[R.B.]

(I am still editing this at the moment adding links etc)



Thanks all for the interesting and thought provoking links which I am still working my way through.


The body is mindbogglingly complex, as are the ways that nutrients are metabolised and used, which is an important but not particularly helpful statement.

It appears accepted that cancers are greedy consumers of energy, and a little like racing cars stall if run on idle, where as normal cars and normal cells idle quite happily if fuel delivery is low.

But the often made suggestion that cancers will only run on glucose is a vast oversimplification and based on this paper a bit of a myth.http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/...4244_1.pdf?seq The reality appears to be that cancer is amazingly adaptable and if needs be dependent of course on type will burn anything in sight that is capable of being turned into fuel including fat and protein, on which basis it is not a simple as restricting glucose / fructose http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=54709 / ketosis.

However there is growing evidence that certain fats will reduce the risk of cancer development and progression, and others increase that risk.

Cancers also dont seem to like ketones much

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.c...d-ketones.html
http://www.thebarrow.org/Research/Neuro_Oncology/213930

As above the body utilities fats in many ways including as part of the machinery of the production of energy, cellular structure, signalling mechanisms.

Different fats are used in very different ways.

There are only two fats the body cannot make Omega 3 and 6, all other fats can be made in the body by elongation, adding double bonds or dissembling them to shorter fats.

The body cannot make short chain fats but they are made by bacteria by fermentation of simple (carbs) and complex starches (fibre) in the gut, depending on gut health the appropriate bacteria being present and happy with the environment, provided with the necessary fibre as fuel etc .

The fact the body can make most fats and does raises interesting questions as to the current paradigm that saturated fats are inherently harmful; the reality is it is just not simple - in the right proportions saturated fats are essential.

Omega 3 and 6 have particular significance because we cannot make them from scratch.

There is for me significant evidence that excess dietary Omega 6 increases the risk of cancers and Omega 3 reduces it. Budwig reported having positive results against cancer using flax seed. The explanation of the science is of its time ! but apparently Johanna was nominated several times for a Nobel prize, and was well respected; unfortunately we cannot turn back time to look at the evidence of the effect of her treatment using flax and cottage cheese ourselves.

There is also a highly thought provoking paper on an elderly man with lung tumors that were greatly reduced when he moved onto a high Omega 3 low omega 6 diet without cancer treatment, and had his doctors follow his health / the cancer with regular scans etc. There are lots of reason why Omega 3s may help reduce inflammation and affect mitochondrial function, including as to why it would effect mitochondrial energy production and cell death. http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=42280

Also an elderly female patient with a brain tumour on a partial ketogenic diet plus cancer treatment chemo etc unusually achieved regression in 2-2.5 months (scans suggested the tumour had completely regressed); tumour growth restarted when the diet was stopped (see Lucas Tafur link below and referred to above) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2874558/

There are also a number of reports that short chain fats and fats produced by bacteria in the gut by fermenting carbohydrates such as butyrate may reduce the activity of cancer cells (the mechanism is likely to be 'indirect' rather than by simple energy restriction http://jn.nutrition.org/content/133/7/2485S.full ). The butyrate and other fats produced appear to be used mainly by the gut and liver but a small amount may enter the circulation.

Fermented foods also contain the same short chain fats as well as the bacteria. If the simple starches in the these foods have already been converted to fats they will not be available to convert to glucose. Fermented food have long been associated with health benefits. A healthy gut flora is essential to health, and gut flora activity is nutrient production is a much bigger issue than commonly realised.

There is also evidence that cancer cells are not overly fond of short to medium length fats, and there is some suggest that Medium Chain Triglycerides may reduce cancer viability. MCT are essentially fats below 12 carbons long, so include lauric acid one of the fats in coconut oil.

Of course all of this is multi factorial and the body needs adequate nutrients to function properly, including vitamin D iodine, minerals, B vitamins etc. We can only usefully eat so much in a day. Each mouthful is a nutrient opportunity the question is how to use that opportunity in an optimal way, and will be different in the circumstances for each individual.

It is certain that refined foods, sugars, oils etc are not a best use of our limited opportunities to refuel; and depressingly the whole land based food chain is becoming increasingly depleted of nutrients for a variety of reasons, which means looking to marine foods and for the highest nutrient rich foods we can find.

In summary ketogenic diets may have a role, but the only suggestions I have seen as to ketogenic diets decreasing cancer cell viability included either and Omega 3s and or MCTs - and strict medical ketogenic diets have their own nutritional issues and people often find them difficult to tolerate. A strict medical type ketogenic diet would exacerbate the problem of optimising nutrient intake in a world where our lifestyle and food make getting a nutrient dense diet very difficult.

Having said that a healthy 'ketogenic light' diet which keeps calorie intake on the low side e.g. not more than the body reasonably needs, which keeps blood sugars down, by avoiding carbs including high carbohydrate fruits, as suggested in this paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3157418/and further usefully explained by Lucas Tafur in his blog http://www.lucastafur.com/2011/08/ad...c-diet_10.html woould seem to make sense.

It is pretty close to what I generally eat anyway. Fermented food should be low in simple sugars, so may be a way of getting carb type foods but without the down sides. I have tried to find papers quantifying the effects of fermentation of grains of various types on their sugar content without much luck, but my fermented oats certainly taste quite sharp. Non western traditional cultures historically used a vast range of fermented foods

So maybe things to look at would include the inclusion of fermented foods, kefir saurkraut yogurt cottage cheese fermenting oats, omega 3s as flax, fish oil, mineral and iodine rich foods, plus other nutrient dense foods. The fermented foods as well as being predigested, and lower in sugars, will likely will improve gut health by providing hopefully friendly bacteria short fats etc. Gut health connects into immune function - improved gut health = improved immune functions . . . less inflammation etc.

MCTs are used by sports people and available as a dietary product. Coconut contains significant amounts of lauric acid a medium chain fat. Short fats are reported to assist immune function, act as antibacterials etc. They are also more easily available to the mitochondria. There are suggestions lauric acid may reduce cancer cell viability, but as usual much is not known.

Vegetable juices are low - lowish in sugars, contain fiber and are nutrient dense - brassicas are goitregenic viz iodine blockers so would arguably increase the need for iodine.

Apparently Budwig recommended flax cottage cheese and sunshine, and was very highly regarded by a large patient base - Flax contains Omega 3s, cottage cheese contains good bacteria, + short fats from fermented milk sugars whey is a good source of proteins, diary contains iodine http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=53928 etc. ) ; sunshine gives lots of vitamin D http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=43711 which would all logically be beneficial to overall health; science has caught up with Budwig's foresight largely based I suggest on her single-minded bravely independent observation intuition and vision, as her attempts to explain her observations in then science and do not at the detailed level make much sense in the light of today's knowledge, but the direction of thought is clear and prescient - but it appears from today's science Budwig was heading a good direction - clearly a woman much ahead of her time - I just wish it was possible to know more about her work and cancer patient outcomes; thought provoking stuff (-: