Could a ketogenic diet eventually be a standard approach to a drug-free treatment for cancer? A ketogenic diet calls for eliminating all but non-starchy vegetable carbohydrates, and replacing them with healthy fats and high-quality protein.  Since cancer cells need glucose to thrive, and carbohydrates turn into glucose in your body, then lowering the glucose level in your blood though carb restriction literally starves the cancer cells into oblivion. Additionally, low protein intake tends to minimize the mTOR pathway that accelerates cell proliferation. Regardless of whether you have cancer or not, this is a diet that will help optimise your weight and all chronic degenerative disease.

Ketogenic Diet Accepted as First Line Approach for Epilepsy: Is Cancer Next?

Dr. Thomas Seyfried is one of the leading pioneer academic researchers in promoting how to treat cancer nutritionally and has spent much time investigating the use of the Ketogenic diet in the treatment of cancer. Dr Seyfried believes cancer is not a genetic disease, but a metabolic one. He believes that the mitochondria—the main power generators in your cells—are the central point in the origin of most cancers. Your mitochondria can be damaged not only by inherited mutations, they can also be damaged by environmental factors, such as toxins and radiation, over time, damage to your mitochondria can lead to dysfunction and tumour formation.

Sugar Is the Primary Fuel for Most Cancers

Controlling your blood-glucose leptin and insulin levels through diet, exercise and emotional stress relief can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. In 1931, the Nobel Prize was awarded to German researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells, and that malignant tumors tend to feed on sugar. Dr. Seyfried’s work confirms that sugar is the primary fuel for cancer, and that by restricting sugar and providing an alternate fuel, namely fat, you can dramatically reduce the rate of growth of cancer. He explains:

“When we’re dealing with glucose and management, we know from a large number of studies that if respiration of the tumor is ineffective, in order to survive, the cells must use an alternative source of energy, which is fermentation. We know that glucose is the primary fuel for fermentation. Fermentation becomes a primary energy-generating process in the tumor cell. By targeting the fuel for that process, we then have the capability of potentially managing the disease.”

Ketogenic Diet Lowers Blood Sugar

The strategy Dr. Seyfried suggests – the Ketogenic diet - will effectively lower your blood sugar. It will also elevate ketone bodies, as fat is metabolized to ketones that your body can burn in the absence of food. The end result will put your body in a metabolic state that is inhospitable to cancer cells. The Ketogenic diet, in which you replace carbs with low to moderate amounts of protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, like avocado, coconut oil, butter, olive oil and nuts is recommended for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It’s a diet that will help optimise your weight and health overall, as eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode, to fat burning. For more information on the Ketogenic Diet 'ask a Naturopath' at Mr Vitamins.