A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that a ketogenic diet may increase the risk of small intestine cancer in mice while reducing the risk of colon cancer, reports infohub.kz.
The results, published in the journal Nature, show the mixed effects of a high-fat diet on the digestive system. In rodents with a genetic predisposition to cancer, the fatty diet accelerated the development of tumors in the small intestine. Moreover, the rate of tumor formation surpassed that in mice made obese by a high-calorie diet.
Senior author Omer Yilmaz explained that tumor growth is not stimulated by the ketone bodies themselves, but by the mechanism of fat breakdown in stem cells. Fatty acid oxidation activates PPAR proteins (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors), leading to accelerated cell division. Notably, in the colon, the diet had the opposite effect, suppressing cancer development. According to lead authors Jessica Shay and Fangtao Chi, this highlights the need for a cautious approach to diets: a diet beneficial for one tissue may cause serious harm to another.