The keto or ketogenic diet is used by many people with the intention of reducing extra kilos, and is characterized by avoiding or significantly reducing the consumption of carbohydrates. This diet has been known for more than a century – the most popular of its kind are the Atkins diet and the Dukan diet – which is based on generating a situation of ketosis similar to that produced by fasting – yes, under medical control. Ketosis consists of the formation of ketone bodies, which are chemical substances that are produced in the mitochondria –part of the cell that is responsible for cellular respiration– of liver cells, and whose function is to supply energy to the brain.
Now, a new study has found a benefit of this type of diet in addition to combating overweight, by showing that a very low-calorie ketogenic diet could boost the immune system, and that it also improves the results achieved by patients who are overweight or obesity who undergo bariatric surgery, or follow a standard hypocaloric diet.
This study has been carried out at the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago (CHUS) and coordinated by researchers from the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition area of the Center for Biomedical Research in Network (CIBEROBN), and constitutes the first major analysis in which the effects of this diet on around 30 inflammatory and oxidative biomarkers. The research has been published in Clinical Nutrition.
They demonstrate the potential usefulness of the ketogenic diet to combat obesity and its associated diseases, such as cancer, and to promote healthy aging
“These results highlight the possible usefulness of this nutritional strategy to combat obesity and its associated diseases, such as cancer and viral infections (such as COVID-19), as well as to promote healthy aging,” he said in a statement. notes the main researcher, Ana Belén Crujeiras, who has led this work together with Felipe Casanueva.
“Very low-fat and normal-protein ketogenic diets not only allow rapid weight loss while maintaining muscle mass, but also have a positive effect on inflammation and the resolution of obesity-related comorbidities,” highlights Felipe Casanueva, professor of Medicine at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and head of the Endocrinology and Nutrition service at CHUS. “An interesting field of research is opening up that will surely yield interesting insights in the future,” he says.
Ketosis fights inflammation and oxidative stress in obese
The researchers examined thirty markers of inflammation (cytokines) and oxidative stress in overweight and obese patients who followed a ketogenic diet very low in calories and fat. Nutritional ketosis (deficit in carbohydrate intake, inducing fat catabolism and generating ketone bodies), along with diet-induced weight loss, has been shown to further enhance the immune response in obese patients compared with bariatric surgery or a standard low-calorie diet.
The results of the research not only confirm that excess weight increases circulating levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and reduces anti-inflammatory ones, but also that patients who had undergone different therapies to lose weight experienced differential changes in the levels of circulating cytokines and biomarkers of oxidative stress. This effect was always greater and more evident in those patients who followed the very low calorie ketogenic diet, compared to those who underwent bariatric surgery, or followed a conventional hypocaloric diet.
Obese people are subject to greater inflammation and oxidative stress, and that is why it is so important to determine whether interventions that have been shown to be effective in losing body weight also act on inflammatory and oxidative markers, “something that had not been done so far.” as broad and exhaustive as what was done in this study”, concludes Crujeiras.
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