It’s true; the ketogenic diet is in ill repute in a lot of places. Part of that is that it’s a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, and there are forces invested in the idea that eating fat (or its proxy, serum cholesterol) causes cardiovascular disease. This is based on faulty, not to say fraudulent, research, and there are data to suggest that higher cholesterol is actually associated with better cardiovascular outcomes.
There is also the fact that a low-carb, high-fat diet is very difficult to do as a vegan, and the anti-meat lobby is passionate and powerful. Veganism has its roots in the writings of the Prophetess of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Ellen G. White, who was a mentor to John Harvey Kellogg and his brother. She believed that we should not eat meat because it stimulates our “fleshly lusts.”
Thirdly, there is the association with diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that occurs in Type I diabetics in the absence of insulin. Nutritional ketosis involves ketone levels that are an order of magnitude smaller than those seen in diabetic ketoacidosis, but the association persists in many doctors’ minds.
As for ketosis and cancer, it is true that many cancers thrive on glucose, so a low-carb diet is helpful in dealing with them. I have never seen the claim that a ketogenic diet can cure cancer, but Dr. Dawn Lemanne, a board-certified oncologist in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, maintains that it is a helpful adjuvant therapy to radiation or chemotherapy treatments. She warns, however, that certain cancers thrive better on β-hydroxybutyrate, the principal ketone body, so it is important to know what type of cancer you are dealing with. (She will not directly treat any patient she cannot see in person, but she will consult with your doctors on your treatment plan. A Google search should turn up the name of her practice.)
Dr. Thomas Seyfried, a noted cancer researcher, says he is convinced that all cancers result from metabolic damage from excessive dietary glucose (i.e., carbohydrate). I may possibly be overstating his position, but not by much, and it’s still a long way from saying that a ketogenic diet will cure cancer. So if anyone tells you that, be wary.
Welcome to the forums, good luck with your treatments, and we hope to hear more from you.
