In a new study, researchers found that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet like the Keto regimen may help combat the flu virus better than a diet high in carbohydrates.
They found that the ketogenic diet—which for people includes meat, fish, poultry, and non-starchy vegetables—activates a subset of T cells in the lungs not previously associated with the immune system’s response to influenza, enhancing mucus production from airway cells that can effectively trap the virus.
The research was conducted by a team at Yale University.
In the study, the team wondered if diet could affect immune system response to pathogens such as the flu virus.
They showed that mice fed a ketogenic diet and infected with the influenza virus had a higher survival rate than mice on a high-carb normal diet.
Specifically, the researchers found that the ketogenic diet triggered the release of gamma delta T cells, immune system cells that produce mucus in the cell linings of the lung—while the high-carbohydrate diet did not.
When mice were bred without the gene that codes for gamma delta T cells, the ketogenic diet provided no protection against the influenza virus.
This study shows that the way the body burns fat to produce ketone bodies from the food can fuel the immune system to fight flu infection.
One author of the study is Akiko Iwasaki, the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.
The study is published in the journal Science Immunology.
Copyright © 2019 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
