Most of us know a family member, neighbor, or maybe an acquaintance who suffers from schizophrenia.
However, there may be a cure for the psychotic disorder.
On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the cure to schizophrenia may be as simple as a change in diet.
Kennedy, during a press conference in Tennessee, shared that the popular Keto diet may cure schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
The Washington Examiner had these details to report on the Keto diet’s impact:
A low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet might cure schizophrenia and other psychological disorders, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy said during a speech in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday that a ketogenic diet, more commonly known as keto, can cure schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
The brief comment in his 20-minute address, alongside Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, came as Kennedy touted the Trump administration’s new Dietary Guidelines for Americans document, which sets the food policy for federally funded nutrition programs such as food stamps and school lunches.
Kennedy said that a diet primarily consisting of ultraprocessed foods and refined carbohydrates “is killing” children.
“We now know that the things that you eat are driving mental illness in this country,” Kennedy said.
The secretary highlighted research from Harvard physician Christopher Palmer, saying that he has “cured schizophrenia using keto diets.”
Ketogenic diets, high-fat and low-carbohydrate, were refined by modern physicians starting in the 1920s as a treatment for epilepsy, mirroring the seizure-reducing effects of fasting.
Palmer, Director of the Metabolic and Mental Health Program at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, published his first case study in 2019 involving two patients with schizophrenia whose symptoms were relieved by switching to a keto-based diet.
Watch Kennedy make the announcement here:
NEW – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Dr. Chris Palmer (Harvard) has cured schizophrenia using keto diet pic.twitter.com/BS1XbJygYk
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) February 5, 2026
The Pontiac Daily Leader has reported that the impact of schizophrenia on U.S. citizens costs the U.S. billions of dollars each year:
A new economic analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry estimates that schizophrenia spectrum disorders, including schizophrenia and related conditions, cost the United States $366.8 billion in 2024, with impacts extending far beyond medical care into public programs and other systems.
The study estimates that 3,070,739 U.S. adults (1.17%) were living with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in 2024 across all settings, including independent households, supportive housing, long-term care and skilled nursing facilities, unhoused settings, and prisons and jails.
“Schizophrenia’s economic burden does not sit in one place. It shows up across healthcare, public programs, housing instability, and lost economic participation,” said Holly B. Krasa, M.S., lead author of the study. “Behind every dollar figure is a person living with a serious medical condition and a family trying to navigate fragmented systems, often without coordinated support.”
The study tracks costs across multiple systems tied to state and federal budgets, including emergency and inpatient care, housing instability, disability and income support, justice system involvement, unemployment, and premature mortality. Many costs shift between individuals and public agencies rather than disappearing altogether.
