21 The Ketogenic Diet.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
21 The Ketogenic Diet.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Welcome to the Cancer Secrets podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm. Hosted by Dr. Jonathan Steagall, a medical doctor and cancer specialist practicing in Atlanta, Georgia, deeply affected by his grandmother's death from stomach cancer, as well as patients he cared for in medical training, he realized there has to be a better way to treat cancer. Dr. Stegall has a unique and innovative approach to treating cancer called integrative oncology, combining modern medicine with alternative therapies personalized to each patient. This podcast is designed to educate, support and give you a positive voice you can trust. We invite you to join us on this journey as we seek to change the cancer paradigm.
Speaker2:
Hi. This is Dr. Stegall. I'm so glad you're enjoying the Cancer Secrets podcast. Do you have a question you would like answered in a future episode? If so, please go to Cancer Secrets dot com and click on podcast at the top of the page. Look for the tab on the right side of the page that says Send voice mail. You can record your question straight from your smartphone or computer with your question. Be sure to tell us your first name, where you're from, and why you listen to the show. I will choose from the best questions and answer them on the air. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Hello and welcome back to the Cancer Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Jonathan Stegall. This is season two and episode number 21. In today's episode, I'm going to discuss a very popular topic right now, and that is the ketogenic diet. If you're new to the show, please go back and listen to my introductory episode to learn more about me and my vision for this podcast. As always, we encourage you to listen with a loved one or friend. Learning and enjoying the show with a community will be more impactful than doing so alone. Today's show is going to be a great one as we discuss the ketogenic diet. What the research says about it and what I recommend. If you spent any length of time online researching nutrition, and I'm sure you have, you've certainly heard about the ketogenic diet. This dietary strategy involves eating a very low carbohydrate diet by restricting carbohydrates to 5% of total calories or less.
Speaker2:
The body must use an alternative fuel source. Since glucose isn't available, the basic biochemistry tells us that the body uses glucose, which is broken down from carbohydrates as its main energy source. When glucose isn't available, the body breaks down fat for energy, resulting in what are known as ketone bodies. The human body, including the brain, can use ketone bodies for energy. Now, this type of diet was made famous by Dr. Robert Atkins, creator of the Atkins Diet. His diet was known for low carbs and resulting high fat and high protein. It appealed to people because it allowed them to eat all of the meat and cheese they wanted. And people certainly lost weight on the diet. In recent years, research has also looked at the ketogenic diet in cancer. As we all know, this is a very hot topic right now. And when we look at any diet, especially popular fad diets that are promising weight loss, we must ask ourselves, is this healthy weight loss? And moreover, just because the diet results in weight loss, does that make it healthy? Any time I evaluate a new dietary approach, I ask myself a few questions. And specifically in this case, my questions are, number one, is it possible to starve cancer by restricting carbohydrates? In other words, does the ketogenic diet work for our purposes? Now, this is based on the belief that cancer uses sugar for energy, and we know that it does.
Speaker2:
Question number two, is the ketogenic diet sustainable? Remember, this is a very high fat, low protein and low carbohydrate diet. Question number three is the ketogenic diet designed to be a long term endeavor? Is it sustainable? Now there's a belief out there that our human ancestors lived on a low carb, high fat diet. But epidemiological studies have not found this to be the case. If we think about our food supply over the years, food wasn't always readily available. The ability of our bodies to use stored fat and thus ketones for energy on a temporary basis makes sense. After all, if food wasn't available, the body needed a way to stay alive until the next meal could be obtained. However, from what we know about prehistoric man, he was him with low body fat. A permanent state of ketosis wouldn't be sustainable as limited body fat stores would run out and he would die. Now, this is often when proponents of a ketogenic diet bring up the Inuits. Now these are the Eskimos living in the Arctic region of Alaska and Canada. They eat a very high fat, high protein, relatively low carb diet. It's interesting to note that the Inuits are not free from health problems. Quite to the contrary, actually, studies have shown that they have an average lifespan of approximately 68 years, roughly 10 to 12 years less than the average American or Canadian. In addition, they don't stay in a permanent state of ketosis as their bodies have adapted to their diet over the generations.
