Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy and Mental Health with Moira Newiss

In this week's episode of The Best Guest podcast we welcome The Brain Energy Reboot Expert, Moira Newiss.We talk about:Ketogenic & Metabolic Mental HealthMitochondria, Brain Energy & FatigueAutoimmune Conditions & the Carnivore DietAbout Moira NewissMoira Newiss is a BANT registered nutritional therapist, health coach and accredited ketogenic metabolic therapy expert who specialises in brain energy, one of the recently discovered root causes of many mental health problems.Moira’s passion for metabolic mental health was sparked after a 20-year career as a senior NHS manager, managing hundreds of staff and multi-million-pound budgets. Following burnout, chronic fatigue and mental illness, she retrained at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition and became fascinated by the link between energy, mood, mental health and metabolic health. Moira works with individuals who have conditions including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, who have often not found a resolution with medication or psychological support alone. Her personalised approach has helped hundreds to improve their symptoms, with some achieving full remission, that means reversal, of their condition.A regular conference speaker, Moira co-authored the first mental health guidelines for nutritional therapists and published the case report ‘Remission of Schizophrenia Using a Carnivore Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy with Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Support’.Moira is lucky to live on the beautiful west coast of Scotland where she has a large garden, grows her own fruit and vegetables and has a lovely flock of hens. She also loves adventure, regularly climbing mountains, bike packing and hiking in remote spots on short expeditions.Key TakeawaysFor some people, shifting from glucose to ketone fuel can rapidly improve brain fog, mood, and energy.Common keto pitfalls include undereating fat and overeating proteinSleep, morning light, reduced evening blue light, and gentle movement support brain energy and mood.Short-term carnivore diet can be a powerful elimination protocol to calm inflammation, heal the gut and identify food triggers.Dairy-free keto is doable - use coconut fats, olive oil, tallow/lard, fatty fish; check labels on “milks” for hidden carbs.QuoteI had planned to do a hundred kilometre bike ride, and I remember crossing the finishing line thinking—and I was crying ’cause it was just an emotional thing—I just knew I cracked it. I just knew the energy was there. I’d cycled a hundred kilometres with no carbohydrates.Connect with Moira NewissWebsite: https://www.moiranewiss.co.uk/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/moiranewiss LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moira-newiss/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moiranewissConnect with Victoria BennionLearn more about us: https://thebestpodcastguest.co.uk/Download our Podcast Guest Starter Kit: The Podcast Guest Starter Kit gives you a proven plan to find the right shows, craft a winning pitch, and maximise every interview. https://thebestpodcastguest.co.uk/podcast-guest-starter-kit/Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebestpodcastguestJoin the Best Podcast Guest Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebestpodcastguestSubscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@victoriabennionConnect with Victoria on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriabennion/TranscriptVictoria Bennion: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome. I'm your host, VictoriaBennion, and the founder of the best podcast guest booking agency. And you'relistening to the best guest, the podcast for business owners, creatives, andentrepreneurs who want to harness the power of podcasts to grow their platformsand increase their visibility.We're here to support you on your journey, bringing youactionable tips with each episode. Now let's begin.Today I am joined by Moira Newiss, who is a BANT registerednutritional therapist, health coach, and accredited ketogenic metabolic therapyexpert who specializes in brain energy, one of the recently discovered rootcauses of many mental health problems. Good morning Moira. Welcome to the show.Moira Newiss:Morning, Victoria. Thank you for having me.Victoria Bennion: Howare you today?Moira Newiss: I'mgood. The sun's shining here, so Yeah, I'm happy and wellVictoria Bennion:you're very lucky. We have solid rain.Moira Newiss: I'mquite lucky it's not always like this on the west coast of Scotland, but [00:01:00] it's lovely today.Victoria Bennion: Oh,that's very nice. What a lovely part the world to live in as well.Moira Newiss: Yeah,absolutely.Victoria Bennion:When did your passion for metabolic mental health begin?Moira Newiss: It'sbeen a bit of a journey for me. So this was partly going back through my ownpersonal health journey when I struggled with mental health and chronicfatigue. Having been through a period of burnout when I was an NHS seniormanager. And then along the way, I kind of, I didn't know anything aboutmetabolic mental health to begin with, but I had to find my own way to wellnessagain.I tried various things to start with including things like deepbreathing eating better, spending time in nature, lots of different things. AndI did get a bit better, but it wasn't really until I trialed a ketogenic diet,when I was actually starting to retrain in nutritional therapy.That it was just like a light bulb moment. Something justseemed to work much better. My brain fog cleared and my brain fog had beenreally severe. So, you know, and I was really [00:02:00]struggling with my, mental health. You know, I thought my family would bebetter off without me. It was quite a dark place at times.And when I tried a ketogenic diet, I discovered the power ofketones, really, which is what happens when you begin to eat a very high fat,low carbohydrate diet? Your body makes ketone bodies as a fuel and they canfuel your brain just as effectively as your body. That was really when I firstdiscovered what I would call metabolic medicine for mental health, and thenI've gone on to specialize, and train more and learn more about it.I became fascinated really about, about metabolic health.Victoria Bennion:Wow, was it hard to switch over to a ketogenic diet?Moira Newiss: It wasa little bit of a challenge to start with. You've got to to start with, Iwasn't testing my blood, so I was doing it just by calculating what I waseating, like looking at the macro content of the diet. So how muchcarbohydrates, how much fat I was eating. Originally it was a little bit of achallenge, finding my way through that on my own.And then afterwards I discovered that, you could do otherthings. You could, [00:03:00] you had to takemore account of protein, which I hadn't really understood to begin with. Soreally a ketogenic diet is the ratio of fat to carbohydrates and proteincombined. And there are different levels of ketogenic diet, so differentratios.So you could be looking. A one-to-one ratio, which would be onegram of fat for every combined one gram of fat and protein. Or you could belooking at higher ratio, like a two to one, which is often what we're using inmetabolic mental health. And you can test your blood ketones to get an idea ofwhere you are actually sitting, which is something I now regularly do with allmy clients.So I've learned as I went, what would work, what wouldn't work?And often one of the mistakes people do make is that either they're just noteating enough fat, because a lot of us are brought up thinking fat's bad foryou. You are worried about things like, is it gonna cause cardiovasculardisease?So that's a concern. So people often unre the fat when theydrop the carbs, and you don't really have enough energy if you do that becausecarbs don't factor your fuels. But also sometimes people overeat protein andthat actually can [00:04:00] end up justbreaking down into glucose. So you're not really using fat as a fuel again.So there's a few things that I've learned along the way as partof that process.Victoria...