Ketogenic diet and Cancer

Being diagnosed with cancer can be a life-altering event, and trying to understand the best way to manage the disease can be utterly overwhelming. The internet bombards us with conflicting information, leaving most patients inundated with more than they need to know. What treatment should I choose? What should I eat? Should I look into alternative treatments? This is why it is so important to seek out professional advice from doctors, nutritionists and naturopaths, who can help you organise all the information in front of you and guide you through the process. As a nutritionist working with cancer patients, the most effective diet I have worked with so far is the ketogenic diet. The science, the studies and putting it into practice have all been proof enough that it can help slow the growth of tumours in several types of cancer.

What is the ketogenic diet?

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, high-protein diet that omits carbohydrates almost entirely — carbohydrates usually make up 2% or less of daily intake. This shifts the body into a state called ketosis, in which it burns fat for fuel instead of the glucose it would normally draw from carbohydrates.

How it may help fight cancer

In simple terms, several studies have shown that cancer metabolises carbohydrates in order to grow. By eliminating this food source from a patient's diet, the cancer has trouble surviving and thriving: its metabolic pathway for growth is interrupted, and so tumour growth becomes difficult. Our healthy cells, by contrast, can use the ketones the body produces to fuel themselves and thrive, whereas cancer cells have a much harder time doing so.

The diet can be more impactful with some cancers than with others. It has proven very effective with neuroblastoma, as well as with breast, prostate, liver, colon, stomach and lung cancers. Other studies have found that the diet helps protect healthy cells against the impact of chemotherapy and radiation, which means that most patients receiving conventional treatment will benefit from it too.

What to expect

The side effects of the ketogenic diet tend to be quite low. In the beginning, patients will usually experience some constipation or fatigue. The diet can also feel quite restrictive, and most people worry that it will not offer enough variety. This is one reason it helps to meet with a professional, who can guide you through the do's and don'ts.

What to eat and what to avoid

Cutting out carbohydrates can be tricky, because sugar is extremely addictive and can trigger strong cravings. Someone following the diet has to give up most fruits, as well as bread, pasta and rice, replacing them with high-fat, high-protein foods such as nuts, meats and oils. There are several cookbooks and guides available on what to cook and how to prepare it so that meals stay tasty and full of flavour. After the initial cravings, patients tend to notice them decline over time until they subside altogether.

Testing for ketosis

You can check whether your body has reached ketosis with a simple blood test, or with ketone strips bought at health food stores or online. Once you test positive, you know that your body is using ketones as fuel — and that your cancer's fuel supply is being compromised. For optimal results, the ketosis range should sit between 1.5 and 3.0 mmol/L.

Not a fad: a diet with a long history

The ketogenic diet is neither a new concept nor another fad diet. This way of eating has been around for more than 80 years, and was first discovered as a way to ease the symptoms of epilepsy. As the world developed and medicines to treat epilepsy appeared, the diet faded from view. It re-emerged in the 1990s as the Atkins diet: many people who were addicted to carbohydrates cut them out completely and, as a result, became healthier and stronger. Because it is so restrictive and provokes such strong cravings, though, most could only live without carbohydrates for a very short time. More recently, the Atkins approach has been reintroduced to a diet-crazed world as the ketogenic diet, and many who have taken it up have seen great results.

As a way to lose weight, the ketogenic diet can be tricky: it is restrictive, very difficult to maintain and offers little variety. But when a diet is medically proven to help fight disease, it is worth taking notice — especially if it can help reverse the rate of your cancer's growth.