Dieting is one of the hottest topics of the 21st Century, as many different diet plans surface the internet each day. According to the summary by Medical News Today, the most talked about diets include the Atkins Diet, Zone Diet, Vegetarian Diet, Vegan Diet, Weight Watchers Diet, South Beach Diet, Raw Food Diet, and Mediterranean Diet. Different types of diets are chosen depending on the lifestyle people aim for. However, there is one type of diet that has been raved about in the medical field. The Ketogenic Diet, first developed in the 1920’s to treat epilepsy, has now become a recommended diet for tumor patients.
The Ketogenic Diet and a normal diet differ in the amount of macronutrients eaten. In a normal diet, people eat large amounts of carbohydrates, which is then broken down into glucose by insulin. These glucose molecules are used by cells as an energy source. However, when glucose sources become depleted, normal cells can gain energy through other sources like stored fats. Tumor cells cannot find any other way to gain energy and heavily rely on glucose as the only energy source. Therefore, by restricting the intake level of carbohydrates, the glucose levels become depleted and tumor cells die from a lack of energy source.
Structures of glucose and carbohydrates. Credit: Blend Space
The Ketogenic Diet works by restricting the intake of carbohydrates to the lowest amount while increasing the intake of fats and proteins to maintain sufficient energy levels.
Credit: Meta Ketosis
The diet typically consists of high fat consumption (70-75% of total calories), moderate protein consumption (20-25% of total calories), and low carbohydrate consumption (5-10% of total calories).
More bacon please! Credit: Vanity Buzz
The high fat consumption compensates for the low carbohydrate intake. Thus, normal cells begin to breakdown fats for energy. The moderate protein consumption controls the amount of insulin, which further prevents the breakdown of glucose. In addition, high insulin levels restrict ketosis from occurring.
As humans’ main source of fuel, diets play an important role in every individual’s health. As healthy individuals we should follow a regular diet instead of pursuing fad diets. However, special diet plans such as the Atkins Diet is still useful in the medical field for improving the health of tumor patients, and should not be easily overlooked. If you’re interested, please take a look at this video to see how this man beat cancer with the Ketogenic Diet:
Stephanie Lam
