The ketogenic diet is trendy and is booming among celebrities and influencers who dominate social media. According to its supporters, it is one of the most suitable nutritional alternatives for losing weight and enjoying good health. And now Science gives a new argument to all those who support it. In fact, a new Spanish scientific study found that Proven weight loss interventions improve biomarkers of oxidative and inflammatory stress in overweight and obese peoplereaching a greater effect in patients treated with a very low-calorie ketogenic diet than in those subjected to a conventional hypocaloric diet or bariatric surgery.
This is what a study recently published in the scientific journal “Clinical Nutrition” proves, coordinated by researchers from the field of Physiopathology of Obesity and Ciber Nutrition (CiberOBN), carried out at the University Clinical Hospital of Santiago de Compostela and led by Filipe Casanueva It is Ana Belen Cruzeiras.
Specifically, after evaluating nearly thirty inflammatory markers (cytokines) and markers of oxidative stress in overweight and obese patients who followed a very low-calorie and low-fat ketogenic diet, it was demonstrated that Nutritional ketosis (deficient carbohydrate intake, inducing fat catabolism and generating ketone bodies), together with diet-induced weight loss, further improves the immune response in obese patients compared to bariatric surgery or a standard diet. low calorie.
In the opinion of Ana Belén Crujeiras, main researcher of the study, “these results show the possible usefulness of this nutritional strategy to combat obesity and its associated diseasessuch as cancer and viral infections (such as Covid-19), in addition to promoting healthy aging.
This study, carried out in Spain, is the first to comprehensively analyze the effect of the ketogenic diet very low in calories across an extensive panel of inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers. Specifically, we assessed whether nutritional ketosis induced by a weight loss intervention, such as this type of diet, in overweight or obese patients Modulate inflammatory status and oxidative stress compared to hypocaloric diet and bariatric surgery. For this, in addition to including volunteers with normal weight, we recruited overweight and obese patientswho were randomly assigned to three intervention groups: very low-calorie ketogenic diet, low-calorie diet, or bariatric surgery.
The research confirms not only that excess weight increases circulating levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and decreases anti-inflammatory cytokines, but rather that patients undergoing different weight loss interventions experienced differential changes in the levels of circulating cytokines and biomarkers of oxidative stress. This effect was always greater and more noticeable in those patients who followed the very low-calorie ketogenic diet, compared to those who followed a conventional low-calorie diet or underwent bariatric surgery. These effects were mainly observed during the phase in which nutritional ketosis occurs. The changes produced after the diet occurred mainly in cytokines such as IL-11, IL-12, IL-2, INF-γ, INF-β, Pentraxin-3 or MMP1, which, after weight loss with this intervention, reach levels similar to those seen in people of normal weight.
Based on the evidence obtained, the study authors suggest that, After a weight loss intervention using a very low-calorie ketogenic diet, there is an improvement in inflammatory responses and innate immunity.
According to the main researcher of the study, “circulating levels of oxidative stress biomarkers are modulated, with a greater effect induced by diet, which can be attributed to nutritional ketosis given the correlation between the concentration of ketone bodies and oxidative stress biomarkers” . . But beyond that, it is appreciated as the effect of treatment with a very low-calorie ketogenic diet on markers of oxidative stress is most notable in the acute phase of nutritional intervention, as it is positively correlated with the highest concentration of circulating ketone bodies. In the words of the CiberOBN researcher, “this intervention could increase mitohormesis, that is, the adaptive response that occurs after an increase in mitochondrial activity together with an increase in the production of reactive oxygen species, increasing antioxidant capacity, metabolic health and life expectancy.”
