MIT scientists find a hidden cancer risk of the keto diet

A ketogenic diet increased small-intestinal tumors in cancer-prone mice while reducing tumors in the colon, revealing a strikingly different response within neighboring parts of the gut. Researchers traced the increased risk not to ketones, but to the way intestinal stem cells processed the diet’s high levels of fat. That fat-burning activity pushed the cells to multiply more rapidly, potentially raising the chance of cancerous changes.