The TOWARD Intervention: Beating Food Addiction | Dr. Shebani Sethi - E406

Aug 4, 2025

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Dr. Shebani Sethi is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and founder of the first academic Metabolic Psychiatry program. Board-certified in both Psychiatry and Obesity Medicine, she bridges the gap between mental health and metabolic health—an approach she calls Metabolic Psychiatry. Dr. Sethi trained at Stanford, Duke, and Johns Hopkins, with expertise in eating disorders, nutrition, and obesity. Her groundbreaking research explores ketogenic and metabolic interventions for serious mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A recipient of multiple national awards, Dr. Sethi is a leading voice in rethinking how we treat the mind and body—together.

In this episode, Drs. Tro, Laura, and Shebani talk about…

(00:00) Intro
(03:01) What Metabolic Psychiatry is
(03:50) Recent research studying the links between diet and mental health
(07:01) The state of food addiction research
(12:57) How we can help others understand and accept the reality of food addiction
(19:23) The modern processed food epidemic
(23:42) The data from recent studies on how the keto diet reduces binge eating and food addiction symptoms
(24:53) The latest paper worked on by Dr. Tro, Dr. Laura, and Dr. Shebani looking at the impact of various dietary approaches on binge eating and food addiction symptoms
(29:40) How important social support is in reducing food addiction symptoms
(33:18) In what sense food can be considered an addictive substance
(36:02) Dr. Shebani’s personal diet
(37:22) Parting words of wisdom for anyones struggling with food addiction or obesity
(39:07) Which interventions Dr. Shebani has found most effective for

For more information, please see the links below. Thank you for listening!

Links:

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Our new peer-reviewed study on food addiction and binge eating was just published! CHECK IT OUT: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1612551/full

Dr. Shebani Sethi:

X: https://x.com/shebanimd?lang=en

Dr. Brian Lenzkes:

Website: https://arizonametabolichealth.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianLenzkes?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Dr. Tro Kalayjian:

Website: https://www.doctortro.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoctorTro
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctortro/

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