A ketogenic diet shifts gut bacteria to produce stearic acid, which kills colorectal cancer cells and reduces the inflammation that feeds tumors. The effect works two ways at once: direct cell death and a quieter immune environment.
The ketogenic diet changed their microbiome in a way that protected against colorectal cancer tumor growth. So the next obvious question is, how? The ketogenic diet selected for bacterial communities that produced more of a fatty acid called stearic acid, which is an 18-carbon saturated fat. The stearic acid had two main effects to fight the cancer. One, The stearic acid caused tumor cells themselves to die through a programmed cell death pathway called apoptosis. And two, stearic acid suppressed inflammation in the intestines by decreasing levels and activity of an inflammatory immune cell called a Th17 cell. It's this one-two punch targeting both the cancer cells and the inflammatory tumor microenvironment that made the stearic acid produced in response to the ketogenic diet by the microbiome such a potent anti-cancer compound?
