At 61, I have essentially been following the path of this article for about a year. The key for me at the beginning was to identify where all the glucose/sugar was in my diet and reduce it completely, gradually leading to a low carb diet. I then started to incorporate intermittent fasting and eventually multi-day fasting and have been able achieve high therapeutic levels of ketosis on a periodic basis.
The mistake many make, as I did in the past, is to go low carb/keto, and/or fast, too soon or too fast and not gradually identify and eliminate the addiction to sugar, and the associated blood sugar rollercoaster you accurately describe, that modern standard diets cause in nearly all of us.
I also recommend adding coverage on quality sleep if you can. Most general practitioners are unaware of the prevalence of sleep disorders such as undiagnosed sleep apnea. Even if they are, they are also unaware of the substantial hormone disruptions such disorders can cause. These hormone disruptions can also support the generation and proliferation of certain cancers in predisposed genetic and epigenetic environments.
Thanks for your comments and I hear you 100% on the sleep factor and you are absolutely right! There is so much I can't wait to write about and share with you and we definitely need to be talking about good quality sleep!
Really nice article and a great summary, Amanda. I agree that the ketogenic diet has some potential to impact cancer metabolism, but in my experience over the past decade, it’s incredibly hard for people to stick with long-term—especially when you have a family and social life to juggle. I think you’re spot on about intermittent fasting and cutting down on refined carbs. That, combined with fiber-rich fruits and whole foods, seems like a much more sustainable approach for most people.
Thanks so much Daniel! I really appreciate your feedback. I guess, the idea is that we starve cancer of this and other fuels and support people as much as we can to put themselves into NED and then there can be some flexibility with the amount of carbs. There is a need to remain flexible according to the testing and blood work and always with a good eye on diet and lifestyle, so integral to the healing process and continued good health. Getting an NED diagnosis is not a green light to eat junk and throw caution to the wind.
Agree. It also depends on the cancer itself. Interestingly, certain cancers respond better than others to metabolic challenges, particularly hormone dependent cancers and GBM. But when you look closely at the data, some cancers, like acute leukemia, ketogenic diet may actually worsen the outcome. Such a complex topic is cancer metabolism. It makes the most sense to me to work on preventing the cancer before it ever shows up using these metabolic interventions
Thanks Daniel, can you share your evidence for your comments about keto and leukemia. My research shows me that we see more insulin receptors on leukemia, melanoma and lymphoma than solid tumour cells. These kinds of cancers really benefit from being in therapeutic ketosis and if that can’t happen, they should absolutely be low carb. Interested to see the evidence. Thanks.
The theory is that leukemia cells could thrive in the low-insulin, high-fat environment induced by keto by using alternative energy pathways like glutamine.
BTW I saw another that urged caution with the BRAF mutation, but that study was simplistic, there is far more going on that benefits an individual with cancer, in ketosis than simply attenuation of one gene alone! We need a lot more research! It can't come soon enough!
No doubt. These are the studies the NCI would fund, not pharma. That’s why so many of us are discouraged that funding for NIH/NCI is being cut right now. Makes no sense to me.
I have sent a connect request to you on LinkedIn Daniel. For anyone else reading this thread, feel free to connect also using this link. I really appreciate your comments Daniel, thank you.
I am doing keto to help prevent cancer from returning after removal surgery in Nov 2024. I dont have a problem sticking to a clean and healthy keto diet with a good balance of fats and protein. But when I test for my ketones I’ve been at high levels, which I’ve read could be too high. What would be a good ketone level to attempt to maintain to starve cancer but keep yourself healthy?
Thanks for this article. I’m pretty new to all of this and seem to be missing knowledge in a big way! I thought oats and whole grains were good, is that not the case? Is whole grain rice/pasta even in small doses bad? And what about bulgar wheat? So baffled by it all!
