The ketogenic diet originated from the centuries-old observation that fasting has powerful neurological effects, including stopping seizures. A physician designed the diet to replicate this metabolic state, allowing patients to gain the brain benefits long-term without the danger of starvation.

Unlike other species, humans are born with "half-baked" brains that wire themselves based on the culture, language, and knowledge accumulated by all previous generations. This cumulative learning, not just individual experience, is the key to our rapid advancement as a species.

While preserved brains feel like a pork roast, a living brain is much softer, like "tough jelly." A neuroanatomist can easily poke a finger into it. This visceral description highlights the profound physical fragility of our most critical organ and the importance of protecting it.

Many clinicians mistakenly believe insulin's main role is blood glucose control. In reality, it's a master hormone signaling every cell—from brain to bone—to store energy. This function is so powerful it can slow the body's overall metabolic rate to prioritize energy storage.

For drug-resistant childhood epilepsy, the ketogenic diet is a primary medical treatment. It works by switching the brain's fuel source from glucose to ketones, a process that acts like a hard reset for brain function, calming erratic neural activity.

To counteract historical male parental uncertainty, human babies have evolved to physically resemble their fathers for roughly the first year of life. This visual confirmation—a biological signal saying "I'm yours"—encourages the father's protection and resource investment during a child's most vulnerable period.

Primatologist Richard Rangham's theory posits that early hominins used fire for cooking. This made food more energy-efficient to digest, freeing up metabolic resources that enabled the evolution of our larger brains. We didn't just get smart and then cook; we cooked, and that's how we got smart.

Being in ketosis doesn't just enable fat burning; it actively accelerates it. Human studies show that ketones act as signaling molecules that instruct fat cells to increase their metabolic rate threefold. This creates a significant metabolic advantage for weight loss beyond simply using fat for fuel.

The Fetus GPT experiment reveals that while its model struggles with just 15MB of text, a human child learns language and complex concepts from a similarly small dataset. This highlights the incredible data and energy efficiency of the human brain compared to large language models.