Are exogenous ketones the same as being in ketosis? Not quite. In this episode, Ben sits down with Dr Kaja Falkenhain, a nutritional physiology researcher who has spent years studying ketones both as a supplement and as a product of fasting and ketogenic diets. Kaja explains why the context your ketones come from changes what they do in your body, how a ketone drink taken before a meal can lower blood sugar spikes by around 25% in people with type 2 diabetes, and why ketones are now being studied as signalling molecules that behave a lot like hormones. Ben also brings his own experiments to the table, from using ketones before cricket to why MCT oil powder switches his brain on like nothing else.
MILESTONE MOMENTS
- Why taking ketone supplements might actually slow your route into nutritional ketosis
- Nutrients are more than fuel: how ketones went from “toxic byproduct” to signalling molecule
- The study showing a ketone drink before a meal can blunt blood sugar spikes
- The forgotten research from the 1920s to 1940s that predicted today’s ketone boom
- Can ketones sharpen reaction time? Ben’s cricket experiment
- Why MCT oil powder may feel so different for focus
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CHAPTERS
Welcome Dr Kaja Falkenhain
Exogenous vs endogenous ketones explained
Does context change how ketones behave?
Ketones, insulin and how they switch off their own production
Do exogenous ketones slow down ketosis?
How the body adapts to a new fuel source
Nutrients as signalling metabolites
Are ketones a hormone?
Ketones, blood sugar, the brain, heart failure and inflammation
The surprising history of ketone research
Ketones, reaction time and cognitive performance in sport
Undiscovered effects of ketones on the brainKaja’s ideal study
Ketone salts vs ketone esters
MCT oil and MCT powder
Does Kaja take exogenous ketones herself?
Ketones, calm and metabolic psychiatry
How the gut senses nutrients and talks to the brain
Where to find Kaja
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