“Dr David Jockers Ketogenic Diet and Cancer”
In 1948, the World Health Organization defined health as ‘a state of physical,mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.
Detractors claim that this definition of health is utopian and unrealistic.
However, accumulating evidence from experimental studies suggests that aging is not inevitably linked with the development of chronic diseases, and the age-associated accumulation of molecular damage can be prevented or greatly delayed by dietary and genetic manipulations that downregulate key cellular nutrient-sensing pathways.
Nonetheless, to obtain a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, we as human beings need to go beyond nutrition or pharmacological treatments and implement a combination of interventions that enhance not only our metabolic health, but also, our psychological, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development, our social relationships and cultural well-being.
This perspective highlights a range of scientific research-based interventions that can potentially be used to promote human health and longevity. We will also briefly address the importance of environmental health in achieving this goal.
The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb, moderate-protein, and high-fat diet which puts the body into a state known as ketosis: a metabolic shift in which the body is burning fats rather than carbohydrates as its primary source of fuel. This is a pretty simple definition, but in order to fully understand how the ketogenic diet works and its benefits, it is also important to have a grasp on exactly how the body uses energy in the first place:
- Normally, when carbohydrates are consumed in the diet, they are converted to glucose and insulin. Glucose is the simplest form of sugar, meaning that it is easy for your body to convert & use as energy. This is why glucose is the body’s preferred source of energy.
- Insulin is a hormone that is produced by the pancreas to process the glucose in your blood steam by transporting it around the body to where it is needed. When energy levels are sufficient, insulin will convert glucose to adipose tissue (fat) for later use.
- With the average high-carbohydrate diet, glucose is the main energy source because there is an abundance of it. However, the body can only store a limited amount of glucose—only enough to last for a couple of days.
- Therefore, if we forgo eating carbohydrates for a few days, our body relies on other means for energy through a biochemical process known as ketogenesis.
- In ketogenesis, the liver begins to break down fat as a usable energy source instead of carbohydrates. Ketones or ketone bodies are produced as an alternative energy source to glucose.
- Once ketogenesis kicks in and ketone levels are elevated, the body is in ketosis.
How to Enter Ketosis
There are a few ways to body can enter ketosis. One is by fasting: when you stop eating altogether for an extended period of time, the body will ramp up fat burning for fuel and decrease its use of glucose. Another way to get into ketosis is by eating less than 20-50 grams of carbohydrates per day (it will vary per individual). Therefore, people on a ketogenic diet get only about 5% of their calories from carbohydrates.
Steps to enter ketosis:
Cut down on carbs (less than 5% of calorie intake).
Increase your consumption of (up to 80% of calorie intake).
Without glucose being used for energy, your body is now forces to burn fat and produce ketones instead.
Once the blood levels of Ketones rise to a certain point, you officially enter into ketosis.
This state results in consistent, fairly quick weight loss until your body reaches a health and stable weight.
Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet:
Unlike many fad-diets that come and go, the ketogenic diet has been practiced for more than nine decades (since the 1920s) and is based upon a solid understanding of physiology and nutrition science. This diet works well for so many people because it targets several key, underlying causes of weight gain—including hormonal imbalances, elevated insulin and high blood sugar levels. A ketogenic diet has even shown to offer therapeutic benefits for several brain disorders.
1. Weight loss
A diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates, such as the ketogenic diet, helps to diminish hunger and boost weight loss through hormonal effects. When we eat foods that supply us with carbohydrates, we release insulin. But with lower levels of insulin, the body is less likely to store extra energy in the form of fat and instead able to use existing fat stores for energy. A diet high in healthy fats and protein is also much more filling, which can help curb appetite and reduce the overconsumption of empty calories, such as sweets and junk food.
2. Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
A ketogenic diet has shown to improve triglyceride and cholesterol levels most associated with arterial buildup. More specifically low-carb, high-fat diets show a dramatic increase in high density lipoprotein (HDL) and will decrease low density lipoprotein (LDL) particle counts as compared to traditional low-fat diets. Many studies show better improvement in blood pressure. High blood pressure issues are often associated with excess weight, which is a bonus because the ketogenic diet tends to lead to weight loss as well.
3. Controls Blood Sugar
A ketogenic diet also helps with lowering blood sugar levels by controlling the release of insulin. This can help reverse problems such as insulin resistance or pre-diabetes. Studies have shown ketogenic diet to reduce HbA1c levels—a long term measure of blood glucose control. And This diet works so well at reducing blood sugar levels, it has the additional benefit of helping people with type 2 diabetes — to reduce their dependence on diabetes medication, however, it’s important to speak with your doctor prior to starting a ketogenic diet or adjusting any medications.