Hi Sarah, I know that many of the old nutrition science continues to promote and back up the use of grains as do dieticians. This is a very mainstream viewpoint which supports the lucrative grain industry, not the innate needs of the human body according to genomics and biochemistry. I don't recommend grains in my practice ever. I work with what the body has evolved to expect to thrive naturally and that gets great results every time! No-one ever had to go back to eating grains for their health that I have worked with.. not one!
Would research on keto with leukaemia extend to multiple myeloma since it is also a blood cancer? My husband has been strongly encouraged to do keto but so far the necessary counting has been daunting. He is doing low carb though.
We can sometimes see if cancers change their path to use glutamine by changing markers like homocysteine. It's individualised and people living with leukaemia are still best served by restricting carbohydrates.
Keto got rid of my waking up hungry, I lost weight and stopped snoring 😊, bloating gone weight gone, head aches gone, have never felt as good as I do now. I actually enjoy exercise now as im doing it not in a failing attempt to lose weight, but for heart, lungs, blood, mood, muscles and I love it. After my diagnosis, I know this is it. I feel like a light switch has been flicked on and I can see how dreadful my diet, my non understanding and brain washing was. Socially I might go non keto, but it is straight back on and I choose, I might do a shared pizza, but no dessert and no drinks. Other times if I have already been off the keto recently, then it is just a social night, but no eating or I bring my own if I feel I might be missing out. I have found I actually don’t want to put sugary stuff in my mouth and if I have replaced most things ice cream = yogurt Milo = cocoa milk = cream and actually enjoy them more. my husband worries about the two meal cooking, but i actually enjoy cooking more now than I ever did in the past, plus he eats more Keto meals than he realises👍 my oncologist said I needed to lose weight and then there was nothing, no suggestions, no ideas, nothing. But the internet is there so I used it, but it took a while after the shock of the diagnosis. To take control and move forward. I take Fen Ben, Curcumin, iodine, Nattokinase, moved out of the city to grow my own food, fresh tank water, clean air, less stress, happier simpler life and lots of Vit D. And I never ate Subway, but now as they do a salad it is my go too and if I see anyone else ordering salad they are usually doing Keto or low carb 😀
AWSOME article and so important to know. My natural-path takes it a step further….to a phase 1 anti inflammatory diet.
She further removes vegetables like kale, cabbage and broccoli etc, which are known cruciferous vegetables but they are too gassy for beginners healing. She also recommends removing all night shade inflammatory vegetables amongst other foods.
Stricter than keto but extremely effective for a killing cancer journey as I call it. I love your articles. Keep up your informative and helpful articles. You explain and teach us along the way! What a gift 💝
I have been strict keto (checking blood glucose and ketones daily)starting in June quite insulin resistant. Working very hard, I took Dr. Boz metabolic kick class and am now in a group of people who support each other on this lifestyle as it it hard and many people just don’t live this way, I think with support and a strong willl, and God, it can be done! A game changer for me was starting a micro dose of trizepitide, now I have many morning fasting glucose in the 70s. Otherwise it would hang around in the 90s and sometime 3 digits. I have stage 4 Brest cancer to the bone and am doing all I can to be around longer for my children❤️thanks for explaining things so well, it really helps me understand better.
I have stage 3 HPV-Positive Squamous Cell Carcinoma. I started doing low protein keto and fasting and lost around 23kg. It halted my tumour from growing according to pet scans
The problem for me was I lost too much muscle. I am someone who has always struggled to keep weight on
My ENT told me I need to put weight on so I started back adding sweet potatoes and half a cup of blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. I went out of keto but kept my glucose levels relatively stable
I then did another pet scan and my tumour had grown 15-20% in 2 months and keeps growing now
I start radiation and chemo on Tuesday (which i didn’t want to do)
I think fasting and keto works to stop a tumour growing but I can’t stay on that diet as I lose too much weight on that diet. Just adding more fat doesn’t put the weight on for me
I would have liked to try Dr Seyfrieds protocol but the drug don is hard to get hold of and also feel I’ve lost too much weight now to attempt it
I’ve added so much more fat. The problem I think is the low protein for me that Seyfried recommends. I’ve dropped so much muscle. My muscles without the protein are catabolising.
SCC is usually responsive. You need to try to eat a lot more fat if you can. You can still run keto alongside your chemo and radiation. DON may not be the right drug for you but Ketosis also inhibits glutaminolysis.
Also what are your thoughts on the ivermectin and Fenbendazole
I have a friends that take this and she has stage 4 melanoma and is now in regression, and another friend that has thyroid cancer and her brother has brain cancer .
Check my articles for Fenbendazole, ivermectin will be in a couple of weeks. DON is likely to come up over the next few months. Great to hear about your friend. So sorry to hear about the friends with cancer though.
I think long term and no cancer, good old low carb paleo is just fine :) It depends on the person of course and on the cancer. Survivors of GBM should ideally stay on keto.
I (m. 57) was very sick with Long Covid since early 2020, and it was keto, intermittent fasting, and ultimately longer fasts which gave me my health back. Of course it wasn’t an overnight thing, lots of trial and error, and a gradual process of elimination. I gradually cut out foods which made me feel worse, and very quickly I was eating no sugar at all. I kind of happened upon keto in this way without really meaning to. Still eating in general would make me feel unwell, so I tended to eat in shorter windows to get it over with. Thus I kind of fell into intermittent fasting too.
Keto made me feel much better but it wasn’t until I started longer fasting that I really turned a corner. I did a couple of 40 hour fasts and felt almost normal for the first time in literally years.
So now I’m probably 80-90% recovered. I tend to deteriorate very slowly until I do another 40 hour fast, which resets everything and I’m good for another month or so.
I’ve found that about 40 hours is the sweet spot for fasting. I’ve done longer (80 hours is my record) but found that was kind of hard for my body and too much. Much less than 40 and I don’t really feel the benefits.
To illustrate the difference, I was bedridden for nearly 3 years, now I’m hiking again - albeit slowly! I’m so grateful for my life and I have keto and fasting to thank for it.
7 years ago when I took on intermittent fasting as part of my normal diet regiment, I also used organic bone broth to also help supplement tea/coffee/water. The extra heartiness can be helpful for someone who’s never fasted before. As time went on and I got used to my schedule, I cut out the bone broth. There are some great organic ones out there (if one doesn’t like to make their own).
I am fighting with acute leukemia, I would like to know if I stick to keto is it fine including diary because few say it will increase growth hormones and feeds the cancer and what about amino acids from meat which is also food for cancer
Hi Bap, thanks for your question. You need to work with a health professional who knows you, has your blood diagnostics and understands your unique situation. There is no 'one size fits all' approach with any cancer. Cancer can appropriate fat, carbs and protein in different pathways at different times and there are clues in your diagnostics that a trained professional should be able to notice and adjust your diet and supplements list to suppress. I hope that helps. Amanda
Thanks Amanda for laying it out so well. What is your opinion on gluten free foods, like GF bread, GF oats etc? Is that still considered to be a less healthy complex carb?
At The age of 62, I began to follow in my father and grandfather’s steps, and was diagnosed with getting close to “pre-diabetes”. Since, I began to modify my diet to more of a Keto style diet. Gradually at first and then more and more stringent. For the past 2 years, even though I was already fairly active, I began a 3 day a week exercise routine that includes some yoga, cardio and weighs (nothing really heavy - mostly body weight stuff; push ups, pull ups, hangs and balance work). For the past year, I began intermittent fasting: 24 hrs on Mondays, and at least one day a week of 18-6. I just turned 65. My last blood work showed significant improvements in all areas; especially in blood sugar and other important markers. I feel better than I have since my 40’s.
Amanda, thank you for such a thoughtful, well-articulated exploration of cancer as a metabolic disease. Your clarity and compassion shine through, especially in the way you deconstruct complex metabolic concepts into practical, actionable knowledge. It's empowering and deeply appreciated.
Reading this sparked a question I’ve been sitting with: given mTOR’s essential role in both healing and harm, could there be a future in which we therapeutically cycle metabolic states (between AMPK and mTOR) not just through fasting and keto, but synchronized with circadian, emotional, or even seasonal rhythms? Could timing our "growth" and "repair" phases more intuitively — as nature often does — offer a deeper healing architecture beyond diet alone?
Looking forward to your next piece — your insights are making a real difference.
Thank you for this invaluable information. I have ovarian cancer and am following a keto diet. I was told by the hospital’s Nutritionist that sugar has been debunked. I couldn’t believe it!! This was a major teaching hospital in Colorado. Wish conventional medicine would look at diet more closely, it never ceases to amaze me.
At 61, I have essentially been following the path of this article for about a year. The key for me at the beginning was to identify where all the glucose/sugar was in my diet and reduce it completely, gradually leading to a low carb diet. I then started to incorporate intermittent fasting and eventually multi-day fasting and have been able achieve high therapeutic levels of ketosis on a periodic basis.
The mistake many make, as I did in the past, is to go low carb/keto, and/or fast, too soon or too fast and not gradually identify and eliminate the addiction to sugar, and the associated blood sugar rollercoaster you accurately describe, that modern standard diets cause in nearly all of us.
I also recommend adding coverage on quality sleep if you can. Most general practitioners are unaware of the prevalence of sleep disorders such as undiagnosed sleep apnea. Even if they are, they are also unaware of the substantial hormone disruptions such disorders can cause. These hormone disruptions can also support the generation and proliferation of certain cancers in predisposed genetic and epigenetic environments.
Thanks for your comments and I hear you 100% on the sleep factor and you are absolutely right! There is so much I can't wait to write about and share with you and we definitely need to be talking about good quality sleep!
I bought a Oura ring which is helping me with my sleep especially scheduling
Really nice article and a great summary, Amanda. I agree that the ketogenic diet has some potential to impact cancer metabolism, but in my experience over the past decade, it’s incredibly hard for people to stick with long-term—especially when you have a family and social life to juggle. I think you’re spot on about intermittent fasting and cutting down on refined carbs. That, combined with fiber-rich fruits and whole foods, seems like a much more sustainable approach for most people.
Thanks so much Daniel! I really appreciate your feedback. I guess, the idea is that we starve cancer of this and other fuels and support people as much as we can to put themselves into NED and then there can be some flexibility with the amount of carbs. There is a need to remain flexible according to the testing and blood work and always with a good eye on diet and lifestyle, so integral to the healing process and continued good health. Getting an NED diagnosis is not a green light to eat junk and throw caution to the wind.
Agree. It also depends on the cancer itself. Interestingly, certain cancers respond better than others to metabolic challenges, particularly hormone dependent cancers and GBM. But when you look closely at the data, some cancers, like acute leukemia, ketogenic diet may actually worsen the outcome. Such a complex topic is cancer metabolism. It makes the most sense to me to work on preventing the cancer before it ever shows up using these metabolic interventions
Thanks Daniel, can you share your evidence for your comments about keto and leukemia. My research shows me that we see more insulin receptors on leukemia, melanoma and lymphoma than solid tumour cells. These kinds of cancers really benefit from being in therapeutic ketosis and if that can’t happen, they should absolutely be low carb. Interested to see the evidence. Thanks.
Most of that data comes from Lewis Cantley/Sid Mukherjee’s lab at Cornell.
They showed that while keto enhanced responses in solid tumors, it accelerated leukemia progression when used alone in mouse models.
Source: Nature, 2018 – “Suppression of insulin feedback enhances the efficacy of PI3K inhibitors”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0343-4
The theory is that leukemia cells could thrive in the low-insulin, high-fat environment induced by keto by using alternative energy pathways like glutamine.
BTW I saw another that urged caution with the BRAF mutation, but that study was simplistic, there is far more going on that benefits an individual with cancer, in ketosis than simply attenuation of one gene alone! We need a lot more research! It can't come soon enough!
No doubt. These are the studies the NCI would fund, not pharma. That’s why so many of us are discouraged that funding for NIH/NCI is being cut right now. Makes no sense to me.
I have sent a connect request to you on LinkedIn Daniel. For anyone else reading this thread, feel free to connect also using this link. I really appreciate your comments Daniel, thank you.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandakingnd/
Because of the bonuses from BIG PHARMA MAKING DRS LIKE FAUCI VERY RICH!
I wholeheartedly agree. My question is where will the research be carried out? Have some research facilities been left intact?
Great, I will take a look, thanks!
I am doing keto to help prevent cancer from returning after removal surgery in Nov 2024. I dont have a problem sticking to a clean and healthy keto diet with a good balance of fats and protein. But when I test for my ketones I’ve been at high levels, which I’ve read could be too high. What would be a good ketone level to attempt to maintain to starve cancer but keep yourself healthy?
Thanks for your question and well done on your efforts so far. This is exactly what I help my patients with in clinic. You might like this link https://keto-mojo.com/article/testing-what-should-ketone-levels-be/
Thanks for this article. I’m pretty new to all of this and seem to be missing knowledge in a big way! I thought oats and whole grains were good, is that not the case? Is whole grain rice/pasta even in small doses bad? And what about bulgar wheat? So baffled by it all!
Hi Sarah, I know that many of the old nutrition science continues to promote and back up the use of grains as do dieticians. This is a very mainstream viewpoint which supports the lucrative grain industry, not the innate needs of the human body according to genomics and biochemistry. I don't recommend grains in my practice ever. I work with what the body has evolved to expect to thrive naturally and that gets great results every time! No-one ever had to go back to eating grains for their health that I have worked with.. not one!
Would research on keto with leukaemia extend to multiple myeloma since it is also a blood cancer? My husband has been strongly encouraged to do keto but so far the necessary counting has been daunting. He is doing low carb though.
May be of interest to you:
https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/clinical-trials/22-175
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0343-4
We can sometimes see if cancers change their path to use glutamine by changing markers like homocysteine. It's individualised and people living with leukaemia are still best served by restricting carbohydrates.
Indeed! It’s baffling!
Keto got rid of my waking up hungry, I lost weight and stopped snoring 😊, bloating gone weight gone, head aches gone, have never felt as good as I do now. I actually enjoy exercise now as im doing it not in a failing attempt to lose weight, but for heart, lungs, blood, mood, muscles and I love it. After my diagnosis, I know this is it. I feel like a light switch has been flicked on and I can see how dreadful my diet, my non understanding and brain washing was. Socially I might go non keto, but it is straight back on and I choose, I might do a shared pizza, but no dessert and no drinks. Other times if I have already been off the keto recently, then it is just a social night, but no eating or I bring my own if I feel I might be missing out. I have found I actually don’t want to put sugary stuff in my mouth and if I have replaced most things ice cream = yogurt Milo = cocoa milk = cream and actually enjoy them more. my husband worries about the two meal cooking, but i actually enjoy cooking more now than I ever did in the past, plus he eats more Keto meals than he realises👍 my oncologist said I needed to lose weight and then there was nothing, no suggestions, no ideas, nothing. But the internet is there so I used it, but it took a while after the shock of the diagnosis. To take control and move forward. I take Fen Ben, Curcumin, iodine, Nattokinase, moved out of the city to grow my own food, fresh tank water, clean air, less stress, happier simpler life and lots of Vit D. And I never ate Subway, but now as they do a salad it is my go too and if I see anyone else ordering salad they are usually doing Keto or low carb 😀
Great story Ande, thanks for sharing, you will inspire lots of people.
AWSOME article and so important to know. My natural-path takes it a step further….to a phase 1 anti inflammatory diet.
She further removes vegetables like kale, cabbage and broccoli etc, which are known cruciferous vegetables but they are too gassy for beginners healing. She also recommends removing all night shade inflammatory vegetables amongst other foods.
Stricter than keto but extremely effective for a killing cancer journey as I call it. I love your articles. Keep up your informative and helpful articles. You explain and teach us along the way! What a gift 💝
Ahh, that's so heart warming to read, thank you for taking the time to contribute. Wishing you every happiness and success on your path. A
I have been strict keto (checking blood glucose and ketones daily)starting in June quite insulin resistant. Working very hard, I took Dr. Boz metabolic kick class and am now in a group of people who support each other on this lifestyle as it it hard and many people just don’t live this way, I think with support and a strong willl, and God, it can be done! A game changer for me was starting a micro dose of trizepitide, now I have many morning fasting glucose in the 70s. Otherwise it would hang around in the 90s and sometime 3 digits. I have stage 4 Brest cancer to the bone and am doing all I can to be around longer for my children❤️thanks for explaining things so well, it really helps me understand better.
You are so welcome. Thanks for sharing your story Crystal, stay in touch. x
What is Trizepitide?
I have stage 3 HPV-Positive Squamous Cell Carcinoma. I started doing low protein keto and fasting and lost around 23kg. It halted my tumour from growing according to pet scans
The problem for me was I lost too much muscle. I am someone who has always struggled to keep weight on
My ENT told me I need to put weight on so I started back adding sweet potatoes and half a cup of blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. I went out of keto but kept my glucose levels relatively stable
I then did another pet scan and my tumour had grown 15-20% in 2 months and keeps growing now
I start radiation and chemo on Tuesday (which i didn’t want to do)
I think fasting and keto works to stop a tumour growing but I can’t stay on that diet as I lose too much weight on that diet. Just adding more fat doesn’t put the weight on for me
I would have liked to try Dr Seyfrieds protocol but the drug don is hard to get hold of and also feel I’ve lost too much weight now to attempt it
I just finished chemo and radiation 8 weeks ago for HPV squamous carcinoma. Anal cancer , stage 2 . It did not spread to my lymph’s .
I did remarkably well in the treatment. I wasn’t sick at all . I had 27 rounds of radiation,5 days a week and 2600 mg of chemo pills plus 2 infusions.
I have my first pet scan in May .
I have a friend that also had this stage 3 in her lymph nodes and she also did well on the treatment.
So think positive, you will do great and come out cancer free.
Congratulations Marie
I’ve added so much more fat. The problem I think is the low protein for me that Seyfried recommends. I’ve dropped so much muscle. My muscles without the protein are catabolising.
I recommend you see a health practitioner to manage your diet.
Think anti-virals - garlic etc as well.
SCC is usually responsive. You need to try to eat a lot more fat if you can. You can still run keto alongside your chemo and radiation. DON may not be the right drug for you but Ketosis also inhibits glutaminolysis.
What is DON drug ?
Also what are your thoughts on the ivermectin and Fenbendazole
I have a friends that take this and she has stage 4 melanoma and is now in regression, and another friend that has thyroid cancer and her brother has brain cancer .
Check my articles for Fenbendazole, ivermectin will be in a couple of weeks. DON is likely to come up over the next few months. Great to hear about your friend. So sorry to hear about the friends with cancer though.
Good article Amanda.
I still worry about the ketogenic diet long term, however in the cancer setting it makes complete sense.
I think long term and no cancer, good old low carb paleo is just fine :) It depends on the person of course and on the cancer. Survivors of GBM should ideally stay on keto.
I (m. 57) was very sick with Long Covid since early 2020, and it was keto, intermittent fasting, and ultimately longer fasts which gave me my health back. Of course it wasn’t an overnight thing, lots of trial and error, and a gradual process of elimination. I gradually cut out foods which made me feel worse, and very quickly I was eating no sugar at all. I kind of happened upon keto in this way without really meaning to. Still eating in general would make me feel unwell, so I tended to eat in shorter windows to get it over with. Thus I kind of fell into intermittent fasting too.
Keto made me feel much better but it wasn’t until I started longer fasting that I really turned a corner. I did a couple of 40 hour fasts and felt almost normal for the first time in literally years.
So now I’m probably 80-90% recovered. I tend to deteriorate very slowly until I do another 40 hour fast, which resets everything and I’m good for another month or so.
I’ve found that about 40 hours is the sweet spot for fasting. I’ve done longer (80 hours is my record) but found that was kind of hard for my body and too much. Much less than 40 and I don’t really feel the benefits.
To illustrate the difference, I was bedridden for nearly 3 years, now I’m hiking again - albeit slowly! I’m so grateful for my life and I have keto and fasting to thank for it.
Wow, what a great story. Thank you for taking the time to share it.
7 years ago when I took on intermittent fasting as part of my normal diet regiment, I also used organic bone broth to also help supplement tea/coffee/water. The extra heartiness can be helpful for someone who’s never fasted before. As time went on and I got used to my schedule, I cut out the bone broth. There are some great organic ones out there (if one doesn’t like to make their own).
Thanks for sharing, there are some great success stories out there with fasting and broth.
Is there a way to test for amount spent in mTor versus MAPK in an effort to target metabolic participation in them?
I haven’t tested for them personally but I think it’s possible.
I am fighting with acute leukemia, I would like to know if I stick to keto is it fine including diary because few say it will increase growth hormones and feeds the cancer and what about amino acids from meat which is also food for cancer
Hi Bap, thanks for your question. You need to work with a health professional who knows you, has your blood diagnostics and understands your unique situation. There is no 'one size fits all' approach with any cancer. Cancer can appropriate fat, carbs and protein in different pathways at different times and there are clues in your diagnostics that a trained professional should be able to notice and adjust your diet and supplements list to suppress. I hope that helps. Amanda
Thanks Amanda for laying it out so well. What is your opinion on gluten free foods, like GF bread, GF oats etc? Is that still considered to be a less healthy complex carb?
My opinion is that gluten free is a processed food. Avoid.
At The age of 62, I began to follow in my father and grandfather’s steps, and was diagnosed with getting close to “pre-diabetes”. Since, I began to modify my diet to more of a Keto style diet. Gradually at first and then more and more stringent. For the past 2 years, even though I was already fairly active, I began a 3 day a week exercise routine that includes some yoga, cardio and weighs (nothing really heavy - mostly body weight stuff; push ups, pull ups, hangs and balance work). For the past year, I began intermittent fasting: 24 hrs on Mondays, and at least one day a week of 18-6. I just turned 65. My last blood work showed significant improvements in all areas; especially in blood sugar and other important markers. I feel better than I have since my 40’s.
Wow, great story! Amazing!
Amanda, thank you for such a thoughtful, well-articulated exploration of cancer as a metabolic disease. Your clarity and compassion shine through, especially in the way you deconstruct complex metabolic concepts into practical, actionable knowledge. It's empowering and deeply appreciated.
Reading this sparked a question I’ve been sitting with: given mTOR’s essential role in both healing and harm, could there be a future in which we therapeutically cycle metabolic states (between AMPK and mTOR) not just through fasting and keto, but synchronized with circadian, emotional, or even seasonal rhythms? Could timing our "growth" and "repair" phases more intuitively — as nature often does — offer a deeper healing architecture beyond diet alone?
Looking forward to your next piece — your insights are making a real difference.
Thank you for this invaluable information. I have ovarian cancer and am following a keto diet. I was told by the hospital’s Nutritionist that sugar has been debunked. I couldn’t believe it!! This was a major teaching hospital in Colorado. Wish conventional medicine would look at diet more closely, it never ceases to amaze me.
Seriously? I find that staggering!
Me too!
What are the better fruit choices? Thanks
Berries are best.
Thanks