Introduction

Question: Why would ferritin and B12 increase on a low-calorie keto diet?

Ferritin is very strongly influenced by inflammation, oxidative stress. And so if the iron status is not changing and the ferritin is going up and then down, to me that suggests that oxidative stress or inflammation is increasing in the hypocaloric state. I was thinking maybe there's more PUFAs and stronger favoring of oxidative stress when there's more PUFAs released from adipose tissue during the hypercaloric during a hypocaloric state.

So, all the PUFAs are being metabolized in the liver. And so there's probably oxidative stress increasing in the liver specifically in the hypocaloric diet, because the fatty acids are all being biased towards lipolysis from adipose tissue straight to the liver for beta-oxidation. And I think that's dramatically increasing the oxidative burden on the liver and there's short term damage being done in the liver that's increasing the B12 and ferritin levels.

This Q&A can also be found as part of a much longer episode, here:

081: Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, December 9, 2020

From now through March, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations.

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

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