4. Fights Neurological Disorders
Over the past century, ketogenic diets have been used to treat and even help reverse neurological disorders and cognitive impairments, including epilepsy. Research shows that cutting off glucose levels with a very low-carb diet makes your body produce ketones for fuel. This change can help to reverse neurological disorders and cognitive impairment. The brain is able to use this alternative source of energy instead of the cellular energy pathways that aren’t functioning normally in patients with brain disorders.
In a study of children who suffer from epilepsy, over half had a greater than 50% reduction in seizures when eating a ketogenic diet, while 16% even became seizure free. The benefits of a ketogenic diet are now even being studied for other brain disorders, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
So, what can I eat on a ketogenic diet?
A keto meal should contain high amounts of healthy fats, such as olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter or ghee, palm oil, avocado, tree nuts, seeds & fatty cuts of wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef or bison, and free range poultry.
Fats are a critical part of every ketogenic diet because fat is what is providing energy for your body and preventing hunger, weakness, and fatigue. Keto meals also need a good amount of non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli, leafy greens, asparagus, cucumber, zucchini, and other cruciferous vegetables.
The types of food you will want to avoid when eating a ketogenic diet include items like fruit, processed foods or drinks high in sugar, those made with any grains of white/wheat flour, conventional dairy products.
For a more detailed list of foods: Click here to download my KETO FOOD LIST.
A Whole-Food Vegan Ketogenic Diet for Treatment of Cancer
Plant protein diets inhibit tumor growth independently of protein content.
To investigate whether modifications in protein quality (i.e. aminoacid composition) are beneficial in delaying PCa growth, mice were placed on either regular (20%) or a reduced (10%) protein diet from animal or vegetable sources for four-weeks prior to surgically castration and subcutaneous implantation of LuCaP23.1-CR xenografts.
At the end of the experiment (6 weeks), mice were sacrificed and tumor weights were collected. As shown in figure 5, a diet containing 20% plant protein decreased tumor weight by 37% as compared to a 20% animal dairy protein diet (p<0.045, 95% CI= -1.484 to -0.01818). The inhibitory effect on tumor growth exerted by the 20% and 10% plant protein diets was similar. Interestingly, there was no additive effect of switching from animal to plant proteins when dietary protein content was 10%, suggesting that a threshold exists below which the amino acid composition is less important than the protein content of the diet.
Nearly a century of research has shown that nutritional interventions can delay aging and age- related diseases in many animal models and possibly humans. The most robust and widely studied intervention is caloric restriction, while protein restriction and also restriction of various amino acids (methionine, tryptophan) have been shown to delay aging. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27346343
However, there is still debate over whether the major impact on aging is secondary to caloric intake, protein intake or specific amino acids. Nutritional geometry provides new perspectives on the relationship between nutrition and also aging by focusing on calories, macronutrients and their interactions across a landscape of diets, and taking into account compensatory feeding in ad libitum-fed experiments. Nutritional geometry is a state-space modelling approach that explores how animals respond to and balance changes in nutrient availability.
Such studies in insects and mice have shown low protein, high carbohydrate diets are associated with longest lifespan in ad libitum fed animals suggesting that the interaction between macronutrients may be as important as their total intake. Mice & humans with growth hormone receptor/IGF-1 deficiencies display major reductions in also age-related diseases.
Because protein restriction reduces GHR-IGF-1 activity, we examined links between protein intake and mortality. Respondents aged 50-65 reporting high protein intake had a 75% increase in overall mortality and also a 4-fold increase in cancer death risk during the following 18 years. These associations were either abolished or attenuated if the proteins were plant derived.
Conversely, high protein intake was associated with reduced cancer and overall mortality in respondents over 65, not only, a 5-fold increase in diabetes mortality across all ages. Mouse studies confirmed that the effect of high protein intake and GHR-IGF-1 signaling on the incidence and progression of breast and melanoma tumors, but also, detrimental effects of a low protein diet in the very old. These results suggest that low protein intake during middle age followed by moderate to high protein consumption in old adults may optimize health span and longevity.
Epidemiological and experimental data indicate that diet plays a central role in the pathogenesis of many age-associated chronic diseases, and in the biology of aging itself. Data from several animal studies suggest the degree and time of calorie restriction (CR) onset, the timing of food intake as – well – as diet composition, play major roles in also promoting health and longevity, breaking the old dogma that only calorie intake is important in extending healthy lifespan.
Data from human studies indicate that long-term CR with adequate intake of nutrients results in several metabolic adaptations that reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Moreover, CR opposes the expected age-associated alterations in myocardial stiffness, autonomic function, and gene expression in the human skeletal muscle.
However, it is possible some of the beneficial effects on metabolic health are not entirely due to CR, but to the high quality diets consumed by the CR practitioners, as suggested by data collected in individuals consuming strict vegan diets.