Speaker2:
Now, it's interesting to note that no animal on earth has ever lived in a permanent state of ketosis, and I believe that doing so is dangerous. A 2018 study in The Lancet found that people who ate the lowest carbohydrate diets had a significantly increased risk of all cause mortality. In other words, increased death from any cause. They also found that these individuals had a 35% increased risk of dying from cancer compared to those who ate a higher carbohydrate diet. But if a ketogenic diet is truly an amazing anti cancer approach, should we be doing it to fight cancer even temporarily? Research using the ketogenic diet in lab rats with brain cancer has shown promising results extending the lifespan, but not curing their cancer. In other words, the rats that were given the ketogenic diet lived a little bit longer, but they still died from their cancer. But what about human studies is we know studies on mice in the lab will often seem promising, but the overwhelming majority of these results are not seen when the same treatment is given to real humans. A recent study set out to answer that question involving 16 patients with advanced cancer who were put on a ketogenic diet. Of the 16 patients, only five completed the three month study. The remaining 11 patients dropped out due to death progression of their cancer or not being able to stick to the diet. However, this is just one study and at this point there have been several utilizing the ketogenic diet in cancer.
Speaker2:
A new paper just released in 2019 examined the currently available studies on the ketogenic diet and cancer and found that they largely fail to prove survival prolonging effects. After using the ketogenic diet with hundreds of patients in my practice, I found that most simply can't stick to it for very long. Remember, a truly ketogenic diet is a very high fat diet, up to 90 to 95% of total calories consumed from fat. So it's very hard to stick to the few people who were able to stick to this ketogenic diet, didn't seem to have any dramatic reduction in their cancer compared to those patients who weren't following the ketogenic approach. And the caveat here is nutrition is just one tool that we use. In my practice, we commonly have patients on multiple therapies at the same time, including chemotherapy, intravenous vitamin C, mistletoe, supplements, stress reduction and of course, nutrition to name a few. So it's hard to isolate out the effect of nutrition alone. I haven't done a formal study within my practice, but I will tell you with with everyone getting fairly similar regimens, I didn't see any significant benefit from the ketogenic diet. Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the information you've received from your oncologist, chiropractor, nutritionist, herbalist, acupuncturist, guru and friends as well as what you've read online? If you're like most people, you are more confused than ever when it comes to cancer.
Speaker2:
Hi, this is Dr. Jonathan Segal, medical doctor and specialist in integrative oncology. And I want to tell you about my new best selling book, Cancer Secrets. This book is packed with valuable information you need to know about. I'm an open minded skeptic, which means that I'm open to any potential treatment, but also have a healthy level of skepticism when it comes to the latest greatest treatments in cancer secrets. I've applied my clinical experience with patients, as well as a scientific knowledge I've obtained over the years to share the tests and treatments. You should be focusing on treatments which are most likely to work. Everyone needs an expert in their corner and with this book I can be yours. Please go to Cancer Secrets now and buy your copy today. So here are my concerns with the ketogenic diet and cancer. So number one, multiple studies have shown that cancer cells can use fat for energy. And we often talk about sugar being used by cancer for energy. And we all know about PET scans using radio labeled sugar as the contrast agent in cancer lights up because it takes up that sugar. But we don't talk about this enough. But cancer uses fat for energy as well. And as we mentioned earlier, a ketogenic diet is a very high fat diet. Do we really want to be giving cancer cells as potential fuel? Number two, multiple studies have also shown that cancer cells can use animal protein for energy. Although a ketogenic diet for cancer treatment purposes is technically a low protein diet, most people who use a ketogenic diet to treat their cancer end up eating a moderate to high protein diet.
Speaker2:
I don't think this is safe. Number three, a recent study showed that cancer can even use ketones for energy. The ketogenic diet creates lots of ketones. So again, we don't want to be inadvertently fueling cancer. And finally, number four, I also found that a proper ketogenic diet is nearly impossible for cancer patients to follow, especially over the long term. I saw this in my practice and as we also saw in one of the studies mentioned earlier, several patients dropped out because they simply couldn't stick with it. Now, what I typically saw with my patients was a high fat and also a moderate to high protein diet, which involved a lot of animal protein in some dairy. And we know from studies this is not optimal, especially when we're fighting cancer. So at this point, you might be asking, what can I eat? Doesn't cancer use sugar for fuel, too? Yes. As we discussed earlier, it certainly can. We know that cancer is highly adaptive. So the notion that we can remove one or even two macronutrients and starve cancer is false. My belief is that God created our world with healthy food for the body. And I like to think back to the Garden of Eden and imagine that it was largely filled with plants, fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes were probably plentiful. These were designed for regular daily consumption.
