The ketogenic diet (keto) is a high-fat diet plan that involves eating little to no carbs. It causes weight loss and can help with numerous health issues. For example, it can help keep tough-to-treat epileptic seizures in children at bay, and it holds promise as a method to manage type-2 diabetes in adults. Now, new research suggests the keto diet also possesses a flu fighting-power.
A study with mice by scientists at Yale University showed that keto helped mice fend off the flu better. The mice fed a ketogenic diet for one week before exposure to the flu were more likely to survive than the mice fed a regular diet. The body running on fat alone changed the way the immune cells in the lungs perform in such a way that boosted the body’s response to the flu.
There are specific immune cells that help produce mucus in the linings of the lungs. These were the cells aided under a keto diet – which resulted in more mucus production and, therefore, higher chances of trapping the flu virus for removal.
Furthermore, the keto mice who caught the flu were able to maintain their weight better, increasing their chances of survival. The non-keto mice, on the other hand, did not keep their weight even if they were fed more carbs or administered chemical ketone bodies.
These findings suggest that it’s the actual condition of the body being in ketogenesis (the fat-burning metabolic state) that holds the benefits. The liver naturally produces ketone bodies (ketones) when an organism (animal or human) enters ketosis. They are the energy substitutes in the absence of carbs. When the body goes into ketosis, it’s completely re-configuring the way our bodies fuel up.
For now, more research is required to know if its flu-fighting power is the same in people. The researchers also caution that the effects were minimal. Of the 25 mice on a regular diet, 7 survived the flu. Of the 33 mice on a keto diet, ten survived. Overall, mice are not good at fighting the flu.
Other recent studies have also found that a keto diet to have potent anti-inflammatory effects. Keto diet researcher Jeff Volek, a professor and registered dietitian at the Ohio State University, told Insider:
I’m not surprised that a ketogenic diet would promote enhanced protection from the flu. We continue to see that a well-formulated ketogenic diet has broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory effects in people.
The researchers did not state whether they will continue the study and test the diets flu-fighting ability on humans. Regardless, this study illuminated the way immune cells in the lungs may play an important role in fending off the flu.
