Research
Energy balance
Ketogenic diets may have anti-cancer effects by exploiting the Warburg effect, starving cancer cells of glucose and making them more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation.
KD is being studied as an adjuvant therapy for cancer to starve cells of glucose. Consult your oncologist before trying this.
ModerateConditionalMEDIUM confidence
Due to the Warburg effect, the KD is used as an adjuvant treatment to starve cancer cells, making them more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation.
Why this rating
The paper calls for 'further analysis, improved studies, and well-designed randomized controlled trials'.
Source
The Potential Health Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet: A Narrative Review
Kathryn Dowis et al. · Nutrients · 2021
DOI 10.3390/nu13051654
narrative_reviewCited 236×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- A ketogenic diet (carbohydrate restriction <50g/day) promotes weight loss and visceral adiposity reduction by inducing nutritional ketosis, which suppresses appetite via beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) signaling and increases energy expenditure through fat oxidation.Good
- Ketogenic diets improve glycemic control in Type 2 Diabetes patients by reducing carbohydrate intake, thereby lowering insulin levels and HbA1c, and reducing the need for insulin medication.Good
- Ketogenic diets positively affect the gut microbiome by increasing the ratio of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes and increasing beneficial bacteria like Bifidobacteria and butyrate-producing species.Moderate
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