Video Transcript: How Ketones Reduce Glucose and Starve Cancer Cells
That’s really the most important part. The insulin. Keeping insulin levels low because insulin is a growth hormone. These cancer cells require the insulin. They require the insulin because they require the insulin for the glucose to help bring it in the cells. If you can keep your insulin requirements and insulin stimulation very low, which is easy to do if you’re following a ketogenic diet, especially a plant-based.
Why do I say especially a plant based? I say that—I’m Jewish. I’m going to answer my own questions. Just, get over it. I say that because animal protein stimulates insulin. So, that was interesting for me to learn about because I started doing ketogenic diets with my patients and I just thought carbohydrates stimulated insulin, and high ketone levels ultimately will stimulate insulin to reduce the ketones, so that you don’t go into ketoacidosis.
But, animal protein stimulates insulin. Even fish; even eggs. There are graphs of how much insulin or how insulinemic or how insulin-producing are foods. There are graphs; and you’ll see that peanut butter produces a lot less insulin for the same amount of protein than a tuna steak or a beef steak. So, animal protein stimulates a lot more insulin than plant protein.
And that’s one reason why a plant-based ketogenic diet, especially for cancer, is better. Another reason that it’s better is because when you cook animal protein, on fire, which is how a lot of people like to cook their animal protein, as opposed to stewing like in water. If it’s in water it’s a different story, but if it’s grilled, and barbecued, which is how most people like to cook their meat and fish, you’re creating something called heterocyclic amines, which are carcinogenic in their own right.
But ketones starve cancer cells of adequate glucose. If you’re predominantly fueling yourself, and it’s never 100%, and that involves biochemistry, but if you are predominantly burning fatty acids and ketones, you’re going to starve your cancer cells of adequate food. That’s a good thing.
Ketones happen to be a more efficient fuel because there’s two less steps to get the ketones into the mitochondria—into the cell to the mitochondria. There’s more ATP production, which is the fuel, and there’s less ROS, reactive oxygen species. So, reactive oxygen species are just a byproduct of burning oxygen, right?
We have to have oxygen. So, there’s always going to be some ROS and there’s a delicate balance between ROS and antioxidants. We produce our own antioxidants, right? But if you can have a lot of energy and produce half the amount of reactive oxygen species, there’s going to be less damage to the mitochondria anyway. Just by doing that.
So, it’s very protective, and we know from studies with MS and with other degenerative neurological diseases, that ketones are neuroprotective. It turns on more antioxidants. You actually require less antioxidants and your CoQ10 levels are better, your requirement for vitamin C is lowered, because those things are required for scavenging the reactive oxygen species.
I’m not going to get into all the biochemistry. I don’t want to lose you guys on that. What you just need to know is that there’s a lot of good things that happen when you become fat adapted and start fueling your body and your brain with ketones and fats.
An Oasis of Healing – a holistic cancer clinic in Arizona- have designed their own raw food plantbased keto diet. Check it out.
What about wild salmon? Is even that fish a potentially harmful food concerning insulin and other harm to your body?
Loaded with heavy metals, micro plastics and radioactivity….I think not! Plant based is the way forward for so many reasons! Go vegan and thrive if you do it properly. Do your research
Excellent information on ketogenic diet in general, and in particular, using a ketogenic diet to help starve cancer cells. Thank you Dr. Toni Bark and Thank you so much Ty and Charlene for the life saving work you are doing.
Greetings from Canada! I assume that this would be the go-to diet for those with Parkinson’s as well? I’ve been told that keto only helps if it’s followed religiously, otherwise it’s not worth attempting. Is that anywhere near correct? I have PD and I’m so confused as to what regimen to follow!
Gonzelez on ketogenic-diet-for-cancer…
https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/dr-gonzalez-dismantles-ketogenic-diet-for-cancer/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0i-AdCm-Mg
Thanks for the article, Paul. Very informative.
Great article Paul. Very informative! So Glad you posted the link.
I agree with Gonzalez on this. A high fat diet is not the way to go for cancer, even plant-based. Yes, keep refined sugars out of the diet, but also only 10% plant-based fat, and high unrefined carbohydrates. Thanks for sharing the video Paul.
Thanks for presenting this excellent insight.
And thank you Joel for being here with us!
Your support is much appreciated.
What about Bone Cancer? Friend was just diagnosed and given 6 months to live. What is the best thing to help herself?
Hi Brenda,
We are sorry to hear about what your friend is going through. The best advice we can give you is to consult with one of the doctors/experts that we interviewed in our Global Quest Series. Here is a link to get their information: https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/experts-info-sheet/
Sending healing vibes her way!
I understand the benefits of vegetables in reduction of glucose. But fat was mentioned also as essential. What food/foods are best to eat to obtain the necessary FAT required to assist the low glucose necessary in the starvation of the cancer cells?
I am bit confused. The problem is that cancer cells won’t starve from lack of sugar because they also nourish themselves from all kind of vitamin our body absorbs. They crave sugar but won’t die without it.
It’s a vicious cirlcle: sugar (not excess) is crucial for the good cell’s energy and to fight cancer , while cancer cells do the same. So at the end I feel it’s like a war between good and bad and no one knows who’s gonna win.
Can i take ketones during chemotherapy?
Hi Nelcy –
Thanks for reaching out to us with your question.
Unfortunately, we are unable to give any kind of medical advice. But we do have articles on this topic on our website.
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/keto-and-cancer-connection/
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/ketogenic-diet-cancer/
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/keto-for-women/
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/ketogenic-diet-weakens-cancer-cells/
The best advice we can give you is to consult with one of the doctors we interviewed in the Global series.
Please note that we are not able to select an expert for you.
We’ve created a page with the experts’ contact info as it was available to us.
Here’s the link to the actual webpage:
http://thetruthaboutcancer.com/experts-info-sheet/
We do have one more resource you may be interested in. During our Live Event 2017 series, Dr. Patrick Quillin suggested contacting The Institute of Functional Medicine to locate a practitioner in your area.
If you are interested, here is the link to search for a Functional Medicine Practitioner in your area: https://www.ifm.org/find-a-practitioner/
Hope this is helpful to you.
Wishing you endless blessings and love!