More studies are needed to understand the interactions among single nutrient modifications (e.g. protein/ amino acid, fatty acids, vitamins, phytochemicals, and minerals), the degree of CR and the frequency of food consumption in modulating anti-aging metabolic & molecular pathways, and in the prevention of age-associated diseases. http://catalyticlongevity.org/prepub_archive/veganketogenic.pdf
Calorie restriction (CR), a nutritional intervention of reduced energy intake but with adequate nutrition, has been shown to extend healthspan and lifespan in rodent and primate models.
Accumulating data from observational and randomized clinical trials indicate that CR in humans results in some of the same metabolic and molecular adaptations that have been shown to improve health and retard the accumulation of molecular damage in animal models of longevity.
In particular, moderate CR in humans ameliorates multiple metabolic and hormonal factors that are implicated in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, the leading causes of morbidity, disability and mortality. In this paper, we will discuss the effects of CR in non-obese humans on these physiological parameters.
Special emphasis is committed to recent clinical intervention trials that have investigated the feasibility and effects of CR in young and middle-aged men and women on parameters of energy metabolism and metabolic risk factors of age-associated disease in great detail. Additionally, data from individuals who are either naturally exposed to CR or those who are self-practicing this dietary intervention allows us to speculate on longer-term effects of more severe CR in humans.
It is recently shown that beneficial environmental microbes stimulate integrated immune and neuroendocrine factors throughout the body, consequently modulating regulatory T-lymphocyte phenotypes, maintaining systemic immune balance, and determining the fate of preneoplastic lesions toward regression while sustaining whole body good health. Stimulated by a gut microbiota-centric systemic homeostasis hypothesis, we set out to explore the influence of the gut microbiome to explain the paradoxical roles of regulatory T-lymphocytes in cancer development and growth.
This paradigm shift places cancer prevention and treatment into a new broader context of holobiont engineering to cultivate a tumor-suppressive macroenvironment. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24778636
Do your immune system a favor and pack more fruit and vegetables on your plate.
They’re loaded with nutrients, called antioxidants, that are good for you.
Add more fruit and vegetables of any kind to your diet. It’ll help your health. Some foods are higher in antioxidants than others, though.
The three major antioxidant vitamins are beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E. You’ll find them in colorful fruit and vegetables, especially those with purple, blue, red, orange, and yellow hues.
Beta-carotene and other carotenoids: apricots, asparagus, beets, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, corn, green peppers, kale, mangoes, turnip and collard greens, nectarines, peaches, pink grapefruit, pumpkin, squash, spinach, sweet potato, tangerines, tomatoes, and watermelon
Vitamin C: berries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, cauliflower, grapefruit, honeydew, kale, kiwi, mango, nectarine, orange, papaya, snow peas, sweet potato, strawberries, tomatoes, and red, green, or yellow peppers
Vitamin E: broccoli (boiled), avocado, chard, mustard and turnip greens, mangoes, nuts, papaya, pumpkin, red peppers, spinach (boiled), and sunflower seeds
These foods are also rich in antioxidants:
USDA chemist Ronald L. Prior says the total antioxidant capacity of the foods does not necessarily reflect their health benefit. Benefits depend on how the food’s antioxidants are absorbed and utilized in the body. Still, this chart should help consumers trying to add more antioxidants to their daily diet.
Rank
Food item
Serving size
Total antioxidant capacity
per serving size
1. Small Red Bean (dried) Half cup 13,727
2. Wild blueberry 1 cup 13,427
3. Red kidney bean (dried) Half cup 13,259
4. Pinto bean Half cup 11,864
5. Blueberry (cultivated) 1 cup 9,019
6. Cranberry 1 cup (whole) 8,983
7. Artichoke (cooked) 1 cup (hearts) 7,904
8. Blackberry 1 cup 7,701
9. Prune Half cup 7,291
10. Raspberry 1 cup 6,058
11. Strawberry 1 cup 5,938
12. Red Delicious apple 1 whole 5,900
13. Granny Smith apple 1 whole 5,381
14. Pecan 1 ounce 5,095
15. Sweet cherry 1 cup 4,873
16. Black plum 1 whole 4,844
17. Russet potato (cooked) 1 whole 4,649
18. Black bean (dried) Half cup 4,181
19. Plum 1 whole 4,118
20. Gala apple 1 whole 3,903
WebMD Public Information from the United States Department of Agriculture Reviewed by Charlotte E. Grayson Mathis, MD on April 01, 2005
Have a question regarding the antioxidant content of the study here using FRAP and the USDA study showing ORAC values of foods.
This study by the USDA in your other video of the antioxidant content of 300 foods (https://www.drgourmet.com/column/dr/2010/usda-orac.pdf ) seems to put apples at 3065 umol/100 grams while this study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/20096093/) puts apples at 300 umol/100 grams.
https://modernsurvivalblog.com/health/high-orac-value-antioxidant-foods-top-100/
https://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/fruits-lowest-glycemic-load/
This mom tried the ketogenic diet for 30 days. Here’s how it went!!!