A high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, known as the keto diet, may significantly increase the risk of liver cancer over the next 20 years, according to the authors of a new study. This results from the research of American scientists, who point out that repeated exposure to a high-fat diet fundamentally changes the behavior of liver cells.
The keto diet is based on the almost complete exclusion of carbohydrates in order to induce a state of ketosis, when the body burns fats instead of sugars. Typically, such a diet consists of approximately seventy-five percent fat, twenty percent protein and only five percent carbohydrates. Its supporters claim that it enables rapid weight loss without feeling hungry. However, according to scientists, it can have serious long-term health effects.
Research published in the specialist journal Cell shows that when the liver is repeatedly exposed to a high-fat diet, the liver cells shift to a more primitive state. Although this process helps them survive the stress caused by excess fat, it also makes them more susceptible to diseases, including cancer.
“If cells are forced to repeatedly face a stressor such as a high-fat diet, they will do things to help them survive, but at the cost of an increased susceptibility to tumorigenesis,” said Professor Alex Shalek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the study, scientists fed mice a high-fat diet and watched how their liver cells responded to it. Initially, the liver cells activated genes promoting cell survival, reducing cell death, and promoting growth. However, genes necessary for normal liver function were suppressed at the same time. At the end of the study, almost all of the mice fed the high-fat diet developed liver cancer. The researchers found that cells that adapt in this way are significantly more likely to become cancerous if a damaging mutation later occurs.
“These cells already have the same genes turned on that they’re going to need to become cancerous. Once a cell gets a bad mutation, then it kicks in very quickly and has a head start on some of the hallmarks of cancer“said co-authors from Harvard University.
