• The 19-person IKRT group program published in Frontiers — and what's coming next in the research