 The classic therapeutic ketogenic diet was developed for treatment of paediatric epilepsy in the 1920s and was widely used into the next decade , but its popularity waned with the introduction of effective anticonvulsant drugs . In the mid @-@ 1990s , Hollywood producer Jim Abrahams , whose son 's severe epilepsy was effectively controlled by the diet , created the Charlie Foundation to promote it . Publicity included an appearance on NBC 's Dateline programme and ... First Do No Harm ( 1997 ) , a made @-@ for @-@ television film starring Meryl Streep . The foundation sponsored a multicentre research study , the results of which — announced in 1996 — marked the beginning of renewed scientific interest in the diet . 