Speaker2:
Animals were probably consumed very rarely, only on special occasions, not daily, as most people today consume them. The garden didn't have processed foods either, so foods were eaten in their natural state or very close to it. And this is how I believe we should be eating, whether we're fighting cancer or simply striving for overall health and wellness. My belief is that these whole foods unprocessed, unadulterated and ideally free of pesticides and herbicides, contain the ideal balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber and antioxidants we need. I don't know if cancer can still use these foods for fuel, but I suspect that it's much more difficult for cancer to use nourishment in this form compared to other forms, especially the highly processed forms and highly adulterated forms we see today. I know for a fact that this whole food plant based nourishment is ideal in terms of the way our bodies are created to function and thrive. I recently heard from a listener of the show who stated that I turned her off when I recommended the plant based diet in a recent episode. I was sorry to hear that, but I honestly wasn't surprised. I realized that nutrition is a very sensitive subject. I've heard it said that people look for ways to justify their own habits, and this is certainly true with diet. What we eat every day is deeply personal, based on a wide variety of experiences we've had growing up. In some ways, food is sacred to us.
Speaker2:
We eat it multiple times a day. We associate it with pleasure and at times pain. We associate it with milestones, celebrations, friends and family. I get it. Here's the thing. To be honest, I love a nice filet mignon. I love trying different kinds of cheese. But if I'm honest with myself, these aren't foods we should be eating regularly. If you have cancer, I think you would ideally not eat animal protein at all. And if you do, it should be on a rare occasion. I don't have an agenda. I'm not funded by any nutritional council or government organization. I don't sell products or services based on my dietary recommendations. I'm just a cancer doctor who wants to see better treatment outcomes in people fighting cancer. I'm in the unique position as a doctor who actually cares about nutrition and recognizes its importance to be able to read the scientific literature and see what works and what doesn't in the patients I treat every day. I then share that information with you, my listeners, because I want to help. I will say this no diet is perfect. It's quite possible that there isn't one ideal diet for everyone fighting cancer. However, my belief is that a whole food plant based diet is the foundation we must use. We can argue over the finer details, but I don't think that's productive because the food you eat 90 to 95% of the time is what matters most. It's largely a waste of time to argue over if one food or one ingredient is good or bad.
Speaker2:
I really like the quote by Michael Pollan, which is this Eat food? Not too much, mostly plants. By focusing on plants, you don't have to count calories or carbs or grams of protein or anything else. This reduces the stress considerably. You'd be amazed at how many people are stressing over the grams of carbohydrates or their total calories. Or maybe you're one of those people. But it's very prevalent, and I think it's unnecessarily stressful. You have an almost endless supply of foods you can choose from with this approach. Well, my recommendations change in the future. Maybe I'm perfectly willing to change my views if I see evidence that something else is better. At this point, I don't believe there is. I hope you found this information helpful. I truly care about you and wherever you are in your journey. I'm humbled by the listeners we have throughout the world who are finding this information valuable. I would like to welcome our new listeners from Germany, the Netherlands, Morocco, Spain, Denmark and Israel. Welcome to the show. Thank you for listening. And as always, please subscribe to the Cancer Secret podcast if you have not. You'll be notified when new episodes are released. And if you're enjoying these podcasts, please take a minute and provide a review on iTunes. Finally, please share this podcast with your family and friends. All previous episodes are available for free on our website Cancer Secrets dot com. Thank you for listening and I'll look forward to next time.
Speaker1:
Thank you for listening to the Cancer Secrets podcast. If you were encouraged by this show, please share it with a loved one or friend. Help support the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. The more reviews, the more friends like you can find the show. Finally, to learn more, visit us online at Doctor Stay Google.com. The Cancer Secrets Podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm.
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