If you know anything about the Keto Diet, you know that it has shown to improve your body in numerous ways. It has been studied widely from resetting insulin production in the body, to weight loss, and even to impacting brain activity. But did you know that it’s also good for your gut health?
Fiber, Fiber, Fiber
People who follow a western diet are lucky if they get 10-15 grams of fiber a day, which is half the recommended daily intake of 30 grams. No wonder so many people have digestive tract issues! But chances are that if you are on a Keto diet you are getting a lot more fiber into your body thanks to all those veggies and healthy grains.
Prebiotic fiber is an important fuel source for the good bacteria in your gut’s microbiome. And if these good guys are full and healthy they can do more about getting rid of the bad bacteria that can take over. Fiber also makes you feel fuller longer and keeps you regular.
Sugar Sucks
If fiber is the favorite food of the good bacteria in your gut, then refined sugar and processed foods are the prefered fuel of the bad bacteria. When the bad bacteria are fed they multiply quickly and can even crowd out the good bacteria.
Studies have also shown that certain types of sweeteners and processed foods actually harm good bacteria, which tips the scales even further in the bad guys’ favor. But because of the nature of the Keto diet, your opportunities for eating sugar and processed foods are slim to none eliminated the possibility of feeding the bad bacteria too much.
Body-Gut Connection
When you think about all the foods we eat and drink you quickly realize how much our gut deals with on a daily basis. If you have a healthy diet and your good bacteria is flourishing, your gut will be able to handle just about anything you throw at it.
However, if your diet is full of junk, like sugar and processed foods, the lining of your gut becomes weak and starts to break down. When this happens, undesirable bacteria, tiny pieces of food, and toxins that pass through your gastrointestinal system can leak out into your bloodstream and affect other parts of your body. This is why people with serious stomach issues often also have problems with their hormones, skin, or brain.
Embrace Diversity
The gut microbiome tends to thrive the more diverse it is. In order to encourage diversity in good bacteria you should be eating lots of different, healthy foods, including healthy fats. The Keto diet is much higher in healthy fats than a typical Western diet, which is full of unhealthy trans-fats.
But the Keto diet encourages people to eat foods high in healthy fats, like omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids, which are found in a variety of foods, like oily fish, plant oils, organic meat and ghee. Combine this with all the fiber you get from eating keto (which also increases microbial diversity), and you’ve got a recipe for an extremely diverse microbiome!
Push the Reset Button
If you’ve eaten a western diet most of your life and are looking to reset your eating habits and jump start your metabolism, the Keto diet is a great way to do it. When your gut runs mostly on carbs and sugar it begins to slow down and weaken. But switching to Keto can be a great way to restart how your body works and fuels itself. This alone can go a long way towards resetting metabolism and healing the body. By starving out bad bacteria you give the good bacteria a second chance and your gut the healthy kick it needs.
