FOLLOWING the keto diet could help fight cancer by starving tumours, a study shows.
The food regime, loved by Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, involves cutting out foods like bread and pasta and replacing them with plenty of meat and dairy.
This could help prevent tumours from getting the sugar they need to thrive, US researchers found.
When paired with common drugs called corticosteroids, the keto diet helped mice with pancreatic and colorectal cancer fight the disease and live longer.
Dr Miriam Ferrer, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, said: “Cancer is a whole-body disease. It reprograms normal biological processes to help it grow.
“Because of this reprogramming, mice can’t use the nutrients from a keto diet, and waste away.
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“But with the steroid, they did much better. They lived longer than with any other treatment we tried.”
Reality star Kim Kardashian reportedly lost a whopping 60 pounds from the keto diet after having her son Saint.
Her sister Kourtney also previously revealed her doctor put her on the diet to help her detox, adding: "My body never looked better than when I did the keto diet."
Other celebrities said to be fans of the keto way of life include Megan Fox, Gwyneth Paltrow, LeBron James and Halle Berry.
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But despite potentially helping fight cancer, the diet can also have unintended consequences for patients, researchers warn.
Keto can speed up a rapid weight loss disease called cachexia in people with the disease.
Lead author Dr Tobias Janowitz said: "Cachexia is very common in patients with progressive cancer.
“They become so weak they can no longer handle anti-cancer treatment. Everyday tasks become Herculean labours."
The study, published in Cell Metabolism, looked at how medics could harness the cancer-fighting effects of the diet without causing cachexia.
When given dexamethasone, a type of corticosteroid, the mice with cancer no longer suffered cachexia when following the diet.
Normally, the hormone needed to adapt to keto — corticosterone — is not produced enough in cancer patients, so they continue to lose weight and get cachexia.
But the dexamethasone replaces the hormone, reducing this risk.
The mice’s tumours shrank and they lived longer.
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Dr Janowitz said: “We want to push back against cancer even harder, so it grows slower still.
“If we can broaden this effect, make the treatment more efficient, we can ultimately benefit patients and improve cancer therapeutics.”
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