Ketogenic diet in cancer care

The ketogenic diet can be used as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of various types of tumors.

This is due to the fact that a tumor cell, by virtue of its need for constant division, requires the consumption of a large amount of glucose. At the same time, these cells are incapable of using ketone bodies as their main "fuel." On the ketogenic diet, the amount of glucose consumed is reduced to practically minimal values, while the main energy substrate becomes ketone bodies. This leads to the damage and subsequent death of the tumor cell while the function of healthy cells is preserved.

Owing to these effects, the ketogenic diet has demonstrated effectiveness experimentally against many types of neoplasms.