Keto Diet’s Potential to Fight Some Cancerous Tumors

The recipient of a bachelor’s degree in film and electronic arts from California State Long Beach, Joe Arrigo began his career as a sales manager at Sacramento Valley Floral Supply and, since 2018, has worked as a resource development manager at Modis in Sacramento. Among other hobbies, Joe Arrigo enjoys eating healthy. To that end, he is an advocate of the ketogenic diet.

The ketogenic diet is high in fatty foods, but low in carbs with a moderate amount of protein. It is hailed as an effective, short-term weight loss plan, but it could also contribute to the reduction in the size of cancerous tumors. Research recently published in the Cell Reports journal found that lower blood sugar levels, as is common on the diet, can help slow the growth of cancer tumors.

To come to this conclusion, University of Texas at Dallas researchers restricted the blood sugar levels in mice with cancer by keeping them on a ketogenic diet and feeding them a diabetes drug to prevent their kidneys from reabsorbing glucose. While the tumors didn’t shrink, they stopped growing as a result of the diet-drug combination.

The keto diet, on its own, also showed “tumor-growth inhibitory effect in squamous cell cancer,” said one researcher. While it’s not certain these results would be similar in humans, there is now extensive research that suggests the diet could be an effective complementary therapy for individuals undergoing cancer treatment.