A study by the National Institutes of Health found that adopting a vegan or ketogenic diet leads to significant changes in the immune system, with a vegan diet strengthening innate immunity and a keto diet strengthening adaptive immunity. Both diets caused metabolic changes and altered the gut microbiome.
The NIH study found that different immune responses occur rapidly when diets change, and more research is needed to determine health effects.
Researchers
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>amino acids and a reduction in microbial pathways to these processes; This may reflect the higher amounts of protein consumed by people on this diet.
Despite the diversity of participants, distinct metabolic and immune system changes caused by the two diets were observed; This suggests that dietary changes continually affect widespread, interconnected pathways in the body. More studies are needed to examine how these nutritional interventions affect specific components of the immune system. According to the authors, the results of this study show that the immune system responds surprisingly quickly to nutritional interventions. The authors suggest that it may be possible to adapt diets to prevent disease or complement disease treatments, such as slowing processes associated with cancer or neurodegenerative disorders.
Reference: “Different peripheral immune signatures elicited by vegan and ketogenic diets in humans” by Verena M. Link, Poorani Subramanian, Foo Cheung, Kyu Lee Han, Apollo Stacy, Liang Chi, Brian A. Sellers, Galina Koroleva, Amber B. Courville. , Shreni Mistry, Andrew Burns, Richard Apps, Kevin D. Hall and Yasmine Belkaid, January 30, 2024, Nature Medicine.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02761-2