Ketogenic diet and cancer

[maxs_mommy]

I was talking to the vet last week and she mentioned a ketogenic diet, "Dr. Harvey's Paradigm" diet specifically, that one of her clients was on and seems to have show help in controlling an oral cancer. So I'm googling and not really understanding. Max is raw fed on Primal and I don't know how that's all that much different. So what is keto and why isn't the primal considered keto? I'm willing to entertain the diet if I can understand it and how it's principles are supposed to work but I'm so confused. Help a girl out?

[UpwardDog]

I have no idea. The people I know doing keto are doing it for weight loss, or so I thought?

[MaisyPancakes]

Is that the one where most of the calories come from fat, based on the reasoning that cancer feeds on carbs? I think it's used for seizures (esp. in children)—from what I've read about trying it on dogs with seizures, it didn't seem to be a very good option/effective because they couldn't handle the fat (pancreatitis, etc.), especially for older/sensitive dogs. It could be different for cancer, though.

[maxs_mommy]

I hadn't thought about pancreas issues...derp. That much fat would be horrible for him, though I could cut his sugar intake. Most of his treats tend to be fruits and veggies, I could stick to more veggies over fruits. He doesn't need to lose weight, he needs to put on weight, if anything. I've been giving him 150% of diet just to keep him from being a bag of bones. So I guess that's out. It seemed a little quacky anyway.

[connie]

With all due respect, I do not think you are depriving Max of anything if you don't bother with the keto diet.
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/ketoge ... s-science/

I used to have a 'live and let live' attitude about claims like that, and I don't know when I lost all my tolerance -- maybe when donald trump made it into the White House. The stakes are just too high to let rank stupidity go unchallenged. And so I will express my opinion of the keto diet: hogwash. The mere fact that it is promoted by Joe Mercola is an assurance that it is the most egregious bullshit scam that it can possibly be. And Ralph Moss, too?! OMG, peach pits cure cancer! This is all the shite I waded through in 1999!

FWIW, for the 7+ years that Sander lived with cancer, I did NOT feed him a keto diet or any approximation of one. He ate oatmeal; he ate barley; he ate quinoa; he ate amaranth. He didn't eat corn or wheat, but IMO no dog should. He ate plenty of vegetables, which are (gasp!) carbohydrates. He ate fruits when he wanted them; he seemed not to want them very often, after a while.

Your idea to give Max more veggies is probably a good one; I sympathize with the difficulty in keeping weight on a senior dog who has the health issues that Max is facing. Good luck. Don't give the keto nonsense another thought.

[LisaT_II]

Are the principles that Ogilvie put forth (for cancer diets) still recommended nowadays?

[maxs_mommy]

That's a new one for me. I'll have to google.